erage size of farms in 1860 was 203 acres, Nevada (617), Texas ■ >'.)] ,,
Louisiana (536) and South Carolina (488) having then an average greater
than that of California, which had fallen to 460 acres. Average for 1870,
L53 acr< 3, < iaMfornia (482), Georgia (338), Oregon (315 i and Texas (301)
giving the highesi figures. In nearly all of the States there was a steady
decrease in the average size of farms, though in Alabama (2*0,346, 222-,
Arkansas i I 16, 245, L54), Florida (371, 444, 232), Louisiana (372, 536,
247 , Maine 97, 103, 98), Mississippi (309, 370, 193), Missouri (179,
215, 1 16 . New Hampshire (116, 123, 122, and New .Mexico (77, 278,
186; there was an increase in the average between 1850 and 1860 and a
decrease between I860 and L870, the figures in parentheses being their aver-



CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 577

ages in the successive census years. California (4466, 466, 482) reversed
this order, its average showing a decrease in 1860 and a slight increase
in 1870. The total acreage of farms in 1850 was, improved, 113,032,614;
unimproved, 180,528,000; total, 293,560,614. "By 'improved land' is
meant cleared land used for grazing, grass or tillage, or lying fallow."
Irreclaimable marshes and considerable bodies of water were excluded in
giving the area of a farm improved and unimproved. Total acreage in
farms in 1860, 407,212,538; improved, 163,110,720; unimproved, 244,101,-
818. Total acreage in 1870, 407,785,041; improved, 188,921,099; unim-
proved, 218,813,942. The percentage of improved land in farms as com-
pared with total land in farms was, in 1850, 39.5 per cent.; in 1860, 40.1
per cent. ; in 1870, 46.3 per cent. The highest percentage of improved
land in 1850 was in Connecticut (74.2 per cent.); the lowest, in California,
only eight-tenths of 1 per cent. (32,354 acres) being improved, while 99.2
per cent. (3,861,531 acres) was unimproved. In 1860 the highest percent-
age of improved land in any State was still in Connecticut, while the lowest
(10.5) was in Texas, which was very nearly matched by New Mexico (10.6
per cent.). In 1870 several States had made great advances in improving
land, and stood very nearly together, the leading ones being Illinois (74.7
per cent.), New York (70.4) and Connecticut (69.6 per cent.). The
States possessing the largest improved acreage in farms in 1850 were
New York (12,408,964), Virginia (10,360,135), Ohio (9,851,493), Penn-
sylvania (8,628,619) and Georgia (6,378,479), making for these five States
47,627,690 acres (42.14 per cent.), or more than two-fifths of the total im-
proved acreage. The leading States in this respect, in 1860, were New
York (14,358,403), Illinois (13,096,374), Ohio (12,625,394), Virginia
(11,437,821), Pennsylvania (10,463,296) and Georgia (8,062,758), making
for these six States 70,044,046 acres (42.96 per cent.), or more than two-
fifths of the total improved acreage. The leading States in 1870 were
Illinois (19,329,952), New York (15,627,206), Ohio (14,469,133), Penn-
sylvania (11,515,965), Indiana (10,104,279), Iowa (9,396,467), Missouri
(9,130,615), making for these seven States 89,573,617 acres (47.04 per
cent.), or nearly one-half of the total improved acreage. The value of
farms in the whole country in 1850 was $3,271,575,426 ; leading States, New
York ($554,546,642), Pennsylvania ($407,876,099), Ohio ($358,758,603),
Virginia ($216,401,543), Kentucky ($155,021,262), Indiana ($136,385,-
173) and New Jersey ($120,237,511), making for these seven States
$1,949,226,833 (59.58 per cent.), or very nearly three-fifths of the total
value. Value of farming implements and machinery in 1850, $151,587,-
638; leading States, New York ($22,084,926), Pennsylvania ($14,722,541),
Ohio ($12,750,585), Louisiana ($11,576,938), Virginia ($7,021,772), In-
diana ($6,704,444) and Illinois ($6,405,561), making for these seven States
$81,266,767 (53.61 per cent.), or more than one-half of the total value.

37



578 BUELEF'S UNITED STATES

Value of farnia in I860, 86,645,045,007 (increase in ten years, 103.11
cent.); leading States, Vu 5 $803,343,593), Ohio ($678,132,991),

Pennsylvania $662,050,707 I, Illinois ($408,94 1,033), Virginia ($371,761,-
661), [ndiana ($356,712,175) and Kentucky ($291,496,955, making for

these Beven Stat ■'. 2, 1 12,1 15 i 53.76 per cent. >, or more tha e-half

of the total value. Value of farming implements and machinery in 1860,
$246,1 I s . Ml (increase in ten years, 62.36 per cent.); leading States, New
York 829,166,695 . Pennsylvania ($22,442,842), Louisiana ($18,648,225 .
Ohio ($17,538,832), Illinois ($17,235,472), [ndiana ($10,457,897) and Vir-
ginia $9,392,296), making for these seven States $124,882,259 (50.74 per
cent. . or more than one-half of the total value Value of farms in 1870,

62,803,861 (increase in ten years, 39.39 per cent.); leading States, New
York $1,272,857,766), Ohio ($1,054,465,226), Pennsylvania ($1,043,481,-

. [llinois ($920,506,346;, Indiana ($634,804,189), Michigan ($398,-
240,578 and Missouri ($392,908,047), making for these seven States

17,263,734 (61.93 per cent), or more than three-fifths of the total
value. Value of farming implements and machinery in 1870, $336,878,-
129 (increase in ten years, 36.87 per cent.); leading States, New York

,997,712), Pennsylvania ($35,658,196), Illinois (834,576,587), Ohio

i,692,787), Iowa ($20,509,582), Indiana ($17,676,591) and Missouri

$15,596,426), making for these seven States $195,707,881 (58.09 per

cent.), or nearly three-fifths of the total value. It is noteworthy, as an

instance of the progress of this country during twenty years, that the ag-

ite value of the farms of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio in 1870

170,804,57 1 I was greater than that of all the farms in the country in
In the latter year the value of orchard products was sT.Tl'-'M *<'•:
market-garden products, $5,280,030; home manufactures, $27,493,644;
animal.- slaughtered, $111,703,142. Value of orchard products in 1860,
$19,991,885 increase in ten years, 159 per cent.); market-garden products,
$16,159,498 increase in ten years, 203 per cent.); home manufactures,
$24,546,876 (decrease, LI. 12 per cent.); animals slaughtered or sold for
slaughter, $213,618,692 (increase 92 per cent.). Wages paid in 1870, in-
cluding the value of hoard, $310,286,285; value of orchard products, $47,-

L89 (increase in ten year.-, 137 per cent.'; market-garden products,
$20,719,229 increase, 28.22 percent.); forest products, $36,808,277; home
manufactures, $24,546,876 (decrease 4.79 percent.); animals slaughtered
or -"!,i for slaughter, $398,956,376 (increase in ten years, 86.76 per cent.);
leading State-, Illinois ($56,718,944), Ohio ($40,498,375), [ndiana ($30,-
246,962), Pennsylvania ($28,412,903), New York ($28,225,720), Iowa

.,781,223), Kentucky $24,121,861), making for these seven States

68 per cent. , or nearly three-fifths of the total value.

Value of all farm productions in 1870, including betterments and additions

to stock, 82,447,51 leading State., New York ($253,526,153), Illi-



CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 579



H



nois ($210,860,585), Ohio ($198,256,907), Pennsylvania ($1 83,946,0271,
Indiana ($122,914,302), Iowa ($114,386,441) and Missouri ($103,035,759),
making for these seven States $1,186,925,174 (48.49 per cent.), or nearly
one-half of the total value. The number of persons engaged in agricul-
ture in 1860 was 3,305,335; in 1870, 5,922,471 (males, 5,525,503; females,
396,968) ; increase in ten years, 79.18 per cent. Leading States in the
number of persons engaged in agriculture, Ohio (397,024), Illinois (376,-
441), New York (374,323), Georgia (336,145), Alabama (291,628), North
Carolina (269,238), Tennessee (267,020) and Missouri (263,918), making
for these eight States 2,575,737 (43.49 per cent.), or more than two-fifths
of the total number. The comparative healthiness of farming is shown
by the fact that when the census of 1870 was taken the proportion of
farmers who were sixty years of age and over was 7.82 per cent., or nearly
one-twelfth of the total number, while of those who were engaged in "per-
sonal and professional " occupations the proportion of this age was 4.99 per
cent.-; of those engaged in " manufacturing, mechanical and mining indus-
tries" it was 3.23 per cent., and of those engaged in "trade and transpor-
tation" it was only 2.33 per cent., or little more than one-fiftieth part of
the total number.

Statistics of the manufacture of agricultural implements have been
elsewhere given. [See American Manufactures.] Labor- and time-
saving machines are now regarded as indispensable by all who engage in
agriculture on a large scale. The reaper and the mower are the types of
the present, the sickle and the flail are types of the past. The horse rake,
the improved horse hoes, the broadcast seed-sower, the improved subsoil
and trenching ploughs, straw and root cutters, cultivators, threshing and
winnowing machines, and many others of equal importance have revolu-
tionized the operations of agriculture. It has been said that the improve-
ment in the implements named, made within the last half century, "has
enabled the farmers of the United States to accomplish double the amount
of labor with the same number of teams and men." This estimate seems
to be low, for according to the same authority, "they can plough deeper and
more thoroughly with less power, hoe and spade with less expenditure of
manual labor, thresh hundreds of bushels of grain with the machine
where only tens could have been threshed with the flail, rake ten acres
with the horse rake more easily than one by hand, and reap from twelve
to fifteen acres of grain in less time and with greater ease with the reaper
than one with the sickle or cradle, to say nothing of the infinite variety of
other operations in which both time and labor are saved by the use of
machines instead of the slow drudgery of hand labor." The increase in
the number and value of improved implements has another effect which
does not appear at first sight, but which can be ascertained by a careful
examination of results. The constant flood of emigration to the West



580 BUBLET'S UNITED STATES

suggi -i- to the dweller on the Atlantic coast the question, What is the ef-
fect of this western movemenl of population on the value of property in
the States firsl settled? Have farming lauds in the East depreciated in
value on account of the immense tracts of country recently reclaimed
from their native wildness? At first examination this would appear to
be the inevitable result of the overstocking, so to spealv, of the laud
market. The figures of the census do not, however, bear out this suppo-
sition. The value of the farms of the whole country increased between
I860 and 1870 only :'.!»..'!!) per cent., while the value of the farms of Penn-
sylvania increased 57 per cent. This superiority was notowiugto a greater
increase in the population of the State, for the population of the whole
country increased '_'•'! per cent., while the increase in that of Pennsylvania
was only 21 per cent. ; nor was it due to the number of people engaged in
agriculture, lor the number of farmers in Pennsylvania increased only 26
per rent, during the twenty years ending with 1870, while the value of the
farms in that State advanced during the same period 155 per cent.; nor yet
could it 1"' attributed to the increase in the number of acres of improved
farming lands in Pennsylvania, for that increase was 33 per cent, between
1 >•"'<» and 1*00, and only 10 per cent, between 1860 and 1870. If the
reader is acquainted with the manner of taking the census in this country,
he will remember that the values given are simply the value of these lands
agricultural purposes. To what, then, can this decided increase in the
value of Pennsylvania farms be attributed? We unhesitatingly answer, to
improved farming implements and machinery, with corresponding improve-
ments in methods of culture. The increase in the value of farms bears a
remarkably close relation to the increase in the amount of capital invested
in agricultural implements and machinery. In the whole country, for m-
stance, 1 iet ween 18(J0 and 1870, the increase in the value of farming
implements and machinery was 37 per cent. In Pennsylvania, during the
same period, the increase was 58 per cent, and between 1850 and 1870 it
was 142 percent. If the reader will compare these last percentages of
increase with those of the increase in the value of farms in Pennsylvania
and in the United States at large, as given above, he cannot fail to see a
coincidence. In New York, also, the increase in the value of farms be-
tween I860 and 1870 was a little more than 58 per cent., while the
increase in the value of farming implements and machinery was 57.66
per cent. To prove that this idea is not wholly fanciful, we can give
Borne ti □ the other side. In Arkansas, between 1860 and 1870. the

number of acres of improved land decreased less than one per cent., but
the value of farms in the State decreased 55 per cent., and the amount of
capital invested in farming implements and machinery decreased 45 per
cent. In Alabama the value of implements and machinery decreased
during the Bame period 55 per cent., and we find a corresponding decrease



CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE. 581

in the value of farms of 61 per cent. It may be said that these last two
instances may be explained as effects of the late civil war. This is true,
yet it does not militate against our theory; it rather confirms it. The
people of these States were so impoverished by the war that they were not
able to replace implements and machinery which had been worn out or
destroyed, and the natural result was a deterioration in methods of culture
and a consequent fall in the value of farming lands. The intelligent
reader will have already seen the object of this figuring. It is to show
the great value of improved methods of culture. An increase in the
amount of money invested iu improved machinery is followed by an ad-
vance in the value not only of agricultural produce, but of the land itself;
and this advance is the well-merited reward of those who employ not only
their hands, but their brains. Few who have not given attention to this
subject can form any adequate conception of the trials and struggles which
were undergone by those who first attempted to improve the old stereo-
typed methods of semi-cultivation which generally prevailed less than a
generation ago. Their anxiety about the success of their experiments was
frequently increased by gloomy prophecies uttered by their less progressive
neighbors, who were not backward, if an experiment failed, in exhibiting
a feeling very much akin to satisfaction. Still, as we have shown, they
have their reward. Those who formerly criticised them are now glad to
imitate them ; and progressive agriculturists are generally recognized as
public benefactors.

There is one crop which is so dependent for its value upon the amount
of capital invested in implements and machinery that we have reserved
its consideration for this place. We refer to the sugar crop. The compli-
cated processes required in the production of sugar brought Louisiana
iu 1860 into the third place in the comparative value of farming imple-
ments and machinery in the leading States, though she stood tenth in the
value of farms. Her total yield of sugar in 1859 was 221,726 hogsheads,
and of molasses 13,439,772 gallons.. In 1869 her yield of sugar was
80,706 hogsheads (decrease 63.03 per cent.) and 4,585,150 gallons of mo-
lasses (decrease 65.94 per cent.) ; and when the census was taken in the
following year, the value of her farming implements and machinery
($7,159,333) showed a decrease of 61.06 per cent., and that of her farms a
decrease of 66.7 per cent, (from $204,789,662 to $68,215,421). The aver-
age area annually cultivated in sugar-cane in Louisiana does not exceed
(according to the Report on Agriculture for 1873) 150,000 acres, or about
half of an ordinary county. If, as Mr. Bringier (one of the most intelli-
gent planters iu Louisiana) thinks, 10$ pounds of sugar-cane will easily
be made to yield a pound of sugar and two-thirds of a pound of molasses
by the best methods of production, even this small acreage would annu-
ally give 855,000,000 pounds of sugar and 570,000,000 pounds or



582 BURLEY'S CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AM) GUIDE.

52,500,000 gallons of molasses. Our imports of sugar and molasses fur
L872 3 amounted to 1,454,124,259 pounds of brown sugar, 509,504
pounds of refined sugar, and 43,533,909 gallons of molasses. In 1873-4
the amount was 1,594,306,354 pounds of brown sugar, 39,279 pounds of
refined sugar and 47,189,837 gallons of molasses. The possible annua]
yield above indicated is, therefore, more than half of the average amount
imported, and if, a- is stated in the Report on Agriculture, there is no rea-
son why the very small acreage should not be increased fivefold, except a
lack of capital and enterprise, there is also no good reason why the United
States should not produce sufficient sugar not only for home consumption,
but for a large exportation to less favored climes.

We could not more appropriately close this article than by quoting the
eloquent words of Mr. J. R. Dodge, the Statistician of the Department of
Agriculture, to whose labors we have been indebted for many of our state-
ments. In an address delivered before the National Agricultural Con-

- at Atlanta. Georgia (May 14, 1874), which is published in the Re-
'port mi Agriculture for 1873 (pp. 146-151), he expresses the hope that
the day may be hastened "when 25 per cent, of our people shall furnish
a better and more varied agricultural supply than is now obtained by the
47 per cent, employed in agriculture; when the 21 per cent, now engaged
in mining, manufacturing and the mechanic arts may become 42; when
two blades of grass shall grow instead of one, twenty-live bushels of
wheat instead of twelve, and an acre of cotton shall always bring a bale;
when clover shall appear in the place of broom-sedge, the sun shall cease
to Bmite with barrenness the southern slope, and many fields shall be

o with mam:'. l'l- for the fattening of lazy bullocks grazing on a thou-
sand hills : when superior and more various implements shall, while divid-
ing, multiply the labor of human muscle, and steam shall supplement
and save the costly strength of beasts; when a moiety of the farmer's
income may suffice to pay his taxes, his bills for commercial fertilizers
and all purchases of farm-produce that he fails to procure from his own
fair acres; when railroads shall cease to trouble with unscrupulous exac-
tions, and unnecessary middlemen are evermore at rest ; when the farm-
er'- bome -hall be beautiful with flowers, his farm a smiling landscape,
and hi- barn shall groan with the burden of plenty; and finally, when
the farmer -hall, in every section of a broad and prosperous land, be

Ernized a- nature's nobleman, an honest man, the noblest work of
G I."



AMEKICA^T MANTTFAOTUKES.



Early History. — The colonial policy, of which we have elsewhere
given a description [see Commerce and Navigation], was not satisfied
with imposing restrictions on trade. It was not enough that the colonies
should place at the disposal of the mother-country all of their exports :
they must be kept as helpless and as dependent as possible upon the lib-
erality of " the British merchant " by restriction upon their manufactures.
It was the policy of Great Britain to secure to herself the carriage of the
produce of her colonies — to monopolize their raw materials, and to furnish
her colonists with all the manufactures or other imports consumed by them.
When the first settlements were made, however, the struggle for existence
— the strenuous efforts required to procure sufficient food and to provide for
the defence of their little communities from the treacherous savages by
whom they were surrounded — left little leisure for manufactures. Even
after a firm footing had been secured, some time was required to awaken
the desire for home-production of articles which could be obtained of "the
British merchant." In the pamphlet by Captain Edward Johnson, from
which we have elsewhere quoted [see Historical Sketch, page 94], enti-
tled Wonder-working Providences of Zion's Saviour in New England, the
enthusiastic author says: "For raiment our cloth hath not been cut short,
as but of late years the traders that way have increased to such a number
that their shops have continued full all the year long, all one England (sic) ;
besides the Lord hath been pleased to increase sheep extraordinarily of
late, hemp and flax here is great plenty. Hides here are more for the
number of persons than in England ; and for cloth, here is and would be
material enough to make it, but the farmers deem it better for their profit
to put away their cattle and corn for clothing than to set upon making of
cloth. If the merchant's trade be not kept on foot, they fear greatly their
corn and cattle will lie on their hands." This account was written, or at
least published, in 1650, according to some authorities, and in 1654, accord-
ing to others. Hubbard's General History of New England (chapter xxxii.,
not xxii. as given, probably by a typographical error, in Everett's Speeches
and Orations, vol. ii., p. 80, note) gives a different account. We have men-
tioned elsewhere [see Commerce and Navigation] the impetus given t@<
the business of ship-building by the cessation of immigration caused by the

583



584 BUBLEY'S UNITED STATES

civil wars in England. Speaking of the same period, Hubbard says: "For
the future they [the colonists] were left more to stand upon their own legs
and shift for themselves, for now there was a greal change in the state of
tin- country, the inhabitants being put to greal straits by reason of the fall
of tin- price of cattle, the breeding and increase of which had been the
principal means of upholding the country; for whereas before all sorts of
cattle weir usually sold for C2~> the head, by reason of the continual coin-
in- over of new families to plant the wilderness, now that fountain began
to be dried, and there happened a total cessation of any passengers coming
%v< r, insomuch that the country of New England was to seek of a way to
provide themselves of clothing, which they could not attain by selling of
their cattle as before, which were now fallen from that huge price fore-
mentioned, first to £14 and CIO an head, and presently after (at least
within a year) to £5 apiece; nor was there at that rate ready vent for
them neither. Thus, the flood that brought in much wealth to many per-
-..n-, the contrary ebb carried all away out of their reach. To help in
this their exigent, the Genei-al Court made several orders for the manufac-
ture of linen and woollen cloth, which, by God's blessing upon man's en-
deavor, in a little time stopped this gap in part, and soon after another
door was opened by special providence. For when one hand was shut by
way "l' supply from England, another was opened by way of traffic, first
to the W. sl Indies and Wine Islands, whereby, among other goods, much
OOtton-WOol was broughl into the country from the Indies, which the inhab-
itant- learning to spin, and breeding of sheep and by sowing of hemp and

flax, they - i found oul a way to supply themselves with many necessaries

of [cotton] woollen and linen cloth." The author of New England's First
Fruits, writing in 1642, also speaks of the a-sistance rendered by Provi-
dence "in prospering hem]) and flax so well that it is frequently sown
-pun ami woven into linen cloth, and in short time may serve as cordage;

..f cotton-wool (which we may have at reasonable rates of the islands),
and uf our linen yarn- we can make dimities and fustians for our summer
clothing; and having a matter of 1000 sheep, which prosper well to begin
withal, in a competenl time we hope to have woollen cloth there made.
Aii'l gr< al and -mall cattle being now very frequently killed for fond, their
.-kin- will afford us leather for hoot- ami -hoes and other uses; so thatGod
i- leading u- by the hand into a way of clothing."

In 1645, ae we learn from Hubbard, an iron foundery was established
at Lynn. Ma - ., "upon a very commodious stream, which was very much
promoted and Btrenuously carried on for some considerable time: but at
length, instead of drawing out bars of iron for their country's use, there
was hammered oul nothing but contentions and law-suits, which was but