234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a portion of the new lands of the State, little known, but reported 

 to present strong inducements for settling, I purposed to accompany 

 this party, and proceeded as ftir as Rangely, but was prevented from 

 going through, by reason of sickness in my family, which re(|uired 

 my return home. 



Rangely is now the farthest settlement on this route. The scenery 

 about these lakes is beautiful, and the land fertile. One farmer, 

 Mr. Abner Toothaker, informed me that, including pasturage, he 

 had about four hundred acres cleared, one hundred and seventy-five 

 of which had been under the plow. His crop of grain varies from 

 one thousand four hundred to one thousand seven hundred bushels, 

 of which three-fourths are oats, the average yield of which is fifty 

 bushels per acre. Barley produces usually forty to fifty bushels, 

 and sometimes, though rarely, sixty bushels, potatoes, one hundred 

 and fifty to four hundred bushels per acre. "Wheat has not been 

 extensively cultivated, owing in part to weevil and rust. Indian 

 corn cannot be depended upon to ripen well, but excepting this, good 

 crops of all the various kinds usually grown in the State, are ob- 

 tained. Mr. T. cuts about two hundred and fifty tons of hay, a 

 portion of which is sold to lumbermen at from seven to ten dollars 

 per ton, and the residue fed to stock, of which he usually has seventy- 

 five head, and sometimes more. The capabilities of the soil of this 

 vicinity were sufficiently attested by the aspect of abundance upon 

 the farms generally, as well as by the appearance of the soil itself. 



I am happy to give below, a letter from Seward Dill, Esq., of 

 Phillips, who was one of the party, regarding the character of the 

 country explored on this occasion, and I may add that his views 

 correspond exactly with those of Mr. Millett, who also was one of 

 the party, and from whom I have received a briefer communication 

 on the same subject. 



A consideration of no small moment, in estimating the advantages 

 of these lands for settlement, is the facilities for intercommunication 

 now existing, so different from what they were when the first settlers 

 at Rangely came in. At tliat time, the nearest market town was 

 Ilallowell, and that approachable only by the rough roads incident 

 to a far off settlement in the wilderness, — now, by going half as far, 

 they may reach a rail road station, and this by a carriage road, 

 which, although a portion of the country passed over is hilly, (pre- 



