324 A. D. 1794. 



The fiflieries are flill almofl entirely in the hands of the people of 

 New England, and more particularly thofe of Maffachufets bay, in which 

 flatc they conflitute a principal part of the employment of all thofe, 

 Avho are not engaged in the cultivation of the earth. A great propor- 

 tion of their fait filh, train oil, fpermaceti, and the oil and candles 

 made of it, and whalebone, are confumed in the other ftates. But 

 their fifhery is not fo extenfive now, as it was before the revolution. 

 Their fait is imported from Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the 

 Cape-de-Verde iflands, and the Weft-Indies, to the amount of above 

 two millions of bufhels annually. They have fait fprings in feveral parts 

 of the interior country. 



The above are the principal manufadures carried on in the United 

 ftates, as regular occupations, by people, who devote their whole at- 

 tention to them, as the buflnefs of their lives. But there is another 

 clafs, which Mr. Coxe calls domejiic manufaEiures, conducted by the farm- 

 ers' families, during the intervals of rural occupation, in almoft every 

 part of the country. Linens for fhirting, flieeting, the table, &c. fail- 

 cloth, negro clothing, fine and coarfe cloths, blankets *, cotton cloths, 

 thread and filk laces, ftockings, fhoes, and a variety of other articles, are 

 made in thefe family fadories, and all (if we except the filk, and per- 

 haps the thread, for the laces) of native materials, to an extent, of which 

 few people on this fide of the water have any conception, the amount 

 of them in the year 1790 having been eftimated at above twenty millions 

 qf dollars : and they have fince continued to increafe. Befides thefe ar- 

 ticles of clothing, and butter, cheefe, cider, bacon, hams, &c. which are 

 the ufual manufacture of every farm ; ftaves, hoops, fhingles, pot-aflies, 

 pearl-afhcs, tar, pitch, turpentine, and rofin, which are all articles pro- 

 duced from the redundant woods on new plantations, may be added to 

 the lift of rural manufa<5lures ; and nails alfo are made to a very con- 

 fiderable amount by many of the farmers, and efpecially by thofe of 

 New England. Of late years malt liquor and malt fpirits have been 

 made on the farms to an amount exceeding all that was made by the 

 profelfed brewers and diftillers. And in feveral parts of the country 

 the manufadure of maple fugar has lately afforded a new branch of em- 

 ployment, and a new fource of wealth, to the induftrious fimilies of the 

 farmers f. ' In ftiort, domeftic manufactures are great, various, and 

 ' almoft univerfal^ in this country.' And the induftry of the farmer 

 has free fcope, the cultivator of the foil being generally the independent 

 proprietor of it. 



The operations of many of thofe manufacftures, whether carried on 

 as feparate trades, or as fave-all additions to agricultural employments, 



* In ^'zvt Jerfey, the popxilation of which is to laftiires, as there is no regular faftory of woolen 



that of the whole of the ^United dates as one to goods in that ftate. 



twenty-one, there are forty-one fulling mills, which f Some account of this branch of rural induflry 



muft be entirely fupported by the domeftic manu- has already been given, p. 209. 



