140 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



prelienaive tJiat his crop and tliat of li'is neighbors I 

 on the liills W'*uUl Ur too hite t«>r tiie t^oas*m. The 

 incessant rains of Juno and July h;u]iniicii helaled 

 the corn and the potatoes; the wheat, oats and 

 grass were luxuriant and promising. 



Escaping between the showers, we came into 

 Lancaster before the evening. Tlic ni^lit succeed- 

 ed with mucli rain, with sharp and vivid light- 

 ning-, and heavy thunder; and the next da}-^ a 

 succession of sliowers followed. In fifteen years 

 tlie appearance of this ancient villai^c has almost 

 entirely changed : the old meeting-house remains; 

 but the taveru house, and trading and mechanics' 

 shops are removed half a mile south, where a vil 

 lage near Israel's river has grown up around tlie 

 machinery of factories and saw and grist mills. A 

 jiew court-house, academy and two meeting-hou- 

 ses have been erected. 



We have in our possession a lively and graphic 

 manuscript history of the rise and progress of tlie 

 town of Lancaster, from the pen of the Hon. John 

 W. Weeks, who has lived in the town since 

 1787, when his father removed there when the 

 writer was six years of age. We cannot allow 

 ourselves to extract much of this history here, al- 

 though all of it would be interesting to our readers. 

 From the account we take the information that the 

 ^'Connecticut river, meaning in the Indian lan- 

 guage ''the stream of many waters," in north lati- 

 tude ^-Jd. 30ru. and loniritude 5 d. Qr'ui. easterly of 

 AV i.-hington oity, is the north-westerly boundary 

 o'' ^iincaster ten miles, exclusive of its windings, 

 and separating that town from Vermont. This 

 town is delightfully located — the hills receding 

 somewhat like an ampliithealre. Most of its lands 

 are of excellent quality, its alluvion stretching near- 

 ly its whole length, and averagi>ig about one 

 jnile in width. Israel's river rusiies tumultuously 

 westward, furnishing power for mills and machin- 

 ery to a great extent, near the centre of the town. 

 Lancaster was first settled in 17G'I." 



Maj. Weeks mentions as an important fact rela- 

 tive to this north country, that althougii Lancaster 

 has generally been considered too cold for the pro- 

 duction of Indian corn, the crop has wholly failed 

 only three times in the last fifty-two years — a fact 

 which will apply to almost every township in New 

 England. He says wheat is very sure when sown 

 late on ground well prepared, producing in very 

 few instances forty bushels to the acre, and avera- 

 ging perhaps twenty bushels. Oats yield about 

 fifty bushels to the acre, and potatoes in one case 

 over six hundred. The most elegant and lofty 

 white pines abounded (as they do in Carrol and 

 Whit^efield,) in the Jiigher Lancaster alluvions: 

 one shaft (lie says) measured four feet in diameter 

 at the base, was perfectly straight, and without 

 limbs ninety-eight feet, where it was twenty-two 

 inches in diameter, 



Long life on the Mountains. 



As proof of the excellence of this northern cli- 

 mate, Maj. W. presents the names of ten farmers 

 residing on the sides of the Martin Meadow Hills, 

 in Lancaster, who might all be called to dinner by 

 the same blast of a horn, the youngest of whom is 

 seventy-one and the eldest over eighty years of 

 age. These ten farmers settled in the same neigh- 

 borhood when young, with little other property 

 than their axes, having worked by the month to 

 pay for th^ir respective hundred acre lots. Moat 

 of them have raised large families, some of them 

 have become rich, and all enjoy a green old age, 

 being able to labor on the same soil they occupied 

 forty years ago. 



But we will not trespass further on the facts of 

 our friend ; his history is too interesting to be mu- 

 tilated. It is such a history as will be most wel- 

 come to New England farmers, and if it siiall not 

 be first claimed for the New Hampshire Historical 

 Society's next volume, we will hereafter give it in 

 the columns of the Visitor. 



Two miles south of tlie village is the fine inter- 

 vale and upland farm of Maj. Weeks, which has 

 been greatly improved, and its product increased 

 four-fold by that gentleman within the last ten 

 years : his fields of wheat upon the banks of the 

 Connecticut, some of whij^h stood nearly four feet 

 high, promised an abundant harvest. 



The upper o\-bow. 



South of Maj. Weeks' farm one mile is the ox- 

 bow intervale farm, of two hundred acres, owned 

 and occupied by Hon. John W. White, and late- 

 ly the property of his father, Maj. Moses H. 

 White, deceased. The entire exterior fencino- of 

 this farm does not much exceed the distance of one 

 hundred rods across the head of the bow. The in- 

 tervales upon Connecticut river are of tliat kind 

 that, when exhausted by careless cultivation or 

 successive cropping, they are easily renovated. 



Col. WJiite's farm continues very productive in 

 hay, produces excellent wheat and other grains, 

 and good crops uf corn and potatoes, with the ap- 

 plication once in a few years of not more than 

 eight or ten loads of manure to the acre. We how- 

 ever differ with liim in opinion as to the fact that 

 as large crops may be raised from land thus ma- 

 nured, as from the same land with double the quan- 

 tity of manure. He doubtless manages his farm 

 in the best manner for profit in tliat country — his 

 income being from the rearing of cattle and sheep. 

 He is bringing into fine cultivation a portion of his 

 land that has hitlierto produced but a trifle, by the 

 axe and the plough. Such a farm as he possesses 

 is of itself an independent estate. Besides the in- 

 tervale he lias eighteen liundred acres of swamp in 

 the south part of the town, much of which may be 

 made by drainage, when cleared of its growth of 

 wood, excellent ground for the production of ha^'. 

 The timber standing upon this swamp land, now 

 worth something, n\ny be much more valuable 

 when better jneans of transporting it to market 

 shall be furnished. 



The avenues through tlie high mountains of 

 New Hampshire are truly remarkable : some of 

 thein have been, some remain to be opened. The 

 passages up the Merrimack river and each of its 

 branches are made, with little ascent er descent. 

 From Nashua to Pl^'inouth, seventy-five miles, a 

 road may be made almost level ■ from Plymouth to 

 Haverhill thirty miles, by Baker's river and the 

 Oliverlan valley, a road is made with little rise 

 and fall : from Plymouth again, through the Fran- 

 conia notch, there is no hill that may not be sur- 

 mounted at an angle less than five degrees to 

 AVhitefield, more than forty miles. So in a trans- 

 verse direction from Littleton on Connecticut riv- 

 er to Portland, Me., there is an excellent road 

 through the notch of the White Mountains all the 

 way. From Lancaster some fifteen miles above 

 Littleton, a route has been examined up Israel's 

 river through Jeff*erson and Randolph, by the very 

 base of Mount Washington, down the waters of 

 the Androscoggin, through Shelburne, Bethel, &c. 

 to the tide waters at and beyond Portland. Moun- 

 tainous and broken as is this part of New England, 

 rail roads or ordinary roads may be constructed at 

 less expen.se here, tiian they can be in the rolling 

 countries at the west, where there is no rise of 

 ground over two hundred feet above the waters of 

 the surrounding lakes, but where the streams have 

 cut deep and precipitous gorges into the bosom of 

 the earlii. 



Journey down the "Valley.*' 



July 22. Monday morning, having by especial 

 invitation tarried under the hospitable roof of Col. 

 White, whose mansion, erected and furnished witli 

 an elegance, expense and taste, which do credit to his 

 ability and judgment, was carpetted with the pro- 

 duct of his own farm, spun and wove at his own 

 domestic fireside, our course was directly down 

 the easterly bank of the Connecticut river to Ha- 

 verhill, a distance of fifty miles. We passed suc- 

 cessively in view of beautiful ^nllagesand locations 

 in Lunenburg, Waterford and Barnet in tlie slate ot 

 Vermont. Every where on this river, both the al- 

 luvial and the mountain land is fertile. Never 

 could it appear in more delightful array than it did 

 in the latter part of the month of July. The far- 

 mers had just commenced cutting their ample 

 crops of hay ; the fields of rye, taller and thicker, 

 and with longer and fuller heads than we had in 

 an3' previous season before seen, were whitening 

 for the harvest ; the wheat, some of it changing to 

 a golden hue, and some of later culture, dressed in 

 lively deep green ; the tall oats with heads even as 

 the surface of the ground on which they were plan- 

 ted; the waving corn uotyet inmany places tasselled 

 out, but vigorous and stout in growth; the fat 

 herds of cattle, from the giant ox down to the two 

 months calf, grasping at the sweet feed of the pas- 

 tures up to the eyes ; the flocks of sheep upon the 

 mountains and hills near the road with the nurs- 

 ing mothers attending patiently to their young, 

 while the horned father "alone in his glory, " with- 

 in the bounds of a cider mill tether, panted on the 

 distant field ; all presented "mother earth" with the 

 dumb animals and the vegetables of her creation, 

 in her most fascinating attire. 



The more we have seen of the valley of the 

 "stream of many waters," the beautiful Connecti- 

 cut, the more we are delighted with it. Tlie soil 

 is so rich on this river, that tliere is no excuse for 

 the owners, if they are not good farmers. Most of 

 them indeed are well off; many of them are wealtliy 

 and independent. The best cultivated grounds onthe 

 low intervales of Connecticut river in olden times 

 were evidently the bottoms of more or \es3 ex- 

 tensive lakes, a series of which, broken through 

 from one to the other, drained oft', leave the present 



bed of the river as the reservoir of the remain- 

 ing waters. The waters of these lakes were formerly 

 discharged into the ocean in other directions — tlie 

 larger share probably through the valley of the 

 Merrimack. 



Down what is called tlie Fifteen mile falls (ilie 

 distance is twenty miles,) the river fulls more tlian 

 three hundred feet. In the whole disfance the 

 shore is bold, approaching generally, except where 

 some stream of water runs i'roin the mountain, near 

 the river. Much of the soil of the hills, which is 

 continually washing down, and either adding to 

 the alluvial beds, or carried into the river as sedi- 

 ment, is a dark gravelly mixture of decomposed 

 rock. To the nature of the material of which this 

 matter is composed, do we attribute much of the 

 fertility on the river below. When it shall be an- 

 alyzed we anticipate it may turn out that much of 

 the originals of tliis soil will be found to possess 

 fertilizing qualities to a high degree ; that it will 

 be fou'id to partake of marl or other rich substan- 

 ces similar to those which constitute the produc- 

 tiveness of the bes't soils of the western country. 



Against the towns of Dalton, Littleton and Ly- 

 man the river has frequent turns and clianges in its 

 course. About six miles above Mason's in Lyman, 

 in sight of one of the Waterford villages, is a splen- 

 did ampliitheatreextendingeach way several miles, 

 in the bottom of which is the winding river. The 

 land, constituting several farms on either side, 

 and including the white steepled church, and other 

 painted buildings, is of excellent quality, the soil 

 seeming to be as rich, as mellow, as light and ad- 

 hesive as the first rate alluvion. The town of Ly- 

 man, broken into mountain and valley which di- 

 vides one portion of it from another, contains much 

 good land, and many productive farms. Spring 

 wheat has always been a sure crop in this town. 

 Farmers who settled there from this vicinity twen- 

 ty-five and thirty years ago, used to bring us the 

 sweetest and best flour ever used in Concord. 

 This was before the Erie canal was constructed, 

 and prior to the day of Genessee flour. 



A pass cut through the rocks. 



There is a fine road up and down the river on the 

 New-Hampshire side, all tlie way from Haverhill 

 to Lancaster. This road and the inhabitants de- 

 serve the attention of the Post-Master General : if 

 he would go over it he would at once say tliat Lan- 

 caster ought to have a daily mail, three times a 

 week each way on this river road, and three times 

 by Bath, Lisbon and Littleton village in the Amo- 

 noosuck valley. The inhabitants of Lyman, to 

 cut through and complete this new river road, have 

 volunteered and expended two thousand days* 

 work. In the town of Bath, just before reaching 

 the north line of Haverhill, the mountain ledge 

 runs down to the river. The pass cut through the 

 solid rock by tliis ledge is a great curiosity. Yan- 

 kee ingenuity and perseverance alone would vol- 

 unteer to cut out such a pass : if it had been a 

 government work, a national or State improve- 

 ment, it would have cost many thousand dollars. 



The Counecticut River compressed. 



This ledge is some two or tliree miles below 

 where the Passuinsic river unites with the Con- 

 necticut, and nearly opposite the flourishing manu- 

 facturing village of Barnet. Just above are two 

 or tliree elegant alluvion farms : at the foot is a 

 striking natural curiosity in the river itself. At an 

 ordinary pitch, the united waters of the two rivers 

 strike against a ledge mcreased in width as it ex- 

 tends from the eastern shore to more than half the 

 width of the stream, and rebound in a wJiirl into a 

 considerable busm of the ledge. This whirl is so 

 great as to tiirow a boat directly out of the water in 

 the middle of the basin. The volume of water, af- 

 ter several revolutions in tlie basin, passes over to 

 the west side, and the entire current of the river is 

 discharged lu a passage only eighty feet in width. 



The lower ox-bo\v. 



Soon after leaving this mountain gorge we come 

 to the points where the Wells river from the west 

 in the town of Newbury, and the united waters of 

 tlie Amonoosuck from the north and the Wild Am- 

 onoosuck from the nonh-east unite with the Con- 

 necticut. Below, the towns of Newbury on the 

 west and Haverhill on the east extend nearly ten 

 miles. In this distance are the famous ox-bow 

 meadows : on both sides of the river vegetation 

 attains to its largest and most luxuriant growtii. 

 There are farms here mc-e desirable than almost 

 any others we have ever seen. The Plazen farm 

 on tlie little ox-bow turns out its two hundred tons 

 of hay anniuiUy : it is now owned by Mr. tfwasey, 

 whose maternal grandfather Merrill purchased 

 some thirty years ago to the extent of a iiiile near- 

 ly central in Haverhill from the river to the east 



