SHAKERS AT WATERVLIET. 265 



one of tlieir oldest establishments, situated some eight or 

 nine miles from Albany. A reeent fall of snow had made 

 the sleighing good, but a piercing wind blew, which in 

 disposed us on our arrival to much out-of-door examination. 



This settlement of Watervliet consists of two thousand 

 acres, generally light land. The farm-buildings are by no 

 means so extensive as this breadth of land would require 

 with us, nor was the stock either in number or quality such 

 as I had been led to expect. It is in the tillage of the 

 land that their strength is said to lie in a kind of garden- 

 husbandry, I suppose ; but of the state of their land, 

 from the covering of snow, I had no means of judging. 



They possess an extensive range of well-built houses, 

 occupying three sides of a long parallelogram. There 

 are 316 members in this society of all ages, and in these 

 buildings are contained their dwellings, workshops, and 

 chapel. They received us with much attention and 

 civility, and took us through several of their dwellings 

 and wprkshops. All was scrupulously clean, and the 

 workshops of various kinds were fitted up with tools and 

 appliances of the most approved construction. They grow 

 much broom-corn, and have a large manufactory of 

 brooms ; but they are particularly famous, at all their 

 settlements, for their medicinal herbs and garden seeds. 

 The former are extensively grown, carefully collected and 

 dried, and neatly put up in small packets. As &quot; Shaker 

 Yarbs,&quot; they are celebrated all over the Union, and 

 command an extensive sale. A medical system under 

 the name of the Thomsonian, which requires no college 

 learning in its professors, and makes use of herbs only, 

 has obtained a considerable hold in the country, and pro 

 motes the sale of their herbs. These &quot; Thomsonians &quot; 

 have an equal legal standing now with the more regularly 

 bred practitioners in most of the States ; and, so recently 

 as 1849, a protracted debate took place in the Canadian 

 parliament on a bill which proposed to give them an equal 



