Rural Economy in New England 321 



farmers are very sparing, rarely giving two ploughings if they think 

 the crop will do with one; the consequence of which is their products 

 being seldom near so great as they would be under a different 

 management."^ 



Although usually resentful of foreign criticisms, Dwight is forced 

 to admit that "the husbandry of New England is far inferior to that 

 of Great Britain." He adds: "The principal defects in our hus- 

 bandry, so far as I am able to judge, are a deficiency in the quantity 

 of labour necessary to prepare the ground for seed, insufficient ma- 

 nuring, the want of a good rotation of crops, and slovenliness in clear- 

 ing the ground. The soil is not sufficiently pulverized nor suf- 

 ficiently manured. We are generally ignorant of what crops will 

 best succeed each other, and our fields are covered with a rank growth 

 of weeds. "2 



Farm Management in 1800. 



Postponing for the present an examination of the reasons for this 

 inefficiency in the fundamental occupation, let us examine the rou- 

 tine operations of the farmer in the inland communities, in order 

 to determine as nearly as possible how far these criticisms were 

 justified. 



Size of Farms. 



The 100 to 200 acres which composed a typical inland farm^ were 

 divided into three roughly equal tracts, one-third being woodland, 

 including wasteland, one-third pasturage, and the remainder divided 

 between mowing lands and cultivated fields in varying proportions. 

 The land under tillage, however, hardly ever exceeded ten or a dozen 

 acres, except in the neighborhood of such commercial towns as would 



' Op. cit., I. pp. 80-81. 



2 Travels, I. 81, 82. 



' On the matter of the prevailing size of farms there is an abundance of evi- 

 dence. See Dickinson, Geographical and Statistical View, p. 7; Livingston, 

 Robert R., American Agriculture. Article in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. First 

 American edition. 18 vols. Philadelphia. 1832. Vol. I. pp. 332-341. The facts in 

 this article apply particularly to the Northern and Eastern states; many of them 

 are taken without credit from Dickinson's work. This article was written shortly 

 before the author's death in 1813. See De Peyster, Frederick. Biographical 

 Sketch. New York. 1876. p. 13. The advertisements of farms for sale in the 

 columns of the Massachusetts Spy (Worcester) in the year 1807-1808 show varia- 

 tions in acreage from 50 to 275 acres. But of the total of 24 farms advertised, 

 only four had below 100 acres; 18 were between 100 and 200 acres, and only two 

 had more than 200 acres. 



