242 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



exception, they were present, especially in the older settled 

 districts and near the cities, in appreciable numbers. 



That the tenant farmers were as a rule young men using 

 tenancy as a stepping stone to the position of independent 

 landowning farmers, as is the case to-day, is evident, but the 

 typical landlord of New England and Pennsylvania of the 

 eighteenth century was not the retired farmer of to-day, but a 

 " country gentleman " of the English type. 



" The most ancient settled parts of the province (New Eng- 

 land) which are Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the southern 

 part of New Hampshire, contain many considerable land 

 estates upon which the owners live much in the style of country 

 gentlemen in England. They all cultivate a part of their 

 estates; and if they are small, the whole; this they do by 

 means of their stewards, who are here generally called overseers ; 

 the rest is let to tenants who occupy their farms by lease, in the 

 same manner as in the mother country ; the rents paid for such 

 farms being the principal part of the landlord's income." 



" There are some country gentlemen in Pennsylvania who 

 live on their estates in a genteel and expensive manner, but the 

 number is but small ; many are found who make much such a 

 figure as gentlemen in England of three or four hundred pounds 

 a year, but without such rental; for money is scarce in this 

 country, and all the necessaries and conveniences of life cheap." 



" The method of living in Pennsylvania in country gentlemen's 

 families is nearly like that of England; the only business is 

 to ride about the plantation now and then, to see that the over- 

 seers are attentive to it ; all the rest of the time is filled up with 

 entertaining themselves; country sports, in the parts of the 

 province not fully settled, are in great perfection; they have 

 hunting but their horses are unequal to those of England; 

 shooting and fishing are much more followed, and are in greater 

 perfection than in England." 1 



In New England, where country gentlemen seem to have been 

 more numerous than in other parts of the North, it could be 

 said, in 1775, " There are more estates that are under the 



1 "American Husbandry," Vol. I, pp. 62, 185. 



