330 Percy Wells Bidwell 



rate of 10,000 to 12,000 per acre.^ Seaweed, or rock-weed as it 

 was called, was easily collected and served the same purpose to a 

 less degree. Both at the shore and inland a variety of other fer- 

 tilizing agents was used, such as marl, potash and lime, but only 

 sporadically, according to the enterprise of particular farmers and 

 the accessibility of the material. 



The prevailing neglect of fertilizers, to which the occasional use 

 of gypsum and white-fish are merely exceptions, illustrates not so 

 much the ignorance of the typical farmer, as the inhibitory effect 

 of the lack of a market on all progress in the science of agriculture. 

 Of course the farmers of that day did not understand why spread- 

 ing the dung of their cattle on their fields increased the yield of 

 their crops, but they knew very well that such was in fact the re- 

 sult. Even if they had had more knowledge, it is not likely that 

 they would have modified their wasteful practice. For carting 

 and spreading manure entailed labor, which meant expense either 

 of money or of their own physical effort. And from what source 

 was that expense to be repaid? Not, certainly, from the sale of 

 crops, for without a market that was impossible. The old practices 

 resulted in crops sufl&cient to feed the farmer and his family. Why 

 should he exert himself to produce a surplus? The only return 

 he could expect would be a sort of psychological income, a satis- 

 faction in seeing his fields yielding more than those of his neighbors. 

 Such satisfaction was a quite sufficient stimulus for the gentleman 

 farmer of the commercial towns, who experimented along all sorts 

 of lines, regardless of expense, but for the self-sufficient farmer it 



' Dwight noted the use of white-fish in Branford, Killingworth, and Guilford. 

 Of the latter town he remarks: "The soil of East Guilford is naturally less rich 

 than that on which the town is built; but, being extensively manured with white- 

 fish, yields abundant crops. These fish are sometimes laid in furrows, and cov- 

 ered with the plough. Sometimes they are laid singly on the hills of maize and 

 covered with the hoe. At other times they are collected in heaps, formed with 

 other materials into a compost, carted upon the ground, and spread in the same 

 manner, as manure from the stable. A single net has taken 200,000 in a day. 

 They are sold for a dollar a thousand, and are said to affect the soil advantage- 

 ously for a considerable length of time. The people of East Guilford are not a 

 little indebted to them for their present prosperity." 



This prosperity, however, had its drawbacks. Dwight continues with con- 

 scientious adherence to detail: "One very disagreeable circumstance attends 

 this mode of husbandry. At the season, when the white-fish are caught in the 

 greatest quantities, an almost intolerable foetor fills the surrounding atmosphere, 

 and however use may have reconciled it to the senses of the inhabitants, it is 

 extremely disgusting to a traveller." Travels, II. 491-492. 



