USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government > Part 34
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The situation in regard to agriculture was very differ- ent. Strictly speaking, agriculture did not decline during the first half of the nineteenth century, because more farm produce was raised in 1850 than in 1800. At the earlier date fully five-sevenths of the people were en- gaged in rural pursuits, and until Civil War times, or later, more than half of the inhabitants lived in small
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country towns of five thousand population or less. When an elaborate survey of the state was made in 1845, it was found that the yearly output of hay was valued at $4,212,725, a sum which surpassed the appraisal of cotton and woolen goods, the two most extensive manu- factures, by a million dollars. Farming, in other words, did not forfeit its position as a major occupation, but, as the second half of the nineteenth century approached, it was overtaken by manufacturing, to be definitely sur- passed by the latter during the decade of the seventies. For the period prior to the Civil War, however, the per- sistence of rural life helped to preserve habits of thought and action which were conservative in nature, and which did not differ greatly from the customs of colonial days.
In the early nineteenth century, as in the preceding 160 years, Connecticut towns were largely self-sufficient. The fundamental needs of each community were supplied from within or very near its borders; potatoes, rye, oats, and flax were raised on nearly every farm; and on the approach of winter, rural kitchens were festooned with strings of dried apples, shelves were covered with corn, peas, and currants, and cellars were stored with barrels of pork and kegs of hard cider. This condition of self- sufficiency continued for a long time because there was no opportunity to make the change to commercial agri- culture. A farmer could not engage in agriculture on a business basis; that is, he could not specialize in the raising of one or two crops to be sold for cash, until there were markets for the surplus not used at home, and Con- necticut farmers of the early nineteenth century enjoyed no markets which could absorb quantities of produce. There were no great cities in the state, the largest, New Haven, possessing less than nine thousand people in 1820, and even in this moderate sized city or in Hartford or
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Middletown, the needs of non-agricultural groups such as the merchants, doctors, and teachers, were supplied by farmers living in the immediate vicinity. A limited quan- tity of meat and grain could be sent to New York or ex- ported to the West Indies, but in general there was no sizable market, either in the state or near at hand, which encouraged the farmer to raise more produce than could be consumed at home.
Due in part to this limitation and in part to the innate conservatism of Connecticut farmers, not much was done to make agriculture a scientific occupation. One or two individuals expressed dissatisfaction with the hand-to- mouth existence so common everywhere, but such pro- tests led to no immediate results. David Humphreys, a mill owner as well as a farm enthusiast, popularized the raising of merino sheep, valuable for a superior grade of wool, and in addresses to agricultural societies pleaded for the raising of pure bred stock, and for the intelligent use of manure and fertilizer in preparing fields for seed- ing. After the death of Humphreys in 1818, Oliver Wol- cott, governor of the state from 1817 to 1827, tried to interest the legislature in plans for stimulating rural progress, one of which contemplated the granting of bounties for hemp and mulberry trees, and another would have offered to agricultural societies some financial assist- ance in meeting the expenses of fairs and cattle shows. The latter suggestion was not seriously entertained by the assembly until 1840, when each county agricultural society was granted from the public treasury a sum of from one to two hundred dollars annually, provided the society would raise an equal amount through member- ship fees, the funds so procured to be used at the autumn fairs for premiums, in ribbons or cash prizes, for the best exhibits of apples, pumpkins, livestock, and, occasion-
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ally, domestic manufactures. In general, however, the legislature did not undertake any comprehensive plan for farm relief, preferring to leave that question to organiza- tions that were not political in nature.
In commenting upon nineteenth-century farm prob- lems, it must be borne in mind that Connecticut was not designed by nature to become a great agricultural com- munity, because only two sections of the state are well adapted to cultivation. One of these areas is a narrow strip of land bordering Long Island Sound, stretching from Stonington on the east to Greenwich on the west, and the other is the upper part of the Connecticut valley, from Middletown north to the boundary of Massachu- setts. As for other parts of the state, the soil is good in spots, but in most localities a great deal of artificial culti- vation and fertilization is necessary if the crop yield is to be a profitable one. In recent years much has been done with these less favored areas through the application of methods based on accurate knowledge of soil composi- tion, but our ancestors had no such beneficial data at hand, a comprehensive soil map of the state not being available until after 1925, when Dr. William F. Morgan of the Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven assembled the results of much painstaking fieldwork and laboratory analysis.
Hence the chief obstacle in the way of productivity was poor soil, a handicap which could be alleviated only in part by the use of fertilizers or by scientific methods of cultivation, and at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury little was known about these subjects. Not until about 1850, in fact, were commercial preparations for assisting crop growth generally employed, so that as late as 1880 the state board of agriculture complained that most farmers tilled the soil in a dull, blind way, knowing
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little of the nature of the soil or its wants, so that they overfed good ground and starved the poor, reducing the whole to a state of unproductivity. In view of the Yan- kee's traditional reputation for inventiveness it is re- markable that no son of Connecticut tried to improve farm industry through the construction of better tools, but local inventors felt, apparently, that greater re- wards could be reaped from industrial machinery. It is obvious, at any rate, that the names of the great Con- necticut inventors-Eli Whitney, Charles Goodyear, and Samuel Colt-are associated with industrial progress rather than with agriculture, and that innovations in farm machinery, even when introduced elsewhere, were but slowly adopted in our state. The cast-iron plow came into use about 1820, but an efficient potato-digger was not common until 1835; grain drills were not much used until 1840, and mowers and reapers not until after the mid-century.
Although the soil of Connecticut did not offer favorable opportunities for the raising of money-making crops, the land did afford possibilities for sheep and cattle farming. The sheep industry, due to the encouragement it had received from David Humphreys, progressed steadily until 1840, when there were reported to be over four hundred thousand sheep in the state, producing annually about nine hundred thousand pounds of wool, but after this peak was reached the industry declined, partly be- cause of the ravages made by dogs. Fencing of pastures to keep out marauders was then very expensive, as it con- tinued to be until after 1870 when barbed wire was in- troduced. Efforts were made, beginning about 1835, to improve the cattle industry in the state, in which con- nection the name of John A. Taintor of Hartford, an importer of Jersey cows is notable, and the movement he
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fostered gained momentum until Connecticut became, by 1900, one of the leading dairy states in New England.
Before the time of the Civil War, however, local farm- ers continued to labor under the two handicaps of poor soil and antiquated methods, and in that discouraging predicament they sought comfort through the medium of clubs and societies. Beginning with the Society for Pro- moting Agriculture, founded at Wallingford in 1794, farmers' clubs of one sort or another appeared at fre- quent intervals. The early societies, and many of the later ones as well, endeavored to broaden the amount of information available to farmers, by establishing libraries of agricultural works, and by promoting experiments in the use of fertilizers, and the planting of new seeds, some of which were imported from Europe. The work of the county societies showed to best advantage at the annual fairs and cattle shows, usually held in the month of Sep- tember. County fairs are so familiar to us that they need little description, but the comments of the Connecticut Courant on a Hartford cattle show of 1820 will bear quotation since they illustrate neatly the contemporary opinion on such exhibits:
If to direct the attention of our farmers to discern and dis- tinguish the best species among their domestic animals; to draw forth from obscurity such as excel by the offer of pre- miums; to render their peculiar excellencies extensively known and capable of benefiting others; to induce their owners, by suitable motives, to preserve only such as possess uncommon excellence, in order that the breed may be constantly in a train of melioration, while the poor and indifferent are con- signed to the knife of the butcher, without being permitted to entail their imperfections upon posterity; if these be the ob- jects of importance to an agricultural community, we may aver that much has already been accomplished by the exer- tions of our infant Society.
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County societies were supplemented by other organi- zations, particularly the "Berkshire Plan" clubs of which Theodore S. Gold of Cornwall was an energetic promoter. The major purposes of these clubs were, as Gold ex- plained, to minister to the wants of the farmer as a human being by improving his powers of conversation, to give him an understanding of the troubles of others, and to create in him a pride in his calling. A club of this sort was founded in West Cornwall in 1842, others appearing shortly thereafter. The members had a very simple or- ganization; they held bi-weekly meetings, of a very informal, friendly sort, at which the men discussed agri- cultural topics for an hour or so, and then joined the women and children in another hour of pleasant social intercourse, consisting of games and conversation, re- freshments being taboo lest rivalry in providing the best supper should become a burden upon the members who took turns in acting as hosts of the gatherings. These clubs struggled valiantly to prevent the "flight from the farm," but in this crusade they met little success, as young men continued to leave the stony hillside acres for the greater promises of reward in manufacturing cities, or on the fertile lands of the West. In one respect, how- ever, the clubs rendered distinct service, because they improved the social life of rural communities, particularly by softening the petty bickerings which so often embitter personal relationships in small towns.
Schools and colleges occasionally took up the burden of promoting science in agriculture. A seminary for young men interested in farming was founded in Derby in 1825, and some time later a similar enterprise was begun by the Gold family in West Cornwall. The Cream Hill School, as this academy was called, opened formally in 1845 with four pupils, an enrollment which subsequently
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increased to twenty. The school continued in operation until 1869, offering students courses in soil tillage, stock raising, tree culture, and the preparation of composts, and its tutors made special efforts to inspire young men with a real enthusiasm for farm life. Courses in agricul- tural chemistry were also given in Connecticut's three colleges-Yale, Trinity, and Wesleyan-so that from an academic or classroom point of view, a great deal was done to improve the prospects of agriculture. The benefits of this instruction could not raise the level of farm science over night; indeed, as new methods of real value began to appear they were accompanied by many vagaries and unsound teachings. About the middle of the century theoretical agriculture was running wild, so that the state finally took steps to bring order out of chaos. Henry A. Dyer, a native of Rhode Island, who had moved into Windham County, promoted the organization of a state agricultural society, incorporated in 1852, and this proj- ect was followed in 1866 by a state board of agriculture, of which the energetic farm enthusiast, Theodore S. Gold, was secretary.
All the labor of the town clubs, county societies, and the state board could not prevent many country districts from going to seed. The more enterprising sons of rural families left the old homesteads to search for greater wealth or excitement elsewhere, and this exodus caused once flourishing towns to degenerate into the feeble ham- lets of the present day, where travellers can see countless hollows in the ground, overrun with weeds or lilacs, where once were cellars stored with vegetables. Because town representation in the state assembly suffered no curtailment, the decline of country districts worked seri- ous consequences on Connecticut politics. The constitu- tional provision which guaranteed to every town at least
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one representative, and sometimes two, resulted by 1850 in a situation wherein fifty-five per cent of the popula- tion, living in small towns of three thousand or less, con- trolled seventy-six per cent of the members of the lower house in the legislature. This consideration is important to a study of political affairs, for it means that the as- sembly was dominated by the more conservative elements in society. Assemblymen from small country towns voted down proposals for amending the constitution, refused to support bills for extending aid to philanthropic institu- tions, and obstructed the governor's attempts to make the executive department a more worth while branch of the government than it had been in colonial days.
When the story of agricultural developments is set against that of industrial advancement, the more pro- gressive character of the latter is apparent. Connecticut did not become a highly industrialized state until after the Civil War, but strides in that direction were made during the first half of the century, resulting in political and social changes of first importance. Until 1818, the year in which the constitution was ratified, only thirty- eight manufacturing companies had attained sufficient size to warrant incorporation, and even the greatest of these concerns was small in comparison with modern companies, nearly all of the early factories being capital- ized at less than $100,000 each. Most of the manufactur- ing plants were scattered widely over the state, being located in small towns or sparsely settled areas wherever water power was available. Manufacturing, moreover, was carried on most extensively of all, in the household, where without going outside the confines of their homes the women carded and spun wool, knit stockings, and wove cloth, and the men puttered away at odd hours in the barn or the toolshed making flails, harrow teeth, and
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axe handles. There was very little manufacturing done in plants which could be dignified by the title of factory, although in some towns of eastern Connecticut, such as Norwich and Killingly, there was a flourishing textile industry, and in other towns from New Haven westward a good deal of flour milling. Only a few centers had be- come noted for the manufacture of articles that were sold in large quantities outside the state; Danbury had acquired a reputation for its hats, and Hamden was the home of Eli Whitney's firearm factory, but with these exceptions the state exhibited in 1818 characteristics wholly rural. The changes of the following decades were due to three factors-the inventiveness of the people, abundant water power, later to be supplanted by steam, and the introduction of improved methods of transportation.
The inventive genius of the Yankee has been much commented upon, especially by foreign visitors to New England during the second quarter of the nineteenth century and, as regards Connecticut, this talent fully deserves the attention accorded to it. The state was not furnished with natural resources which could facilitate, as they did in some other parts of the Union, an easy and spontaneous development of industry. Valuable metals or minerals were present in such small quantities as to be incapable of profitable exploitation; there were no rich deposits of coal or of oil, and only a few beds of iron, the best of which were located in Litchfield County. It was the inventive nature of Connecticut people which assured the state a permanent place in the history of American industry. Michael Chevalier, who visited the state about 1834, said that he met hardly an artisan who had not patented a machine or tool of some sort, and although his statement exaggerated the situation somewhat, it is
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noteworthy that between 1821 and 1841 local residents were granted over twenty patents of major importance, including designs for clocks, firearms, gas lighting fix- tures, and the telegraph.
During the middle years of the century the state gained notoriety for the manufacture of special articles, four of which are still intimately associated with Con- necticut enterprise. One of these special lines of manu- facture was the making of clocks, an industry which received its first impetus from Eli Terry who, shortly before 1800, opened a small shop in the town of Plymouth, near Waterbury. Terry had learned while still a young boy how to make clocks by hand, cutting out cogs and wheels with such simple tools as a jackknife and an ordi- nary saw. At Plymouth he perfected machinery, run by water power, which could turn out parts in such quanti- ties as to permit the assembling of ten thousand clocks a year. Terry was followed by Seth Thomas and Chauncey Jerome, both of whom learned the trade as his pupils, later to branch out in business for themselves. Jerome made one of the most important advances in the history of clock-making industry when he found it feasible to cut or stamp parts from sheet brass, and his machine- made brass clocks could be sold for five dollars or less, a price within the reach of moderate pocketbooks, and a marked reduction from the twenty dollars that had been charged for a first-class wooden product. Due to the pioneering work of these men the primacy of Connecticut in the clock business was established, never to be seriously challenged.
The other three enterprises which were so well grounded by 1850 as to remain permanently associated with the name of the state are the manufacture of brassware, sil- verware, and firearms. All of these lines depended, for
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initial success, upon the work of inventively inclined business men-the Scovills, Israel Coe, the Rogers brothers, and Samuel Colt-and no one of these indus- tries could have been expanded to large proportions had it not been possible to ship into the state quantities of raw material and to send out again, cheaply, the finished articles. Hence it was the improvement in transportation facilities that made possible Connecticut's emergence from the household industry stage to factory manufac- ture on an extensive scale.
In the early nineteenth century, transportation by land was facilitated by a system of turnpike roads. Be- ginning in 1792 the state had granted to private com- panies stretches of highway, averaging eight to ten miles in length, which the companies agreed to keep in good condition through funds derived from charges collected at tollgates four or five miles apart. Public interests in the highways were secured by boards of commissioners appointed annually by the legislature, and toll charges were also fixed by the assembly. Travelling conditions over the turnpike roads were reasonably good, except during bad storms or spring thaws, but as no Connecticut roads were given a crushed stone, or macadam surface until the middle of the century, they did not stand up well under heavy loads, such as the wagons of ore which brass manufacturers in Waterbury had to transport to their mills from the seaboard.
Transportation by water was given considerable at- tention in the early years of the century. The towns on Long Island Sound were connected with each other, and with New York City, by lines of sailing packets which gradually gave way to steamboat companies. At least a dozen steamboats were in commission by 1820, and after that year the number increased rapidly. Navigation of
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the Connecticut River was improved by the Union Company, founded in 1800. This company was charged with the work of maintaining a channel at least six feet in depth between Hartford and Middletown, and by 1806 it had completed enough of its contract to begin the collection of tolls on vessels using that stretch of the river. The company continued in existence to 1866, al- though it made only small annual profits after 1838 when river freight was diverted to the railroad lines then being opened.
Connecticut did not share to a great extent in the canal building fever which infected so many of the states during the second quarter of the century. The only am- bitious project undertaken was that of constructing a canal from New Haven northward through Farmington, then to the Massachusetts line, whence it was to be con- tinued by another company into Northampton. A sec- tion of the canal was opened to traffic in June, 1828, and with the completion of the remainder shortly thereafter the canal enjoyed a fairly sizable volume of freight for seven or eight years. Until the advent of railroads, which absorbed canal traffic along with much of that carried on over local riverways, the Farmington Company brought to towns of the west-central part of the state, especially to Bristol and Avon, facilities for transporta- tion which were much cheaper than those afforded by the turnpike roads. Eventually the canal was metamorphosed into a railroad company, the Northampton, which con- structed a steam line over the route previously followed by the canal.
Turnpikes and waterways made some improvements in local transportation, and also accustomed people to the expenditure of large sums of money for public pur- poses, but the greatest advancement in methods of con-
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veyance came with the building of railroads. The state lent considerable assistance to the planning of rail lines through its accumulation of data from geologic surveys. In 1835 Governor Edwards secured from the legislature an appropriation of $100,000 to finance a geological and mineralogical survey of the state, the work being sub- sequently entrusted to James G. Percival and Charles U. Shepard. Further appropriations were made in later years, so that Shepard was able to submit a comprehen- sive report on mineralogy and natural resources in 1837, and Percival a report on geology in 1842.
While this work was going on the first railroads were begun. Three companies were incorporated in 1832, and of these the New York and Stonington was the first to operate trains over a small section of its line from Ston- ington east to the Rhode Island boundary, whence it was continued by another company into Providence. Inaugu- ration ceremonies attended by the mayor of Providence, Governor Edwards, and various railroad officials, took place in November, 1837, and by the middle of the cen- tury other railway lines had been laid connecting New Haven with New York, with Hartford, and with Spring- field, Massachusetts. These roads made possible the great expansion of Connecticut industry, for it was henceforth feasible to ship into the state, at reasonable freight rates, quantities of raw materials-coal, iron, copper, and zinc-and to send out again the manufac- tured goods-brassware, firearms, paper, and textiles- which could be retailed over wide areas throughout the Union. Since the development of Connecticut as a manu- facturing state had to wait upon the construction of railways, the latter did not dominate the life of the com- munity until after the Civil War, though the industrial trend could be clearly seen by 1850. Manufacturing con-
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cerns were becoming larger, as witnessed by the figures relating to capitalization of factories. An incorporation at $100,000 was exceptional in 1820, whereas many com- panies by 1850 were capitalized at $1,000,000 or over. The employment rolls were also lengthening, although as late as 1845 a large number of factories turning out silver- ware, boots and shoes, garments, and hats, were in reality small shops run by four or five laborers and a master workman. According to an industrial survey, the results of which were published in 1846, about thirty thousand people, or less than ten per cent of the total population, were directly engaged in manufacturing, and the average employment roll for all factories in the state was not much over twenty persons each, but after 1855, with the establishment of the Colt Arms Company which came to employ seven hundred workers, the state could boast of a truly modern factory.
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