Rural Economy in New England 389 



Greenwich had a market close at hand in the city of New York,' easily accessible 

 by water transportation on the Sound; whereas Lebanon was fifteen or more 

 miles from Norwich, the nearest port. 



The Influence of a Market for Foodstuffs. 



In Massachusetts a similar contrast may be made between the towns of Brook- 

 field in Worcester County, and Waltham in Middlesex County.* In the matter 

 of area and in fertiUty of soil Brookfield seems to have had the advantage. Neither 

 town had any industrial or manufacturing enterprises, beyond the usual artisans' 

 shops found in every inland town.' The population changes in these towns in 

 the years 1790-1810 were, in spite of these similarities, quite different. In 

 Brookfield a population of 3,100 persons increased to 3,170; in Waltham there 

 were at the first date 882 people and at the second 1,014. The gain in one 

 case was between 2 and 3 per cent and in the other almost 15 per cent. The 

 explanation is found again in the presence of a market accessible to the farmers 

 of Waltham. This market they found in Boston, only ten miles distant, whereas 

 their colleagues in Brookfield were fifty-five miles farther away. That this mar- 

 ket was in fact influential in increasing the prosperity and the productiveness 

 of the agricultural industry in Waltham is apparent from the description of a 

 contemporary writer. He says: "As most of the inhabitants are farmers, and 

 cultivate their farms with a view to the constant supply of the market of the 

 metropolis, the fruits of their labours are various .... The state of agri- 

 culture has been improving among our farmers, for several years. The residence 

 of gentleman farmers in this town and vicinity has undoubtedly contributed to 

 this improvement; but the chief causes are the increasing demands of the market 

 and the enhancing price of labour, which have taught the owners of the soil, that 

 it is more profitable to cultivate a few acres highly, than many in the ordinary 

 way."* 



Summary of Population Changes, 1790-1820. 



In summarizing the movement of population in the three southern states of 

 New England in the period 1720-1820 we find: (1) In the forty years, 1720- 

 1760, emigration was confined largely within the borders of the states, resulting 

 merely in a redistribution, a shifting of the surplus from the older towns to new 

 lands in the western counties. (2) After 1760 this process of settling new land 

 within these states continued with great rapidity, but some of the more ad- 

 venturous colonists were already moving out to found new towns in northern 

 New England and in states to the westward. (3) Where as, up to the Revolution, 

 this emigration to more distant regions had assumed no very great proportions, 

 after peace had been concluded it began with new vigor and from that time until 



' Pease and Niles say of the coasting trade of this town: "This trade is a great 

 convenience to the farmers, as it affords them a great facility for conveying their 

 produce to New York. Gazetteer, p. 180. 



* The facts regarding Waltham are from the description of that town con- 

 tained in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., II. 3:261-284; for Brookfield from Whitney's 

 History of the County of Worcester, pp. 62-82. 



' The cotton mills were first established in Waltham in 1812 and 1813. Mass. 

 Hist. Soc. Coll., loc. cit. 



*Mas3. Hist. Soc. Coll., II. 3:262-263. 



