156 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Another Journey! 



Stronger and stronocr grows our nttacliment for 

 thn Mountains and liigli Hills of New England I 

 Every journey we take, every inquiry we make, 

 raises their value in our estimation. We used to 

 pass them, covered and pitted all over with crags 

 and'isolated rocks, as sterile and desolate regions of 

 little or no use to the world. On more minute ex- 

 amination and enquiry we find the most valuable 

 pasture grounds far up the sides of the mountains 

 and to the tops of the highest hills. 



New road to Keene. 



A late journey to Keene was performed one way 

 over a new road shortening the distance between 

 Concord and that town nearly ten miles. This 

 road pursuing the North branch of the Contoocook 

 beyond Hillsborough, passes tlirough Antrim, 

 Stoddard, Nelson and Sullivan through ravines in 

 a mountain region no less romantic than other parts 

 of New Hampshire. Crossing this road nearly at 

 right angles is the " Forest road" leading from 

 Charlestown, N. H. to Nashua on the way to Bos- 

 ton. Both the Branch road and the Forest road 

 have been made at a great expense to the towns 

 through which they pass; and it would have stag- 

 gered the belief of the first settlers of the backbone 

 ridge of New Hampshire, who clambered over ma- 

 ny steep hills to get to and from the rivers either 

 east or west, had they been told that means would 

 be successfully used to pass from town to town in 

 almost any direction, with roads havinr no where 

 a rise greater than four or five degrees. Yankee 

 ingenuity has discovered the method of making 

 such roads in such a country ; and yankee enter- 

 prise is found sufficient to construct and complete 

 them over streams and through gullies or clefts of 

 rock and over swamps where it would seem impossi- 

 ble for man or beast to make their way before the 

 smooth track for carriage and horses had been cut 

 out and covered with loam or gravel. 



View from the height of land. 



Leaving the main branch of the Contoocook be- 

 yond the tliriving village at Hillsborough Bridge, 

 we passed up the north branch of that river some 

 five miles ; looking back in the valley, the steep 

 sand banks worn out by the rolling down of the 

 timber on the east side of the Merrimack at Con- 

 cord, thirty miles distant, were distinctly visible 

 to the naked eye ; and all the considerable eleva- 

 tions of land in Rockingham and Straflord coun- 

 ties were readily identified. The Sandwich moun- 

 tains and the Corway peak at the distance of sev- 

 enty to a hundred miles were seen through the 

 openings which the Merrimack and Winnipisseo- 

 gee rivers presented. It is worthy of remark that 

 from the summits of the higher mountains through 

 depressions of the ridges which separate the wa- 

 ters of the two principal rivers and of the tributary 

 streams running into the same river, may be des- 

 cried far distant elevations which we might natur- 

 ally suppose would bp shut from the view. Thus 

 onthe elevations of Nottingham twenty miles east- 

 ward of the Merrimack, Ascutney mountain, on 

 the west side of Connecticut river, may be seen 

 with the naked eye. 



Low lands is the Mountains. 



The town of Stoddard divides the waters of the 

 two great rivers. This town from its elevation may 

 be called a mountain town, although within its lim- 

 its there is no rise of land so precipitous as to give 

 it the name of a riio\intain upon the map. Strange 

 it is that we find out so little of what we consider 

 familiar until we personally visit the localities. 

 We had no idea, for instance, that the north branch 

 of the Contoocook could extend more than half a 

 dozen miles beyond Wallace's hill in Antrim, which 

 stands in the point of land separating the two 

 branches, until on inquiry we find on the east side 

 of a declivity at the highest elevation, running 

 nearly north and south, a series of ponds and 

 swamps extending nearly twenty miles north thro' 

 the towns of Stoddard and Washington to the very 

 base of the Sunajice mountain. These swamps and 

 lakes are on a table of land so level that a dam ofa 

 very few feet elevation overflows for the whole 

 distance ; and the owners of thousands of acres are 

 liable to suffer injury and in some cases ruin to their 

 lands from the circumstance that this flowage has 

 existed more than twenty years, giving legal title 

 to the right. 



The highest isolated elevation is between the 

 towns of Stoddard and Antrim. The fattest beeves 

 of all the vicinity are pastured annually upon 

 this hill. The whole of this back bone region is 

 excellent for rearing and fattening oxen and slieep. 

 Myriads of grasshoppers the present year cover 

 the pastures, and in some instances these take more 



of the green feed than the cattle themselves ; yet 

 despite of these vermin the oxen and horses rang- 

 ing the hills are in better condition than those kept 

 in stalls and stables. 



A beautiful amphitheatre in the hills. 



In a few miles from the intersE?ction of the Keene 

 and Forest roads in Stoddard we come to a pond of 

 some two miles in extent, being the base of a most 

 beautiful amphitheatre among the high hills. — 

 The scenery of this amphitheatre, presenting a sur- 

 face of enclosed pastures and fields, of shrubs, trees 

 and rocks, upon the unequal sides of the hills, is 

 truly magnificent. At the outlet of the pond is a 

 village including several brick edifices and a facto- 

 ry. This is in the town of Nelson on the north 

 side ; and it is worthy of notice that in this moun- 

 tain town on the south side is another very consid- 

 erable village which has grown up from water pow- 

 er furnished from the ponds which are the feeders 

 of the Contoocook river running in a direction op- 

 posite from the waters of the north village, being 

 one of the heads of the Ashuelot running into 

 the Connecticut near the southwest line of the 

 State. Down this stream in a valley extremely 

 narrow the whole way for ten miles the new road 

 has been constructed. 



We have remarked as one advantage of new 

 roads constructed in ravines and valleys of steep 

 ascent, that they frequently bring into use quanti- 

 ties of fine timber which until these avenues were 

 opened was inaccessible. The land growing this 

 timber, which is frequently of excellent quality, 

 soon comes into cultivation. On the Ashuelot 

 road passing the latter part of the way in the even- 

 ing, the bright fires of the clearings in some cases 

 seemed to be almost directly over our heads. 



The " gentleman farmer." 



The day after the agricultural exhibition at the 

 elegant and prospering \illage of Keene, we visit- 

 ed our friend Co.vant at Jaffrey, fifteen miles 

 •easterly of Keene, who well deserves the ap- 

 pellation of gentleman farme r ^ because he has made 

 himself more truly independent than any king, 

 prince or potentate upon the habitable globe by the 

 labor of his own liands. Twenty-three years ago 

 he purchased the Thorndike farm in that town con- 

 sisting of some three hundred acres for the sum of 

 $4,500. This farm with its additions is now worth a- 

 bout .^10,000 ; and while constantly increasing its 

 value Mr. C. has contrived to gather a capital "m 

 money even greater than the value of his 

 landed estate ; so that while he lives at his ease 

 without even the necessity of labor on t\ie income 

 of a moiety of his property, he has it in his power 

 to do great good with the income which flows from 

 other sources. We say he has no necessity to la- 

 bor : yet it would be impossib'.e for liim to live 

 W'ithout daily labor of some k.nid when about his 

 premises; and the ease with which he accomplish- 

 es much in a little time, Vhe economical arrange- 

 ment of his cultivated grounds, the order and neat- 

 ness of his house and barns and other buildings, 

 explain tons how with the aid of an accomplished 

 'better half no I'ess competent than himself, he has 

 contrived, from the product of his own industry, to 

 grow rich without oppressing his neighbor. 



Ascent of the Monadnock. View of many 

 villages. 



Free to go out of our way to visit such a man, we 

 took the freedom to ask him to accompany us to the 

 top of the mountain, Monadnock. Mr. Conant's 

 fai^m is directly under this mountain on the easter- 

 ly side, and in a direct line is not over three miles 

 from the top. He had sometimes taken the direct 

 route to the mountain with friends ; but he con- 

 cluded on this occasion it would be easier to travel 

 back on tlie old Marlborough turnpike about four 

 miles towards Keene to the ridge or spur wdiicb di- 

 vides the waters of the height of land. The ascent 

 upon the mountain is on the southerly side, and 

 the distance from the road over the spur is three 

 miles : the travM was much less steep than that 

 upon Mount Washington, in whicli latter case iu 

 a travel of about the same distance the ascent is 

 nearly double. We were two hours in ascending 

 Monadnock, and one hour in descending from the 

 highest point to the road. We tarried at the top of 

 the mountain one hour, and had the aid of an ex- 

 cellent glass. The atmosphere was haz}', so that 

 objects at a great distance could not be so distinct- 

 ly descried. T'.ie White Mountaius.- were not vis- 

 ible ; but their location was distinct from the shape 

 of tne clouds, which envelope them at this season 

 of the year. To the north and east the higher ele- 

 vations within the distance of a hundred miles in 

 New Hampshire and Maine were easily identified. 

 All alonrg the back bone of Vermont and Western 

 Massachusetts the Green Mountain range was dis- 



tinct. Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom near North- 

 ampton, the Wacliusett near Worcester, and the 

 Blue Hill south of Boston, were readily pointed 

 out. 



All the meeting houses and villages, east, west, 

 north and south, situated .>n the hills and many in 

 the open valleys for twenty and thirty miles were 

 prominent. Within about a year a meeting house 

 on high ground at Pembroke, some five miles from 

 this village, has been erected: that meeting house, 

 situated on a swell of ground is seen in different 

 directions at the distance of from five to twenty 

 miles. With the glass we saw this house quite 

 distinctly from the top of Monadnock: the distance 

 in a direct line is more than fifty miles. 



Sources of ample Water Power. 

 But the most gratifying object presented from 

 the top of this mountain was the many ponds lying 

 round about it, the feeders of the abundant water 

 power which is so extensively useful in propelling 

 all the varieties of labor saving machinery. The 

 quantity of water flowing from the highlands to- 

 wards the sea, and furnishing the incessant flow of 

 the rivers, seems to be almost incredible. These 

 waters in the hill towns cover much of the land : 

 formerly they covered much more than they now 

 do, as it is evident that the hundreds and thousands 

 of fresh meadows, which abound much more at the 

 higher than the lower elevations, were formerly 

 ponds of water, which in the lapse of ages have 

 graduall}' drained off. 



Upon Monadnock as you approach within per- 

 haps a hundred feet of the very top is a swamp of 

 several acres which was formerly a pond: from this 

 swamp issues a brook, the largest feeder of tho 

 Contoocook, which discharges its waters nearly 

 sixty miles to the north east near the northerly line 

 of Concord into the Merrimack. At the north- 

 west in Nelson and Dublin, we first see the ponds 

 which feed the two branches of the Ashuelot, dis- 

 charging into the Connecticut at the south-west 

 extremity of the State. Further east are the ponds 

 in the same towns whose water runs eastward, 

 which supply power for factories at Harrisville and 

 Peterborough, On tho east in Rindge and Jaffrey 

 are other ponds also running eastward, furnishing 

 an abundant supply of water for the Jaffrey facto- 

 ry village two miles from the centre village of the 

 town. In the south-cast and south are the many 

 ponds in Ashburnham, Rindge and Fitzwilliam, 

 which are the sources of Miller's river, running 

 westward to the Connecticut. Here again is a 

 level of plain and swamp where a rise of not many 

 feet of water would, make a sea or lake of some 

 twenty miles in diameter each way. The waters 

 of Wetatick, a beautiful conical hill between New 

 Ipswich and Ashburhham,ten miles southeasterly of 

 Monadnock, on the line of the States of Mas- 

 sachusetts and New Hampshire, at the distance 

 of less than one mile apart, run in four different 

 directions, being the heads of four considerable 

 rivers, viz. — Miller's river, discharging into the 

 Connecticut south of Northfield, Mass. — Nashua 

 river into the Merrimack at Nashua — Souhegan riv- 

 er into the same eight miles north at Merrimack, 

 and Contoocook river into the same between Bos- 

 cawcn and Concord thirty -three miles still further 

 north. 



Town of Jaffrey. 



From the top of Monadnock we look towards 

 the south-east and east, immediately down upon the 

 town of Jaffrey, inha'jited principally by a race of 

 wealthy, intelligent farmers, whose ample and well 

 finished barns are the standing proof of the ^^b- 

 stantial thrift which follows industry. JaS'rey for- 

 merly supported two or more lawyers: it cannot 

 now find litigation sufiic lent for the support of one. 

 The farmers of this town not only own tlieir 

 farms, but a majority of them have money at use 

 in other towns. When the New Ipswich bank 

 went into operation some eight or ten years ago, a 

 few farmers in Jaffrey at once took one third of its 

 capital ot one hundred thousanWoUars: every dol- 

 lar was paid in, ant^ neither of these stockholders 

 ever have occasion to take out a dollar for his own 

 use. If all banks had been constituted in the same 

 way^if the stockholders of banks were simply 

 men who had spare money to invest, and not those 

 who want the use of more money than they own 

 — we would not have witnessed the sad spectacle 

 of fajling and swindliqg banks that the country 

 has exhibited at different times during the last thir- 

 ty 3'ears. 



Good and generous living is evident by every 

 appearance in the town of Jaffrey: the roads are 

 kept in the best repair, and their location changed 

 wherever a sharp hill can be avoided. Carriages 

 of pleasure are kept by most of the farmers ; and 

 for these the fat horses pastured upon the hills are 



