130 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



the jrronnH than the best stalk in the Iiill, and re- 

 produce thousands of seeds which will sow them- 

 selves in the ground to prepare as many weeds for 

 the next season. In the space between the hills if 

 the weeds be left tliey will be likely to luxuriate in 

 the soil sii as to overtop and oversliade the hill it- 

 self. Much is due to tbe careful eradication of 

 weeds at the time of hoeing. If they are simply 

 covered over witliout being heed or cut up by the 

 roots, tiie operation will generally only serve to 

 give the weeds a more ready "rowth. 



Clean cultivation of the soil is important beyond 

 the calculation of most farmers. What can give its 

 proprietor more pleasure than a clean garden or 

 clean field, in wh:ch noliiingis to be seen growing 

 but the crop originally intended ? This pleasure is 

 not alone in the present tense — he looks to the con- 

 sequences of this clean field on the crop of the 

 next and succeeding years — he reflects that this 

 clean soil in the following season will supersede at 

 least one half of the severe labor of cultivation. 



In the matter of weeds we commend the atten- 

 tion of farmers of the interior to the example of 

 their brethren in the town of Rye upon the sea- 

 board. While so unwell as to be scarcely able to 

 sit or stand upright, since the publication of the 

 last Visitor, we have again visited our favorite 

 ^'pattern town." The fields of potatoes growing 

 in tliat town are tbe perfect contrast of those grow- 

 'ing in the interior. Tiie upper soil in the town of 

 Rye is of that kind which u'ould be Irkely to be 

 affected by the wet weather, resting upon a sub-soil 

 nearly as impervious as rock ; yet of the numercus 

 and exiensive potatoe fields in that town we scai-ce- 

 ly looked into one where a weed presumed upon 

 showing its head above the Jnxiiriant vines which 

 well covered the ground. These potatoe fields, 

 generall}'^ planted in hills at the distance of two and 

 a half or three feet, have been carefully hoed all of 

 them three times ; and this attention and industry 

 give to the intended croo the entire strength of the 



BOJl. 



It cannot be doubted that ofthe cultivated ground 

 of New England tlie prf^sentyear in many places 

 one fourtli to one third and in others nne half of 

 the full strength of the soil is usurj)od by noxious 

 weeds, wliich not only eurk up the goodness of the 

 soil for this year, but lay the foundation for a great- 

 ly increased crop the next year. How much does 

 it become farmers to take steps for the eradication 

 of those pests of the ground ? Wiiata feast to the 

 senses would it be to the traveller to pass through 

 the country at this season with clean fields, like 

 those of the town of Rye, every where in view' .'' 

 This little town, small in size, but greater in pro- 

 duction than any other in the State, is oiTof any 

 considerable travelled road — it ranges alon^j the sea- 

 shore, and most travellers '*pass by on tiie other 

 side:" but it is worth while for every man who 

 takes an interest in the cultivation of llie soil to 

 turn out of hia way to examine it in its length and 

 breadth. 



**Book farming," The "Pattern Town." 



There is more ground than many suppose for ob- 

 jection to the book farmer — the mere theorist wlio 

 wraps himself up in complacency at tlie knowled^i-c 

 which he gains by reading scientific and curious 

 works on agriculture. Most men of judgment who 

 have practised farming for twenty, thirty or forty 

 years, can impart more information to tiie young 

 farmer wanting experience than all he can gain 

 from reading. The value of any agricultural pub- 

 lication is generally enhanced when it coi:ibinos 

 accurate and specific knowledge derived from the 

 experience of many farmers. Such information, 

 coincident in different individuals, carries demon- 

 stration of its practicability and utility. 



Of the occupation ofthe farmer it may be truly 

 said 



*'An if; the giit <if industry— whal'cr cTalts, 

 Embellishes, or renders liYe delighUul," 



In proof of this, we need only recur (and the 

 reader will excuse our enthusiasm) to oui^ "pattern 

 town" upon the sea-board of New Hampshire. ^It 

 is not only raising from the hard earth abundance 

 in a small space, but it is rear>ng up a race of men 

 and women whose habits of industry and applica- 

 tion render them more certain of fut'ure lisefulness 

 and success in life than any other class which can 

 be named. 



About the twentieth of August we spent a day 

 or two at Rye and upon the Isles of Shoals, which 

 are situated out at sea about nine miles from Rye 

 harbor. The crop of grass had all been made into 

 hay and secured in barns. The wheat and other 

 grams were reaped or cradled or mown, in prepara- 

 tion to be secured. The luxuriant fields of pota- 

 toes and corn and the root crops of the gardens and 

 fields remained. 



The inhabitants of Rye are not *'book-farmers" 

 — their knowledge is not derived from any scien- 

 tific researches in foreign countries, nor have they 

 liad the benefit of any labored analyses of soils. 

 Their gronnd was originally rocky ; and immense 

 masses of stones liave been taken from the surface 

 and placed in good and durable stone walls — a ma- 

 terial for fence which will last many ages. Tlie 

 fields are generally from two to five acres — very 

 rarely i.** one under cultivation so large as ten a- 

 cres. Tbe walled fences are commonly direct and 

 at right angles. 



iNecessity has made them what they are : experi- 

 ence has been their best school master. Of about 

 three hundred ratable polls, the families oi'LoCK, 

 Goss and Jenne&s are said to compose ncary one 

 hundred. The successive generations, unlike otli- 

 er towns, have here increased. Cases are pointed 

 out W'hrre a firm owned by the father of some fifty, 

 seventy-five or one hundred acres, has been divid- 

 ed into three and four farms among as many sons ; 

 and either farm producing more now than tlie orig- 

 inal farm did twenty or thirty years ago. 



Various methods are resorted to by the farmers of 

 Rye to renovate their soil : their principal reliance 

 for dressing is on the vegetable products ofthe sea, 

 rock wet'd, sea weed and kelp. Ev'cr}' considera- 

 ble storm throws upon the beach and rocky shore 

 quantities of vegetable growth from the sea. In 

 the most busy season of the year no sooner is the 

 grass taken from the field tlian the teams, loaded 

 with sea and rock weed, are seen passing from tlie 

 beach to the farm. It is laid out in pile.s and spread 

 over the entire surface. Although the Rye farmers 

 suppose the efi'ects of this manure to last ordy one 

 year, yet they consider themselves well paid for 

 the severe labor of gathering and carting it several 

 miles. When the vegetable matter thrown upon 

 the smooth beach is exhausted, the farmers resort 

 to the rocks on the shores. We saw them, on re- 

 turning into the harbor from tbe Shonls, with two 

 stout yokes of oxen carting over rocks of a large 

 size small quantities, and carrying it to a smoother 

 place from which several of the small collections 

 might be made into a full load. 



The potatoe crops in Rye are almost invariably 

 gccd : this year they will be very fine. The rust 

 seems to have struck the potatoe vines every where 

 else : in Rye the fields were green and flourisliing 

 in almost every instance. The ejceptions thcrc^icc 

 heJicrCj icill pi'ore that the sal/'iie tnanure has prc- 

 rcntedthe rusf. Salt as a manure, judiciously ap- 

 plied, will be found hardly' less valuable than lime. 

 Fine salt distributed over a garden, not in lumps 

 coming in immediate contact with the plant, but 

 diffused over the whole surface in small quantities, 

 we are confident, will prevent or retard the blight 

 of onions : we cannot doubt that the salt contain- 

 ed in the sea manure applied to the oultivati(;n of 

 the fields in Rye ha'^ prevented the blight of pota- 

 toes in that town. The neat and careful manatre- 

 ment of the potatoe fields in Rye is worthy of imi- 

 tatinji by the farmers of the interior. The potatoe 

 field is always carefully hoed three times. Pota-~- 

 toes in that and the adjoining towns are raised in 

 great quantities to be shipped all along the southern 

 coast, and to the West Indies. The common price 

 obtained for shipping potatoes is forty coTits the 

 bushel ; and the ordinary product is three hundred 

 bushels to the acre. 



A farmer in Rye with thirty acres of land will 

 obtain more profit than some farmers of the interior 

 with ten times as many acres. Suppose he has a 

 family of six or eight sous and daugliters. In the 

 highest and best cultivation he has Iwclve acres of 

 aralile land, six acres of which are potatoes, two of 

 corn, one of garden and root veg'tablcs, one of 

 wheat, and two of rye, barley or oats. He mows 

 eight acres, from which he obtains at least twenty 

 tons of hay. Ten acres are pasture, on which, with 

 sliglit feeding, he summers a 3'oke of oxen, some- 

 times a horse and at least two cows : his flock of a 

 dozen sheep with a spare yoke of oxen and one or 

 more cows to be futted he hires pastured upon the 

 Nottingliam hills. He does his own work with the 

 aid of two sons, the one fourteen and the other six- 

 teen vears of age. Hi.s product from the potatoe 

 field is eighteen hundred bushels, seventeen hun- 

 dred of v.'Jiich he sells for the sum of six hundred 

 and eighty dollars. His other crops of corn; wheat, 

 rye, *fcc. furnish abundance of bread for the con- 

 sumption of his family, and leave a supply for sale 

 sufficient to pay his taxes and to purchase the ne- 

 cessaries of sugar, tea, eofiee, iS;c. and all tlic arti- 

 cles of clothing not manufuctured under his ovvu 

 roof The sons and daughters attend' the district 

 school at least one third part of the year, and in this 

 time obtain nearly as good an English education 

 as do rich men's sons and daughters in the towns 

 and cities who do notlfmg until tb.ey arrive at age 



but "obtain an education." The working part ia 

 the best part of the education of the sons and 

 daughters of a Rye farmer. They go fortli into 

 the world with untainted liabits : their youthful as- 

 sociations prepare them for the liighest social en- 

 joyments. Tlie industry of their parents has fur- 

 nished thein with the means to begin life; and, what 

 is better, example and precept have given the ca- 

 pacity to will and to do whatever shall be most ex- 

 pedient in the future pursuits of life. 



The farmer with his thirty acres and WMth such 

 a family has better enjoyineats and stronger attach- 

 ments to life than the rich and the great. A titled 

 nobility, favorites of tlie people basking in tiie hon- 

 ors of proud distinction, do not really possess so ma- 

 ny means of rendering life desirable, as do the Yeo- 

 manry of our country who malte themselves inde- 

 pendent by their own industry, rearing up families 

 to follow in the same footste[»s. 



Our Rye farmer with liis thirty acres is more in- 

 dependent and happy than tlie merchant who has 

 procured millions. Paying out for hired iielp two 

 hundred dollars a year, he can feed and clothe and, 

 educate liis eight childien, and still lay up at least 

 five hundred dollars a year. Our picture may by 

 some be considered extravagant. It is not proba- 

 bly beyond the truth in a nuniber of cases : with 

 some grains of allowance it will apply to three- 

 fourths of the population of our '^pattern town." 

 Almost every farmer in the town is not only out of 

 debt, but has money in his pocket or money loaned 

 out which is earning more money. As evidence of 

 prosperity, we see old houses repaired and made 

 like new W'ith paint; new houses and ample barns 

 and stables erecting. It is said tiiere is hardly a 

 hundred rods of permanent fence in the town that 

 is constructed of a material less durable than stone: 

 the fields are every where encompa.sscd with clean, 

 lasting stone walls: these alone constitute a per- 

 manent capital to the farmers of many thousand 

 dollars. The roads in the town in every direction 

 are excellent. The nature of the ground is such, 

 that when once properly constructed .they re^nain 

 for years without the necessity of repairs: the 

 floods do not wash them away, and the flinty soil 

 is impervious to the cart wheels. 



The abundant means of the people of Rye have 

 been evinced during the last j'ear in the erection 

 of three elegant meeting houses for public w'or- 

 ship. The old town meeting house, at which un- 

 der the ministry of the first Paksons the whole pop- 

 ulr.tion worshipped fifty and sevent^'-iive years ago, 

 and which has been erected more tlian a century, 

 stdl occupies its place as the most conspicuous ob- 

 ject. If we belonged to the town, we sliould hope 

 that this veteran house might be spared for the good 

 it has done at least another hundred years, with the 

 steeple surmounted by the Gallic cock and under- 

 neath the old bell that has long called the living to 

 Sunday worship and summoned the dead to their 

 last home, W{t as they Iiave been. Around and. 

 near the old house of worship three different de- 

 nominations have erected the three new houses at 

 an expense of from finir to si-v thousand dollars 

 each. First the Contrregationalists who have gen- 

 erally employed an educated minister: over this 

 parish the Rev. Huntington Porter, now an oc- 

 togenarian and resident in Massachusetts, was tlie 

 settled minister for nearly half a century. The 

 other two new houses are erected, the one by the 

 Christian Baptist and tbe other by tlie Metliodist 

 denominatien : the two last are under the lead of 

 two *'elders" who are wealthy farmers of the town, 

 either of them probably himself able to build* his 

 church and personally capable to supply it every 

 Sabbath vrith the preached word. By the census of 

 ]8!30, the population of Rye was 1,172 — with the 

 increase since, as might be supposed, hardly suffi- 

 cient to fill the three places of worship. Thcro 

 can be no doubt of the abundant means ofthe cit- 

 zens to support three places of worship. If the 

 only strife among them shall be, which shall most 

 excel in all the Christian virtues, which shall best 

 emulate that holy charity and liberality evinced in 

 the life and example of the heavenly Saviour, the 

 tendency of that division which has made three 

 places of worship necessary where for many years 

 only one had sufficed, will be "good and not evil." 



Revolnlionary Reminiscences. 



There are few persons thirty years of age that 

 resided in this vicinity twenty years ago who will 

 not remember the late Rubekt'B. Wilkins. Hav- 

 ing served thrcngh the war ofthe revolution inihe 

 New Hampshire line, there were no officers and 

 iew soldiers of that line of whom he did not per- 

 sonally know something — where each man was 

 from, to what company he belonged, in what bat- 

 tles he was engaged. While he lived he was the 

 living chronicle of the events of the revolution. 



