Revised Jun 21 2021
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The Island, the People, and the Pastor
Ch. V - Agriculture
AGRICULTURE.
Their agricultural implements are made by themselves, from the iron supplied by the Bounty, which with great labour they beat out into spades, hatchets, &c. This was not all. The old man kept a regular journal, in which was entered the nature and quantity of work performed by each family, what each had received, and what was due on account. There was, it seemed, besides private property, a sort of general stock, out of which articles were issued on account to the several members of the cornmunity; and, for mutual accommodation, exchanges of one kind of provision for another were very frequent, as salt for fresh provisions, vegetables and fruit for poultry, fish, &c.; also, when the stores of one family were low, or vrholly expended, a fresh supply was raised from another, or out of the general stock, to be repaid when circumstances were more favourable.*
∗ See Quarterly Review, vol. iii. p. 378 &c.
John Adams House