262 Fercy Wells Bidwell 



and encrease the fire, by means of which the oil is disengaged from 

 the salt in a thick smoke, and the black potash assumes a grey colour, 

 in which state it is packed up in barrels for sale. 



Pearlash is potash purified by calcination. To this end the pot- 

 ash is put into a kiln, constructed in oval form, of Plaster of Paris; 

 the inside of which being made otherwise perfectly close, is hori- 

 zontally intersected by an iron grate, on which the potash is placed. 

 Under this grate a fire is made, and the heat, reverberated from the 

 arched upper part of the kiln, compleats the calcination, and con- 

 verts the potash into pearlash; .... The process of calcina- 

 tion lasts about an hour."^ 



The apparatus necessary for this manufacture was inexpensive, 

 the largest outlay being for the purchase of the kettles in which 

 the lye was boiled. The products, pearlash and potash, were used 

 to some extent in the household in making soap, in scouring wool, 

 and in bleaching and dyeing cloth. The larger part of the output 

 was sold, partly for use in glass-making and other manufactures, 

 and partly for export. 



The Mechanics and Artisans. 



We have next to consider the country mechanics or artisans. 

 Here we find that although the division of labor seems to have pro- 

 gressed to a considerable degree in the separation of crafts, yet the 

 connection of each with the fundamental industry, that of tilling the 

 soil, was as close and as rarely completely dissolved as in the case 

 of the professional or business men already described. This im- 

 perfect specialization of occupations is described by Tench Coxe 

 as follows: "Those of the tradesmen and manufacturers, who live 

 in the country, generally reside on small lots and farms, from one 

 acre to twenty; and not a few upon farms from twenty to one hun- 

 dred and fifty acres; which they cultivate at leisure times, with their 

 own hands, their wives, children, servants, and apprentices, and 

 sometimes by hired labourers, or by letting out fields, for a part 

 of the produce, to some neighbour, who has time or farm hands 

 not fully employed. This union of manufactures and farming^ is 

 found to be very convenient on the grain farms; but it is still more 



' Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, 1. 384-386. See also Bishop, J. Leander. 

 History of American Manufactures. 2 vols. Philadelphia. 1861. II. 57. 

 ' Author's italics. 



