CHAPTER V.

Cows. Ferry to Newport.

Cheese. Cheese-press.

Hay, Beef, Veal, Milk, Butter, Phillis. Dr. Joseph Torrey. The Ministerial Farm. Rowland Robinson. "Stout Jeffrey Hazard." Sarah Hazard, widow.

IF horses were important to the early farmers in Narragansett, and oxen were essential to the work of the farm, it was more truly the cows which brought in the revenue, and were the main dependence of the country. The climate of Narragansett is well suited for cattle, the mild winters demanded comparatively little shelter for them, and the fodder was excellent. Marvelous stories are told of the hay crops grown upon Boston Neck. The grass was said to be waist high, and more luxuriant than at present in the new fields of the far west. Under these favorable conditions the prosperity of the country rapidly increased. In 1748 we find that John Gardner1 of South Kingstown prays the General Assembly to grant him the liberty of keeping a ferry 1 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 242.

HAY AND HAYSEED

77

between South Kingstown and Jamestown, as he is provided with "a good wharf and Picr situate in a convenient and commodious place." He represents to the Assembly "that the inhabitants, trade, and commerce of this colony have so far increased of late that the ferries established on the Narragansett shore, and the boats employed in that service are not sufficient to transport with convenience the numerous passengers, their large droves, various effects, and merchandise; the boats often being crowded with men, women, children, horses, hogs, sheep, and cattle, to the intolerable inconvenience, annoyance, and delay of men and business." This urgent petition was duly granted.

In 1750 hay sold at £20 a load, at which rate seven loads of hay would pay for a yoke of oxen in the same year. There was an exceedingly dry season all through New England in 1749, which may have affected the price. In 1755, when prices had risen, it was still £20 a load, and a yoke of oxen cost £130 only. Little hay was sold; but few entries of it occur. Probably only enough for home consumption was raised. Herd's-grass seed was twenty-five shillings a quart in 1764. In 1760 Henry

Shearman is debtor "to one load of good Hay for which he is to mow 13 days in next season of Mowing." Nor was much beef disposed of from the farm. Beef hides have been mentioned, and the roasts probably appeared on the family table. In 1765 beef was sold at 4s. 6d. per pound, and five years later at five shillings. In 1778, when the currency was on a specie basis, it is reckoned at 3d. per pound, while pork is three farthings higher, and cheese at 5d. It was evidently not held in great esteem as an article of food. Perhaps the oxen were too hard worked. Veal is a shilling a pound more, and pickled pork three times as much as beef. "A neat beast " sold at £65 in 1768, but that was only £2 8s. 44d. lawful money. Milk sold at a shilling a quart in 1752, and continued at that price for some time. Four years later it was sixpence more. Butter was 5s. 6d. a pound in 1750, and rose to seven shillings the next year.

But cheese was the important product of the farm. College Tom does not seem to have disposed of it himself, but sold his cheeses to some one person who exported them. For several years James Helme was the man. In 1754, 3627 pounds were made

which sold at three shillings the pound, bringing £545 175. The next year only 2769 pounds were made, which sold at the same price per pound. The quantity made decreases as the price goes up. In 1756, 2496 pounds sold at five shillings, and in '57 1909 pounds at 6s. 6d. In 1763 there is more made again, twenty-eight cheeses of 2830 lbs. weight, which brought ten shillings a pound.

The 4th of ye 7m 1759 had in y Cheese House 46 Cheeses new milk with them. in y Prefs & 8 Cheefes made every other day at first & one we have eat. In 1765 occurs this entry:

4th 6th mo. Numbered the Cheeses made this year and there were in ye Cheese. House of new milk cheese new made 22 and 2 in y Prefses & one amaking the whole number 25.

4th 6th mo. Cut one cheese.

One cannot help hoping that it proved to the good farmer's liking.

In 1766 there was an effort by the General Assembly to force a return to a sound currency, and in this year the cheese is reckoned at twenty pounds weight for a Spanish milled dollar. Twenty-four hun

dred weight of cheese was made this year. The year following, Rowland Robinson, the brother-in-law of College Tom, took a hundred and nine cheeses of about the same weight at the same price. The old tenor bills were firmly rooted, however, and the next year John Dockray has the product of cheese, some twenty-seven hundred weight, at eight shillings, old tenor. Two years later, 1770, still another rate is used, three thousand odd pounds being sold to David Green at 4d.lawful money. Nineteen years later, 1789, one of the last entries in the book has cheese at the same price.

The presses for these cheeses were made near home. In 1772 Daniel Dye is credited with four days' work, " Made 1 Cheese press and I Coffin Phillis. £4."

So life and death are mixed! How often must Phillis have filled the presses, for she is doubtless the prototype of that ancient negro of famous memory whom "Shepherd Tom has celebrated as his grandfather's never-to-be-forgotten cook. It was a common name among the Narragansett negroes, and in College Tom's household she would be well cared for, and was evidently decently buried. The Phillis of "The Jonny-Cake