twenty years.

The farm yielded ample supplies of meat, milk, butter, cheese, grain,
fruit, and vegetables, but groceries and clothing were difficult to
procure after such supplies were had as could be obtained by barter.
Once or twice, or possibly three times a year, my father drove an ox-
team or a team of one pair of oxen and one horse to Boston with cider,
apples, a hog or two, and poultry. The returns enabled him to pay his
taxes, the interest on the debt, and perhaps something over.

Until the introduction of the cotton and woolen manufactures, and
indeed, until the building of railways, the farmers of Massachusetts
had only limited means of comfort. Their houses were destitute of
furniture, except of the plainest sort. Of upholstered furniture they
had none. Except a few school books for the children and the family
Bible there was no reading matter, unless in favored neighborhoods, a
weekly paper carried the news to two or three families that were joint
subscribers. The mails were infrequent, and the postage on letters,
based on the pieces of paper instead of weight, varied from six and one
fourth cents for all distances within thirty miles to twenty-five cents
for distances of four hundred miles or more. Intermediate rates were
ten, twelve and a half, and eighteen and three fourths cents. These
rates existed when mechanics could command only one dollar a day, and
when ordinary laborers could earn only fifty cents or seventy-five
cents--except in the haying season, when good mowers could command one
dollar. Servant girls and nurses received from one dollar to one
dollar and fifty cents per week. At the same time every variety of
clothing was much more expensive than it now is, unless shoes and hats
are exceptions.

My father was the best farmer in the neighborhood. He had been
employed in the nursery and vegetable gardening at Newton, and for five
years he had had charge of the farm of Madam Coffin at Newton Corner,
widow of the Hon. Peleg Coffin, who had been a member of Congress from
Nantucket. In a few years we had a supply of cherries, peaches, and
choice apples. As my father understood budding and grafting tress, his
improved fruits were distributed to others. I acquired the art of
budding when I could not have been more than ten years of age, and
before I left home at the age of thirteen, I had practised the art in
the village and on the trees of the neighbors.

Previous to 1830 the era of