98 



THE FARMER'S iMONTllLV VISITOR. 



who had passed llie Notch to nttcnd a Ivlolhodist 

 camp meeting at the then newseltlemcnt of White- 

 field, iind were on their way lionip, 



Next morning tlie Doctor was already prepared 

 for a jaunt ■.vitli linea and hooks at trout catcliing 

 on the rnnrinff Amoiioosuck. 'I'lie place where 

 Rosbrook thcn^lived was called Bretton Woods ; 

 his meadow ground on the Amonoosuck, wliich 

 had long heeu cleared, produced hay abiuidanlly ; 

 and where he could apply manure he raised oats, 

 iwas and potatoes. Within the limit5 of the town 

 there were only one or two poor families who scarce- 

 ly could be said to live on any thing the soil pro- 

 duced. Seeino- tlie fine growth of maple and birch 

 on the higher land, we expressed tlib opinion that 

 this land would make good farms. "Never," said 

 Mr. Rosbrook, who had been horn and lived on the 

 Mountains — "the frost will kill every thing ; (lie 

 ground will not pay the clearing." But even licre 

 among the mountains, prejudice has gradually giv- 

 en way. Within the last ten or a dozen years the 

 land,!owned principally by proprietors at Ports- 

 mouth, has been throvi-n into the market. "Cret- 

 ton Woods" has been changed for a word of better 

 euphony, taking the distinguished name of Carroll, 

 the signer of the Declaration of Independence who 

 last survived. This town of Carroll has now well 

 towards a hundred legal voters, and numbers from 

 three to four hundred inhabitants. Judge Dat.- 

 LING, of Henniker, who has travelled much in the 

 West, and is a warm admirer of that wheat growing 

 region, informs us that during the last season he 

 saw in the town of Carroll a field of tiventy acres 

 of wheat then just ready for the sickle, a better 

 than which he had never seen iu western New 

 York. 



Westerly of Carroll and adjacent to it, is the 

 township of Whitefield in Coos county, one of the 

 most flourishing townships in the nortliern region 

 of Kew Kir.ip'ihiie. This town had been forced 

 into an earlier settlement by the abundance and ex- 

 cellence of its pine timber, vast quantities of which 

 have been taken down Jolm's river, having its 

 Bourcea on and near the 'Cherry mountain, and over 

 the Fifteen miles falls of Connecticut river, where 

 it is manufactured on the way and rafted to Hart- 

 ford, Ct. This timber cannot well be conveyed 

 over the falls otiierwise than in the log, tliose falls 

 being an obstruction fatal to manufactured lumber. 

 Much of the beautiful pine in the valley of the Is- 

 rael's and John's and other rivers tributary to Con- 

 necticut, has been cut down and transported down 

 the Connecticut, producing barely price enough, 

 and frequently not sufficient, to pay the e.^pense of 

 labor and transport. Recently the price is raised, 

 80 that the owners of the remaining timber lots put 

 upon it a value in some instances as high as a liu.n- 

 dred dollars to the single acre. The soil from 

 whence the pines are taken is found to be good 

 for after cultivation; and tliis most probably caus- 

 ed the early settlement and prosperity of White- 

 field, which now numbers nearly two hundred rata- 

 ble polls and one thousand inhabitants 



On the east side of the White Mountains in Coos 

 county bordering upon the State of i\Iaine, is the 

 town of Chatham. This town has Mount Royce 

 on the north, and Carter's Mountain (called in tlic 

 vicinity Kcarsargo mountain) on the west. It is 

 so much surrounded by sleep hills and mountains, 

 as to render it difficult to pass out of the lown with 

 a carriage into either of the New Hampshire towns 

 adjoining, Jackson and Bartlett being on the west 

 and Conway in Strafford county on the south. The 

 common passage is by tlie war of Fryciuig in 

 Maine, from which place there is a good road run- 

 ning up the valley of a considerable stream con- 

 necting with the Saco river : there are several ponds 

 in Chatham which feed the stream, down which 

 lumber is readily floated in the spring. More than 

 fifty years ago the late Jons BR.iDi.KV, and Jo.wv- 

 THAN EiSTMA.^i, Esquires, of C'oncord, purchased 

 a large tract of land in the town of Chatliuni, in- 

 cluding most of the t'ertile bottom upon the stream 

 which we have just named. On this tract the eld- 

 est son of the Wtter, Asa E-4Stman, soon after set- 

 tled, and made one of the best farms in the State : 

 nearly thirty years ago this gentleman frequently 

 represented his town in the Legislature, classed 

 with Burton, and since his decease his son Jona- 

 than K. Eastman, owning and residing on the same 

 farm, has repeatedly come as representative. The 

 notion was, when we first heard of this town, that, 

 with the exception of the rich intervale principally 

 embraced in the Bradley and Eastman grant, the 

 land in Chatham was of no value for cultivation. 

 'I'his idea has been brought down so late that it is 

 but now published in Hayward's New England 

 Gazetteer as the character of Chatham, that "the 

 surface is mountainous and rocky, and can never 

 sustain a great population." The common opin- 



ion, it is believed, is erroneous; for within the last! 

 few years Chatham has doubled its legal voters. 



A revolutionary pensioner seventy-six years of 

 age, resident in Chatliam, called on us a few days 

 since. On inquiry of him respecting the quality of 

 land in Chatham, "he assured us that much of the 

 upland was first rate soil, with the original growth 

 of maple, beecli, birch, &c., and that it was fast 

 clearing for settlement. He said tliere remained 

 in tlie town of unoccupied land fit for clearing, sev- 

 en or eight thousand acres; and that when cleared 

 the roughest part of the mountain land made ex- 

 cellent pastures. Much of the good land was 

 .as yet inaccessible to a road ; but it was found 

 by the new settlers who went two or three miles in- 

 to the woods, tliat a road would find its way to them 

 almost as soon as it was wanted to be used. The 

 uncleared lands have recently become of increased 

 value from the facility with which lumber is con- 

 veyed by way of Saco river and its tribntar}', to a 

 market where it commands a high price. Every 

 tree that can be used for timber is ap])ropriated for 

 that purpose, so that the usual destruction in new- 

 ly cleared lands does not here take place. If the 

 price of these lands has not already greatly advanc- 

 ed, it_ must rise in proportion to the new value 

 wliich the demand for the various wood growing 

 upon them gives them. 



The county of Coos, broken althougii '.•. may be 

 by mo'jntains, and standing in the valuation of the 

 State but little higher than the town of Concord 

 alone, is destined not long to remain tiie "least of 

 all" the counties of the Granite State. It was 

 suppcsLd that the cold year of ISlG drove oif one 

 I'.alf of its tlicn scattered population ; and it was a 

 long time before it even began to recover from the 

 panic and fear of frost which that season produced. 

 It is now rapidly advancing; new towns have been 

 incorporated ; new farms are made from the forest; 

 and the population of some of these towns doub- 

 les and -trebles in a short space. For the rearing of 

 cattle and sheep, for the production of various 

 vegetables and grains, especially for the sure growth 

 of wlieat, much of the land in Coos is among the 

 best in New England. The present population of 

 that county is not behind tlie population of any oth- 

 er older county of the State for respectability, for 

 enterprise and intelligence. A young man, who 

 expects to live by the sweat of the brow, has but to 

 go to that county and select such land as may best 

 suit belonging to those who wish to sell '■'., to make 

 himself an independent farmer in the course of a 

 very fevv' years. He may see his way to pay for 

 his land, and raise its value fourfold in the prepara- 

 tion for his first crop, ^\'hich will besides pay him 

 for all his labor. Even a man with a family to sup- 

 port may do it better while clearing his land in the 

 pay which he can obtain for neighborhood employ- 

 ment than he could do in the seaports or manufac- 

 turing villages where he works when he can to 

 procure iiis daily bread. The wealth of new set- 

 tlers ccnies insensibly : a great portion of their la- 

 bor is at once converted into permamnt capital, 

 while the remainder gives the laborer and his t'am- 

 ily their daily bread. The setilers of olden time 

 had>not the advantage of the present settlers : they 

 had not the inducements that the farn^.crs now 

 have for cutting down the forests and making the 

 waste places fruitl'nl. Then, if a farmer raised more 

 than he wanted for family consumption, he found 

 it diiHcu.lt to turn or dis])ese of it to advantage. 

 Now, every surplu* article that tlie farmer can pro- 

 duce finds a ready sale at a high cash price. Then, 

 the roads were so rough and .so bad, that the price 

 of many heavy articles would not pay the transport 

 to market; now, many iieavy articles bear the price 

 of their full value at the point of production. The 

 relative conditilJiis of supply and production seem 

 to have undergone an entire change ; purchasers 

 seek for the articles instead of articles traj'elling 

 the rounds to find purchasers. 



There never existed greater inducements than 

 the present for incieasing the quantitv of the pro- 

 <luctions of the soil — i'or making cai"s oi' corn and 

 blades of grass, every species of food for the sub- 

 sistence and comfort of man and beast, grow where 

 less if none of them grew before. The young men 

 of New England need not travel far beyond tin- 

 mountains and hills which constituti? the most heal- 

 thy, and which may be iiiade the most jtrodnctive 

 climate on earth, to furnish themselves with all the 

 elements of happiness and sterling independence. 



Public Officers and Meno ftheProfens i ous. 



The Attorney General of New Hampshire, who 

 remains a bachelor after having " turned the corner 

 of forty," says he cannot aft'ord to get married un- 

 less the Legislature shall raise his salary. He re- 

 ceives twelve hundred dollars per annum as full 

 compensation being prohibited bylaw from private 



practice in the courts. His expense of travelling 

 the circuit of the several counties, he counts at 

 six hundred dollars; and with six hundred more 

 and a family he believes he cannot square year in 

 and year out. 



The salaries of all the public officers in thisState 

 are smaller than in most of the States for the a- 

 mount of service ; but after all, k)oking about on 

 those who have filled offices under the State, and 

 comparing them with much higher salaries under 

 the General Government, and under other States, 

 we come to the conclusion that our small salaried 

 men are better off than some other men with large 

 salaries. The State of New Hampshire raises its 

 money for governmentexpcnses by direct taxation; 

 and the people never will consent, after they find 

 out the fact, to pay any officer a greater salary than 

 the worth of his services. And most men who 

 shall be disposed to complain of the inadequateness 

 of their salaries will find there are otiier men who 

 at least believe themselves equally well qualified 

 readj' to take almost any office, Vifhose compensa- 

 tion may be deemed to be insufficient by the incum- 

 bent. 



We do not understand Mr. Attorney as making 

 any serious complaint — nothing more than an ex- 

 cuse to the ladies for remainingin his solitary bach- 

 elor estate. We will suggest to him, as we would 

 t-j every man in health holding office, that if ho 

 would unite the business of cultivating tlie ground 

 to that of his present oflice, be will be more likely 

 to place himself in a truly independent position 

 than he would be if his present olheial compensa- 

 tion were perhaps doubled. 



Looking about the State, wo find many men who 

 have held various public offices, as well as many 

 professional men, who have found their account iu 

 becoming farmers to a greater or less extent. The 

 Attorney General himself, before ho removed from 

 Goft'stown to Nashua, and while pursuing a lucra- 

 tive private practice, has "done the State some ser- 

 vice" by his farming operations. We much like 

 the methods he has pursued as detailed in part of a 

 short evening's conversation, and, v.-ithout asking 

 liberty, take "leave to communicate a few particu- 

 -lajs : — 



1. He states that he has cultivated excellent 

 fields of corn hy omitting the hill almost entirely : 

 he thinks there has been evident increase of the 

 crop by leaving the stalks to root deep undisturbed 

 l.>Y the plough or lioe after the roots of the corn 

 liave extended over the surHice, simply cutting up 

 the weedsand stirring the ground upon the surface. 



2. His practice has been never to sow grass 

 seed in the spring with oats or other grain on land 

 to be stocked down for hay. He says the reason 

 herds grass or Timothy never comes to maturity 

 the first year is, that, sowed in the spring with a 

 n-rain crop, like the planting of Indian corn in the 

 shade, the spears of grass are either destroyed or 

 become so enervated as to require a whole addition- 

 al year to take root. Ho has found no difficulty in 

 procuring an exuberant crop of herds 'i-rass the 

 first year by plougliing in the stubble after the grain 

 crop lias been taken oft' so late in the fall, say in 

 October, as that the seed shall not spring so as to 

 be killed b_v alternate thawing and freezing after 

 the root shall be started. 



'i. He obtain,^ all tlie advantage of his seed by 

 sow-ing double the usual quantity of herds grass 

 seed to the acre. If the newly prepared ground 

 have the strength of manure which ought to be af- 

 forded, half a bushel instead of a peck of herds 

 grass seed to the acre will increase the quantity and 

 improve tlic quality of the hay, as well becai>se all 

 the vacant spaces may he filled with additional 

 spears of grass, as because finer spears make a bet- 

 ter body for hay than coarser spears. 

 *-:-l. He sows no clover or other grass with the 

 Timothy, for the reason that clover is not so good 

 feed for cattle, and because his ample crop of herds 

 grass the first season renders the clover superflu- 

 ous. 



The Attorney has a lot of land in Golfstown of 

 sixteen acres, which he purchased several years 

 ago at a small price per acre. It was a common 

 meadow, producing a small crop of inferior hay, 

 until he drained, ditched, idiangcd the surface aiid 

 manured it, sowing it down to herds grass and oth- 

 er English hay. Tlie farmers of the vicinity do 

 not estimate this improved land as high as he does; 

 they say a high price would be fifty dollars the acre 

 — he believes the land worth on hundred dollars, 

 and therefore does not dispose of it. For the last 

 few years he has set the crop of this lot of land up 

 at auction at the time of haying, and it has sold 

 every year from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 

 dred dollars ; so that the land has annually yielded 

 nearly twelve per cent, on his own estimate, and 

 about twenty-four per cent, upon the estimate ot 

 his neighbors. 



