In these early days of the American republic, at least nine out of every ten Americans, even in commercially oriented New England, still dug their living from the land, and self-esteem, if nothing else, led them to glorify country life as the noblest state of man. “Those who labor in the earth,” said even Thomas Jefferson, “are the chosen people of God.” The rural simplicity and manly self-respect were contrasted with the cunning and corruption found in cities and towns, where traders filled their pockets by taking advantage of others.
The typical Northern farm comprised from 100 to 200 acres, seemingly a great deal for one family to care for in those days of hand tools, but only a small part of each property was generally planted at any one time. On a 100-acre farm in eastern Massachusetts, perhaps no more than half a dozen acres would be in crops, a little more in meadows, plowed at infrequent intervals, and about the same amount might consist of pasture. The rest, if cleared at all, usually lay fallow until such time as sheer exhaustion of the tilled soil forced the transfer of crops to new fields, which were assumed to have regained their fertility during the period of idleness or, rather, their devotion to weeds and brush. But generally this remainder was only partially cleared and served as woodland range for the near-feral swine and cattle. The price of even fair farm land averaged between $10-15 an acre, figures which seem amazingly high – under those circumstances, many an Eastern farm in 1800 must have sold at higher prices than it did a hundred years later, when it was undoubtedly far better developed.
On good land as well as bad the farmer’s methods were primitive and, by English standards, scandalously wasteful; in fact, compared to modern methods, 1800s farming methods could scarcely be considered agriculture at all. The farmers knew little of the rotation of crops and would have been astonished to learn that certain plants would return to the soil values that others had exacted. Maize was the mainstay of New England farmers, since wheat had already begun to fail throughout the region, partly because of parasites harbored in the local barberry bushes. By the end of the 18th century wheat lingered only in the western hills and in Vermont, and white bread had largely disappeared from the Yankee dinner table. In its place had appeared rye and injun, a bread made from rye flour and maize meal.
Wheat had been a profitable staple from New York to Virginia until shortly before 1790, when it was attacked by the Hessian fly, so called because it was erroneously supposed to have been imported in the fodder bags of the German mercenaries during the Revolutionary War. Spreading rapidly, the pest entered Virginia by 1790 and crossed the Appalachians before the end of the century. Thomas Jefferson, fearing complete extinction of the ancient staff of life, induced the American Philosophical Society to make an elaborate study, and other agencies also attacked the problem. As a result, new varieties were found, especially the yellow-headed wheat, that would resist the insect, and since the latter perished with the first frost, the planting date was pushed forward a month in some places.
Rye, for distillation among the Scotch-Irish and for bread among the Germans, was highly esteemed in the backcountry. Oats, of poor quality, were grown for horse feed and, among the Scots, for oatmeal. Barley, for brewing, flourished here and there in the Middle States, and buckwheat had some vogue in New York and New Jersey for fodder and occasionally for griddle cakes. The Irish potato was becoming a staple food in the North, and by 1800 was grown extensively in Maine and on Long Island. New York in general seems to have been the more productive place in agriculture, but even there the yields were pitifully low. Ten bushels of wheat per acre was considered a good average by American farmers, even though in France they raised eighteen, and in England as much as twenty-four.
