135 



To show how free and familiar with him were his own 

 people, one of them having written a work on the culti- 

 vation of the potato, and taken it to him for revision, said 

 as he was leaving the house, "Now, doctor, if you think it 

 w^orth printing, just stick in a little religion, now and then, 

 and it will sell all the better!" Grotesque as this may 

 seem to us, it was strictly in accordance with the times. 

 That rare little book, by Dr. Jared Elliott, of Killingly, 

 Conn., entitled "Field Husbandry in Xew England, as it is, 

 or may be ordered," is interlarded with Scripture texts. 

 As a specimen, after giving various receipts relating to 

 the protection of crops and animals, he says he shall close 

 the chapter with one receipt more, which is infallible and 

 invaluable: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His 

 righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 

 you." 



Doctor Cutler was born in Killingly, Conn., May 

 3, 1742 (where Elliott, the author of this quaint old 

 work, lived, preached and wrote) ; graduated at Yale 

 College in 17 05. He studied law and was admitted 

 to the bar in 17G7. Soon after quitting this profession 

 he prepared for the ministry, and here entered on its 

 duties, his first and only charge extending over a period 

 of more than fifty years. Of course he lived in the war' 

 of the Revolution — the time that tried men's souls — and 

 he served in it as a chaplain. On his return he studied 

 medicine and practised as a physician among his parish- 

 ioners for years after. As a preacher he was sound and 

 instructive, not given to flights of oratory, but more in- 

 tent on the edification of his hearers. He was a prompt 

 man in the discharge of ecclesiastical as well as secular 

 duties. Once, at a meeting of the Bible Society of Salem 

 and its Vicinity, a question arose at the preliminary meet- 

 ing, whether or not it should be opened with prayer. 



