Rural Economy in New England 367 



the use of a farm of 100 acres and in addition a salary of $100, part of 

 which was, as the accounts show, paid in kind. The accounts ex- 

 tend from 1784 to 1822, but the years in which they were most care- 

 fully kept are 1792 and 1793. In the one year and nine months from 

 February 14, 1792, to November 13, 1793, his total purchases 

 amounted to £23, 10 shillings and 11 pence. The items are as 

 follows: 



3 lbs. brown sugar 1 pair wool cards 



10 lbs. iron 1 barlow penknife 



1 iron pot 1 bbl. linseed oil and paints 



1 iron skillet 1 set pencilled tea dishes and saucers 



2 earthem basons 1 skein holland thread 



2 chamber pots i bus. salt 



1 earthem jug 2 lbs. gmger 



1 small cream pot 1 lb. alum 



3 milk pans 1 gal. -um 



IJ yards satinet 1 gal. molasses 



^ yard everlasting^ 7 smoakmg pipes 



5 yards coating 1 yard tobacco 



The entries of goods purchased in other years show the same pre- 

 dominance of necessary commodities which could not be produced on 

 the farm. Chief among these were iron, of which in one year he 

 bought 81 pounds besides a bundle of nail rods, and salt, with occas- 

 sional purchases of molasses and rum. Other entries show purchases 

 of 50 bricks, a pork barrel, six cider barrels, a broadcloth coat and a 

 pair of shoes. The coat and the pencilled tea dishes were refinements 

 of life which probably were considered necessary to the minister's 

 social position and set him apart from the bulk of his parishioners. 



The entries of sales are far less numerous. The chief items are 

 dairy products. A rather astonishing sale of 451 pounds of cheese 

 is among them. It went to the local storekeeper and was to be paid 

 for half in cash and half in merchandise. All the other sales were 

 small, such as two and one-half yards of tow cloth, seven pounds of 

 flax, three pounds of butter, a hind quarter of beef and a barrel of 

 cider.2 



^ A sort of cloth. 



2 The account book of the Rev. Mr. Rogers is preserved in the library of the 

 New Haven County Historical Society, New Haven, Conn. A small pamphlet 

 entitled Sundry Prices taken from Ye Account Book of Thomas Hazard, published 

 at the Washington County (Rhode Island) Agricultural Fair Grounds, 1892, 

 contains information of the same sort but for a somewhat earlier date. Hazard 

 was a farmer of South Kingston, Rhode Island. 



