INDUSTRIES IN HOPKINTON.
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��INDUSTRIES IN HOPKINTON.
��BY C. C. LORD.
��AGRICULTURE.
An early occupation of civilization is tilling the soil. In a new country farm- ing is often the main support of the pop- ulation. The first settlers in Hopkin- ton were mostly farmers. The con- dition of agriculture was, of necessi- ty, crude. Its profits were uncertain in a corresponding degree. Besides the natural uncertainty of the seasons, the lack of intercommunication between lo- calities, and the attendant imperfect means of transportation, made the con- sequences of local failure more disas- trous. The soil, however, was new and fertile. When it brought forth it did so abundantly. It was only when it failed through drought, flood or cold that pop- ulation suffered — mostly through the dif- ficulty of communicating with immedi- ate and abundant supplies.
As population and social facilities in- creased, the farms were not only self-sup- portive, but on fertile years corn and grain were stored in the granaries of the industrious. Consequently,in the earlier times, the farmers of Hopkinton sold corn and wheat, instead of buying them as they do now. In the case of infertile seasons, the stores of accumulated pro- ducts became available in the suppres- sion of famine. In 1816, there occurred a prominent illustration in kind. The year was very unfruitful through an in- tensity of cold. On inauguration day in June, there was snow to the depth of four inches on a level. An early frost in autumn killed all the corn. The farm- ers cut it up and shocked it, but, being in the milk, it heated and spoiled. As a consequence of the induced scarcity, corn sold in Hopkinton as high as $3.50 a bushel.
Corn and grain have been sold in this
��town and taken to Vermont for consump- tion. People then could not anticipate the times that were coming. One of our townsmen tells us he very well remem- bers the first time his father bought a barrel of flour. The price paid was only four dollars, but the act of purchase was deemed so extravagant as to be al- most culpable. It could not then be popularly forseen that the time was at hand when it would be almost as rare for a farmer in Hopkinton to raise his own flour as it was then rare for him to pur- chase it.
In the earlier times, the production and maintenance of farm animals was also much larger. In districts where it is now comparatively rare to find a yoke of oxen, the supply of this kind of stock was multitudinous. Nothing was more common than to own several yokes of large oxen, to say nothing of the usually attendant array of steers. Not more than fifty years ago, Mr. R. E. French, our present townsman, seeking cattle for the down-country markets, bought over seventy head in one day. They were all purchased in one district in this town, and the transaction required less time than half of the day. At the pres- ent time it is nothing uncommon for a man to travel over parts of several towns to buy a single yoke of oxen.
Besides the usual complement of horned stock and general farm animals, there was at one time quite a specialty in sheep. Stephen Sibley and Joseph Barnard were prominent growers of this kind of stock. Their flocks were count- ed by hundreds. Considerable effort was made to secure improved animals. Stock was imported from Vermont, New York, and perhaps other states, and the quality of the local flocks materially ad-
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