Jared Eliot
Encyclopedia
Jared Eliot was a farmer, minister and physician in Guilford, Connecticut
who wrote several articles on agriculture
and animal husbandry
. Eliot was the eldest son of Joseph Eliot and his second wife, Mary Wyllys. The Eliots raised their family in Guilford (formerly known as Menunkatucket), which was settled by Europeans in 1639. Jared emulated his father and grandfather, who were also willing to help others; he stated, “I have learned many useful things from the lowest of the People, not only in Rank, but in Understanding too”.
of Roxbury, Massachusetts
, was a missionary to the Massachusett
and Wampanoag
nations for 40 years, translating the Bible into the Natick language. Herbert Thomas, author of Jared Eliot, states that “(John) Eliot went quite beyond religious doctrine in dealing with the Indians and taught them hygiene and better living”. John’s actions in attempting to help the Indians gave the Eliot name social status in the New England theocracy
. Jared’s father, Joseph Eliot, was also a well-known figure in New England. He graduated from Harvard College
in 1658, remaining in Guilford for the rest of his life as a minister at a nearby Congregational church
. Joseph was also regarded as a "clerical physician", due to his interest in medicine.
In 1700, there was considerable interest in establishing a college in Connecticut. The ministers along the shore of Long Island Sound
who originated plans for the college began to arrange a meeting of the ecclesiastical General Assembly. The Assembly agreed to meet in October and was asked to create a new charter (the previous charter had expired, along with the Massachusetts Bay Colony
). The college advocates stated their initial intentions by the sending of letters. The purpose of these letters was to seek advice “not only on the educational side, but on the highly important matter of the legality of a Connecticut-Colony-granted charter, and if that were to be legal, what should it contain”. Joseph Eliot was among those chosen to devise the charter, including its “powers of conferring degrees as unobtrusive as possible”. The Assembly felt that licensing the new college would not provoke animosity in England. Joseph’s voice on behalf of Connecticut was significant to his fellow colonists until his unexpected, early death on May 24, 1694.
Since Joseph was the only child of John and Hannah to bear children, Jared had no cousins – only siblings, an aunt and his uncles. Joseph was married twice, fathering children from both marriages (four from each). Joseph first married Sarah, daughter of William and Martha (Burton) Brenton of Rhode Island
, in 1676. All of the children borne by Sarah were girls (Mehitabel, Ann, Jemima and Barsheba), and all four daughters married well. Joseph's second marriage was to Mary Wyllys, and Jared was the firstborn of the second marriage; his younger siblings were Mary, Rebecca and Abiel. Both Mary and Rebecca married several times – Mary four times; her last husband was Samuel Hooker of Farmington, Connecticut
. Rebecca married three times; her last husband was Capt. William Dudley of North Guilford, Connecticut.
Jared had a difficult childhood, since his father died when he was only eight years old. Since Jared’s father and grandfather had both been physicians, he took up the practice. Jared also became a minister, in accordance with his father's dying wish. He determined to live a successful life, to preserve his family's reputation; one of his goals was to “obtain a liberal education in ‘an academic course of studies’”.
Abraham Pierson
Abraham Pierson graduated from Harvard in 1668, was ordained by his father and became minister of the Killingworth Congregational Church in 1694. When he became minister at Killingworth, Pierson began teaching his first classes in the parsonage. He taught in a meeting-house in Killingworth in 1700; this collegiate school is now part of Yale University
. Since Pierson was an experienced minister he fell under the purview of the new charter of 1701 which stipulated that the college’s trustees were to be experienced ministers (preferably Congregationalists), residing in the colony. The charter also stated that the mission of the school was the “instruction of youth ‘in the arts and sciences,’ that they might be suitable for ‘public employment, both in church and civil state’”.
Eliot was one of Pierson’s favorite (and best-known) students. Due to Jared's intelligence and education, Pierson predicted that he (and Samuel Cooke, another student) would become school trustees; Eliot did so in 1730. In June 1707, Eliot was notified of Pierson’s death; he was ordained on the first of that month, fulfilling his father's wish for one of his sons to become a minister. In September, Jared became the third minister of the Killingworth church. When he assumed the position, the colonists promised that if he were to marry they would give him 60 loads of good firewood each winter. Jared married Hannah Smithson (daughter of Samuel Smithson of Brayfield, England) the following winter, and was minister at the Killingworth church until his death.
In addition to his ministerial duties, Eliot was a physician; he is quoted in an article by Rodney True that “it seems natural that the medical and ministerial professions should be thus combined”. A physician and a minister would be able to heal a person's body, mind and soul; a person combining both professions was known as a "clerical physician", as his father had been. Jared entered the medical profession in 1706, when there were 30 towns in New England with populations over 20,000. His dual role is attested; “it should not be surprising that both great names in Connecticut medicine in the century spanning 1650-1750 belong to the cleric-physicians Gershom Bulkeley and Jared Eliot”. Eliot succeeded Bulkeley as a leader in Connecticut medicine, training about 50 students. Eliot's successor as a physician was his son-in-law Benjamin Gale, who received Jared's practice in the mid-1740s. Benjamin was also a skilled physician, with a good reputation, and promoted matters of public welfare.
). The first six concerned ways of improving agriculture; the seventh was about iron-making. The first six essays were collected under the title Essays Upon Field Husbandry. The first of the essays was published in 1748, with the following ones in 1749, 1751, 1753, 1754 and 1759. The last essay was delayed because of the French and Indian War
. The essay on iron-making was published in 1763. The first three essays were published in New London, Connecticut
; essays four and five were published in New York. The sixth agricultural essay was published in New Haven, Connecticut
and the iron-making essay was again published in New York. The fact that the essays were published near his home enabled his neighbors and friends to share his accomplishments; “Jared is best seen as a thoughtful and convincing writer”. Jared wrote his essays in a flowing, easily-understandable style, describing farming in the light of science. He added a religious overtone, asserting that his creatures were working for the “fulfillment of the kingdom”. Each essay had a different topic, ending with an appropriate Biblical verse.
The first essay concerned land improvement, a concern throughout the colony. In it, Eliot described how land may be reclaimed for farming. Swamps abound with nutrient-rich soil. Draining part of the land (and diverting the water elsewhere) would improve agriculture; the drained land could support red clover, Indian corn, flax, hemp and watermelons without additional fertilizer. Eliot posits that sowing different types of grains – such as oats and peas, or summer wheat and barley – improved the crop of each.
The second essay addressed food production in the colonies. Eliot maintained that contemporary crop use was unwise, and it was time to reevaluate agricultural principles. He contended that the underproduction of hay was leading to an over-dependence on corn as a feed for livestock, thereby driving up the price of corn. Eliot suggested fertilizing, to encourage hay production; “the scarcity and high price of hay and corn is so [evident]…that the necessary stock of the Country hath outgrown the meadows, so that there is not hay for such a stock as the present increased number of people really need”. He also suggested that the present population had outgrown the food supply.
The third essay concerned different species of crops, and its publication increased the variety of crops grown in the challenging New England climate. Eliot stressed that not only grains and grasses could be grown, but fruits and vegetables as well. Many types of grain should be grown, because each has a different purpose: flax
, barley
, wheat
, maslin, colewort seed and rapeseed were mentioned. He explained the different uses of each, and how each contributes to the growth of the colonies. Grasses mentioned are hard grass, spire grass, "foreign artificial" grass and two English grasses: La Lauren and St. Foin. “As we ought to propagate various sorts of Grain and Grass, that so we may have the advantage of all sorts of Land and Seasons, so we should adapt out Tillage to the various sorts if Land which we Improve”.
The fourth essay consisted of discussions of husbandry with other farmers and scientists. Eliot aimed to demonstrate to the colonists that improvements were needed by indicating how alternative techniques were effectively used elsewhere. Other farmers comment to Eliot about how the ideas from his previous essays have affected them; for example, seaweed
, wet leaves and sea salt might be used for fertilizer.
The fifth essay concerned problems with tillage
(in this case, the land which is worked – by plowing, sowing and harvesting crops). Eliot adapted ideas which had been recently formulated by Jethro Tull
, an English writer on tilling. Eliot took some of Tull’s inventions and improved them; for example, there had been little improvement in Tull’s plow (developed 23 years earlier in England). Eliot attempted to improve Tull’s machine, with the aid of President Clap (of Yale College) and Behoni Hillyard, a wheelwright
in Killingworth. Eliot's plow was less expensive and easier to use than Tull’s plow; however, when he tested his drill plow in the fields he discovered that the wheels did not work well in the rough, rigid soil. After many changes, he finally finished his version of the drill plow; some of his readers remained skeptical, fearing that “The drill plows would never come into general use”.
The sixth essay took longer to write than the others, touching on the production of silk and mulberry bushes. Eliot asserted that his essays reached as far as Great Britain, where his philosophy and ideas were also applied. He wrote, “When I first applied myself to the writing Essays upon Field-Husbandry, I did not expect those small Tracts, calculated to our soil, Meridian, and Climate, would ever extend farther than to a small Circle of Neighbors”. Since the essays had found a wider audience, he thought it would be wise to “apply ourselves to the raising silk”. He asked an anonymous farmer who had been growing silk in New England for years how he did so successfully. Eliot also inquired how the farmer profited from it. He explained the efforts of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to establish silk-making in Connecticut, and speculated on which land in Connecticut (north or south) is better suited to the growth of silk.
The seventh essay was not part of the Essays Upon Field Husbandry, but it concerned a new way to manufacture iron from a substance found in New England. This essay was entitled An Essay On The Invention or Art of Making Very Good, If Not The Best Iron, From Black Sea Sand. Eliot recounted how he experimented with "black sea sand" for use in iron-making. In 1744 Eliot’s uncles, Aaron Eliot and Ichabod Miller, succeeded in making more than a half-ton of steel
at the furnace in Sansbury. Since the only place to get steel-making materials was New York, there was a need to find sources closer to home. Jared revealed that he was part of a group of investigators who secured an ore bed at Sansbury (by a patent grant from the Great Assembly) to find something to make into iron. This essay concerned the experiments and findings from using black sea sand to make iron.
Eliot’s essays were not widely accepted in New England until the 19th century. However, some contemporaries recognized his efforts to improve farming practices. Among those he inspired were Benjamin Franklin
and John Adams
. Both men felt that Eliot’s essays were an important contribution to the development of the colonies. These essays supported colonial interests and imperial designs involving communication with the other colonies and Britain. Eliot also attempted trade with other countries, but was unsuccessful before his death on April 22, 1763. In 1765 the Stamp Act was invoked by the British, and communication between the colonies and Britain became impossible.
Guilford, Connecticut
Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...
who wrote several articles on agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
. Eliot was the eldest son of Joseph Eliot and his second wife, Mary Wyllys. The Eliots raised their family in Guilford (formerly known as Menunkatucket), which was settled by Europeans in 1639. Jared emulated his father and grandfather, who were also willing to help others; he stated, “I have learned many useful things from the lowest of the People, not only in Rank, but in Understanding too”.
Ancestry
The Eliot name was well known before Jared's birth. His grandfather, John EliotJohn Eliot (missionary)
John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the Indian apostle.”-English education and Massachusetts ministry:...
of Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...
, was a missionary to the Massachusett
Massachusett
The Massachusett are a tribe of Native Americans who lived in areas surrounding Massachusetts Bay in what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in particular present-day Greater Boston; they spoke the Massachusett language...
and Wampanoag
Wampanoag
The Wampanoag In the 1600s when encountered by the English, the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket...
nations for 40 years, translating the Bible into the Natick language. Herbert Thomas, author of Jared Eliot, states that “(John) Eliot went quite beyond religious doctrine in dealing with the Indians and taught them hygiene and better living”. John’s actions in attempting to help the Indians gave the Eliot name social status in the New England theocracy
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
. Jared’s father, Joseph Eliot, was also a well-known figure in New England. He graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1658, remaining in Guilford for the rest of his life as a minister at a nearby Congregational church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
. Joseph was also regarded as a "clerical physician", due to his interest in medicine.
In 1700, there was considerable interest in establishing a college in Connecticut. The ministers along the shore of Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
who originated plans for the college began to arrange a meeting of the ecclesiastical General Assembly. The Assembly agreed to meet in October and was asked to create a new charter (the previous charter had expired, along with the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
). The college advocates stated their initial intentions by the sending of letters. The purpose of these letters was to seek advice “not only on the educational side, but on the highly important matter of the legality of a Connecticut-Colony-granted charter, and if that were to be legal, what should it contain”. Joseph Eliot was among those chosen to devise the charter, including its “powers of conferring degrees as unobtrusive as possible”. The Assembly felt that licensing the new college would not provoke animosity in England. Joseph’s voice on behalf of Connecticut was significant to his fellow colonists until his unexpected, early death on May 24, 1694.
Family
Jared’s family tree – beginning with his grandfather John Eliot and his wife Hannah – is extensive, with several children from each marriage. John and Hannah Eliot had six children. Their first two children were named after them; Hannah was the firstborn, followed by John. Joseph was born on December 20, 1638, the only son to bear grandchildren of John and Hannah. Next was Samuel (born June 22, 1641); however, he died shortly after receiving his advanced degree from Harvard in the 1660s. Aaron, the fifth-born, died at age 11. The youngest child was Benjamin; born in January 1647, he graduated from Harvard and became his father's assistant in teaching the Indians.Since Joseph was the only child of John and Hannah to bear children, Jared had no cousins – only siblings, an aunt and his uncles. Joseph was married twice, fathering children from both marriages (four from each). Joseph first married Sarah, daughter of William and Martha (Burton) Brenton of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, in 1676. All of the children borne by Sarah were girls (Mehitabel, Ann, Jemima and Barsheba), and all four daughters married well. Joseph's second marriage was to Mary Wyllys, and Jared was the firstborn of the second marriage; his younger siblings were Mary, Rebecca and Abiel. Both Mary and Rebecca married several times – Mary four times; her last husband was Samuel Hooker of Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel...
. Rebecca married three times; her last husband was Capt. William Dudley of North Guilford, Connecticut.
Jared had a difficult childhood, since his father died when he was only eight years old. Since Jared’s father and grandfather had both been physicians, he took up the practice. Jared also became a minister, in accordance with his father's dying wish. He determined to live a successful life, to preserve his family's reputation; one of his goals was to “obtain a liberal education in ‘an academic course of studies’”.
Abraham PiersonAbraham PiersonReverend Abraham Pierson was the first rector, from 1701 to 1707, and one of the founders of the Collegiate School — which later became Yale University. He was born in Southampton, Long Island, where his father, the Rev. Abraham Pierson , was the pastor of the Puritan church...
, Eliot's mentor
Abraham Pierson graduated from Harvard in 1668, was ordained by his father and became minister of the Killingworth Congregational Church in 1694. When he became minister at Killingworth, Pierson began teaching his first classes in the parsonage. He taught in a meeting-house in Killingworth in 1700; this collegiate school is now part of Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Since Pierson was an experienced minister he fell under the purview of the new charter of 1701 which stipulated that the college’s trustees were to be experienced ministers (preferably Congregationalists), residing in the colony. The charter also stated that the mission of the school was the “instruction of youth ‘in the arts and sciences,’ that they might be suitable for ‘public employment, both in church and civil state’”.
Eliot was one of Pierson’s favorite (and best-known) students. Due to Jared's intelligence and education, Pierson predicted that he (and Samuel Cooke, another student) would become school trustees; Eliot did so in 1730. In June 1707, Eliot was notified of Pierson’s death; he was ordained on the first of that month, fulfilling his father's wish for one of his sons to become a minister. In September, Jared became the third minister of the Killingworth church. When he assumed the position, the colonists promised that if he were to marry they would give him 60 loads of good firewood each winter. Jared married Hannah Smithson (daughter of Samuel Smithson of Brayfield, England) the following winter, and was minister at the Killingworth church until his death.
In addition to his ministerial duties, Eliot was a physician; he is quoted in an article by Rodney True that “it seems natural that the medical and ministerial professions should be thus combined”. A physician and a minister would be able to heal a person's body, mind and soul; a person combining both professions was known as a "clerical physician", as his father had been. Jared entered the medical profession in 1706, when there were 30 towns in New England with populations over 20,000. His dual role is attested; “it should not be surprising that both great names in Connecticut medicine in the century spanning 1650-1750 belong to the cleric-physicians Gershom Bulkeley and Jared Eliot”. Eliot succeeded Bulkeley as a leader in Connecticut medicine, training about 50 students. Eliot's successor as a physician was his son-in-law Benjamin Gale, who received Jared's practice in the mid-1740s. Benjamin was also a skilled physician, with a good reputation, and promoted matters of public welfare.
Essays Upon Field Husbandry
After transferring his medical practice to his son-in-law, Eliot wrote a series of essays on "field husbandry" (primarily agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
). The first six concerned ways of improving agriculture; the seventh was about iron-making. The first six essays were collected under the title Essays Upon Field Husbandry. The first of the essays was published in 1748, with the following ones in 1749, 1751, 1753, 1754 and 1759. The last essay was delayed because of the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
. The essay on iron-making was published in 1763. The first three essays were published in New London, Connecticut
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
; essays four and five were published in New York. The sixth agricultural essay was published in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
and the iron-making essay was again published in New York. The fact that the essays were published near his home enabled his neighbors and friends to share his accomplishments; “Jared is best seen as a thoughtful and convincing writer”. Jared wrote his essays in a flowing, easily-understandable style, describing farming in the light of science. He added a religious overtone, asserting that his creatures were working for the “fulfillment of the kingdom”. Each essay had a different topic, ending with an appropriate Biblical verse.
The first essay concerned land improvement, a concern throughout the colony. In it, Eliot described how land may be reclaimed for farming. Swamps abound with nutrient-rich soil. Draining part of the land (and diverting the water elsewhere) would improve agriculture; the drained land could support red clover, Indian corn, flax, hemp and watermelons without additional fertilizer. Eliot posits that sowing different types of grains – such as oats and peas, or summer wheat and barley – improved the crop of each.
The second essay addressed food production in the colonies. Eliot maintained that contemporary crop use was unwise, and it was time to reevaluate agricultural principles. He contended that the underproduction of hay was leading to an over-dependence on corn as a feed for livestock, thereby driving up the price of corn. Eliot suggested fertilizing, to encourage hay production; “the scarcity and high price of hay and corn is so [evident]…that the necessary stock of the Country hath outgrown the meadows, so that there is not hay for such a stock as the present increased number of people really need”. He also suggested that the present population had outgrown the food supply.
The third essay concerned different species of crops, and its publication increased the variety of crops grown in the challenging New England climate. Eliot stressed that not only grains and grasses could be grown, but fruits and vegetables as well. Many types of grain should be grown, because each has a different purpose: flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
, barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, maslin, colewort seed and rapeseed were mentioned. He explained the different uses of each, and how each contributes to the growth of the colonies. Grasses mentioned are hard grass, spire grass, "foreign artificial" grass and two English grasses: La Lauren and St. Foin. “As we ought to propagate various sorts of Grain and Grass, that so we may have the advantage of all sorts of Land and Seasons, so we should adapt out Tillage to the various sorts if Land which we Improve”.
The fourth essay consisted of discussions of husbandry with other farmers and scientists. Eliot aimed to demonstrate to the colonists that improvements were needed by indicating how alternative techniques were effectively used elsewhere. Other farmers comment to Eliot about how the ideas from his previous essays have affected them; for example, seaweed
Seaweed fertiliser
Seaweed fertiliser, also spelt seaweed fertilizer, several of the 12,000+ varieties in the ocean have been shown to be valuable additions to the organic garden and can be abundantly available free for those living near the coast...
, wet leaves and sea salt might be used for fertilizer.
The fifth essay concerned problems with tillage
Tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...
(in this case, the land which is worked – by plowing, sowing and harvesting crops). Eliot adapted ideas which had been recently formulated by Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (agriculturist)
Jethro Tull was an English agricultural pioneer who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe...
, an English writer on tilling. Eliot took some of Tull’s inventions and improved them; for example, there had been little improvement in Tull’s plow (developed 23 years earlier in England). Eliot attempted to improve Tull’s machine, with the aid of President Clap (of Yale College) and Behoni Hillyard, a wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
in Killingworth. Eliot's plow was less expensive and easier to use than Tull’s plow; however, when he tested his drill plow in the fields he discovered that the wheels did not work well in the rough, rigid soil. After many changes, he finally finished his version of the drill plow; some of his readers remained skeptical, fearing that “The drill plows would never come into general use”.
The sixth essay took longer to write than the others, touching on the production of silk and mulberry bushes. Eliot asserted that his essays reached as far as Great Britain, where his philosophy and ideas were also applied. He wrote, “When I first applied myself to the writing Essays upon Field-Husbandry, I did not expect those small Tracts, calculated to our soil, Meridian, and Climate, would ever extend farther than to a small Circle of Neighbors”. Since the essays had found a wider audience, he thought it would be wise to “apply ourselves to the raising silk”. He asked an anonymous farmer who had been growing silk in New England for years how he did so successfully. Eliot also inquired how the farmer profited from it. He explained the efforts of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to establish silk-making in Connecticut, and speculated on which land in Connecticut (north or south) is better suited to the growth of silk.
The seventh essay was not part of the Essays Upon Field Husbandry, but it concerned a new way to manufacture iron from a substance found in New England. This essay was entitled An Essay On The Invention or Art of Making Very Good, If Not The Best Iron, From Black Sea Sand. Eliot recounted how he experimented with "black sea sand" for use in iron-making. In 1744 Eliot’s uncles, Aaron Eliot and Ichabod Miller, succeeded in making more than a half-ton of steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
at the furnace in Sansbury. Since the only place to get steel-making materials was New York, there was a need to find sources closer to home. Jared revealed that he was part of a group of investigators who secured an ore bed at Sansbury (by a patent grant from the Great Assembly) to find something to make into iron. This essay concerned the experiments and findings from using black sea sand to make iron.
Eliot’s essays were not widely accepted in New England until the 19th century. However, some contemporaries recognized his efforts to improve farming practices. Among those he inspired were Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
and John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
. Both men felt that Eliot’s essays were an important contribution to the development of the colonies. These essays supported colonial interests and imperial designs involving communication with the other colonies and Britain. Eliot also attempted trade with other countries, but was unsuccessful before his death on April 22, 1763. In 1765 the Stamp Act was invoked by the British, and communication between the colonies and Britain became impossible.