Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

Agriculture
Mid-nineteenth- to early twentieth-century farmsteads featured structures and activity areas
nearly identical to those of preceding generations and included a domestic structure or structures
(tenant houses), numerous barns and other outbuildings, discrete dump areas, water systems, and
special resource areas. However, mid-nineteenth- to early twentieth-century farmstead buildings
were more permanent, larger and occasionally highly specialized (Milot, 1994).
Settlers essentially grew most of what they ate and made most of what they needed, if not by
themselves, almost certainly within their community. The earliest crops grown by Euro-
American settlers in this region included “Indian corn,” wheat, and potatoes (cf., Stewart, 1817;
Thompson, 1842; Dutcher, 1871:297). Wild game, fish, and fruits and nuts supplemented most
diets (cf., Dutcher, 1871:291). Farmsteads gradually diversified and became more economically
viable. Technological innovations allowed farmers to till more land and harvest more
effectively, with less help. More and more people followed other professions, such as
shopkeepers, carpenters, foundry workers, etc., but maintained some land that they farmed. The
need for greater purchasing power also required farmers to raise a greater quantity of cash crops
(Donath, 1992:214). For example, raising hops began to assume commercial importance in New
England during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and was focused in northern Middlesex
County (Kelsey, 1980). By 1880, hop culture was introduced to nearby Bedford, New
Hampshire and soon stretched across Hillsborough County. Other major cash crops were potash
and pearl ash made by distilling wood ash accumulated after burning the trees cut while clearing
the fields. Ash was also a valuable commodity locally and for international export (Miller, 1980;
Meeks, 1986b).
Small farms disappeared in New Hampshire as the West opened up for settlement and
industrialization took over. Farm towns became increasingly concentrated in one or more village
centers, usually marked by a few stores, a district school, a church, an inn or hotel, and perhaps
surrounded by a small number of dairy farms. Farmers in northern New England had to change
and adapt their mode of agriculture to stay competitive (Donath, 1992:215). This included
increasing the numbers of livestock, especially sheep that could graze steep, rocky, and hilly
terrain. Patterns of early agriculture gave way to Spanish Merino and other sheep farming.
Some of these changes began to obscure late eighteenth-century field patterns (McHenry, 1986)
with later nineteenth-century developments, such as the addition, removal, or burial of stone
walls to accommodate plows pulled by oxen, horses, and eventually tractors of growing size that
could no longer negotiate the field corners in the manner that draught animals could.
In general, sheep and wool production era peaked in the late 1830s, and many farmers had turned
to stock breeding for the western market (Donath, 1992:215-216). As the nineteenth century
evolved, the cash crops changed to wheat, and then wool, and finally dairy products (Wilson,
1967:15-26; Sherman, 1999 [1872]).
By 1920 fluid milk was the major income source of most Northern New England farmers
(Meeks, 1986b). However, population was generally in decline until 1920 and 1930,
respectively. Old textile mills were proving to be as uncompetitive as the old hill farms. Farm
abandonment climaxed by the mid-twentieth century (Donath, 1992:216).
Northern Border Activities H-73 July 2012