Rural Economy in New England 347 



and the American Museum^ were helping along the cause of educa- 

 tion by repeated admonitions, "in season and out of season." 



Little could have been expected in, the way of results from this 

 propaganda, if the farmers had not been fitted by nature or train- 

 ing to receive it. But it seems evident that the New England farmers 

 were both intelligent and educated enough to see the advantages 

 of the new husbandry and to apply its methods. It is universally 

 recognized that the general level of education was at this time higher 

 in New England than in any other part of the country. Common 

 schools, at which attendance was compulsory, were found in every 

 town^ almost as soon as it was settled. The terms in these schools 

 were, it is true, short, and the teachers often inefficient, but even 

 if the bulk of the pupils never progressed beyond the rudiments, 

 still the training was universal and furnished a valuable working 

 equipment.^ There is also evidence at hand that the farmers showed 

 a disposition to utilize and improve their knowledge by reading. 

 "Social libraries" were found even at this early date in many of 

 the older towns and parishes,* and newspapers, both those which were 

 published in the inland towns themselves and those from the com- 

 mercial towns,^ were read everywhere with avidity. So widespread 



' The American Museum appeared monthly in the years 1787-1792. It was 

 published in Philadelphia but seems to have had many readers and contributors 

 in New England. The Old Farmer's Almanack was established by Isaiah Thomas 

 in Worcester in 1793 and has appeared annually since that date. 



^ An exception should be made for certain towns in Rhode Island. In that 

 state the law requiring the establishment and maintenance of such schools had 

 been repealed a few years before 1810. See Morse, Gazetteer, 1810, art. R. I. 



' No doubt the value of the education received in these schools has been over- 

 rated along with other features of "the good old days," especially in comparison 

 with the training given to children in modern schools. Here we are concerned 

 with its absolute rather than with its relative value. See Adams, C. F., Episodes, 

 II. 781. 



* In Pease and Niles' Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island the social 

 library is almost as regularly mentioned in the descriptions of the various towns 

 as are the saw-mills or the ministers and doctors. 



^ As early as 1790, there were 37 periodicals published in New England, of which 

 three appeared semi-weekly, 32 weekly, and two monthly. U. S. Department 

 of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. A Century of Population Growth. 

 Washington. 1909. pp. 32-34. A few years later, according to Dwight, Travels, 

 IV. 344-345, the total had grown to 55. Before 1800 newspapers had been 

 established in such inland towns as Worcester, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Green- 

 field, Northampton and Brookfield, in Massachusetts; in Litchfield, Windham 

 and Danbury, in Connecticut; in Brattleboro and Rutland, in Vermont; and 

 in Hanover, Keene, Concord, Amherst, Walpole, and Gilmanton, in New Hamp- 

 shire. See U. S. Library of Congress. Check List of American Eighteenth 

 Century Newspapers. Washington. 1912. 



