110 



THE FARMERS' MONl'HLY VISITOR. 



around the Ossipcc momitaiii on the nortli shore 

 is about (he same ; antl the travellotl distance a- 

 round the lake itself, within tlj.ose innuntains, is 

 very nearly eighty niiles. Tiie inko and ihe moun- 

 tains lie nearly central and all within the county 

 of Strafford, Cvliich extends sontherly forty miles 

 from the southeast point of the lake nearly to tJie 

 sea. The courts of the county are held at Gilford 

 near the outlet at the southwest corner of the lake, 

 at Giimanlon, at Rochester and Dover, all of them 

 south of Gilford, and tlie latter on the very verge 

 of the county. Tlie public offices of the county 

 are kept at Dover; and it is said, if there was onl}^ 

 a single shire, this towrt would better accommodate 

 the whole of this county extending on the easterly 

 line which separates New Hamptdiire and Maine 

 nearly one hundred milcG, tiian any other location. 

 This anomaly results lro!n the ])osition of the lake 

 and surrounding mountains which are central in 

 the county, carrying the travel to and from all oUt- 

 flide points out of a direct line, to a circuit around 

 the county. The last of the many attempts to di- 

 vide this great county, resulted in the late act of the 

 Legislature to make Ossipce the fifth shire town, 

 the new court house to be located at the "corner" 

 which is nearly central in that oblong and tri-cor- 

 iiered town. 



Elxterual appearances are often decep- 

 tive. 



Leaving the Bear Camp river and the direct road 

 to Portland at the upper end of Ossipee; we pass 

 into Eaton, over a road of several miles of level 

 hard pine plain, contrasting wonderfully with tiie 

 mountainous region all around it, which is at once 

 shut from the view by the uncleared forest on the 

 road-side. The town of Eaton, like many other 

 unwelcome solitary places in New Hampshire 

 through which there is much travel, is said to have 

 many good farms off of the travelled road. Its 

 greatly increased population, wliich more than 

 doubled bi-tween the years 1810 and 1820, sh^^ws 

 tliat it Is among those towns wliich have been '^o- 

 ing ahead. Valuable iron and lead ores are said to 

 exist in this towji. 



Chocorun Peak, Magic in a mountain 

 town. 



Westerly of Eaton towers the Chocorua Peak, 

 which may he seen as a tender to Mount Washing- 

 ton, by and over elevations of a less height from the 

 high grounds near the north line of central Massa- 

 chusetts, at a distance of more than a hundred 

 miles. This isolated mountain may be known by 

 its peculiar point, dlfferejit from that of any other: 

 it is said to have derived its name from an Indian 

 of the same name^ who was killed by a party of 

 ■white hunters in time of peace. The mountain is 

 situated in Burton, a township of large extent, hut 

 hitherto deemed to he of little value, and surroun- 

 ded by mountains. A strong prejudice existed for 

 many years against Burti^n ; it was said that cat- 

 tle could not be reared in the town — they were at- 

 tacked by a singular and fatal distemper, which 

 commenced with a loss of appetite, costivenrss. 

 subsequent brisk scouring, emaciation, and death. 

 This town of Burton v/as proverbial for its poverty, 

 and distinguished from every other town of the 

 State for its greater obstacles tn settlement. Large 

 tracts of land in this town were sold by specula- 

 tors to merchants in Boston and New York, in 

 which both parties were probably cheated ; and 

 for a long time New Hampsliirc men who had bu- 

 sinese with the two cities were otfered and urged 

 to purcha.'^o at almost any price these lands, which 

 had passed through many hands : they were bought 

 and sold by the brokers, as have Kince been tlie 

 great variety of fancy stocks which have commen- 

 ced by being blown far rbove their nominal val- 

 ue, and ending with the hu'sting of the bubble and 

 worth hardly a cent on the dolhir. Some sharpers 

 even put upon the speculators of the cities the 

 mountain also : old Chocorua herself, the rock of 

 which a large portion of it is composed, was meas- 

 ured oil' and counted with the rest. 



Until recently the settlements of Burton were 

 near Pequawket village in Conway, on the east 

 line of the town, and in the southwest on the line 

 of Tamworth. But prejudice having gradually 

 worn away, the prospects of this poor town have 

 been greatly changed for the better. Asa first step, 

 its inhabitants petitioned the Legislature, and its 

 name has been changed to Albany, although an- 

 other town only some twenty miles off in the State 

 of Maine exists of the eame name. Swift river, 

 uniting itself with the Saco river near Pequawket 

 village, runs nearly its whole length within the 

 limits of Burtoli, having its sources near Lincoln 

 and the highest sources of the Merrimack river, a 

 few miles Houth of the Francoria notch. Lumber 



is readil}'- floated down this river, of whiclt there 

 is a considerable quantity of pine on and near its 

 alluvial bottoms. The valley of this river between 

 the mountains is from four to six miles over, and 

 the bottoms are said to be no less fertile than those 

 on tlie Saco below. The wiiole soil, Avhich. is made 

 froai sot't, decomposing rock, having the appear- 

 ance of sandy loam and occasional coarse gravel, 

 as well upon the hill and mountain sides as in the 

 valleys, is very fertile. Ofthe nature of this moun- 

 tain soil, we may hereafter have occasion to give a 

 more particular statement. Albanynow hasapop- 

 ulation probably three times as great as it had. ten 

 years ago : its settlements along the Swift river 

 extend seventeen miles westerly from Pequawket 

 village. Settlers who have gone in there with a 

 small capital, have become at once independf-nt 

 farmers, and some with no other capital than Ihelr 

 hands are layings the foundation for competence by 

 clearing their lands. The pino timber is here all 

 valuable ; and the time is not far distant when the 

 original growth of maple, beech, birch, ash, and 

 even hemlock on the uncleared lands will be priz- 

 ed as equal at least to the value of the soil. This 

 valley of nev/ settlers is in a direction which had 

 been but little explored or understood until lately : 

 it is situated in that mountainous part ofthe State, 

 where it had been supposed no temptation would 

 ever induce the hardy settler to venture. 



Rail road from Portland through New- 

 Hampshire and Vermont. 



AstonisJiing as it may appear, this valley has, 

 within a R-w weeks past, been found a feasible 

 route for a rail road, being the point from Portland 

 wliich brings that city nearer to the valley of the 

 Connecticut and the State of Vermont by some 

 ten miles, than any other route. From Fryeburg 

 in Maine through Conway, is a dead level, and 

 from Conway up this Swift river through Albany, 

 and the same valley extending through the nurth 

 pr.rt of Waterville, a small elevation soon turns in- 

 to the Merrimack river valley, near its source in 

 Lincoln, and from that there is no great rise to t!ie 

 branch ofthe Wild Amonoosuck, which unites with 

 the Connecticut at the lower end of the town of 

 Bath, and below the Fifteen miles falls on that riv- 

 er. Whoever lives ten years need not be aston- 

 ished not only to see this valle}' through the whole 

 width of New Hampshire studded with fine farms, 

 but to sec a rail road through it, carrying to the 

 capital ofthe State of Maine an immense business 

 .of which the long and 'heavy transport by waggons 

 over roads either of hill or sand, between Boston, 

 and northern New Hampshire and Vermont, is now 

 but a small part. The cUy of I'orliand alone can 

 afford to consiruci this ruad^ even should its stocK, 

 be as much below par as the weyLern rail road from 

 Boston to Albany; and that city will gain ten for one 

 ofthe loss in the rise ofthe value of it&rcal estate 

 from the increase of its business. The State of 

 Maine has not been unmindful of this advantage ; 

 for her legislature has instituted a commission for 

 the survey of a rail i-oad extending fpoin that State 

 through New Hampshire and Vermont, which has 

 brouglit to light the facts respecVing our interior 

 mountains, to which we have just adverted. The 

 present lassitude and indifference of the men of 

 bdsines.s m Boston, ntauy of the most enterprising 

 of whom are natives of Vermoni and New Hamp- 

 shire, if continued, will terminate in giving to Iliu 

 capital of tlie State of Maine nmch of that com- 

 merce which furnishes the cjiy of Boston its larg- 

 est amount of beef, pork, Imtter, cheese, wool, &:.c. 

 which being considered already beyond the reach 

 of any rival, does not even give those interested 

 sufficient anxiety to look after it. Tlie route lor ti 

 rail road from Portland has been looked out at two 

 points — the one north of the White Mountains, 

 tlirongh Bethel in Maine, and Shelburne to Lan- 

 caster, N. H. — the other south by Fryeburg, IMe. 

 through the valley of Swift river to Bath, N. H. : 

 the latter is nearest by about ten miles, but the 

 northern route at pre&ent has the greater number 

 of inhabitants. 



The intervales of Couway and Fryeburg. 



July 18. We could not give much new in- 

 formation if we were to -attempt a description of 

 Conw.ay, which has all the marks of the long set- 

 tled rich towns of New England. The valley of 

 the Saco, coming down from the White Mountains, 

 meanders beautifully through this town : on its 

 banks are several fine farms. Many ofthe first set- 

 tlers of Conway emigrated from Concord (then 

 Pcnacook) and the vicinity some seventy years 

 ago. The race wlio jiitched at Concord came here, 

 then a weary distance through tlie woods, on ac- 

 count of its tine bottom lands on tlie Slerrimack, 

 much of which, cleared l>y the Indians, then teem- : 



ed with a luxuriant growth of natural grass ; and 

 the same race ventured s'till farther into the forest, 

 near the scene of a most sanguinary content with 

 the savages, to settle on the beautiful intervales of 

 the Saco in the i*equav/ket country, now consti- 

 tuting ihe towns of Conway in New Hampshire, 

 and Fryeburg in Maine, There is said to be inpre 

 of this alluvial land in either Conway or Fryeburg 

 than there is within the limits of Concord. We 

 think the soil is bettor on the alluvion ofthe Saco 

 than that of the Merrimack : it is composed of a 

 disintregation more recent from the mountains; 

 and the decomposed rocks which give it stamina 

 "in our belief are of a more fertilizing nature than 

 those which have formed the bases of the inter- 

 vales lower down on the Merrimack. One disad- 

 vantage these intervales at the north and nearer 

 the mountains encounter — their season is at least a 

 fortnight shorter than ours, and their crop of In- 

 dian corn is always more uncertain. 



The farmers and the Scottish lassies. 



Nathaniel Abbot, Esq., at the Pequawket vil- 

 lage in Conway, lias an intervale farm whose cul- 

 tivation and production will equal that ofthe best 

 farmer on the Concord intervales. The three 

 Messrs. Sparhawk (one of wliom the only sur- 

 viving son, and the other nephews ofthe late Sam- 

 uel Sparhawk formerly of tliis town, who died at 

 Conway a tew'years ago, distinguished for a life of 

 singular purity and benevolence) have each beau- 

 tiful farms on the Conwaj' meadows. Educated to 

 the prote-ssions or to merchandize, the example of 

 these gentlemen in their farmingoperations is wor- 

 thy of praise. "The Doctor," who is the son of 

 our deceased friend, eschews the dealing out of 

 "pill and potion," and chooses rather the cultiva- 

 tion of his ground and" the rearing of fat animals, 

 than to spend his time to administer to the sick 

 ones. Two of the gentlemen Iiave recently chos- 

 en for a "better half," young ladies, sisters from 

 the "Land of Cakes," who came to this town on a 

 visit two or three years -since, — " lassies," who if 

 they shall wear like the sister who came herefrom 

 Scotland nearly twenty years before them, when 

 they were mere infants, will be an acquisition for 

 which the best people of the Pequawket country 

 will long have reason to thank their husbands. — 

 The improvements of the Messrs. Sparhawk in 

 cultivation and buildings within a few years have 

 been great : their example operates well on the 

 neighbors around them. Indeed many ofthe farm- 

 ers of that region hardly needed such an example 

 as a spur to their enterprise. These gentlemen 

 have introduced into that region two or three} cars 

 ago, the Durhuin breed of cattle and the Berk- 

 sliire breed of hogs. It is believeil lluse breeds 

 will there succeed as they are succeeding else- 

 where. We observed in passing their premises 

 that they were reclaiming considerable tracts of 

 swampland by ditching, paring and burning: from 

 the complexion of these, from the rich black soil 

 which they bring into view, we have little doubt 

 that they will be as a mine furnishing the future 

 means of fertilizing the lighter soils which need 

 only this aliment to yield in great abundance. 



Fryeburg — its village iiud rich intervales, 



A few hours of thiS day were spent at the village 

 of Fryeburg in Maine, nine miles down the Saco 

 from Pequawket village, and beautifully situated 

 on the extensive plain a few feet higher than the 

 bottom ft-nJs of the Saco river. The s jil on this 

 plain is so light and porous that without a drain or 

 conduit in even the present wet season, the water 

 has never troubled the deeper cellars. Tlie neat 

 .dwellings, some of them elegant, situated on a dt- 

 rectline of the main street, witli their ample yards 

 decorated witli fruit and ornamental trees, present 

 the village in a most inviting attitude to the stran- 

 ger. Among other substantial improvements was 

 a large granite school house. There is great abun- 

 dance of intervale and fertile meadow grounds 

 within the limits of Frj'cburg. Saco river former- 

 ly pursued its sinuous course for the distance nf 

 tliirt-y-three miles within the limits of this town, re- 

 turning before it takes a liiial leave almost to the 

 point from which it started. The Indians in form- 

 er times had their wigwam on a higli ground near 

 the bank of the river, and upon the present line be- 

 tween Conway and Fryeburg : in their hunting 

 excursions for trapping furs, they would leave their 

 village in their birch-bark &anoes, and after pursu- j 

 ing the whole course of this river thirty-three miles, i 

 return by land witli their canoes and their game 

 upon their backs : but little more than a single mile 

 travel on foot would set them from one to the oth- 

 er extreme point of their water journey. A few 

 years since, by an act of the Maine Legislature, 

 liberty was granted for a canal ; and a great por- 



