DEVELOPMENT OF FARMER'S ECONOMIC PROBLEM 23 



In the North the self-sufficing economy remained important 

 for a long time. Small farmers from New England, New York, 

 and Pennsylvania gradually moved westward, and it was the 

 same conditions which made them successful in the early settle- 

 ment of the North that fitted them for the life of the pioneer. 

 Since the days of railways, new countries can be settled success- 

 fully by commercial farmers, but it was only yesterday that 

 the self-sufficing pioneer ceased to be an important factor in the 

 development of the resources of the United States. 



The self-sufficing pioneer farmer was free from the power of 

 trusts and corporations, but his life was full of hardships such 

 as few farmers would now willingly endure. The following 

 quotation, descriptive of the life of a pioneer family during 

 their first year in their new home in western Pennsylvania, in 

 1773, sets forth the hardships of these pioneers in a very pa- 

 thetic manner. " For six weeks we had to live without bread. 

 The lean venison and the breast of the wild turkey we were 

 taught to call bread. The flesh of the bear was denominated 

 meat. This artifice did not succeed very well. After living 

 in this way for some time we became sickly, the stomach seemed 

 to be always empty, and tormented with a sense of hunger. 

 I remember how narrowly the children watched the growth of 

 the potato tops, pumpkin and squash vines, hoping from day 

 to day to get something to answer in the place of bread. How 

 delicious was the taste of the young potatoes when we got them ! 

 What a jubilee when we were permitted to pull the young corn 

 for roasting ears. Still more so when it had acquired sufficient 

 hardness to be made into johnnycakes by the aid of a tin 

 grater." x 



The agriculture of the North has gradually been transformed 

 until now the commercial element dominates. Manufacturing 

 was for a long time a household industry carried on by nearly 

 every farm family, but in the course of time more and more 

 of this work was turned over to those who made a specialty 

 of manufactures. The swift streams of New England were 

 harnessed and made to turn the wheels of industry. This 



1 Rev. Jos. Doddridge, Hart's "American History," Vol. II, p. 387. 



