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THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



ble parts in a small than in a large animal, will/^ive 

 more money for Isvo oxen of one bundrcd and fifty 

 pounds each per quarter, than for one of three 

 hundred pounds. 



The form of a/iimols a few years a^o attracted 

 the attention ofan eminent surgeon, Henry Clink, 

 of London. The following is tlie substance of tlie doc- 

 trines whiclihe lays down:— That tlie external forui 

 is onjy an indication oi tlie internal structure ; that | 

 the lungs of an animaf is the first objeet to be at- 

 tended to, for on tljeir size and soundnCF-;3 tlie health 

 and strength of an animal principally depend ; 

 that tlie external indications of the size of the luui^s 

 are the form and size of the chest, and itn breadth 

 in particular; that tlie head should l)e small, as by 

 this tlie birth is facilitated ; as it aft'ords otlier ad- 

 vantages in feeding, &c., and as it generally indi- 

 cates that the animal is of a good breed ; that the 

 length of the neck should be in proportion to the 

 size of the animal.^ tlijt it may collect its food with 

 ease ; and that tht^ muscles and tendons should be 

 large, by which an animal i^ enabled to travel with 

 greater facility. It wa.s formerly the practice to 

 estimate the value*f anTmals by the size of their 

 bones. A large bone was considered, to be a great 

 merit J and a fine-boned animal always implied 

 great size. It is now known that this doctrine was 

 carried too far. The strength of an animal does 

 not depend on the bones, but on ihe muscles ; and 

 when the bones are disproportionably large, it indi- 

 cates, in Cline's opinion, an imperfection in the 

 organs of nutrition. Bakf.well strongly insists 

 on the advantage of small bones, and the celebra- 

 ted John Hunter declared that small bones were 

 generally attended with corpulence in all the vari- 

 ous subjects he had an opportunity of examining. 

 A small bone, however, being heavier and more 

 fiubfetnntial, requires as much nourishment as a 

 ijollow one with a larger circumference. — Ibid. 



A Laudable Esample. 



Among the professional gentlemen whoso ex- 

 ample has been of great benefit to the public, and 

 who have contributed to elevate the occupation of 

 the farmer, we might name Judge H.ivks, of South 

 Berwick, in Maine. This gentleman has a numer- 

 ous family of sons whom he has been and is edu- 

 cating expressly to qualify theuLfor various kinds 

 of business. A member of our Legislature, a self 

 made man, who read in his office, informs us that 

 he left College two hundred dollars in debt ;■ that 

 tlie Judge, although to liim almosl a stranger, gen- 

 erously volunteered to advance him this money, 

 and in addition, furnished him on credit his board 

 and tuition for the three years study n.-cessary to 

 qualify him for the practice of law; atid' Ihifi too 

 while the education of his own children required 

 a constant disbursement. 



We believe Mr. H. fills the office of Judge of 

 Probate for York Counlj', which does not prevent 

 an extensive and lucrative practice at the b;ir. 

 With tiiese and other positions in benevolent and 

 private institutions much of his time must be en- 

 grossed. Nevertheless he has im]»rovcd for years, 

 and carries on, one of tlie best farms in his vicini- 

 ty. He could afford to lay out money in improve- 

 ments ; and for .several years it is supposed he car- 

 ried more to the ground than was returned to him. 

 When sucii a man spends more in improvements 

 than he gains, his operations are generally of ben- 

 ffit to those whom he employs : his money per- 

 forms the double olnee of creating new capital, 

 and giving employment to those who might be idle 

 without it. How much more satisfactory must be 

 sucli a disposition of money than that of increas- 

 ing it in a compound ratio by loaning it at twelve 

 and a half or J.vvcnty-five per cent, to the ruin of 

 the otber party to'the loan ? 



The Judge now derives both pleasure and profit 

 from liisfarm. As described to us he has convert- 

 ed much land deemed to be useless into the most 

 fruitful fields. His mov.ing lands, which produce 

 abundance of the best English hay, iiave been 

 found in the snJiken waste, liaving undergone the 

 operation of ditching and other expensive prep- 

 fttions. His pasture grounds, it is said, iiave been 

 brought to yield much feed in a small space by 

 pursuing the course in relation to their cultivation 

 that is pursued with arable and other cultivated 



f rounds — they have been cleared, ploughed, sub- 

 ued and manured ; and we are informed the pro- 

 prietor is of opinion that no lees gains are to be 

 made from pasture land thus prepared tlian from 

 land iiighly cultivated for anj' other purpose 



The improvement of numerous acres, the crea- 

 tion as it were of an improved and improving farm 

 where nothing but a pour farm constantly deterio- 

 rating before existed, must have a salutary efTect 

 ao far as it shall be observed — one such example 

 will find a hundred imitators. A man of beneyo- 



lent heart gains much in feeling if he sometimes 

 sliali lose something in purse ; but when he can 

 realize that he is gaining in estate while his appe- 

 tite and his good taste shall feast on the flourisiiing 

 growth of liis fields and the fat from his pastures, 

 his enjoyment must be far above ibat derived from 

 those evanescent honors wiiieh fftjl with the posses- 

 sion to him wlioso distinction results tVom being 

 accidentally placed in some pronrinent position. 



The Moosehillock 



Is among the most noble and lofty eminences 

 of ttie Granite State. The iiighest point is 

 4634 feet above the sea, a little above the limit of 

 the growth of forest trc^es in tlie latitude of 44 

 degrees north, where it is situated. The top of 

 tliis mountain is from seven to ten miles easterly 

 from Connecticut river against Ihe town of Haver- 

 Iiill extending on the easterly side about ten miles 

 along that river, and against the town of 

 Newbury in Vermont extending nearly an equal 

 distance on the westerly side. Tbe fertility and 

 the beauty of the intervales m these two towns is 

 nowhere exceeded through the whole dis'ance of 

 the valley of tiie Connecticut : those intervales 

 had been cultivated in elegantfarms for many years. 

 But within the last twelve years the agricultural 

 population and products of Haverhill have doubled 

 from the taking up and settling the higher lands 

 further distant from the river : tbe white pine tim- 

 ber lands, which have been clea-red and the lumber 

 tloated down the river, have been found to be good 

 for cultivation; and the hard-wood lands up the 

 sides of the steepest hills are even more fertile 

 than these. 



The mountain Moosehillock lies principally 

 within tJ'e town of Coventry', whose several set- 

 tlements are broken by its interference so as to 

 oblige the passing out of town in going from one 

 to another point of the town. Mucli of this town 

 still rejnalns to be settled. The dark forests at the 

 base and sides of this magnificent moiintain will 

 undoubtedlv disappear before the woodman's axe, 

 and before manv years be converted into fields for 

 cultivation, or into extensive ranges of pasture 

 grounds. Easterly of the Moosehillock for many 

 miles is a range of mountains of much tlie same 

 character; and between these mountains are val- 

 leys of uudoubted fertility, many of which have 

 been scarcely yet explored. 



The character of this mountain land cannot be 

 mistaken when the fact is known that the delight- 

 ful sugar-tree abounds as well on the elevated 

 lands about their base as far up on the sides of the 

 higher mountains. The climate is indeed much 

 colder as you approach the summits. These sum- 

 mits are often capped with clouds which are the 

 creators and forerunners of the storms and 

 cold weatlicr below, prevailing throughout 

 New England in the north-westerly wind. The 

 liumidity of these mountain lands is greater than 

 that of the lower grounds: the depth of snow 

 in winter on Moosehillock isgenerallv mucli more 

 than that upon tlie river near it. Wa remember 

 being at Haverhill in the autumn of 18.S3 after 

 an easterly rain; the wind changed to the north- 

 west, and from sun-rise in the morning until one 

 o'clock in the afternoon a dense cloud rested upon 

 Moosehillock while ail was fnir and clear below. 

 This cloud retiring in the afternoon, left the 

 mountain capped with a regular surface of snow, 

 which probably did not, disappear from early in 

 October until the •■^nsuing spring. 



We have said that the sugar maple was a preva- 

 lent tree in this mountain region. In conversation 

 with the gentleman who represents Coventry in 

 the Legislature, we were surprised to learn the 

 quantity of maple sugar annually manufactured by 

 some families in his town. It is no reproach to 

 call names when every thing connected with the 

 mention of them is laudable and praiseworthy'. — 

 Mr. William Wiiittiek, who lives at the north 

 foot of Moosehillock in Coventry, is the father oi^ 

 a family of fifteen children, if remembered aright 

 nine sons and pix daughters. With tliis family he 

 has made in a single season more than three thou- 

 sand pounds of sugar from the maple: the amount 

 of manufacture in his family the present year 

 was between two and three thousand pounds. To 

 show the capabilities of th(^ soil which he culti- 

 vates, that cannot be called inferior in every desi- 

 rable requisite to the most fertile regions of the 

 far West, we need only mention triat this man, 

 rearing and bringing up a noble family of fifteen, 

 of whom are sons sulliclently- numerous for a file 

 of soldiers capable of defending their countrv's 

 rights, has in the course of a few years accuuiula- 

 ted an estate with no other property to begin with 

 than his own hands, wortli five or six thousand 

 dollars, rendering him more truly independent thaji 



arc many men in the seaports and larger towns 

 who arc nominnlly worth Un\ times as much as he 

 possesses. But his most valued property is in the 

 children U'hich be >.as reared, and who,although the 

 oldest is only about 2G years old, have assisted 

 the parents in the rapid accumulation of this pro- 

 perty, tlius paying oft-hand for the sacrifices and 

 labors ui' early protection and support. 



Auntiier fact in relation to tliis family deserves 

 to-be mentioned, because it proves there is no re- 

 gion on earth more conducive to health, to vigor 

 of constitution and of consequent long life than 

 the Granite hills of northern New England. The 

 family of fifteen children, although some of them 

 have not yet attained their full growth, will aver- 

 age more than six feet each "from the crown of 

 the head to the soal of the foot." Can the fertile 

 West furnish the parallel to this family of sons 

 and danghterij ? 



Another evidence of the excellent health en- 

 joyed by old age in this mountain region, may bo 

 found in the fact that i\Ir. Jesse Eastman, aged 

 seventy-six years, living near Moosehillock, per- 

 formed the whole operation of tapping the trees 

 and manufacturing from the sap about nine hun- 

 dred pounds of maple sugar the present year. 



Tieatmeut of Milch Cows. 



There is, perha|)s, no part of the husbandry of 

 our country so much neglected as that which re- 

 lates to the providing of provender for the milch 

 cows on our farms. On many estates, even those 

 of niaiinitude, the chief part of the food, if not 

 the entire, which they get, are the blades, the tops 

 and the husks of the corn, with an occasional gra- 

 tuity of nubbins by way of a holiday feast. The 

 consequence is, that if the winter be severe and 

 protracted, there is nine chances out often, that 

 every cov^-, lonc; before spring arrives, is either dry, 

 or so near it, that the milk she will give is not 

 worth the trouble and cost of stripping, so that 

 manv farmers with half a dozen or more cows have 

 neitlier milk nor butter sufficient for the domestic 

 uses of their tables, during the latter part of each 

 winter, and by the time tliat the cold and bleak 

 winds of March arrive, many of the cows are on 

 the lift. How is it possible tliaL it can be otherwise.^ 

 There i'' little or no succulence in the food we have 

 described in its dry state, and consequeittly cows 

 fed upon it, must, for the want of mat.er convert- 

 ible into milk, cease to yield it. In every other 

 country save our own, it forms a part of the busi- 

 ness of the farmer or planter, to provide full sup- 

 plies of nutritious food for his stock of every kind, 

 and for tliosc which comprise the dairy cows, espe- 

 cial pains and care are taken to provide a sufficient 

 quantity of such roots as are heartening and suc- 

 culent, so that by thus providing a substitute for 

 the grasses of the pasture, or the soiling stalls or 

 3'ards, his dairy, even through the dreary and in- 

 clement period of the winter, may continue to con- 

 tribute largelv to the comfort of his family, and to 

 the increase of his fortune. No good farmer, then, 

 will keep more cows than he can hfcp rccU, and in 

 so keeping thejn, he finds his interest rewnrded, 

 and hns besides the satisfaction of knowing, that 

 in thus acting he has fulfilled an obligation impos- 

 ed upon him by every humane consideration, and 

 discharged a duty required by Him, who, in pla- 

 cing the beasts of the field in subjection to man, 

 ^njoined that he should extend towards tliem his 

 kindest protection and care. We frequently hear 

 gentlemen complaining of the difficulty of procur- 

 ing such cows as will make profitable returns, and 

 of thr impossibtlity of keeping them to their milk 

 during winter. The reason is obvious. No cow, 

 and we care not what her breed may be, whether 

 she be of the improved Durham Short Horn, the 

 Devon, thclldcrtici/, the common cow of the coun- 

 try, or any other kind — we .'^ny no cow can he kept 

 to the nnlk pail unless you give her something 

 which will both nourl^'f her system and replenish 

 her udder. To make a cow yield a liberal supply 

 of milk tliroi"i;h tlie winter, she should have, in 

 addition to full supplies of good, wholesome ha^' or 

 fodder, at least half a bushel of roots of some kind, 

 or an equivalent of cabbages or kale per day. And 

 if the hay should be fed fong, each cow should 

 have, at least two days in the week, messes of chop- 

 ped rye and cut ytraw, to be either steamed or mix- 

 ed up with boiling water, and permitted to remain 

 until it be fermented before feeding. The ambi- 

 tion of procuring fine breeds of animals of all 

 kinds, is one worthy of every praise ; but that of 

 iti Icing good rare of wliat we have, is equally if 

 not more laudable. Besides these oonsidcrations, 

 the interest of every farnn r is nlwa5''s promoted by 

 feeding iris cows well. If fed in the niggard man- 

 ner we have described, their keeping, such as it 

 is^, is a dead loss to their owners ; they mako no 



