5*2 NEW ENGLAND VILLAGES. 



inferior quality. The cattle, as already stated, were of a goo;! 

 breed, but often remarkably lean. Sheep were inferior, and 

 so also were horses used for farming purposes. The mode of 

 farming did not meet my approbation ; but perhaps bad land, 

 like bad wives, can be managed by every one but by those who 

 possess them ; and a foreigner unacquainted with the peculia 

 rities of the district cannot be an infallible judge of such 

 matters. It appears to me, however, impossible that the 

 New England States can furnish food sufficient for the popu 

 lation ; and the time is perhaps near at hand when the whole 

 produce will not do more than maintain the agriculturists, 

 and supply the manufacturers with dairy produce, leaving their 

 butcher-meat and bread to come from other districts. The 

 present farmers find difficulty in earning a subsistence, and 

 any thing paid in the name of rent must be truly insigni 

 ficant. 



The villages of New England are uniformly clean, airy, 

 and neat, with spacious openings near the centre, in which 

 churches form the most prominent feature. Indeed, a village 

 is seldom seen without having two or three churches of consi 

 derable size, composed of wood, painted white, and sur 

 mounted with a spire, and generally flanked with a conside 

 rable extent of shades for waggons and horses belonging to 

 people coming from a distance. The houses are, in some 

 instances, built of brick, but more frequently of wood, painted 

 white, with green Venetian blinds, opening to the outside. Both 

 churches and dwelling-houses seem to be painted annually ; at 

 least, they are never seen in the slightest degree dingy 

 coloured. The houses of every size and fabric, have a light 

 appearance from the number of windows they contain, the 

 legislature not taxing the inhabitants for enjoying air and 

 light through the medium of windows as in Britain. The 

 houses seldom indicate either extensive wealth or poverty of 

 the inmates ; and although the architectural decorations are 

 often in bad taste, and the materials of which they consist 

 associated in the mind of the Europeans with instability, yet 

 the general effect is highly pleasing, and the villages want 

 only the judicious aid of flowers and shrubs to render them 

 absolutely beautiful. 



