USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 4 > Part 36
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Another disease with which the Commission contended was the foot-and-mouth disease, which made its appearance in 1878; its ravages were felt in all parts of the State. It was probably brought into the State by cattle coming from Canada to Brighton, whence it spread rapidly throughout the Com- monwealth. The disease appeared in eighty different towns in the State and nearly four thousand head of cattle had it. It cost the State and private individuals more than $100,000.
Another disease that engaged the attention of the Cattle Commission was the hog cholera, that became quite serious in 1881. The Cattle Commission eventually put into effect a regulation which was sent out to all boards of health and provided that in all cases of cholera, after the owners had been warned, the boards of health should immediately proceed to isolate and quarantine the premises and let the hog cholera run its course. This regulation apparently had much to do with the effectual control of this disease, and in 1886 the Cattle Commission reported that hog cholera had practically been eliminated.
Massachusetts deserves considerable distinction and credit as being the first State in the Union to pass laws relative to the elimination and control of cantagious diseases among domestic animals. The Cattle Commission, composed as it was of the highest type of public-spirited men, did a most worthy service to the farmers of Massachusetts in the control of contagious disease during the period of 1860 to 1889.
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FARM LIVING CONDITIONS
IMPROVEMENT IN FARM LIVING CONDITIONS (1820-1889)
All of the factors that influenced progressive agriculture had a pronounced effect for good upon rural life, and particularly upon the unit of farm society, the individual farm and family. The improvement in farm living conditions during the period from 1820 to 1889 was expressed in buildings, additional home facilities giving a greater degree of comfort, better transportation, more comprehensive farm papers, less distant schools and churches, and abandonment of many farms located on far-away, barren, and unproductive waste lands, with a resultant settling by an awakened farm population upon smaller fertile farms nearer the centers of farm-product con- sumption.
New farmhouses were built, with larger rooms, high- studded, and permitting a full allowance of sunshine and fresh air. Large fireplaces tended to promote additional cheer. The sites for all buildings were given more careful con- sideration; and trees, shrubs, and flowers were planted, so as to add materially to the attractiveness of the farm home.
One of the great elements in farm efficiency was the devel- opment of iron stoves. The progressive farmer was among the first to install this improved facility for heat. When the kerosene lamp was introduced as a more efficient means of light, the farmer again made haste to provide the home with this desirable improvement.
In 1820, not a mile was built of the later vast network of railroads, which in 1889 reached the remotest parts of the State. Every farm was brought within a half-day's journey of a market; and a quick and easy intercommunication be- tween towns and counties was afforded, giving opportunities for forming and continuing acquaintance, gaining general in- formation, and transacting business unimagined in the days of slow and tiresome locomotion. The turnpikes became high- ways, and the highways were perfected. An agricultural college, a state board of agriculture, county societies, farmers' clubs, institutes, and granges were established during this period, to enlighten and quicken the minds and to draw out the experiences of farmers by frequent meetings for free dis-
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cussion and pleasant interchange of opinions on those subjects that most concerned a progressive agricultural people.
Much of the progress could be traced to a great advance in agricultural reading and education. Well-edited agricultural papers, State and county agricultural reports, and new books on rural problems had a stimulating influence upon the mem- bers of the farm family.
More churches and more schools were built where they could best serve the interest of the farmer; and these two factors, the church and the school, became increasingly im- portant in stabilizing Massachusetts agriculture by causing a greater measure of happiness and satisfaction among the farm folks. Many honest tillers of the soil, who had been laboring in vain for years upon the unproductive soil of hill towns, in desperation left the scenes of perpetual work and few returns, and took up small productive farms near the in- dustrial centers. The advantages of church and school could then be enjoyed by the entire family, and the course of a year's effort and labor could result in a financial gain. The small towns within easy reach of the markets became thriving, prosperous centers of agricultural development. Farmers and their families lived better and dressed better than ever before. They had more amusement and real enjoyment, more intercommunication and travel; and the farm homes were more generously supplied with the comforts and con- veniences of living.
FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS (1820-1889)
The outstanding elements in the advance of agriculture in Massachusetts during the period 1820 to 1889 included :
(1) Evolution of farm implements and farm machinery, and the resulting increase in the productive capacity of the individual farmer, from the general use of those labor and time saving inventions.
(2) Increased production in those farm crops best suited to Massachusetts conditions.
(3) Live-stock improvement and progress in a specialized
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dairy industry, eventually centering upon the production of fluid milk.
(4) The establishment and development of agricultural societies and their influence in the promotion of agricultural pursuits.
(5) The constructive work of the State Board of Agri- culture in molding agricultural progress from the very begin- ning of its existence.
(6) The growth of agricultural education, involving the founding of Massachusetts Agricultural College and the ef- fective work of the State Experiment Station.
(7) The important work of the Cattle Commission in promptly stamping out contagious diseases among our herds and flocks.
(8) The general improvement of farm living conditions, influencing, as it did, the happiness and well being of those members of the basic industry of agriculture whose progress was so vital to community, State, and national prosperity.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
BROOKS, WILLIAM P .- "Work of the Agricultural College and Hatch Ex- periment Station" (MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Fortieth Annual Report, Boston, 1892)-See pp. 187-207.
FLINT, CHARLES L .- A Hundred Years' Progress of American Agriculture (UNITED STATES-DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Annual Report, Wash- ington, 1874)-See pp. 274-304.
FOWLER, FREDERICK HORNER .- Early Agricultural Education in Massachu- setts (Boston, 1907).
GREENOUGH, JAMES C .- "The Place and Work of the State College" (MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Thirty-first Annual Report, Boston, 1893)-See pp. 63-62.
GRINNELL, JAMES S .- "The Agriculture of Massachusetts for Forty Years" (MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Twenty-ninth Annual Report, Boston, 1881)-See pp. 361-387.
MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE .- Annual Report (Boston, 1867 and later years).
MASSACHUSETTS-AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION .- Annual Report (Boston, 1884 and later years).
MASSACHUSETTS-BUREAU OF STATISTICS .- The Census of Massachusetts, 1875 (3 vols., Boston, 1876-1877)-Successive censuses have been compiled in 1880, 1885, and, decennially since.
MASSACHUSETTS-SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH .- Transactions of the Agricultural Societies in the State of Massachusetts (Boston, 1848-1853).
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MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE .- Centennial year, 1792-1892 (Salem, Mass., 1892)-An account of the work of the society).
MASSACHUSETTS : STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE .- "Abstract of Returns of the Agricultural Societies of Massachusetts" (MASSACHUSETTS, STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Annual Report, Boston, 1853-1880)-For the years 1845-1847, see annual reports of the Secretary of the Common- wealth.
MASSACHUSETTS : STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE .- Annual Report of the Secretary (Boston, 1854 and later years).
REED, QUINCY L .- "The Benefits Resulting from Agricultural Societies" (MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Fortieth Annual Re- port, Boston, 1892)-See pp. 420-426.
RUSSELL, CHARLES THEODORE .- Agricultural Progress in Massachusetts for the last half Century (Boston, Moody, 1850).
STOCKBRIDGE, LEVI .- "Agriculture of Massachusetts" (MASSACHUSETTS- STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Fortieth Annual Report, Boston, 1892) -See pp. 220-234.
TEMPLE, JOSIAH HOWARD .- "Some Thoughts on the Management of Agri- cultural Societies" (MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Twenty-first Annual Report, Boston, 1874)-See Part II, pp. 62-69. A practical discussion that was a prize essay.
CHAPTER XIV
INDUSTRY AND TRANSPORTATION (1820-1889)
BY JOHN GOULD CURTIS Fellow of the American Geographical Society
INTERDEPENDENCE OF INDUSTRY AND TRANSPORTATION
Mutual handmaids of a sort are industry and transporta- tion, for neither can go far without the impetus and compan- ionship of the other. It is not always easy to see which has played the leading rôle in promoting a general develop- ment, but it is apparent that transportation is essential to the assembly of raw materials and the dispersal of manufactured products, and that the economic pressure for better transporta- tion must come in some degree from growing industries.
Certain it is that in Massachusetts the early decades of the nineteenth century saw changes and developments of the first importance in both industrial methods and means of transportation. There was a shift from the craft industries conducted in homes and small shops to factory industries, producing on a tremendous scale and employing for the first time the principles of standardization that have been so im- portant in American manufacturing. There was controversy over the relative merits of railway and canal at a time when it was assumed that horses would be the motive power on either waterway or railway, and there was quick recognition of the possibilities of the railroad when locomotives once were demonstrated.
In this period of Massachusetts history industrial develop- ments comprise what is almost certainly the outstanding aspect. During these years were founded great plants, which
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continue to this day to make their contribution of employment, staple products, and prosperity in Massachusetts. During these years were fought the battles for the trade of the North and of the country beyond the Hudson, which the merchants of Boston, in distress, observed finding its way mostly to New York.
During these years also the early Massachusetts industries of fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding-the very foundations of the wealth of New England-were carried to new peaks of importance. The value of the whale fisheries rose and fell to oblivion; the wooden shipbuilding industry faltered before the competition of iron vessels; the fisheries were at times profitable only because they were, in effect, subsidized.
But through it all there was an ever advancing tempo of commercial activity, a reaching out for new contacts both at home and in far parts of the world, and the building up of Massachusetts as a center of manufacturing and commerce of the first importance.
CLASSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIES
If the not unreasonable view be taken that the development of transportation facilities was, after all, a reflection of the demands of men of commerce who wished to buy and sell and ship their goods, we may look upon the industrial growth of Massachusetts as the large factor to which improvements in transportation were a response. Considering, then, the industries as a preliminary to improvements in means of car- riage, we may divide them into two general groups: those based upon the utilization of raw materials naturally avail- able; and those based primarily upon the exploitation of power, the availability of large capital, or the accessibility of particularly qualified labor.
As was brought out in chapter ii of Volume I of this work, the natural resources of primary importance in New England were fish and timber. Fishing and whaling, although they were activities requiring skill and experience in those who carried them on, were nevertheless not in a class with manufactures, for the preparation of the product-the salting
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of the fish, and the trying-out of the whale blubber-was rel- atively simple.
Exploitation of the forests, so far as it related to the cutting of timber for export, was in the same class. The use of timber in shipbuilding and in certain other forms of wood- working, which in time became important, were also matters which required skilled workmen, but were essentially founded upon the availability of the raw material.
By contrast, the textile industries are the product of abund- ant water power, which cost so little to develop that it proved worth while to bring raw materials to New England, and in some instances even to return manufactured products to the source from which their materials came. This development of water power of course employed Yankee ingenuity, not merely in the building of efficient mill wheels but in the devis- ing and adaptation of machinery which would accomplish tasks that had formerly been done by hand. Water power was also used in the establishment of paper mills on the Con- necticut River, and in the operation of a large number of local industries that enjoyed less widespread importance.
The fact that Massachusetts gained and retained first im- portance in the shoe and leather business of the United States cannot be casually attributed to any single cause, but reflects rather a combination of circumstances. Early tanners were obliged to invest considerable amounts of capital in supplies on hand and, since the process of tanning was exceedingly slow, they were often glad to get hides from outside the immediate community. Some of the more expert gained local fame, and there is some evidence that cordwainers enjoyed special repute if they came from communities where exceptionally good tan- ning was done. As the frontier went westward, and cattle from the far end of the State were driven overland to Boston, more and more hides became available for Massachusetts tanners, and the shoe craftsmen employed themselves in turn- ing this leather into footwear for export. Thus the shoe industry reflects the existence of skilled labor, the almost in- evitable employment of rather large capital, and reliance to some extent on the pastoral hinterland of the early days.
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WEALTH OF THE SEAS (1818-1869)
The fishing and whaling fleets of Massachusetts suffered severely in the course of the War of 1812, but mounted rapidly to prosperity after peace was established. In 1818 vessels in the whaling industry aggregated 16,750 tons, and from that time down until the first reverberations of the Civil War were heard the size of the fleet mounted continually. In 1820 it was twice as large as in 1818; by 1825 it stood at 82,316 tons; in 1841, at 157,405 tons; and the annual record from 1845 to 1860 shows only one decline below 180,000 tons. At the peak of the prosperity of whaling in 1858, the fleet reached a maximum just short of 200,000 tons.
Yet the size of the fleet engaged in the industry gives per- haps a less vivid picture of this extension of Massachusetts initiative than does the record of the voyages. As early as 1821 a Massachusetts whaling vessel had been seen off the coast of Japan, and it was not long before the Pacific Ocean provided the most favored grounds for deep-sea whaling. Having started this enterprise on the west coast of Chile, the men of Nantucket and New Bedford felt their way north- ward and made the whole of the vast Pacific theirs. In the years between 1835 and 1860, a fleet that averaged 600 ves- sels brought in annually sperm oil, whale oil, and whalebone worth about $8,000,000.
Much of the oil was used in the manufacture of spermaceti candles, which were the common form of domestic illumina- tion and which, with millions of gallons of oil, were exported to the West Indies, South America, and Europe. Whalebone, employed for some of the purposes now served by spring steel, was sent to England and western continental Europe.
Authorities are not always in accord as to what was the primary cause of the decline of the whaling industry. It has commonly been attributed to the supplanting of whale oil by petroleum, and of whalebone by metal. But the fact ought not to be overlooked that whales were definitely becoming scarcer and harder to take. What was in the early days an off-shore fishery, carried on in open boats, had become a business operation requiring considerable capital, excellent
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COD AND MACKEREL FISHERIES
organization, and voyages ordinarily two years or more in length. The overhead had very naturally increased, and the industry had become expensive to carry on, out of propor- tion to the returns that might be expected from it.
There were, of course, some instances of good fortune. A former whaler still living tells of the capture of a whale off Alaska and the shipping of the unprepared bone from this single mammal to San Francisco, thence by rail to the New England seaboard, thence by vessel to London, where it re- turned, after all the carriage charges had been paid, a net sum in excess of $3,000. Now this formerly valuable sub- stance is virtually worthless. New Bedford, once the home port of half the American whaling fleet, outfitted her last whaler in 1869, and all that our own time retains of the mother of New England industry is preserved today in museums.
COD AND MACKEREL FISHERIES (1815-1871)
Codfish were the first objects of natural wealth to be noted by explorers of North America, and they are still the sup- port of a flourishing industry. After the War of 1812 there was some controversy with the British authorities about the rights of American fishing vessels off the Maritime Prov- inces; but the matter was settled by the Conference of 1818, which conceded to American fishermen certain increased privileges for the drying and curing of fish, although they were to be excluded from some of the inshore fisheries of Canada. There were subsequent disputes and conferences, fortunately settled in an amicable way, the difficulties of con- tending claims being in part smoothed out by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 and that signed at Washington in 1871.
No statistical record of the codfish catch was kept during the early years of the period under discussion, and about all that can be said of the expansion of the industry is that it was continuous. The fish lent themselves to preservation more readily than any other equivalent form of provisions, and they were consequently salted in large quantities both for domestic use and for export. Exports reached their height in
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1804; and, although the fleet brought in more cod from year to year, the demand at home from that time on was so large that the quantity available for foreign consumption was kept down. In 1859 the cod fishermen of New England prepared products worth about $3,000,000.
Like the whaling fleet, the fleet engaged in cod and mackerel fisheries was much impaired in the course of the Civil War and there was a substantial decrease in tonnage; although, because the industry remained basically sound, it did not suf- fer as much as the whalers. The cod and mackerel fleet reached its peak in 1873 with a tonnage of about 100,000, and has shown a marked decline since 1885, apparently because people have learned to like so-called shore fish, which can be taken and prepared at considerably less expense. In Massa- chusetts, Boston was the center of the fish trade, although Gloucester became preeminent in the cod and mackerel fish- eries about 1840 and has remained so since. Newburyport ranked high; and in the early years Wellfleet, Provincetown, and a number of smaller communities enjoyed larger import- ance than they have retained.
SHELLFISH AND OTHER SPECIALTIES (1819-1890)
Qualities of peculiar usefulness to particular industries, or perhaps of especial gastronomic appeal, have given a kind of importance to several minor branches of the fishing business. From the Indians the early colonists had learned the use of fish as a fertilizer, and by 1830 the process was well estab- lished of steam-cooking the menhaden to extract the oil, after which the part of the fish that was left was turned into valu- able fertilizer. In 1877 some sixty factories were carrying on this business to the tune of over a million dollars a year ; but the fish did not appear in quantities after 1879, and the in- dustry declined.
Halibut became important in America about 1830, but because the fish were caught only in midwinter this branch of the industry was extra hazardous and not very popular. On most of the streams and rivers shad and alewives were taken locally at the appropriate season.
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SHIPBUILDING
Shellfish, which have become of very considerable value, were first made the basis of commercial operations about 1830, when lobsters were brought down from Maine for the Boston market. A little more than ten years later the lobster canning business was commenced in Maine, where the number and size of lobsters diminished so rapidly that close restric- tions soon became necessary. Oysters were transplanted from Chesapeake Bay to the south shore of New England about 1840, and have risen in modern times to a position of first importance in the New England fisheries. The digging of clams was a source of food in the early colonial days, and be- came commercialized after 1860.
SHIPBUILDING (1820-1860)
It has been told in chapter ii of Volume I of this work how the magnificent clipper ships of New England came as the natural products of her forests. Within the period covered by this chapter, the craft of shipbuilding reached its height in the yards of New England. At first relying upon local timber, builders began about 1830 to obtain oak and hard pine from the South. Ships' knees in particular had been procured by elaborate searching out of abnormal shapes in the forests, although subsequently means were devised for bend- ing irregular parts without seriously impairing their strength.
The special story of the clipper ships in all its romantic detail is told in another chapter of this volume. Here it is enough to explain that the development of transportation in this form, something like the subsequent development of the railroads, was a response to the demands of industry. Special ships were made for special purposes; they were well made, and for the most part they were made from materials native to the region.
Shipyards having been established, and having assembled about them numbers of men skilled in the crafts peculiar to shipbuilding, it was not too difficult for New England yards to shift, when the demand made it necessary, to the construc- tion of iron vessels. This may have been a little easier be- cause the importation of some materials had already become
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common. At any rate, the demand grew, and Boston main- tained its prominent position in the shipbuilding industry by commencing, in 1860, the construction of iron steamers.
OTHER USES OF WOOD (1820-1889)
Whether there is some peculiar aid to Yankee philosophy in the business of whittling, or whether the soft, straight- grained white pine offered special allurements to the thinker's knife, is not to be settled with a word; but it is certain that Massachusetts men of a century ago exhibited a special apti- tude for woodworking. A number of local industries of some importance were based upon the availability of a variety of suitable woods. Particularly was this true of the building of farm implements and vehicles, which required ash or hickory for parts that were subjected to severe strain, and lighter woods for such parts as wagon boxes. Handles for axes and scythes, and other tools and implements were manu- factured of native woods.
But most of this industry satisfied only the local demand. Salem at an early date went into the making of furniture for export, and in 1831 sent abroad half of its product. In such places as Ashburnham and Gardner, and some other fairly small communities, there was specialization in the making of chairs. This industry of course reflected the availability of suitable materials, just as the transfer of the furniture industry to Michigan in later years reflected a similar special opportunity there, which became more valuable as accessible materials elsewhere dwindled. Massachusetts produced furni- ture worth well over $1,000,000 in 1837, and the value of the product for 1855 was just short of $6,000,000. By 1860 Massachusetts held second place in the Nation's furniture industry.
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