View of New Hampshire from the Ver- 

 mont Motmtaiiis. 



Crossing the State of Vermont at several points, 

 you pass tlic bad; bone or ridge of the Gfecn JMoun- 

 tains, the hiyiiest point of wlilcli is generally at a 

 distance of tw-cnfy or tiiirty miles from Connecti- 

 cut river. TuDiing the top of the ridge and look- 

 ing eastward, you have a splendid view of the 

 high grounds- and of the winding glens on tlie 

 eastern slope of the Connecticuc river valley, fac- 

 ing towards the west. Talking either the routes 

 from Bennington to Brattleborougli, from Arling- 

 ton to Wcslmoreland, N. II., or from Manchester 

 via Chester and Springlield to Charlestown, N. H. 

 03 the mountain top is turned, you have this land- 

 scape in lull view. The highest point of tlie Green 

 Mountains, fertile in excellent pasture feed, in 

 grass, in oats, peas ami potatoes where t!ie ground 

 is cultivated, is too heavy for v.'lieat and too cold 

 for Indian corn, from its great elevation, being e- 

 qtial to a north remove of some seven or eight de- 

 grees of latitude. The superior elevation brings 

 high objects-at a distanec nearer to the vision. The 

 Grand Monadnoek in New Hampshire, twenty 

 miles east of tlio Connecticut looking from the el- 

 evation thirty miles west of that river, ajipeara as 

 if at your feet. The range of hills stil! nearer the 

 river in Cliesterfield, Westmoreland and Walpole 

 approach so near to the eye, as to e:iablc you to 

 distinu-uish tlie woods from the pasture?, and the 

 pastures from the grain fields of lye, wheat or In- 

 dian corn. 



Travelling in stages in the season of vegetation, 

 it is our choice to mount upon the scat with the 

 driver, or upon the main top, and view as wcJI the 

 iialure and value of tlie soil, and the agricultural 

 pr.>spects,as the iniproveineiit of buildings and the 

 growth of villages. The drivers of stages are gen- 

 erally intelligent men, and shrewd observers of the 

 character fer thrift and industry and enterprise of 

 the farmers nnd mechanics and merchants, and 

 ministers, lawyers, and doctors, and speculators and 

 other non-producers, who live on the road. The 

 knowledge to be gained from the mouth of one of 

 these men v.'ho has daily travelled over a road at 

 all sea.sons for succes.^ive months and years, is fre- 

 <li!eiulv more interesting than tiiat to be obtained 

 from books. 



I'assing the State of \'erinonl at the time of ilie 

 early harvest of hist year, from l3Ur!in;jtoa by way 

 of Moutpelier to Haverhill, N. H. and t-jrning the 

 mountain ridge in Orange, we were struck with 

 the view of extensive grain fields to llie eastward, 

 then yellow for the harvest, upon the sides cf the 

 mountains. At first we could not seem to realize, 

 knov/ing the distance to the river, that the Con- 

 necticut flowed in tlie valley belweea us and those 

 fields. The driver assured us that the piincipal 

 fields and eleva!;n:a at our right hand were in Pier- 

 inont, N. H., and that tiio otiicr fields further to 

 the left were in Haverhill and Coventry. Weha\'e 

 since made it our business to inquire moie particu- 

 larly of the value of the product of these moun- 

 tain lands. 



Col. .Moses Lr-ARNi:u of Piermont, the youthful 

 «nd intelligent representative from that town in our 

 State Legislature, resides on an upland farm some 

 three miles from the river, with his father, Mr. 

 MosES Le.ihn'ed. From him do we derive the fol- 

 lowing information ; 



An experiraeut in farming more profitable 



than the annual salary of a Judge or 



C'ovcruor. 



A few years ago Col. L. purchased a considerable 

 tract of land on Black Mountain in Piermont, at 

 the distance of about five miles from Connecticut 

 river ; for this land he paid one dollar t!ic acre. In 

 the year 1H35, on twenty acres newly cleared by 

 chopping and burning, he raised jOO bushels of 

 wlieat, averaging twenty -five busliels to the acre 

 In 1837, on thirty-seven acres of the same kind of 

 clearing and about five acres of old cultivated 

 £vound,he raised 1091 bushels of wheat, averaging 



more than tweuly-five bushels to the acre. In 

 183i3, his crop of wheat v/as upwards of 700 bush- 

 els, of which was twenty-nine acres of the new 

 ground, which averaged nineteen bushels to the a- 

 ere.. The ]>resent year (It'o;') lie has growing 

 twenty-three acres of wheat en tlie iie-w ground, 

 and five acres upon the tilled ground ; and he has 

 the trees cliopped of twenty-live acres of heavy 

 wooded land for a crop the ne.i;t soa.'son. 



We have ascertained, that of ihe golden fields 

 w'hich we saw in New Hampshire^ from the moun- 

 tains of Vermont, the most prominent, because the 

 largest, was the clearing of Col. Learned upon the 

 Black Mountain. Tnc e.\periincnt and (he enter- 

 prise of this gentleman are worthy of extensive no- 

 tice, liis crop of wheat in Iir<37 was 10^4 bush- 

 els. This v/heat, taking into consideration the en- 

 tire expense of clearing the laud, fencing the 

 ground, furnishing the seed, reaping and convey- 

 ing to the barn, the straw paring for thrashing, cost 

 precisely and no more than ciglity-tliree cents the 

 bushel. On this crop that year, ti'.e Messrs. Lear- 

 ned (the father and son are joint owners of the 

 iiirm) made a clear gain of eight hundred dollars. 

 Tothis profit may be added the improvement of 

 the land. The cost in its wild state was one dol- 

 lar the acre. Cleared and laid down to pasture, 

 the land is worth at least ten dollars the acre. No 

 part of the growth on this new land was saved ei- 

 ther for timber or fuel — the whole wood was con- 

 sumed. Col. L. paid for the clearing ten dollars 

 the acre. The increased value of the land, v>'ith- 

 out the crop, it will be no extravagance to say, will 

 p.i}' for both the original cost and clearing ; and 

 this too upon mountain ground where the forest 

 growth is of more value for the manure of its ash- 

 es on the spot tlinn for any olher use. ,-\dd the in- 

 creased value of the ground, ready for further prof- 

 itable use, and the gain of this operation in .1 sin- 

 gle year, was nearly twelve hundred dollars! 



Sjiring wheat was the kind exclusively sowed by 

 the Messrs. Learned : no crop can be more certain 

 than this kind of wheat ou newly burnt ground. 

 Col. L. prefers, i..sicad of the cojiimon method 

 of chopping in the month of June when the leaves 

 arc in'fuU growth, tliat the trees shall be felled in 

 the preceding fall, winter or early spring while the 

 snow is not deep : from the longer drying he obtains 

 a more jierfect burn. The kinds of wheat he has 

 hitherto used are the common b.':'arded wheat and 

 the bald or tea wheat. The ]>resejit season he has 

 growing a portion of the Black sea wheat. 



He mentions a safe, an easy, and perfect remedy 

 for smut, which he has successively tried. For 

 eicli bushel of seed wheat, he takes two ounces of 

 blue vitriol dissolved in two quarts of Water. This 

 generally v;ill dry of itself when applied to the 

 bushel of wheat, which may be sowed either the 

 same day it is applied, or at any time within a 

 week. Seed wheal already smutty should be wash- 

 ed clean before. the preparation is applied; and the 

 quaHtity of two ounces of vitriol to eai'h bushel, 

 should be dissolved in as sn.all a quantity of water 

 as possible. Sriiutty seed thus prepared will propa- 

 gate but the merest trifle of situit in the subse- 

 quent crop. 



Col. L., as do most of the extensive farmers on 

 Connccticiiit river their small grains, thrashes his 

 wheat -vi'ith horse power, generally after the fall 

 work is completed. It will be seen from the quan- 

 tity of wheat he has raised, in the course of four 

 years he has cleared on that crop the price of a val- 

 uable farm. His o.xperienec has demonstrated that 

 wheat may be raised in the mountain region of New 

 Hampshire with quite as large remuneration for 

 the labor, as can be obtained in the famed wheat 

 regions of the west. 



The -proprietors of this farm do not confine their 

 attention to a crop of wheat alone. They have a 

 good farm for grass and other grains, which they 

 make productive by the application of manure : 

 they cut from sixty to eighty tons of hay annual- 

 ly. On two acres of ground the last season, they 

 raised eight hundred bushels of potatoes, of which 

 Col. L. informs us that as a matter of curiosity in 

 a trial of personal agility, he dug himself from the 

 hill ready to be picked up forty busheU in sixty 

 minutes. 



Region of the White Slonutains. 



The eminent success of the Messrs. Learned 

 of Piermont, should he marked for imitation by the 

 farmers in ouj.-„mountain and hilly towns. The Black 

 sen wheat, if not the more common kinds, may be 

 raised on mo.= t of tlie elevated lands of New Hamp- 

 shire where hard wood was the original growth : 

 old ground, which has previously been manured 

 and tilled to a growth of Indian corn and potatoes, 

 will be perfectly safe for a crop of wheat. It should 

 be sowed late so as to avoid the season of the wheat 

 fly. Newly cleared lami, whose growth is maple, 

 beech, bircli and even hemlock, if well elevated 

 .-tnd free iVom cold springs, with a surface even half 

 covered wiih rocki, if a perfect burn over the 

 ground can he obtained, will probably be more cer- 

 tain for a crop of wheat, than for almost any other 

 crop. It will turn out nearly as many bushels of 

 this as of any other kind of grain. One bushel of 

 clean full kerneled v.-lient is w-orth nearly two 

 bushels of rve.or Indian corn, or four bushels of 

 oats. 



There are thousands of acres of land in the State 

 of New Ilamp-shire, and especially in the counties 

 of Grafton and Coos, valued niuch of it not higher 

 than fifty cents to a didlar the acre, not now even 

 contemplated to be cleared, that sre really of more 

 value than the western lands that have been pur- 

 cliased at the government price, and speculated 

 upon until they are valued at five to ten dollars in 

 the wild state, and from twenty to fifty dollars tho 

 nero, brougl'.t into cultivation. Improved lands in 

 the St"te of Michigan that will produce re- 

 ally not more, btar a higher price than improved 

 lands have done in New Hampshire. 



Tal:e, for example, the unimproved lands infthis 

 State, estimated at from fifty cents to two dollars 

 the acre. It is rarely you will find a spot near to 

 •vh'.oh has been made a cart path, where the best 

 tinbcr is not already becoming of some value. 

 But suppose that to be of iio value, and that the 

 clearing of heavy wooded land costs as high as fif- 

 teen dollars the acre. The first crop, if of wheat, 

 will at least pay the cost of clearing and for tho 

 land. .'\ young man w-lio enjoys good healtJi, be- 

 cause it has been gained and confirmed by active 

 labor, can do much himself in clearing land, and 

 thus make a saving of all that he earns. If he ob- 

 tains wild land containing a variety of hill and 

 dale, he can in the course of three or four, or half 

 a dozen years, make himself a valuable farm 

 wilh a single hundred dollars to purchase as many 

 acres of hmd, or even where without this capital he 

 purchases on credit, and pays for the land in the 

 proceeds of the fiiitcrop. 



Some fourteen years ago, in company with the 

 lamented Professor Dana (now deceased) and Pro- 

 fessor Oliver, we maile our first journey to the 

 White Mountains and the Notch with ladies. The 

 two doctors with their wives travelled in a common 

 wairgon with two horses : we had a single horse 

 and chaise. The eccentric Dana, who was the on- 

 i'V man of the three acquainted with that region and 

 who wa»our pioneer, must needs set off from com- 

 fortable quarters at Lancaster, near the close of th"; 

 day. It was sundown when we passed the Whip- 

 ple farm in Jcfterson, at which we could not obtain 

 his consent to stop. Feeding our horses from a bag 

 of oats which the Doctor took at Lancaster, at 

 the foot, we passed the 'Cherry mountain after it 

 was dark, over the worst apology for a road that 

 we had over encountered. The path way could be 

 compared, judging from the rise and fall of the 

 wheels of our vehicle pursuing the track of that 

 of our pioneer in close order, to nothing more near- 

 ly resembling it than the path of the channel of the 

 Amonoosuck after its waters had been lessened by 

 a dry summer ; there were most enormous pebbles 

 on this road, long known as Col. Whipple's turn- 

 pike. To carry out the night's work. Dr. Dana 

 having a dislike to the then younger Crawford, a- 

 voided his house, and receded in a different direc- 

 tion from the mountain to his greater favorite, the 

 vounger Rosbrook, whose father was the first in- 

 habitant after "Nash and Sawyers' Location," and 

 also grandfather to the younger Crawford. It was 

 midnight when we arrived at Rosbrook's ; and we 

 were not a little cheered to find his premises, hous- 

 es and out ho-uscs, litaraJly filled ivith travellers, 



