FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION. 7 



is said to have occurred in those early days in the eastern part of New England. A high- 

 toned gentleman, known as the &quot;Squire,&quot; called at a farm house one day on some business, 

 and when he had finished his errand, and had remounted his horse at the doof, the good 

 housewife, wishing to impress the Squire with the dignity and thrift of her family, said to 

 him, &quot; Squire, won t you stop and have some cake and butter,&quot; thinking it now too late for 

 him to accept her invitation. To her chagrin, the doughty Squire replied, &quot;Thank you, 

 marm, I don t care if I do,&quot; and promptly dismounted and entered the house. 



The poor woman could only explain that to her surprise she found the flour bread all out, 

 and offered him the best she had, some Indian &quot;bannock.&quot; 



There was little market in those times for farm produce, except in the larger towns, and 

 these were often reached only after long journeys. To these towns, such things as the farm 

 ers had to spare were taken and exchanged for &quot; store goods,&quot; said &quot; store &quot; usually being 

 some corner grocery, where more rum than any other commodity was sold, it being purchased 

 and used by the most respectable people, and its sale considered as legitimate and laudable 

 a business as any other. 



Each farmer owned his flock of sheep, from the wool of which the family were princi 

 pally clothed.. It was earded, spun, and woven at home, and made into garments for the 

 entire family, that from which the &quot; best clothes &quot; of the masculine portion were made being 

 called &quot; fulled cloth,&quot; which was woven at home from the finest wool of the flock, and after 

 ward taken to the fulling mill, where it was subjected to a process of fulling or thickening, and 

 afterwards dyed, pressed, and otherwise finished for use. The material for the dresses of the 

 feminine portion of the household, which were designated &quot;gowns,&quot; was a home-made 

 flannel, which was taken to the mills and pressed so as to present a glossy surface. Each 

 farmer had also a small patch of flax for home use. At the proper season the flax was pulled 

 and spread in rows on the ground, &quot;rotted,&quot; and afterward &quot;broken&quot; and &quot; swingled,&quot; as 

 the process was termed; it was then prepared for combing, carding, and spinning on the 

 small machine which was called the &quot; little wheel,&quot; to distinguish it from the larger imple 

 ment for spinning wool. It was woven into cloth for table covers, toweling, sheeting, shirt 

 ing, etc., the coarser portion called &quot; tow,&quot; which was combed out of the waste material of 

 the flax at the first combing, was spun into a coarse yarn and made into cloth for the sum 

 mer suits of men and boys, these being usually as harsh and uncomfortable to the wearer as 

 they were coarse and uncouth in appearance. Ready-made clothing being unknown in those 

 times, the hard-worked tailor, with his &quot; goose &quot; for pressing seams, the gossiping tailoress, 

 who carried all the neighborhood news from house to house, and the old-fashioned shoemaker, 

 working in each house in turn till all the family were supplied with a pair of shoes, were 

 important adjuncts of society, as they went their accustomed rounds, plying their individual 

 trades, but they are personages entirely unknown to the present generation. 



Great, indeed, has been the change since that period, and were one of these old farmers 

 of the past to awake from his sleep of fifty years, and make his appearance among the gen- 

 eration of to-day, he would scarcely be able to recognize this earth as the same he once 

 inhabited and tilled. Fifty years from the present will possibly mark an era characterized by 

 an equal extent of progress, although it may be as difficult for us to realize it, as it would have 

 been for the generation of half a century ago to predict the present standard of advancement. 

 The future prospects of American agriculture are indeed promising, and its progress may be 

 estimated in a great measure by the thirst for knowledge, energy, and enterprise that every 

 where characterizes the American people. In striking contrast with the agricultural advance 

 ment of our own nation during the last half century, may be instanced that of the Chinese, 

 where the same rude agricultural implements are employed in tillage to-day that were used 

 by their ancestors thousands of years ago. It is not difficult to understand why the agricul 

 ture of an intelligent, free people must ever essentially differ from that which is developed 

 by an order of society less free, and characterized by ignorance and superstition. 



