Rural Economy in New England 365 



carts and sleds were generally constructed on the farm and ironed 

 by the blacksmith, the wheels of the former having felloes three 

 inches wide, tired with short strips of flat iron. . . . His shovels 

 were mainly of wood, having blades pointed with iron. His harrows, 

 made often of a forked tree, had teeth sometimes of wood and some- 

 times of iron."^ 



The Versatility and Ingenuity of Yankee Farmers. 



Besides these standard by-industries of the farmer, there were a 

 diversity of other tasks to which he applied himself more or less regu- 

 larly according to his especial " bent " and opportunities. On the sea- 

 coast, as we have seen, he was frequently a sailor or a fisherman for 

 part of the year.^ In inland towns he often plied some trade or other 

 and was classed as an artisan as well as a farmer. Every farmer 

 did a multitude of odd jobs for himseK, such as repairing old buildings 

 and building new, laying walls and stoning up wells, butchering 

 pigs and cattle, making axe-handles and brooms, splitting staves 

 and shingles, tanning leather and cobbling shoes. Occasionally he 

 performed some of these tasks for a neighbor, who either had not the 

 requisite skill or was too busy with strictly agricultural operations. 

 Such service was probably more often repaid in kind than in currency. 

 In this way the Yankee farmer acquired a reputation for ingenuity 

 and a moderate ability in a variety of occupations, which has now 

 become proverbial.' His ability as a Jack-of-all-trades was not 

 due to any exceptional endowment of versatility. It was distinctly 

 a product of the economic environment and of the persistent endeavors 



1 Walker, J. B. The Farm of the First Minister. Reprinted from Report of 

 New Hampshire State Board of Agriculture, 1894. Concord, N. H., 1895, p. 18. 

 The importance of wood in the economy of the inland farmer needs no emphasis. 

 It was early recognized by Belknap who devotes a chapter, Ch.VIII., in the third 

 volume of his History of New Hampshire, to an enumeration of the varieties of 

 trees native in that state and discusses the peculiar uses of each. 



^Chastellux says: "The seaman when on shore immediately applies himself 

 to some handicraft occupation, or to husbandry, and is always ready at a moment's 

 notice to accompany the captain his neighbor, who is likewise frequently a mechanic, 

 to the fisheries." Travels, II. 250. 



'This quality of ingenuity was recognized by Chancellor Livingston. He 

 says of the farmer of the Northern states: "He can mend his plough, erect his 

 walls, thrash his com, handle his axe, his hoe, his sithe, his saw, break a colt, or 

 drive a team, with equal address; being habituated from early life to rely on him- 

 self he acquires a skill in every branch of his profession, which is unknown in 

 countries where labor is more subdivided." American Agriculture, p. 338. 



