Leonard Daggett Clift (1792-1878)
of Carmel, Putnam County; President of the New York State Agricultural Society
He acquired his 280-acre farm at Carmel in 1825. It included 35-acres of woodland and a pond that was used to furnish ice in the winter and to irrigate the land in the summer. It was predominantly a dairy farm and in 1851 the milk and cream from his herd of 50 Jersey Browns gave him an annual income of $3,600. In addition, he kept a valuable flock of Lincolnshire sheep that he bred from a ram and a ewe imported from England in 1835. Mr. Clift was described as, "the gentlemanly ideal farmer... one of the best farmers New York has ever produced," and Mrs. Clift, "a true farmer's wife".
