Industrial history of the United States, from the earliest settlements to the present time: being a complete survey of American industries, embracing agriculture and horticulture; including the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, wheat; the raising of horses, neat-cattle, etc.; all the important manufactures, shipping and fisheries, railroads, mines and mining, and oil; also a history of the coal-miners and the Molly Maguires; banks, insurance, and commerce; trade-unions, strikes, and eight-hour movement; together with a description of Canadian industries

Front matter

OF THE

UNITED STATES, iFrom i^z iEarUest Settlements to t{}e Present Eimz:

BEING

Preface

THE present work was projected by the author several years ago, and is now given to the public in the belief that it will prove really useful, inasmuch as nothing worthy of the name has appeared, while the field itself is quite as deserving of study as any other portion or phase of American history.

A great variety of materials have been collected and used in the present undertaking : many facts, also, have been gathered from conversation with persons who were more or less familiar with some special branch of American industry. The author has sought to make proper acknowledgment for all facts and incidents herein related, though doubtless he has failed to do justice to every work and author from whom special information has been drawn. On page 56 he omitted to state that the statistics relating to shipments of cotton were taken from Mr. Dana's valuable work entitled Cotton from Seed to Loom ; " while it ought to be mentioned, that, in the introductory chapter, free use has been made of the short but excellent sketches of Ben : Perley Poore and Charles L. Flint of the History of Agriculture contained in the United-States Agricultural Reports, as well as the paper of the latter on American Horses which is to be found in the same pubHcation. Likewise, in describing the Pittsburgh riots of 1877, liberal use was made of the message of Gov. Hartranft, which contained a very concise and truthful account of that shocking affair.

Nor would I fail to express my very great indebtedness to Henry Hall of ^^The New- York Tribune," and James Hall of Norwich, Conn., without whose assistance the preparation of this work for the press would have been much longer delayed.

To Mr. C. A. Cutter, Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, my sincerest

iii iv

PRE FA CE.

thanks are due, and are hereby tendered, for the exceedingly liberal use of the books of that institution ; and also to the Librarian of the Boston Public Library for special privileges of a similar character. I would further add my obligations to the Librarian of the Astor Library for the privilege of consulting to my best advantage the treasures of that collection. The aids thus obtained from these three noble institutions were invaluable : indeed, without them, it would have been impossible for the author to have executed the present work.

Norwich, Conn., Oct. 15, 1878.

HAT two editions of this work should be exhausted within a few months strongly verifies the author's belief, when writing it, that such a work was needed. Since the first edition was issued, changes and improvements in the text and illustrations have been made, which, it is believed, will render the work still more valuable to the reader.

Preface To The Third Edition

THE AUTHOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS t m*m I

CHAPTER 1. General History 1-31

Introductory. — Indian Agriculture. — Colonial Agriculture in the Southern Colonies. — Colonial Agriculture in the New-England Colonies. — French Colonial Agriculture. — Effects of American Revolution. — Causes of Progress in Agriculture, — Homestead Laws. — Agricultural Societies. — Granger Movement. — Agricultural Education and Literature. — Establishment of State Boards of Agriculture.

Horticulture, Nurseries, and Fruit-Raising 164-181

BOOK IL

MANUFA CTURES.

CHAPTER I. Manufacture of Iron and Steel 185-216

Early History. — Forty Years of Repression and Struggle. — The Effect of Tariffs. — The Era of Anthracite Fuel and the Hot Blast. — The Growth of Rolling-Mills. — Influence of Paris Exposition on American Iron-Manufacture. — The Manufacture of Steel.

CHAPTER II. Iron and Steel Manufactures 217-315

Nails. — Cutlery. — Clocks and Watches. — Iron Pipes and Tubes. — Locomotives. — Sewing- Machines. — Fire-Arms. — Iron-working Machinery. — Axes and Saws. — Stoves. — Safes. — Iron Bridges. — Printing-Presses. — Wire. — Water- Wheels. — Locks. — Pumps.

CHAPTER III. Manufactures of Gold, Silver, and Other Metals 316-36S

Coinage. — Jewelry. — Gold and Silver Leaf. — Silver Table- Ware. — Copper and Brass Utensils, — Bronze Ware and Statuary. — Bells. — Lead-Manufactures. — Stereotyping. — Tin -Ware. — Toys. — Applications of Zinc.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER X. India-Rubber Manufactures 479-487

CHAPTER XL

Chemical Manufactures 488-496

CHAPTER XIL

Wood and Other Manufactures 497-559

Lumber. — Wood -Working Machinery. — Furniture. — Starch. — Wine, Spirits, and Beer. — Cordage and Bagging. — Soap. — Flour. — Musical Instruments. — Matches. — Glass- Ware and Pottery. — Glue. — Veneering. — Carriages and Cars.

CHAPTER XIII.

Conclusion S^5^5

BANKING. INSURANCE, AND COMMERCE,

CHAPTER 1. Banking 783-812

Early Colonial Period. — First Bank of the United States. — Second Bank of the United States. — State Banks. — Massachusetts. — New York. — Ohio. — Indiana. — Illinois. — Kentucky. — Tennessee. — Mississippi,

Insurance 813-849

Marine. — Fire. — Life. — Accident.

CHAPTER III. Commerce 850-878

Ante- Revolutionary Period. — Post-Revolutionary Period.

Book VI. Trade-unions And Eight-hour Movement

Trade-Unions 881-888

CHAPTER II.

Eight-Hour Movement 889-890

CHAPTER HI.

Later History of Trade-Unions , 891-903

X

CONTENTS.

BOOK VIL

THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA, The Industries of Canada .... 907-936

The Fisheries. — The Lumber-Trade. — - Mining. — Farming. — Manufacturing.

INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF THE

UNITED STATES.

Chapter I. General History

INTRODUCTORY.

FOR ages historians have been busy in writing about political and military events, leaving quite out of sight the social and industrial life of nations, as unworthy of notice. To recent historians a truer historic instinct has been given ; and, by uniting with it a broader and more profound cul- j^jfje^ent ture, they are setting before the world juster, more varied, and methods of more complete pictures of the civilization of the past. Other his- ^"y^"^ torians there are who exhibit only a single side or phase of material life, but, unlike their predecessors, are concerned not less with political or military events than with social and industrial characteristics.

It is true that a history of agriculture is free from those startling sensations which spring from the vivid description of battles and other operations of war, the intrigues of diplomacy, the uncertain and checkered course of importance legislation, the wild freaks of rulers, or the tragedies and comedies of history of of social hfe. But agriculture possesses an interest for us as deep ^e^*^"^*"*"®- and abiding as any other phase of history. It is a healthy study ; for we are taken out of doors, are brought into intimate relationship with Nature, and learn of her boundless generosity and rewards for well-doing. Moreover, it is a history of some of man's greatest triumphs, won, not by striking down his brother, but by conquest over Nature through accident or experiment.

No wonder, then, that the cultivation of the soil has proved so attractive to the world's greatest men. When the Roman patrician, Cincinnatus, left his farm to assume the dictatorship of Rome, he betook himself to greatest his gentle occupation as soon as he had delivered his country men have from the enemy. And likewise Washington, when retirinsr from ^5""

1 o J o culturists.

tne cares of state, fled to Mount Vernon, where, amid his

rich and numerous acres, he daily drank heavy draughts of pure enjoyment,

for which he had often longed during an anxious civil career and the still more troubled days of the Revolution. Even of Webster it may be questioned, whether, with all his fitness and fondness for the national Senate, he did not derive greater happiness from his farm in Marshfield ; for what fact can more touchingly attest his attachment to it than his dying request for his cattle to be driven one by one past the window of the room where he lay, that he might look once more upon them before his eyes were forever closed ?

Remembering how vast is the space filled by agriculture in the industries of our country, no further justification is required for writing its history. For a Justification ^^^^ period, agricultural products have led the list of exports to for writing a Other countrics, and will lead them for years and centuries to come, history of ^ historv of the efforts to destroy life be worth preserving,

agriculture. . x *j

surely a history of those means in which so many are engaged to sustain life is not less worthy of preservation. The famous minister of Henry IV. of France, Sully, called agriculture, including both tillage and pasturage, " the two breasts of the state." Strikingly true as the figure is, will not a review of the subject, by showing what has been already accomphshed, excite the farmer to new experiments and inquiry ?

INDIAN AGRICULTURE.

The North-American Indian was not an agriculturist : he regarded the cultivation of the soil as degrading. Yet, as it was necessary for some one to Indians Cultivate it in order to obtain a living, the task fell to the old raised corn, women and children. Though the Indian was slack, careless, and lazy, he exercised more forethought and care about his corn-crop than any thing else. When Capt. John Smith visited Virginia in 1609, in writing of the Indians he says, " The greatest labor they take is in planting their corn ; for the country is naturally overgrown with wood. To prepare the ground, they bruise the bark of trees near the roots ; then do they scorch the roots with fire, that they grow no more." Very likely from them our ancestors learned the process of belting or girdling trees by cutting through the sap-wood; thus causing the fall of the spray and the decay of the smaller branches, and admitting the sun and air in sufficient quantities for corn to grow and bear fruit.

The mode of planting and cultivating corn was rude enough, and betokens as clearly as any other trace of their civilization how simple and low it was. Mode of Every spring-time, the dead wood on the ground, and perhaps planting. other branches and brush, were collected and burned to obtain ashes to enrich the soil ; after which the surface of the ground was scratched with the flat shoulder-blade of the moose, or with crooked pieces of wood. Then hills were made with the rudest sort of wooden hoes or clam-shells, about four feet apart, in each of which was placed an alewife caught from the adjoining stream, or a horseshoe crab picked up from the seashore. Upon this stimulant were dropped half a dozen grains of corn, which were covered ;

INDIAN HOES.

and a hut was then built in the middle of the field, wherein lived the police to protect their work from the ravages of birds. One can very easily imagine, in those times, when the forests were alive with birds, what would be the fate of a cornfield if left to itself. While the smaller birds and animals were prevented from eating up the tender blade only by constant watchfulness, the stronger stalk and full-grown corn were preserved by the exercise of the same ceaseless vigilance.

As the corn grew the earth was scraped around it, until the hills were two feet high, — a custom still followed in many parts of the country. Before the corn was fully ripe, it was plucked ; and the seed for the next year was selected from those stalks containing the largest number of ears, and hung up in the wigwam. The remainder was dried in the husk, over smouldering fires, or in the Harvesting sun ; after which process it was husked, shelled, packed in birch- and storing bark boxes, and buried in holes in the earth, which were fined with bark to protect the grain more perfectly from frost and moisture. A writer says these excavated barns were carefully concealed by the women from their lazy husbands and sons, lest they should discover and eat up their contents ; yet, with all the care they could take, the hogs of the colonists often unhinged their barn-doors, and helped themselves to the golden treasure. History says that one of these Indian barns was discovered by the Pilgrims at Truro, at a time when their store of provisions was so reduced as to contain but five kernels of corn to each individual.

Corn thus dried, cracked in a stone-mortar and boiled, was called " o-monee ; " and " sup-paun," when pounded into meal and sifted through a basket for ash-cakes. When on the war-path, the Indian warrior lived inupon parched com called "no-kake." When Roger Williams dians cooked journeyed through the forests on the way to his future home, near ^°'"* Narragansett Bay, accompanied by the Indians whom he loved, and who never proved treacherous to him, he says that each man carried a Httle basket of this kind of food, — enough to last for several days. The Indians also prepared corn in another way, which has become well known, and will probably be long continued. We allude to the mode of mixing corn with beans, and preparing a dish known among them as " mu-si-quatash," which in these days has been abbreviated to succotash. The original dish, however, according to Gordkin, was not composed simply of corn and beans : several other ingredients were included, "fish and flesh of all sorts, either new-taken or dried, venison, bear's-flesh, beaver, moose, otter, or raccoon, cut into small pieces, Jerusalem artichokes, ground-nuts, acorns, pumpkins, and squashes."

While corn was the chief product raised by the Indian, he cultivated or collected several other fruits and vegetables. Among their corn were planted peas and beans, the vines chmbing up the corn-stalks ; thus economizing the use of pea-brush and bean-poles. Surely this was an exhibition of economy in labor and material worthy of a savage. During the month of May they Other fruits also planted " pumpkins " among their corn, " and a fruit like unto raised. ^ musk-melon, but less and worse, which they called ^ macocks.' " The bold and unblushing sunflower was also cultivated ; but instead of putting its seeds to the ignoble use of hen-fodder, as the moderns do, they were made into bread. In some parts of the country wild rice was gathered and kept or winter use ; and Barlowe, who visited North Carohna in 1584, affirms that le saw there "both wheat and oats." Tobacco was everywhere cultivated, tluge grape-vines intwined many a forest-tree, and the woods abounded with other wild fruits and berries. Gourds were raised, of all sizes, from the huge cal-a-bash-es," holding two or three gallons apiece, to the " tiny receptacles of pigments used in painting for war." Cherries and plums also abounded, large quantities of which were dried for winter use. Concerning the cultivation of the apple, something will be said in another place.

Although the Indians knew nothing about sugar-cane, they were not without sugar ; for they extracted it from the maple, just as we do now. Mixed with Dainty freshly-pounded " sup-paun," and seasoned with dried whortledishes and berries, a dainty dish was baked for high festivals \ and, for an beverages. accompanying beverage, the dried meats of oil-nuts were pounded, and boiled in the juice of sassafras. For lights on such occasions, candles were made from the green wax of the bayberry, with rush wicks, which burned brightly, and yielded a pleasant odor.

Their provisions were stored in boxes made of birch-bark ; and their cutting instruments and sharp weapons were pointed with flint-stone, shells, or bones. Instruments ^ '^^^ earthen vessels were used ; but the superiority of our civiUand domestic zation, in its material characteristics, over the aboriginal, presents animals. morc Striking contrast than in the variety and improvement of

means for cultivating the soil. It may also be added, that the Indian possessed no domestic animals except a few small dogs, and no poultry.

Such is a brief picture of the agricultural life of the Indian. Long ago the cheerless wigwam was supplanted by the pleasant home, the crabbed orchard Fate of In- ^^.rge and more luscious fruit, and the ill- tilled, scanty corndian agricul- patch by more careful tillage and abundant crops. Although *"'^®* cattle-shows and agricultural anniversaries were unknown, the

Indians celebrated their " green-corn dance " and the feast of the "harvestmoon." But,

" Alas for them ! their day is o*er ; Their fires are out from hill to shore .

No more for them the red deer bounds ; The plough is in their hunting-grounds ; The pale man's axe rings through their woods, The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods ; Their pleasant springs are dry."

OF THE UNITED STATES.

S

COLONIAL AGRICULTURE IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES.

The system of agriculture which swept away the aboriginal system, though vastly superior to it, was, nevertheless, very imperfect compared with the system of modern days. Two very different systems flourished in who settled the colonies, each of which requires a separate description. To Virginia, the Southern colonies first came an aristocratic people, with their servants and slaves. They were followed by Scotch merchants and mechanics, who were succeeded by French Huguenots of high spirit and attainments j while at a later period flocked large numbers of Scotch Jacobins, on account of the unsuccessful rebellions of the pretenders to the Scottish throne. A true glimpse of the immigration by which Virginia, the mother of the South Atlantic States, was colonized, may be obtained from the response of the governor, Sir William Berkeley, to one of the interrogatories propounded to him by the British lords-commissioners of foreign affairs. In response to the inquiry, " What number of English, Scotch, and Irish have, for these seven years last past, come yearly to plant and inhabit with your government? " and also, " What blacks or slaves have been brought within the same?" he replied, "Yearly there come in of servants about fifteen hundred. Most are English, few Scotch, and fewer Irish, and not above two or three ships of negroes in seven years." Nothing is said of the free immigrants, though included in the interrogatory ; and their number was, doubtless, too inconsiderable for notice. In the same examination Sir William says, " But I thar^k God there are no free schools or printing ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best government. God keep us from both I "

The feudal system also, which was weakening in England, was adopted, though in an earlier form, as the following extract from one of the royal grants will show. It gave the patentee the right* 'to divide the Feudal syssaid tract or territory of land into counties, hundreds, parishes, tem adopted, tithings, townships, hamlets, and boroughs, and to erect and build cities, towns, parishes, churches, colleges, chapels, free schools, almshouses, and houses of correction, and to endow the same at their free will and pleasure ; and did appoint them full and perpetual patrons of all such churches so to be built and endowed ; with power, also, to divide any part or parcel of said tract or territory, or portion of land, into manors, and to call the same after their own or any of their names, or by other name or names whatsoever ; and within the same to hold a court in the nature of a court-baron, and to hold pleas of all actions, trespasses, covenants, accounts, contracts, detinues, debts, and demands whatsoever, when the debt or thing demanded exceed not the value of forty shillings sterling money of England ; and to receive and take all amercements, fruits, commodities, advantages, perquisites, and emoluments whatsoever, to such respective court-barons belonging or in any wise appertaining ;

and, further, to hold within the same manors a court-leet and view of frankpledge of all the tenants, residents, and inhabitants of the hundred within such respective manors."

NEW RIVER PLOUGH-TEAM, VIRGINIA.

The farms in Virginia and Maryland were extensive, fronting on the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries, and running a long way into the interior. Not Farms and far from the shore of river or bay was located the planter's mansion, mansions. which came ships from England, bringing merchandise in

exchange for tobacco ; or other craft laden with the products of New- England fisheries, or of West-India plantations, to barter for tobacco, wheat,, or corn. The intervening space between the mansion-house and water-side was usually laid out as a garden, in the prim, stiff style of those days, with terraces, arbors, and wide walks bordered with box. Most of the houses were built of English brick, the iron-work, and also much of the interior, being imported. Entering the hall, we are told by a Virginia antiquarian, walls were seen covered with deer's antlers, fishing-rods, and guns ; portraits of cavaHers and dames and children; even carefully-painted pictures of racehorses, on whose speed and bottom many thousands of pounds had been staked, and lost and won, in their day and generation. On one side of the hall a broad staircase, with oaken balustrade, led to the numerous apartments above ; and on the opposite side a door gave entrance into the great dininghall. The dining-room was decorated with great elegance ; the carv^ed oak wainscot extending above the mantlepiece in an unbroken expanse of fruits and flowers, hideous laughing faces, and armorial devices, to the cornice. The furniture was in the Louis Quatorze style, with carved backs to the low-seated chairs. There were Chelsea figures, and a sideboard full of plate, and a Japan cabinet, and a Kidderminster carpet ; while in the great fire-place a few twigs crackled on huge and highly-polished brass andirons. On the walls hung pictures of gay gallants, brave warriors, and fair dames whose eyes out-

OF THE UNITED STATES.

shone their diamonds ; and more than one ancestor looked grimly down clad in cuirass and armlets, and holding in his mailed hand the sword which had done bloody service in its time. The lady portraits, as an invariable rule, were decorated with sunset clouds of yellow lace; the bright locks were powdered ; and many little black patches set off the dazzhng fairness of the rounded chins.

Near the mansion were tenements for the manager and the overseers, and the slave cabins. The first philanthropist to improve the condition of his slaves, according to trustworthy authority, was Col. John j^py^^g, Taylor of the Rappahannock, Valley, who was equally distin- ment of conguished in the last century as a farmer, author, and statesman. " He built commodious brick dwellings for them, and accustomed them to plank floors, glass windows, and decent, civiHzed habits of living. He, besides, furnished them more regularly and abundantly with food and clothing than was then usual. His negroes multiplied rapidly, became more honest and industrious ; and his crops increased."

The pioneers of Virginia are described as contrasting strongly with the planters and their adherents. In most cases they were younger sons, unlucky gamesters, turbulent spirits, rejected lovers, or disbanded soldiers. The pioneers who turned their backs upon civilization to live an untrammelled °^ Virgmia. life in some fertile mountain-gap or rich river-bottom. Game was plentiful ; and they were hunters rather than farmers, sending their peltries to market, and only cultivating enough land to supply their wants. This unrestrained life became a passion ; and, as the tide of civilization advanced westward, the pioneers would leave their settlements " with their " improvements," to seek some spot in the wilderness where as yet no white man's foot had trodden.

Tobacco early became the staple product of Virginia, although laws numerous and stringent were enacted to prevent its cultivation. Efforts were put forth to encourage other branches of industry ; yet little attention Cultivation was paid to them except for purposes of home consumption. tobacco. Planters still continued the culture of the exhausting tobacco-plant, with continuous cropping, shallow ploughing, and no fertiUzing, until the soil grew weak, and unfit for cultivation. Small ploughs and heavy hoes were used in cultivating it ; and when the crop was gathered, cured, and packed into hogsheads, it was rolled away to the nearest wharf for inspection and transportation. In those early days good roads were unknown, and wagons were few : so a pole and whipple-trees were attached to each hogshead by an iron bolt driven into the centre of one head, thus converting the cask into a huge roller. For many years the places for deposit and inspection of tobacco were called rolling-houses."

Though cotton was raised at an early date, it was not grown in sufficient quantities for export : indeed, the cultivation of tobacco absorbed the chief attention of the planter, especially in Virginia, until the opening of the eighteenth century. Farther south, in South Carolina, rice was cultivated. It is related, that, in 1694, a vessel from Madagascar put into Charleston in Cotton rice distress, the captain of which, in return for favors rendered by the and other govcmor, gavc him a bag of rice. The governor, who had seen products. ^1^^ plant growing in the hot swamps of Madagascar, conceived the idea of raising rice in his own colony : accordingly it was planted, and brought forth abundantly. The soil proved well adapted to the plant, and it was not

MANNER OF CARRYING TOBACCO FORTY YEARS AGO.

long before the marshes of Georgia and South Carolina were covered with riceplantations. Exports of rice to England soon after began, and in 1724 a hundred thousand barrels were sent from the latter State. Experiments in wine-making were undertaken at an early period; and in 1758 the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures, proposed premiums for its production. The same society offered premiums for hemp, opium, olives, pot and pearl ashes, barilla, logwood, scammony, myrtlewax, sarsaparilla-root, and the gum from the persimmon-tree. It was supposed that this gum might prove a substitute for gum-arabic ; but the cost of gathering and transporting it was too great, and the experiment failed. After a three-years' trial, the premium was withdrawn.

Besides the premiums offered by this society, the British Parliament granted

OF THE UNITED STATES.

considerable sums of money at various times to stimulate the culture of silk, indigo, and other plants. Colonial trade, however, was guarded prei^juj^g none the less strictly ; for the colonists were obliged to send all offered by their surplus products to England, and were forbidden purchasing 1^"^^^^^^^^^' any foreign manufactures save in a British port.

COLONIAL AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW-ENGLAND COLONIES.

Let us now look toward the North, and watch the landing of the Pilgrims, and their first efforts in cultivating the soil. The colonists of Virginia, who came somewhat earlier, as we have seen, had confined- their atten- r^^^ pugrims tion chiefly to the raising of tobacco ; and as their climate was an agricuiless rigorous, and their summers were longer, it was easier for them ^^'^^^ people, to obtain a living. The Pilgrims were an agricultural people, the clergy forming no exception ; and for a long period they were among the foremost in New England in trying experiments, and inciting their flocks to patient and intelligent industry. One of the reasons why they came here from Holland, according to Bancroft, was, because they " had been bred to agricultural pursuits," which they could not follow in the land of their temporary adoption.

That they continued to follow their original pursuit as their chief one for many years after their arrival is familiar history. But their task was a severe one. Cleared fields were small and few ; and their implements Difficulty of were ill fitted to clear the dense woods, and subdue the stubborn cultivating soil. Some implements, doubtless, were obtained from the mother-land ; but the only metal to be found here that they could work was bog-iron •ore, which was very brittle, and often spoiled a day's work. The want of magnitude of their task, from lack of appropriate means, it is per- Proper tools, haps more difficult for us in this age to realize than almost any other feature of our history, because farming-implements have been brought to such a degree of perfection.

The system of agriculture best adapted to the country could only be learned by experiment. Of course the settlers brought with them the ideas and products of their mother-land ; but how poor was their outfit they success in soon learned. Indian-corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans, potatoes, farming tobacco, and other vegetables and fruits, which were found grow- termined ing here, it was easy to cultivate by inquiry from the Indians, and only by exwith greater success than ever attended the efforts of their teach- p®""^^"** ers ; but in respect to the fruits transplanted, as well as the horses, sheep, and other animals brought hither, it was only found out by numerous experiments and many losses what our climate and soil were best fitted to raise and sustain. What did the English immigrant know about the country until he came here, and how English cattle and fruits would thrive under such altered conditions ? It would be an interesting chapter to trace the history of these experiments ;

lO

MAYFLOWER.

but our space is too limited, even if the necessary information could be gathered. Suffice it to say, after trial some vegetables and grasses were abandoned, while the appropriate locality of others was discovered. Hemp, indigo, rice, cotton, madder, millet, spelt, lentils, lucern, sainfoin, and many other things, were tried in New England, and failed, as did other crops in the Southern colonies. Not only the plants of Europe, but many from Asia and the East Indies, were tried, including cinnamon and various commercial plants. Some of these crops, on experiment, failed entirely; others flourished after a fashion, but proved unprofitable ; others flourished with peculiar luxuriance, and with rharacters unchanged ; and still others, under the new conditions, assumed new characters or excellences. Before the war of the Revolution, these trials had been made from Maine to Texas ; and so completely had this century and a half of experiments solved the great problems of adaptation, acclimation, and often naturalization, that not a single important species of domestic animal has been profitably introduced since, nor but one plant (sorghum) of sufficient importance to be recognized in our official statistics. So writes one whose accuracy none will question.^