202 BOARD t)F AGRICULTUEE. 



VII. — Northern Portion of the County. 



Of the two thousand square miles of territory embraced in the 

 county of Somerset, only about one-third — comprising the south 

 part — is yet settled ; although it is quite difficult to tell where the 

 division line between the settled and unsettled portion occurs. It 

 is my purpose, in this chapter, to give some outline of the geogra- 

 phy and geology of this section of the county, with an account of 

 its agricultural condition and prospects ; a notice of the lumbering 

 operations, with its influence upon farming, together with a few 

 general remarks. 



Commencing at the third range of townships north of Bingham's 

 Purchase, of which Dead Eiver plantation, on the western bound- 

 ary, forms the most important place, we at once enter the wilds 

 of Somerset county. There is, at Dead river, a small settlement 

 with a public house, chiefly for the accommodation of lumbermen, 

 a post-office, &c. At Flag-staff township, in the 4th range, west, 

 there is another settlement with good mills, a stove, tavern, &c. 

 In these two plantations is found some of the best land for farming 

 purposes in the Dead river valley, or, indeed, in all northern Som- 

 erset. I speak now of the interval or bottom lands, which are 

 equal to any land in the State. The higher land back from the 

 river, is more rocky and broken, but in places not too rough to be 

 cultivated produces good crops of grass and potatoes. During a 

 recent visit to this section, I was informed upon good authority 

 that a gentleman engaged in digging a well upon an interval farm, 

 found the bones of a moose at a distance of ten feet from the sur- 

 face — showing conclusively that the soil had been made to that 

 depth by the washing from the surrounding mountains. The soil 

 is fine, of remarkable fertility, and for grass or grain crops, pro- 

 duces wonderfully. Wheat is largely raised in these townships, 

 chiefly the spring varieties. It is sowed as soon as it can be got 

 in in spring, at the rate of two bushels of seed to the acre ; the 

 yield, usually, being from fifteen to twenty-five bushels per acre. 

 Corn is but little grown. I am informed that it ripens about once 

 in four years, and receives great injury from both early and late 

 frosts. Great crops of oats are raised — fifty bushels per acre is 

 an average yield ; while in some seasons, sixty bushels are ob- 



