16 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



The long war of the Revolution had dissipated the ac- 

 cumulations of former times not only by direct destruc- 

 tion of property but by onerous though unavoidable 

 taxation and the cutting off of various profitable indus- 

 tries, possible only in times of peace, so that the people 

 had been spending not earnings but savings ; and besides 

 all was an enormous depreciation of legal-tender values. 

 Farmers might well complain of hard times, when, as in 

 one instance of record, which illustrates the general ex- 

 perience, a farmer sold a cow in the spring for $40 in 

 continental money, but in the fall could make the sum go 

 no farther than to buy a goose for his Thanksgiving din- 

 ner. 



Some appeal to patriotism with reference to State inter- 

 ests may have been prompted by a movement which began 

 in 1788 for settlement of the Ohio Territory. Nothing of 

 record shows this to have been the case, but it is at least 

 probable that it was felt, that, to compete successfully 

 with the fertile West, and so retain at home the most vig- 

 orous and ambitious of the farming population, the art of 

 agriculture must be fostered and advanced in every prac- 

 ticable way. 



But the prevalent poverty was not the only adverse 

 circumstance. The low condition of the agricultural art 

 was another. Farming in the old way, when each year 

 added tracts of rich virgin soil by the clearing of forests, 

 was no longer possible. No method of adequately restor- 

 ing the exhausted soil appears to have been generally 

 practiced or even known. It was about this time that 

 occurred those instances referred to in the first report of 

 the State Board of Agriculture, in which barns were 

 removed to get them conveniently away from the accumu- 

 lated heaps of manure, which heaps were regarded simply 

 as a nuisance. The plough of the period was a clumsy 

 structure of wood, having here or there a cutting projec- 

 tion of iron and a strip of iron-facing where the most 

 wear came. All tools were heavy and cumbrous, strength 



