SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 63 



type, is probably the result of crossing stallions from Normandy, 

 relatives of the modern Percherons, upon the native mares. 

 Arthur Young mentions them as early as 1775. The Clyde is 

 said to have been the product of crossing Flemish or Belgian 

 stallions upon native Scotch mares. 



The English agriculture of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, as described in this section, was the type with which 

 the colonists who came to America during our colonial period 

 were familiar. The use they made of their knowledge and the 

 new knowledge they acquired in adapting themselves to the con- 

 ditions of the new continent is the subject of the following 

 sections. 



III. BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE l 



The main periods. The agricultural as well as the political 

 history of the United States is divided into two eras. The first 

 is the colonial era, lasting from 1607 to 1776. The second is the 

 era of national development, lasting from 1776 to the present 

 time. This era of national development, however, is divisible 

 into four distinct periods : first, from 1 776 to 1 833 ; second, from 

 1833 to 1864; third, from 1864 to 1888; and fourth, from 1888 

 to the present time. The first era, being contemporaneous with 

 the colonial era of our political history, may be called the era of 

 establishment. It was the time during which the colonists trans- 

 planted European methods of agriculture to American soil and 

 reaclapted them to the new conditions. This readaptation con- 

 sistc d in learning how to live a wilderness life, and to clear 

 wild land of trees, stumps, and stones. It consisted also in 

 learning by experiment what crops were adapted to the soil 

 and climate, and what methods of cultivation were best calcu- 

 lated to insure satisfactory returns. 



1 For a fuller and more detailed account see the author's " Historical Sketch 

 of American Agriculture," in Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 

 Vol. IV, pp. 39 ff. The Macmillan Company. 



