THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



141 



line of tlic town, mnking six scjuaie miles, for as 

 many thousand dollars. A single pine timber lot 

 upon this jrround, belonging to the estate of the 

 late Mr. Swasey, deceased, is now valned at thirty 

 thousand dollars. The regiment of Col. Hazen 

 during tlie revolutionary war, a regiment raised for 

 service against Canada, was for sonu'tinic quarter- 

 ed near the ox-bow meadows in Haverhill : the first 

 court iiouse and jail for the county of Grafton 

 were situated near the same location, several 

 miles above their present position ut Haverhill 

 Coi]ier. 



limestone in Haverhill, 



July 23d and 24tii. In snug quarters with our 

 friend Reding. The last of these d.ays we took an ex- 

 cursion with Gov. Page through the easterly sec- 

 tion of the town, going by "Slab city," pnd return- 

 ing by the Olivcrian brook. Not satisfied with a 

 fine alluvion farm at home near the Corner, Gov. 

 Page is making two other farms seven and eight 

 miles out in the town of Coventry nr-ar by the 

 Moosehillock. In the vicinity of these larms lime- 

 stone has recently been discovered, which has al- 

 ready been worked to some extent. The same lime 

 stone at about equal distances from the river lias 

 been found at Orford below and Lisbon above. 

 The decomposing rock which encompasses the 

 Haverhill limesloue possesses the elements of fer- 

 tility in a wonderful degree : herdsgrass six feet 

 high with surprising long heads was found grow- 

 ing upon this covering which had been exposed to 

 the air for a single season. 



We have heretofore mentioned the crop of pota- 

 toes raised last year on one of these out farms of 

 Gov. Page upon the side of the mountain. A fine 

 drove of swine was feeding upon these potatoes ; 

 and there was no mist.ake about thejrbi/.e and qual- 

 ity. In all this region, especially on the newly 

 cleared land, the crops of wheat, rye and Eng- 

 llsli hay were no where surpassed in abundant 

 growth: the 'grounds recently in forest literally 

 blossomed as llie rose. 



The Canadian Frenchmen, who emigate to the 

 States, are proverbial for their industry and fideli- 

 ty. Gov. Page has one of these whom he en^ploys 

 considerably on his Coventry farm upon the Oliv- 

 erian : he came destitute with a faniily. The Gov- 

 ernor's workmen assisted in the erection of a com- 

 fortable shanty, and to fill up the intervals when 

 his services were not wanted he offered him the 

 use of as much land near tlie meadows as he would 

 clear of bushes. The ground was rocky and hard 

 as is most of the upland: but the Frenchman had a 

 field of tall rye growing about his dwelling, with a 

 plat of corn and a garden. And he had another 

 piece of ground chopped over ready to be fired and 

 cleared for a new crop of rye next year. Away 

 from a village, and with emjdoyment only a part 

 of the time, the honest Canadian was in a fair way 

 to live by laying up his store of grain against tlie 

 season of need, working at odd jobs on land the 

 gratuitous use of v.^hich had been tendered toliin]. 



Gov. Page and Daniel Batcluddcr, Esq. own a 

 considerable tract in the Coventry meadows, a plat 

 of alluvion on the Olivcrian brook. Much of tiiese 

 meadows the present year is too wet to produce a 

 good crop of hay. By drainage they may be made 

 to produce rich herdsgrass and clover. Treated in 

 the jnanner that Judge Hayes treats his low lands 

 (for which see another part of this paper) we do 

 nut doubt ii larger part of the Covtntry nic:idows 

 will yield two to three tons of first rate hay to the 

 acre. 



Mountains and Ponds of Fnirlee, Vt. 



Julv 2.5. Hesitating between foul weather and 

 fair, after dinner our course was across the Con- 

 necticut through a partof Newbury, and the whole 

 width of Bradford to Fairlce on the Vermont side. 

 A beautiful road not far from the river passes di- 

 rectly under Sawyer's mountain in Fairlee, whose 

 top is five hundred feet above tlie bed of the river, 

 and whose side fronling the valley is apparently 

 cut off in a perpendicular descent of seme two or 

 three hundred feet. Mount Moriali, fronting the 

 elegant village of Orford on the Now Hampshire 

 side is ag.ainst the Orford bridge : from each of 

 tliese steep ascents, rocks of great weight have been 

 thrown oft' to tlic distance of several rods ; from 

 Sawyer's mountain, into the path of the road. It 

 is remarkable of these steep isolated hills near riv- 

 ers that in the rear of the hill there is commonly a 

 pond corresponding with the hill. In Fairlee there 

 are three ponds soine two or three miles back from 

 the river consortnig with the three mountains that 

 rise from the high alluvion plat that rises from the 

 river bank. 



Passim' into the Green Mountain State we see 

 at once tliat her farmers understand well their busi- 

 ness and know how to avail themselves of the ad- 



vantages of a fine soil and the best productions for 

 n market. With extensive dairies, and the product 

 of butter and cheese and tlie rearing of the best fif 

 cattle, the Vermont farmers unite the raising of 

 swine and fattening of pork. We observed on 

 some river farms between Bradford and Fairlee 

 hogs in numbers kept in pastures : among these a 

 Mr. Loomis w^as fattening thirty-six old hogs for 

 slaughter the present fall. Thirty-six hogs ofthree 

 hundred pounds each, at the prices pork has sold 

 for several years, would alone sell for a thousand 

 dollars: the butter and cheese made in a siimmer 

 from tiiirty-six cows would sell tor an equal a- 

 mount. From these two items it may be seen how 

 a Vermont farmer of enterprise and industry rises 

 to a competent independence. 



Farms in Orford. 



We did not pass over to our own side at Orfi.rd ; 

 but the landlord Phinehas Bailey, Esq. an old friend 

 and an acquaintance of twenty-five years, who has 

 frequently represented his town in the Legislature, 

 told us a story of an Orford farmer, which is worth 

 repeating. A Mr. Ricihrdson, several years ago, 

 purchased the farm long owned by John Mann, jr. 

 Esq. This farm contained one hundred and eigh- 

 ty acres, principally of th? second or higher inter- 

 vale, for which he paid the price of $1,.'>00. To 

 this he soon afterwards added one hundred acres 

 reaching upon the mountain to the eastward of Or- 

 ford plains : this last lot has been chopped down 

 and cleared from year to year, producing good crops 

 of wheat and rye. The crops from the hill have 

 furnished the means of fertilizing the tillage land 

 below. Mr. Richardson raises fifty calves in a sea- 

 son, and turned oft'last year beef cattle which sold 

 lor fifteen hundred dollars : he sold also in the same 

 season three tons of pork worth at ten cents the 

 pound six hundred dollars. Of butter and cheese 

 he made a large quantity ; the precise amount we 

 do not recollect. Besides about two hundred horn- 

 ed cattle large and small, he keeps one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty sheep. The quantity of hay 

 which he is able to turn out from his highly ma- 

 nured grounds and natural mowing, has increased 

 from vcar to year, and is enormous for the amount 

 of land which he mows over. His farm, which in 

 the first purchase cost him about .f.5000, he has 

 made to be worth at h-nst .<;10,nOO. His sales of 

 surplus produce are annually not less than ,^2000. 

 Mr. Richardson's farming is peculiarly his own — 

 he is self-taught by that best instructor. Experi- 

 ence ; and every one will perceive, if there has not 

 been much e.xacrgeration in our infuriiiation, that he 

 has managed his farm to Ihe best advantage. 



Besides the Mann farm, theje are several other 

 splendid farms within tlie limits of Orford. The 

 farm of the late Hon. Jedutliun Wilcox, v.liich in 

 his life time he cultivated more for example and 

 experiment than profit, is of the number. This is 

 on the river to the north adjoining Piermont. In 

 tlie southerly part of the town our long-tried friend 

 Bethuel Cross, Esq. owns and enjoys a fine farm, 

 producing both pleasure and profit. Another farm 

 in this vicinity owned by a Mr. Sartwell was lately 

 sold for $70'30 cash. Farms at prices of five and 

 six thimsand dollars arc frequently bought and sold 

 with cash in the river towns on the Connecticut ; 

 and wliat distinctly proves the capacity of the soil 

 to yield a profit is the fact that men of smaller farms 

 are able to sell and buy larger and more valuable 

 farms with money in hand to pay the difference. 



The village in Orford is one of the most inviting 

 that can be imagined : it is situated upon a high 

 plain of adhesive, fertile light soil, near the river 

 bank. Several elegant dwi-llings, among them the 

 residences of William Howard, Esq. and Judge 

 Wilcox, are situated at convenient distances on a 

 natural elevation some thirty or forty rods east- 

 ward of the main street, overlooking a level lawn, 

 and surrounded with trees and shrubbery ; the nat- 

 ural ridge or elevation, being probably another bank 

 of the river in olden timo, is not less dirt'ct and 

 regular than if the whole had been constructed with 

 human hands. 



Jul-,- 26. Our travelled way to Hanover was 

 over the river at the Lyme bridge, and thence on 

 the New Hampshire side by the river road to Hano- 

 ver. All this way the land is fertile, the cultiva- 

 tion im|iroving, and mucli ground is highly produc- 

 tive that has been recently cleared. 



Wealth of a New Hampshire hill tOAvn. 



The town of Lyme along the river bank exhibits 

 farms that will not disgrace the Connecticut river 

 valley. The iniproveiiient in these river farms 

 within a few years has been rapid. As an instance, 

 we may mention the Thompson farm near the Lyme 

 bridge : it had deteriorated in the hands of its first 

 owners until about ten years ago it passed from 

 them at a price for the whole not exceeding three 



thousand dollars. The same premises have since 

 been divided into four farms, on all of wliich so 

 great have been the improvements that the least 

 valuable would now sell for two thousand dollars. 

 One man commenced about nine years ago on one 

 of these farms with property sufBcient to pay only 

 three hundred dollars towards the purciiase; since 

 which he has erected valuable farm buildings and 

 purchased additional land, h.aving, by good culti- 

 vation, by untiring vigilance and industry, accu- 

 mulated a property worth by estimation of one of 

 his townsmen at least five thousand dollars. He is 

 yet a young man having no otlrer family than his 

 "better half" wiio bears forward well lierend of the 

 yoke in accumulation and in the practice f>f true do- 

 mestic economy. This Thompson farm is one of 

 the old farms of fifty and seventy-five years ago : 

 its division and improvement, after the first cream 

 had been taken oft', producing four and probably 

 six for one, shows what may be, aye, what will be 

 done in New Hampshire during the next twenty 

 years, which, God willing, we hope yet to live to 

 see. 



*But the whole interior of the town of Lyme, es- 

 pecially the swell approaching to the elevation of 

 a mountain running five or six miles from south- 

 west to north-east through the centre, is even more 

 highly cultivated than the farms on tlie river, and 

 is one of the nutst profitable farming regions in the 

 State — always excepting our favorite "pattern" or. 

 the sea-board. The almost universal condition of" 

 the inhabitants of Lyme is tiie possession of abun- 

 dance of the good things .of this life. The difticul- 

 ty is there that most of the farmers have in(»inev to 

 let, and there are few speculators any wliere with 

 credit sufticient to hire it. All this wealth is the 

 gift of industry and enterprise well directed. The 

 farmers upon the roughest soil find a richer mine 

 near the surface of their ground than they who 

 search and dig for gold in the most valued mining 

 regions of our country. 



The General Association of Congregational and 

 Presbyterian Clergymen with the several Societies 

 in their connection in this State was convened at 

 Lyme in the first week of the present month of 

 September. The ability of the wealthy farmers of 

 that town, not less than their generous hospitality, 

 probably prompted the Association to choose this 

 for their annual place for meeting. The high re- 

 ligious and moral condition of tiie inhabitants of 

 the town, in this fruitful season, may be read upon 

 the face of their hills. Among the addresses made 

 on this occasion that of the Rev. Prof Hadduckof 

 Dartmouth College, who is an amateur in agricul- 

 tural improvements, as well as a ripe belleslcttres 

 and biblical scholar, is represented to have been 

 tlirilliiig and patriotic. In view of the neatly 

 painted farm houses scattered through the town he 

 said they indicated the wealth of the city, and 

 might vie with the most expensive in beauty and 

 in the conveniences which contribute to case and 

 comfort. "No matter (said he) if we have to go 

 into the hard granite with the drill and powder 

 horn : we find the soil which brings forth abun- 

 dance w'hen we arrive at the bottom.'' He said he 

 was proud that he was a native of and belonged to 

 such a state as New Hampshire : every child of our 

 soil has reason to congratulate himself that he was 

 born in that State whose educated sons are dis- 

 tinguished in every other State of the Union. But 

 it was not tile mere scholar and student that ele- 

 vated us as a State— it was the intelligence and the 

 enterprise of our farmers, the instructions how to 

 live and become useful citizens, the capacity for 

 business instilled into their sons, that made him 

 proud to hail from the Granite State ! 



The character of the farmers in the town of Han- 

 over is much like that of Lyme : so will be found 

 those of Lebanon, still further south. This day 

 presented an unusual number of laborers in the 

 field : the forenoon with the scythe and the after- 

 noon with the fork and rake. Hay is every where- 

 abundant — the small grains never jiromised better: 

 Indian corn, a little backward, has grown for the 

 last three weeks with a rapidity unsurpassed. 

 Kuterprisc of the Shakers, 



The evening brinjrs us to the centre Shaker vil- 

 lage in Enfield, thirteen miles south-easterly from 

 Hanover, where is always to be seen something 

 new and interesting to the farmer, the mechanic 

 and the moralist. 



The garden of the Centre Family covers five a- 

 cres ofji'round on the margin of the Mascomy pond. 

 We have before mentioned the fate of the onion 

 beds, covering in transplanted onions and plants of 

 the present year the best part of an acre. We 

 hope the onion seed was not entirely ruined by the 

 blight : of the onions sowed this season there may 

 be half a crop. The careful labor bestowed on these 

 crops deserved a better fate. It pleases tlie Divine 



