112 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



B 



Seing, for wise ends, sometimes to disappoint the 

 ^ urpnsps of the besi of humnn efforts. Tlie beets 

 and carrots looked finely. Of the jrarden one half 

 an acre was saije, a portion of whicli had been forc- 

 ed in early hot beds. The Shakers also raise lar^e 

 quantities of suninuT savory. Tlie preparation of 

 sage and summer savory is by drj-ing and pressing 

 into a solid mass. The profits of liiese and other 

 botanical preparations are best understood by those 

 wlio are well acquainted with the best methods of" 

 raising and preparing them. 



Five hands, two men and three boys, are suffi- 

 cient for the labor of these five acres of garden, 

 wliich yields annually in cash its thousand, if not 

 its thousands of dollars. 



The family had two acres of broom corn, which 

 looked much better than ours, that had been infest- 

 ed with the wire worm. Tliey planted no more than 

 eight acres of Indian corn ; and they think that if 

 this ground had been sown witli wlieal, it would 

 have aftbrded a much better profit. They had most 

 eh'gant fields of wheat, some of which stood near- 

 ly three feet and a half upon a level. * 



We have before noticed their Durham cattle. 

 Their Berkshire hogs, like those of the Brethren 

 at Canterbury, are also deserving attention. Their 

 full blooded Berkshire boar and sow are the exact 

 imitation of the following picture : 



The sow h:ts had one litter of nine pigs. This 

 breed seems to be nmch more civilized than the 

 ordinary hog. Tiieyaie contented and docile, and 

 witli common keeping they are always in fine flesh. 

 They are not so large boned and long bodied as 

 Bome other breeds; yet it is believed their meat is 

 more vaUmble in prfiporlion to the food they con- 

 6ume. INlixed with the lirecds of larger growth, 

 the product of the union is very fine. The Berk- 

 slilre sows are hotter milker; and treat their young 

 with far more tenderness than tiie common hog. 



This family of Shakers (there are two other con- 

 siderable families along the same road adjacent in 

 Enfield) consists of one htindred and forty people. 

 Some twenty cliildren, under perhaps ten years of 

 a^e, male and female, have been recently added. 

 Of these smart, likely boys and girls, who are care- 

 fully instructed in reading, spelling, aritlimetic, 

 English grammar and writing, ntany are taken from 

 jfoor and destitute families in various parts of the 

 country: others go there from choice of their pa- 

 rents, who prefer their system nf education, which 

 embraces the various kinds of useful manual labor, 

 as well as what is generally taught in schools. The 

 farm on the west side of Mascomy pond belonging 

 totliis family consists of about five hundred acres, 

 running from the shore over the iiigh hill at the 

 west. This land is every year much enriched by 

 seventy -five acres of alluvion mowing ground 

 which is annually overflowed, situated upon the 

 river in Canaan connecting tlie ponds above to 

 the Mascomy pond in Enfield. This intervale 

 gives abundance of hay which is brought from a 

 distance of abnut four milee over the pond on sleds 

 during the winter. In addition to the intervale the 

 family has two hundred acres of beautiful white 

 pine limber, which twenty years ago cost them ten 

 dollars tlie acre, and is now worth probably one 

 hundred dollars the acre. 



The buildings of tlie Shakers at this village are 

 all neat, convenient, constructed in the best man- 

 ner of wood, nnd seem to be sufiicient for all their 

 purposes. The houses and shops where their work 

 is done are ingeniously contrived and beautifully 

 arranged. Of these we would select the establish- 

 ment where the washing and ironing of the whole 

 family are performed : machinery is introduced 

 which does the business of much hard labor in or- 

 dinary families ; and the work commenced at the 

 basement is carried up through successive stories 

 until the whole is completed. The dairy house, 

 where the milk of thirty noble cows is disposed of, 

 is as neat as it is convenient and secure. The spin- 

 ning of wool and worsted, carried on in another 

 separate building by females, is performed with 

 equal ease and facility, one hand drawingout at the 

 same time many threads. The different buildings 

 for securing the varieties of garden seeds and other 

 garden produftn are all well arranged. Every tool 



and implement has its house and place undercover. 

 From the rills of the mountain water had been 

 gathered sufficient for carrying machinery and 

 mills, except in tlie drj-est season : the failure has 

 been recently suiiplied by briniring in a continued 

 artificial channel of nearly three miles from a pond 

 at the top of the mountain a never failing amount 

 of water. With this power a trip hamnjer, various 

 saws, a machine which will do the work of a dozen 

 men in planing boards and finishing work forbuild- 

 ings, and much other labor-saving machinery are 

 kept in motion. 



A g:rand edifice* 



The hrst dtrdling housr in the Suitc'is now erect- 

 ing on their premises. It is built with a beautiful 

 light grey granite straightened to an edge but rough 

 on the exterior, brought from their premises over 

 the water from Canaan. It is one huqdred feet 

 long by fifty-eight in width, and the roof covered 

 with beautiful Welch slate, and is surmounted with 

 a bell of one thousand pounds which calls the fam- 

 ily to rest in the evening, to rise with the lark at 

 five in the morning, nnd to the regular meals of the 

 day: it is four stories high above the basement; 

 and the basement itself is a cellar abundantly se- 

 cure from frost ; a portion of it, light and airy as 

 the upper rooms, is intended for cot>king and kitch- 

 en work — another portion for the preservation of 

 vegetables and other articles that mlgtit be injured 

 if kept elsewhere. The build'-ng, for one so large, 

 is admirably planned, and is intended for comfort- 

 able residences, male and female, of the entire fam- 

 ily, separated into clas.^es of convenient numbers : 

 the different sexes meeting in one hall at eating 

 time, and all meeting on occasions for social wor- 

 ship. 



This building has been carried on for two or three 

 years with remarkable economy, and will not be 

 finished probably under two years from this time. 

 The work is the most pert'ect of its kind. In its 

 whole extent there is not a siiakc in the plastering 

 which is a smooth putty coat: the floors of each 

 story are as substantial and solid as permanent 

 rock. The partings between the various halls 

 and rooms are all fortified with douiile bracing pe- 

 titions. Thus far in the finishing of beautiful rich 

 pine there is not a knot or blemish to be seen ; 

 nor in the flooring is there the impress of a nail in 

 sight. Every thing is done by "the square, level 

 and plumb;"' and in the halls extending the whole 

 lent^tb or width of the building there is no varia- 

 tion from the centre to either extreme of one eighth 

 of an inch. 



Such a building, so perfect in construction, so 

 faultless in execution, of such excellent materials, 

 could not be erected in one of our towns or cities 

 short of an expense of fifty or seventy-five thou- 

 sand dollars. The money paid out by the Shakers, 

 although their carpenters and principal masons are 

 hired, will not probably exceed twenty thousand 

 dollars. The cash expense has been lessened by 

 their ability to furnish excellent lunjber and gran- 

 ite and bricks from their own premises and by their 

 own hands: their pinning machine, preparing fin- 

 ishing materials nf almost any pattern, has saved 

 much : their ample previous preparation of every 

 necessary article economizes tiie time of the hir- 

 ed mechanics. Wns it not a striking chai*acteris- 

 tic of this people, that they never commence any 

 undertaking until they have measured their 

 strength, we would suppose this community, which 

 makes no gains by any forced speculation, and which 

 lays up only the proceeds of its own honest indus- 

 try, would be unable to carry through such an un- 

 dertaking as the erection of this elegant building: 

 they will, nevertheless, do it without loeliiig any 

 pinching inconvenience. 



Besides their thirty milch cows and many youjig 

 steers and heifers, the family lias twelve beautiful 

 yokes of oxen, the girth of some of which exceeds 

 seven feet. They keep usually fourhundred sheep, 

 all tlie wool of which is manufactured into yarn 

 and cloth by the hands of tlielr own household. 



We should add little to the variety of this jour- 

 ml, already prolix and tedious to the reader, by de- 

 scribing our way from Enfield through Grantham, 

 Springfield, New London, Sutton, Warner and 

 Hopkinton to our home in Concord, on the 27th 

 .Tuly. The two items most worthy of observation 

 on {hat day were a field of wheat of about ten acres 

 on the farm of Joseph Colby, Esq. upon a beauti- 

 ful swell of land in New London, on which the 

 larger village of that town stands; and the Indian 

 corn fit for roasting on the twentieth of the month 

 on the premises of Mr. Nathan Walker in W;irncr, 

 some of which he kindly forwarded us by tlie next 

 staorc. The field of wheat, for the extent of it, 

 was a little superior to any other which had met 

 our view In a journey of tour hundred miles ; and 

 the production of the corn at that early day in this 



high latitude shows that there are positions in our 

 Stale, taking advantage of the direct rays of the 

 sun and light mellowness of soil, tlrat will produce 

 as early crops of corn as any other New England 

 State. 



Ftir the Fanner's .Monthly Visitor. 



Education of Farmers. — No. 5. 



LECISLATOUS. 



Tlie dictates of experience and of common sense, 

 must convince any candid mind, that seven eighths 

 or nine tenths of the members of legislatures ought 

 to be practical farmers and mechanics. For this 

 opinion, two reasons are sufficient, if no others 

 could be adduced. First, the principal object of 

 laws is to promote the interests and protect the 

 rights of these two classes of citizens, as they con- 

 stitute seven eighths, and ought to constitute nine 

 tenths of the community. Second, they are edu- 

 cated in schools, better fitted to make sound and 

 enlightened statesmen, than ever are or can be 

 produced in any other schools but those of experi- 

 ence. 



The soundness of the first reason will probably 

 not be called in question by many ; that of the 

 second, 1 am aware, will be doubted by many, and 

 possibly by some farmers and mechanics them- 

 selves. But I have for several years been entirely 

 convinced that farmers and mechanics were better 

 qualified for composing our legislatures, than any 

 theoretical statesmen, from the fact, that they have 

 greater influence and advocate sounder and more 

 republican doctrines, in all legislatures of which 

 they are members. The only misfortune is, that 

 they are not elected to fill our legislatures, or to 

 constitute a majority of them. 



If I am not greatly mistaken, one of the princi- 

 pal sources of the civil and political evils we suffer, 

 is in making the profession of law so much the 

 channel to offices of emolument and honor. The 

 practice presents an inconsistency, on the very 

 face of it. It is evidently inconsistent, and highly 

 improper, that one class of men should institute 

 laws, expound laws, and execute laws, whieh it 

 may be supposed they will do to promote their in- 

 terests, while that class constitutes a very small 

 minority of the community, though there are ten 

 times, and probably fifty times as many, as the most 

 healthy state of the community requires. The 

 greati}' increased, the rapidly increasing, and the 

 largely disproporticnate number of our citizens, 

 who resort to the law for a profession, is probably 

 not the least evil resulting from appointing so ma- 

 ny of this profession to places of honor and trust. 



Without any prejudice against the members of 

 this profession as individuals, for by an extensive 

 acquaintance with them, I know many of them to 

 be honorable and respectable men, I am convinc- 

 ed, as they themselves will undoubtedly acknowl- 

 edge, that a large number of lawyers promote liti- 

 gation. And no one will pretend that extensive 

 litigation is favorable, either to the pecuniary, the 

 moral or social health and prosperity of the com- 

 munity, but highly destructive to all. Conse- 

 quently any arrangements or measures adopted for 

 conducting the operations of society, which have 

 a tendency to increase the number of lawyers, 

 which is already entirely out of proportion with 

 tliat of other classes of the community, must do an 

 iniury to that community. And appointing them to 

 fill the scats in our legislatures, especially tjie chairs 

 of state and the highest seat in the nation, mupt 

 do a double and irrej)aral)]e injury : it produces bad 

 laws, and instigates quarrels and contentions lu the 

 obyervance and executing of those laws. 



To avoid these evils, and as far as possible, to re- 

 pair the injury already done, by the inconsistent 

 and anti-republican" practice referred to, constitut- 

 ing our legislatures and filling our offices in a great 

 measure with farmers and mechanics, apjiear to be 

 the rational, perhaps the only effectual measures 

 to be adopted. 



The education of farmers in its present neglect- 

 ed state, Ib better fitted to make sou iider legislators 

 than are produced by our colleges, or by the pro- 

 fession of law. If farmers" education was what it 

 ought to be, and what it might be, if the}' duly ap- 

 preciated the knowledge they already possess, and 

 their facilities for greatly extending that knowl- 

 edge, they could hardly fail of seeing the propriety 

 or of availing themselves of the privilege, of ap- 

 pointing from their own number, guardians of their 

 own rights and intv-rests. 



I do not pretend that the interests of farmers or 

 of mechanics, or of botli, are the only intertsts to 

 be protected and promoted ; nor do I contend that 

 our legislatures, or other cilices, ouglit to be filled 

 entirely from those classes. I only contend that 

 they ought to be represented in proportion to their 

 numbers, and represented by themselves. 1 hold 



