AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 453 



materially improving upon the old English scythe then in use, 

 which was short, thick, and heavy, like a bush scythe. A cen- 

 tury later, a Scotchman named Hugh Orr came to Massachusetts 

 and erected at Bridgewater the first trip hammer in the colony, 

 with which he manufactured scythes, shovels, axes, hoes, and 

 other implements, for which that place has since enjoyed a 

 deserved reputation. 



Thanks to the industrious antiquarians who have gleaned 

 from manuscripts, traditions, and old publications almost every 

 detail of the domestic life of the first settlers, we can constitute 

 ourselves'a " committee on farms," and in imagination visit one 

 of the early yeomen. Riding along a "trail" indicated by 

 marked trees, we find his horse and cattle shed standing near 

 an old Indian clearing, encircled by a high palisade, which also 

 includes the spring, that water may be brought without danger 

 from the " bloody savages." The house, which is over a small, 

 deep cellar, is built of logs, notched where they meet at the 

 corners, with a thatched roof, and a large chimney at one end, 

 built of stones cemented with clay. The small windows are 

 covered with oiled paper, with protecting shutters, and the 

 massive door is thick enough to be bullet-proof. Pulling the 

 "latch string" we enter, and find that the floor, and the floor of 

 the loft which forms the ceiling, are made of "rifted" or split 

 pine, roughly smoothed with the adze, while the immense hearth, 

 occupying nearly an entire side of the house, is of large, flat 

 stones. There are no partition walls, but thick serge curtains 

 are so hung that at night they divide off the flock beds, upon 

 which there are piles of rugs, coverlets, and flannel sheets. A 

 high-backed chair or two, a massive table, a large chest with a 

 carved front, and some Indian birch-bark boxes for wearing 

 apparel, are ranged around the walls, while on a large dressoir 

 we see wooden bowls and trenchers, earthen platters, horn 

 drinking-cups, and a pewter tankard. The corselet, matchlock, 

 and bandoliers are ready for defence, with a halberd, if the 

 senior occupant of the house holds a commission in "ye train 

 band," and from a "lean-to" shed comes the hum of the great 

 wheel, or the clang of the loom, as the busy " helpmates " hasten 

 to finish their "stents." High on the mantel shelf, with a 

 "cresset lamp" on one side and the time-marking hour-glass on 



