Corn-Makers 219 



But Franklin's greatest contribution to our national corn 

 culture, aside from the formation of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society which encouraged the study of all sciences 

 and was the genesis of later agricultural societies in all the 

 states, was his discovery and introduction of broom corn. He 

 found the wild grass and planted some of the seed in his 

 garden at Bordentown. There he cultivated it and experi- 

 mented with cross-fertilization until he produced a crop 

 which had commercial value. 



Mother Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker colony, in- 

 stilled into her followers the doctrine, "Hands for work, 

 hearts for God." The Shakers who settled at New Lebanon 

 in New York were quick to see the advantage to them of 

 Benjamin Franklin's creation. They planted fields of broom 

 corn and sold the seed in packets the first seed to be so 

 sold in this country. It was they who made the first flat house- 

 brooms in their settlement at Watervliet. 



The various religious communities which sprang up in 

 western New York, Pennsylvania and throughout the midwest 

 during the first half of the last century did more than add 

 extraordinary tinges to the American culture. All of these 

 foundations were primarily agricultural. And all of them 

 became, in due course of time, agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions. The Shakers in Warren County, Ohio, developed the 

 Warren County hog which played its part in making Cin- 

 cinnati the Porkopolis of America. 



It may very well be that in joining a community, the mem- 

 bers surrendered their share of the American dream of moving 

 farther west, at some not too distant time, whenever the 

 horizon threatened to come too close or the fertility of their 

 fields waned. Americans who were possessed by this dream 

 seldom developed scientific farming methods. They were in- 

 herently pioneers, developing a genius for making shift, rather 

 than a scientific approach to perfection. But the com- 

 munists were pledged to remain on the communal lands. As 

 the country round about their claims filled with other settlers, 



