AGRICULTURE OF ESSEX COUNTY, 



BY W. A. DURANT, OF LAWRENCE. 



Doubtless there are many members of the Society 

 who can remember the time when Salem and Newbury- 

 port were the chief markets of the County ; when farm- 

 ers drove down to these ports their loads of grain, beef, 

 pork, mutton, butter and cider, and returned with their 

 supplies of groceries and dry goods ; when the principal 

 income from the farm was from the sale of grain and 

 stock, and the light lands of Danvers, Andover, and in 

 the valley of the Merrimack were highly valued for rais- 

 ing corn ; when, after supplying the inhabitants, there 

 was still a surplus of provisions ; in short, when agricul- 

 ture was the leading interest of the County. But in 

 the course of events in the last score or two of years, 

 the enterprise and success of our manufacturers have led 

 them to add rapidly forge to forge, spindle to spindle, 

 loom to loom, and factory to factory, causing thereby 

 thriving villages, large towns and populous cities to 

 spring up where there were formerly only small and se- 

 cluded hamlets or sparsely populated farming districts, 

 until by these large accessions to the population, the 



