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MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE
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THE HISTORY
of the
ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
1818-1918
The History
of the
Essex Agricultural Society
of
Essex County, Massachusetts
1818-1918
by THOMAS FRANKLIN WATERS
Published by the Trustees 1918
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST, MASS.
630 ,06 ESTW
NEWCOMB & GAUSS . . PRINTERS. . SALEM, MASS.
The History of the Essex Agricultural Society
The earliest Societies for the Advancement of Agri- culture in America were established in 1785 in South Carolina and in Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia So- ciety was organized in March of that year, became in- active after a few vigorous years, but was revived and incorporated in 1809.
The Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agri- culture was incorporated in 1792, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth and in America. Having raised a fund by annual assessments and by subscription amount- ing to $4,000, it proceeded to import valuable animals to improve the domestic stock, to study the improvement of agricultural implements, and, in 1797, to establish the Agricultural Journal, which was continued more than thirty years. It promoted the establishment of County Societies, contributed to the founding of a Professorship of Natural History and the institution of the Botanical Garden at Harvard College, and erected a hall in Brigh- ton for the exhibition of domestic manufactures and agricultural products. In the year 1818 it began a series of addresses by eminent men.
The first County Society to be organized was the Western Society of Middlesex Husbandmen. It was in- corporated February 28, 1803. Its name was changed to the Society of Middlesex Husbandmen and Manufac- turers January 24, 1830. The Berkshire Agricultural Society was incorporated February 19, 1818; the Wor- cester Agricultural Society, February 23, 1818.
The men of Essex were already moving. An adver- tisement appeared in the Salem Gazette on February 6, 1818:
The Farmers and others in the County of Essex, who are desirous of promoting the Agricultural interests, are
AY 25 1943
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THE HISTORY OF THE
requested to meet at the Hotel in Topsfield on Monday, the 16th day of February current at eleven o'clock A. M. for the purpose of forming an AGRICULTURAL SO- CIETY FOR THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, in aid of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society. As the object of this meeting is important, it is hoped there will be a general attendance.
Another notice appeared in the Gazette of February 13th :
Those gentlemen in Salem or its Vicinity who are dis- posed to organize the proposed ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY are requested to meet at the Essex Coffee House TO-MORROW (Saturday) AFTERNOON at 3 o'clock to de- liberate on the subject previous to the general meeting to be held at the Topsfield Hotel on Monday next.
Pursuant to this invitation, a company of practical farmers, about twenty in number, met at Cyrus Cum- mings's tavern in Topsfield. Mr. John W. Proctor of South Danvers, the Secretary of the Society for many years, in his address in 1844, recalled their names:
John Adams of Andover. Hobart Clark of Andover.
Aaron Perley of Boxford.
Amos Perley of Boxford.
James Kimball of Bradford.
Dr. Andrew Nichols of Danvers.
Daniel Putnam of Danvers.
Eleazar Putnam of Danvers.
George Osgood of Danvers.
Temple Cutler of Hamilton. Robert Dodge of Newbury.
Paul Kent of Newbury. Orlando B. March of Newbury.
Enoch Tappan of Newbury.
Stephen Tappan of Newbury.
Stephen Mighill of Rowley.
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
David Cummings of Salem.
Elisha Mack of Salem. Ichabod Tucker of Salem. John Peabody of Topsfield. Jacob Towne Jr. of Topsfield.
Ichabod Tucker Esq. was chosen Moderator, and David Cummings Esq. Secretary of the meeting. Quot- ing from the Records :
A Committee of Five was appointed to take the sub- ject of forming a Society for the County of Essex into consideration and make report to this meeting as soon as might be convenient. The following gentlemen were appointed said committee, viz. :
Ichabod Tucker Esq., Capt. Paul Kent, David Cum- mings Esq., John Adams Esq., and Elisha Mack Esq.
The meeting was then adjourned for an hour. The Committee after due deliberation upon the subject at said adjournment made their report.
Evidently the preliminary caucus at the Coffee House in Salem had made wise preparation, and the Committee was able to report at once that it was expedient to form such a Society, and to submit a proposed series of Rules and Regulations. Their report was adopted unani- mously. Two articles of the Rules are of especial in- terest, as indicative of the scope of the new organiza- tion.
Article 8. The Trustees shall regulate all the con- cerns of the Society during the intervals of its meetings ; propose such objects of improvement to the attention of the public, publish such communications and offer such premiums in such form and value as they shall think proper, provided the premiums offered do not exceed the funds of the Society.
Article 16. A Committee shall be raised from time to time, severally to solicit and receive subscriptions for raising a fund for encouraging the noblest of pursuits, the agriculture of our country, the same to be sacredly appropriated to that purpose.
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THE HISTORY OF THE
The following officers were chosen:
President, Hon. Timothy Pickering.
Vice-Presidents, William Bartlett, Esq.
Hon. Thomas Kittredge. Hon. John Heard. Ichabod Tucker, Esq.
Recording Secretary, Benjamin R. Nichols, Esq.
Corresponding Secretary,
Hon. Leverett Saltonstall.
Treasurer, Hon. Nehemiah Cleaveland.
Voted that the proceedings of this meeting be pub- lished in all the Newspapers printed in the County of Essex and in such Boston papers as the Secretary of this meeting may direct.
The Salem Gazette of February 20th made compli- mentary editorial comment :
It will give pleasure to the friends of the country to observe that a Society is formed in the County of Essex for the promotion and improvement of Agriculture, the real basis of individual and national wealth and pros- perity, and that that scientific and practical farmer, the Hon. Timothy Pickering, (who assisted many years ago in the formation of the Agricultural Society of Phila- delphia and of which he is still a member) has been elected its first President. It will be recollected that at Brighton the exhibitions of our Essex farmers have made no mean figure and in some instances borne away the prizes. The celebrated Oakes Cow of Danvers has been commemorated by the art of the engraver.
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
Meeting again on May 6th the Society chose Ichabod Tucker, Treasurer, in place of Dr. Cleaveland, resigned, and
Voted, That all the ordained ministers of the Gospel, who reside within the County of Essex be admitted Hon- orary Members of the Society.
A committee was chosen to petition for incorporation, and the charter was granted June 12, 1818.
On February 10, 1819, the Treasurer reported that 117 members were enrolled. David Cummings was chosen Recording and Corresponding Secretary, Hon. Daniel A. White, Treasurer. Frederick Howes Esq. succeeded Mr. Cummings in February, 1820, and he was succeeded in 1821 by John W. Proctor of Danvers, who held the office with distinguished ability for many years. Mr. White resigned and Benjamin R. Nichols was chosen Treasurer in 1823, Benjamin Merrill in 1824, and Dr. Andrew Nichols in 1828, who held the office until 1841.
It was a happy omen for the success of the Essex Agricultural Society that its President and its inspiring genius was the Hon. Timothy Pickering. A graduate of Harvard in the class of 1763, he chose the legal profes- sion and was admitted to the bar. After distinguished military service in the Revolutionary War, he removed from Salem, his birthplace and early home, to his wild lands in Pennsylvania in the Wyoming Valley, where he secured the organization of Luzerne County. Called from his retirement in 1791, he became Postmaster General in Washington's cabinet, Secretary of War in 1795, and in December of the same year Secretary of State. At the completion of his term of office, in 1800, he returned to his lands in Pennsylvania, but soon removed to Essex County, through the kindness of friends, who purchased his land holdings.
In his old home fresh honors awaited him. He became Chief Justice of the County Court of Common Pleas in
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THE HISTORY OF THE
1802, was elected a Senator of the United States in 1803, and re-elected in 1805, and served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817. His public political life was now ended, and having purchased a small farm in Wenham, he devoted himself to agricul- ture with the same intensity which had characterized his political career. He had been the Secretary of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society and had been an influ- ential factor, it is said, in the organization of the Mas- sachusetts Society of Agriculture.
The Vice-Presidents were exceptionally fit men to give prestige to the new Society. William Bartlett, a wealthy Newburyport merchant, owned a great farm in Methuen; John Heard, the Ipswich merchant, was an enterprising farmer as well; Dr. Kittredge of North Andover and Ichabod Tucker of Salem joined agriculture to their usual vocations.
Leverett Saltonstall, the Secretary, was a commanding figure in the legal and political world. Gorham Parsons Esq., the wealthy proprietor of the great Fatherland farm in Byfield, was an enthusiastic lover of the soil.
The year 1818 was a fitting time for the birth of the Essex Society. It was an era of bewilderment and dis- couragement. The Indian corn crop had suffered great damage from frost in the autumn of 1812, and almost total destruction in the fall of 1816. Confidence in the reliability of the great staple was shaken, and there was an idea more or less current that it was injurious to the soil.
The American consul at Lisbon, seeing the value of the Merino sheep had sent home to Vermont large flocks of this breed in 1809-1811. The Salem Gazette of Sept. 18, 1810, noted the arrival of imported sheep at Newbury- port for the Northern States, 150 Merinos with a shep- herd and his dog. A vessel had sailed from Marblehead for Spain to secure a cargo of sheep. A brig had arrived at New York from Cadiz with 180 sheep and a ship
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
broker of Newburyport had imported a flock of ninety. The Essex Merino Sheep Company was organized. It imported largely, rented farms in various parts of the County, and placed the flocks under the care of shepherds brought from Spain. Many farmers disposed of their native flocks and invested in the new breed. But the foot-rot and scab appeared and made sad ravages. The agents of the company proved incompetent and some- times dishonest. The company became bankrupt, the flocks were scattered. Choice rams or ewes that had cost a thousand or fourteen hundred dollars had died or were sold for a trifle. Many farmers lost heavily and the Merino mania became a by-word for wild and ruinous speculation.
The common farmers were plodding along in the ways of their fathers. Their tools were clumsy and inefficient, largely home made or hammered out by the neighboring blacksmith. The sheet-iron shovel was patented in 1819 and the shovel of cast steel in 1828. The first American patent for improvement in hoes was registered in 1819, and the cast steel hoe appeared in 1827. The light and efficient steel spring pitchfork was invented by Charles Goodyear in 1831. Samples of the old tools that have been preserved are of burdensome weight and easily bent, as they were made of soft iron.
The old plough, with its wooden mould board covered with thin strips of iron, with an iron coulter, was still in vogue. It was often home made and so ill contrived that three or four yoke of oxen were required in breaking up heavy ground. The iron plough had been invented many years before, but found little favor. As late as 1835, it is said, Sir Robert Peel presented two iron ploughs of the best construction to a famous club in England. On his next visit the old wooden ploughs were still in use. "Sir," said a member, "we tried the iron and be all of one mind that they made the weeds grow." Charles Newbold of New Jersey took out a patent for
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THE HISTORY OF THE
an iron plough in 1797, but after spending $30,000 in his effort to bring it into common use, abandoned the attempt, as the farmers persisted in declaring that the iron plough poisoned the soil and prevented the growth of crops.1
Benjamin P. Ware, born in 1824, in an address to the Society, drew a vivid picture of the farmer of his boy- hood days. Incessant physical toil and great muscular strength were the chief essentials. The farmer who was determined to succeed had to mow the broadest swath, hoe the hardest row, work the longest hours, and always lead and spur his laggard men. The striped frock and heavy cowhide boots were his only livery.
There was crying need of a clearing house of agri- culture, as it were, a common medium of information which should gather up the methods of the most alert and progressive farmers, the results of the latest experi- ments with crops and new tools and improved breeds, and bring them home to every farmer in every nook and corner of Essex County, and teach him how to make his head help his hand. This was the great task the Essex Society set for itself.
Its first method was publication. Abundant and in- spiring material was not lacking. Col. Pickering's first paper, read at a meeting on May 5, 1818, was published at once in pamphlet form. In this practical document he reported his visit to Danvers to see the famous Oakes cow. Some years before, Caleb Oakes had bought a mon- grel cow from a herd on its way from Maine to Brighton. She had developed extraordinary butter-making quali- ties and had taken the premium at the Cattle Show of 1816, held by the Massachusetts Society in Brighton. Root crops were beginning to receive attention. He had raised about half a ton of the new Mangel Wurtzel and was so well pleased with the result that he had brought
1 U. S. Census Report, 1860.
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
a package of seed for every member of the Society who desired it. He recommended the culture of Swedish tur- nips as well.
In his address to the Society in 1820 he called atten- tion to the great crop of carrots raised by Erastus Ware in 1817 on the Pickman farm in Salem, 752 bushels, weighing 183/4 tons, on one acre; commented on the flat culture of corn as preferable to hilling; remarked upon the Arbuthnot iron plough, and quoted at length from the foremost English authorities on farming. The se- ries of publications thus begun has been continued, with a few interruptions, to the present day, and constitutes probably the largest and most helpful contribution to the literature of agriculture made by any County Society in the Commonwealth, and perhaps in the country.
The second method adopted by the Society was the Cattle Show, already popular in other localities. Its first venture in this field was at Topsfield, the most central point in the County in the days of stage travel, on October 5th, 1820. Dr. Andrew Nichols of Danvers, physician and skilled farmer, made a noteworthy address, in which he made keen disclosures of the shortcomings of the average farmer, his error in attempting to cultivate too many acres, his deplorable neglect of the garden and orchard, and with prophetic foresight declared that the best interests of the County would be promoted by the establishment of an Agricultural Academy. It is an interesting coincidence, that when the day came, nearly a century later, and an Essex County Agricultural School was opened, it was near neighbor to Dr. Nichols's farm. His closing appeal to the Society, "to prevent our annual cattle show from becoming scenes of riots, drunkenness, gambling, cheating and dissipation," is a suggestive pic- ture of the typical Cattle Show then in vogue.
In the published Transactions there were included, beside the Address, the Reports of Committees on Working Oxen and Neat Cattle, on Fat Oxen and Swine,
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THE HISTORY OF THE
on Indian Corn and Potatoes, on Manures, and on the Dairy. Premiums were awarded to Tristram Little of Newbury, for raising 1031/2 bushels of corn on an acre, and to John Dwinell of Salem for 3981/2 bushels of pota- toes on an acre. Interesting statements of experiments with corn and potatoes and manures were made. But the most notable feature was the ploughing match.
The Committee agreed to award the first premium to the Hon. Timothy Pickering on account of the superior performance and superior utility of his plough. They think also that great credit is due to Gorham Parsons Esq. for the performance by his plough from his Byfield Farm and award to him the second premium.
Years afterwards the venerable Dr. Nehemiah Cleave- land of Topsfield, in his address in 1865, remarked, “I well remember the tall and venerable form of our first President as I saw him holding his own plough on that occasion."
For the Cattle Show in 1821 premiums were offered on The Management of a Farm, Crops for Cows, Cider, and on Sumac, "to any person who can prove on not less than half an acre that either species of sumac, exten- sively used in morocco leather, can be profitably cul- tivated." A prize was also offered for the best planta- tion of white oak trees, not less than an acre, nor fewer than a thousand trees per acre, to be raised from the acorn, which should be in the most thriving state by Sept. 1, 1823. Prizes were offered for similar planta- tions of locust, larch and hickory. This was in accord- ance with the Act of Legislature, Feb. 20, 1818, providing premiums "to increase and perpetuate an adequate supply of ship timber."
In these early years the dairy received deserved atten- tion. The Oakes cow, already mentioned, was constantly in evidence. Her record was published in the Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts in 1841, by
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
the Commissioner, Henry Colman. She produced in 1813, 180 lbs. of butter; in 1814, 300 lbs .; in 1815, over 400, and in 1816, 4841% lbs. During this time one quart of milk was reserved for family use and she suckled four calves for four weeks each in the course of these years. She produced in one week 1914 lbs. of butter and an average of more than 16 lbs. The largest amount of milk given in one day was 441/2 lbs. The preeminence of this remarkable cow was never seriously questioned for fifty years.
A circular was published by the Massachusetts Agri- cultural Society in 1824 advertising the bull, Admiral, of the best improved Short Horn breed, recently imported from England, the gift of Sir Isaac Coffin for the pur- pose of improving the breed of cattle in his native State. This famous bull had been placed on the farm of E. Hersey Derby Esq. of Salem for twelve months. Another circular, signed by T. Pickering, addressed to the farmers of Essex County, called their attention to this offer.
In 1826 the Nourse cow, owned originally by Nathaniel Nourse of Salem, then owned by Col. Pickering, took the first premium at the Cattle Show. From her milk in April, May and June, 154 lbs. of butter had been made.
Col. Jesse Putnam of Danvers reported the result of his scientific experiments with potatoes in 1829. Care- ful observations had been made with five kinds of seed, the Long Red or River La Plate variety, the Speckled Blues, a variety well approved by many farmers, the Richardson Whites, and a White potato raised from the seed of the green balls, after several successive plantings, a line of experiment much in vogue. Each kind was planted in several ways, with whole potatoes and cut potatoes, large and middle sized. The results were care- fully noted.
There were interesting statements of the crops raised on some Essex County farms in these days of hand labor with the ox for draught. Jonathan Morse 2nd, tenant on
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THE HISTORY OF THE
Wm. Bartlett's 200-acre farm in Methuen, reported his harvest in 1822:
70 tons English hay.
306 bushels of oats.
1200 bushels of potatoes.
300 bushels of corn.
1100 bushels of English turnips.
300 bushels of Ruta bagas.
40 bushels Winter apples.
20 bushels Winter pears.
6 bushels white beans.
500 lbs. of flax.
100 bbls. of cider.
400 lbs. of butter.
2400 lbs. of cheese.
The stock comprised 15 cows, 10 oxen, 3 heifers, 4 fat oxen, 12 calves, 19 swine, 34 sheep and lambs, and one horse. The labor, Mr. Morse stated, was performed by himself and wife, with two men and a boy and two young women or girls, but in most "hurrying times" as many hands as can be employed to cut and cure to advantage, "carried on entirely without the use of ardent spirits at any season of the year."
The farm of the Salem Alms House raised crops of large variety, including squashes, cucumbers, melons, rad- ishes, broom corn, celery and pot herbs. It supported 10 oxen, 10 cows and 2 horses. On the great Pickman farm, Erastus Ware kept 50 cows, 6 oxen and 3 horses, and raised milk for the Salem market. His laborers were provided with family beer, molasses and water, milk and water, but no ardent spirits.
James Osgood of Andover employed a man and a boy by the year, and another man five or six weeks in haying time, yet in the year 1829 he mowed about 50 acres, and fenced in his farm with nearly a thousand rods of stone wall, mostly laid with his own hands, with rocks which were all brought from a distance of half a mile or more.
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ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
He kept 4 oxen, 2 horses, 12 cows and 12 sheep. Amos Gould bought his first hundred acres of the Turner Hill farm, now owned by Charles G. Rice, in 1810, gradually enlarged it and built 700 rods of stone wall. He kept 20 to 30 horned cattle, 1 horse and 20 sheep.
But Thomas Chase of West Newbury made the most extraordinary statement of hard work, its routine and its results, on his farm in 1833. His working force in- cluded himself, his son, and one hired man at $11 a month for eight months, and 29 days at one dollar a day, and a young woman 24 weeks at a dollar a week. "Our cus- tom," he says, "is to drive the cows to pasture and feed the swine before breakfast and to go to field in summer at six o'clock. Luncheon with tea or coffee between nine and ten. Dine at half-past twelve-our drink cider and coffee; tea at 5, if desired, milk after; beer, water and milk and water is all the drink required in the field."
The farmer himself had been confined to the bed with a fractured hip since October 5th and in December was able to do only light work. He kept 4 oxen, 9 cows, 1 horse, 5 swine; cut 44 tons English hay, 13 tons meadow hay, and 18 tons of salt hay on his 12-acre marsh, which was six miles distant. He planted 4 acres of Indian corn and potatoes and 4 acres of potatoes, which yielded 1,128 bushels, produced 674 lbs. of butter, 2,033 lbs. of cheese, 29 barrels of cider, and in addition to the regular round - of farm work, took down and rebuilt a barn, made and new laid 50 rods of stone wall, dug 120 rods of ditch, of which 70 rods measured 3 feet by 2, set 200 apple trees and 400 grafts. No alcoholic liquor, he says, was served.
During this first decade of the active life of the Agri- cultural Society, Rev. Henry Colman, formerly a Salem clergyman, later an enthusiastic student of agriculture and experimental farmer, and eventually a State Secre- tary or Commissioner of Agriculture, contributed to the Transactions a series of papers of great value on many themes of current interest, the dairy and improved breeds
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THE HISTORY OF THE
of cows, the comparative values of crops, etc., with detailed facts and figures. In his "Hints Addressed to the Farmers of Essex County," published in 1829 (though his name does not appear), he summarizes the maximum of crops in the County, which were well authenticated :
Wheat, 26 bushels to the acre.
Indian corn, 11714 bushels to the acre.
Barley, 52 bushels to the acre. Potatoes, 5181/2 bushels to the acre. Carrots, 900 bushels to the acre. Mangel wurtzel, 1,340 bushels to the acre.
Ruta bagas, 688 bushels to the acre. Beets, 783 bushels to the acre. English turnips, 814 bushels to the acre. Onions, 651 bushels to the acre.
We know of a lot of 6 acres from which thirty tons of hay actually weighed were gathered in one season, and another field of about forty acres, from which accord- ing to the statement of respectable and disinterested individuals, the yearly crops have averaged more than one hundred and twenty tons or three tons to an acre.
Querying as to the most profitable crop for an Essex County farmer, he remarked that hay was one of the first articles which would ordinarily yield a fair profit. "The Ipswich farmers have for years found a profit in transporting vast quantities to Boston market by land, in spite of the competition of the neighboring towns and the screwed hay from Maine." Yet, in his Andover ad- dress in 1831, Mr. Colman said the average yield of hay in Essex County was only 114 tons to the acre and that it sold for $18 in Boston and Salem. In the same address, quoting manure at $2 a cord, corn at 70 cents a bushel, and potatoes on the farm worth scarcely more than a shilling a bushel, with an average yield of 150 bushels per acre, he distrusted the value of the potato crop and
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