Rural Economy in New England 345 



munities, was so slight as to be practically negligible. They were 

 *'a voice crying in the wilderness," forerunners of improvements 

 comparable to those which had already taken place abroad. But 

 for reasons which we shall presently set forth, the time was not ripe 

 for the acceptance of their doctrines and propaganda. Their principal 

 service was in preparing the way for future progress.^ 



The Contemporary Criticisms were Deserved. 



Reviewing for a moment the evidence presented in the foregoing 

 paragraphs, we can see clearly that the criticisms of New England 

 agriculture at the beginning of the nineteenth century were fully 

 deserved. The tillage of the fields was but a superficial scratching 

 of the surface soil with clumsy tools; very little care was taken to 

 preserve or increase the fertility of the soil by crop rotation or even 

 by the simple and obvious method of applying manures; because 

 of the neglect of root crops, the fodder for live stock was insufii- 

 cient; the lack of nourishment, coupled with imperfect shelter and 

 inattention to the principles of selection in breeding, had caused 

 a general degeneration in practically all kinds of domestic animals. 

 The same lack of intelligent effort, seen in the neglect of the pro- 

 ductivity of his land and stock, is evident in the farmer's management 

 of his orchards and woodlands. In general, the system of agriculture 

 was not only extensive but even in many respects predatory; the 

 farmers had little stimulus to get anything beyond a living, and in 

 getting that they had little regard for the effects which their system 

 of husbandry might have on the prosperity of future proprietors 

 of their land. 



' There were perhaps a dozen of these societies organized, principally in cities 

 on the eastern seaboard, before 1800. Among this number were those organized 

 in Charleston, S. C, in 1784; in Philadelphia, in 1785; in New York, 1791; and in 

 Boston, 1792. Besides these there were a few smaller societies such as the West- 

 em Society of Middlesex Husbandmen, 1794; the Kennebec Agricultural Society, 

 1800; and the New Haven County (Conn.) Agricultural Society, 1803. In the 

 smaller societies the practical farmers seem to have formed a large, perhaps a 

 predominant element, but the initiative and direction came from men whose 

 interest in agriculture was but subsidiary to other interests. See Carver, His- 

 torical Account, p. 56; and Butterfield, K. L., Art. Farmers' Social Organizations, 

 in Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, IV. 290-291. The manuscript 

 Proceedings of the New Haven society are preserved in the library of Yale Uni- 

 versity. The transactions of some of the larger societies, such as those in Phila- 

 delphia and Boston, were published, along with various contributed articles. 

 These publications are more valuable for the light they shed on the state of scien- 

 tific knowledge of agriculture than for information on the current practices of 

 farmers. 



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