THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



169 



Two days at West Cambridge, Ms. 



"Should auld acquaintance be forijot, 



And never brought to niin' ; 

 Should auld acquaintance be forgot 



And days of auld lang syne? 



"We fwa have run about the braea 



And pu'd the gowans fine ;" 

 Der.th laid him low — we yet survive 



To talk of days lang syne. 



It is more than forty years — and forty years is no 

 small item in the life of one who still feels like a 

 young man — since the editor of the Visitor spent 

 any considerable time in viewing the ground and 

 neighborhood of his earliest residence. The old 

 people of that day rest from their labors ; the young 

 men have become old, and a new generation of 

 strangers has sprung up with an infant succeeding 

 race to supply their place in active life hereafter. 

 The most early male intimate of the first ten years 

 of our life, a few months our senior, to whom the 

 last verse quoted above applies, sleeps in the grave 

 beside his father and mother and a long line of an- 

 cestors common to us both. With many others, 

 our more recent associates and acquaintance, he 

 has been cut otf, and we have been continued to 

 witness a more severe duty and a lengthened trial 

 in the events of the present life. 



Our stay was not long enough at West Cam- 

 bridge to make new acquaintance ; and, with tiie 

 exception of the friend who kindly entertained and 

 introduced us to the several places we visited, and 

 a few of his family, we cannot say that even those 

 whom we knew many years ago appear in any oth- 

 er liglit than as strangers. 



Our visit was so late in October as not to be able 

 to witness vegetation in all its lu.xuriance ; most of 

 the crops of the season had been gathered. Indeed 

 the farmers of this little town are so much in the 

 habit of producing crops for the market at all sea- 

 sons, from early spring to latest autumn, that there 

 is no particular time when the whole productof the 

 year is growing upon the ground. 



Population and extent. Ice Houses. 



The town of West Cambridge was incorporated 

 in the year 1S07, from a parish of Cambridge bear- 

 ing the Indian name of Menotomy : between it and 

 Boston, from which it is distant six miles to t^e 

 north-west, lies the town of Cambridge, the seat of 

 the University. The town had a population in 1S30 

 of 1308 — it is hardly two miles square, and embra- 

 ces only about the ninth part ofacommon six miles 

 square township. Of this small territory more than 

 two hundred acres are ponds, from which, as a mat- 

 ter of profitable traffic, large quantities of ice are 

 taken in the winter for transportation by sea to the 

 West Indies and other southern countries. Large 

 ice houses are constructed on the margins of these 

 ponds in a manner so simple as to teach every ob- 

 server how very cheaply nn ice house may be con- 

 structed for any famjly. The house is erected on 

 the shore of the pond much in the shape and of the 

 same coarse materials as a common barn or other 

 out-house of a farmer. The whole interior, with 

 the exception of the places of entrance from the 

 pond on tlie one side and trom the place of loading 

 for transport on the other, is lined up with boards 

 or plank ofsufficient strongtli, and the vacant space 

 of one fool or more between the outside covering 

 and inside lining is filled with hemlock or oak tan 

 which has been used in the preparation of leather. 

 When the house is filled with the blocks of ice tak- 

 en from the ponds at the proper season, common 

 rye straw or salt hay is used for bedding at the bot- 

 tom, and to fill the interstices between the layers, 

 as well as to close up the doors of entrance. The 

 upper covering of the ice in the building, which 

 usually extends not above the level of the plate, is 

 simplv the placing on the top of the ice a layer of 

 straw or hay under the roof. 



A great invention. Progress of Mechani- 

 cal Science. 



Besides the streams running from these ponds in 

 West Cambridge which discliarge themselves to 

 the sea through Mystic river on the north-east of 

 the peninsula of Boston, there is a brook originat- 

 ing at no great distance from the north-west line of 

 the town, whose fall is so rapid that dams are erect- 

 ed within the distance of little more than one mile 

 for approprTafmg its waters nine different times. 

 On this stream are erected several grain mills do- 

 ing an extensive business, besides works for dyeing 

 and printing calico, pulverizing drugs, medicines, 

 and dyc-stuifs, and various other manufactures. 

 More than forty years ago the machine for manu- 

 facturing hand cards for cotton and wool was in op- 

 eration, by which at a single process tlie wire was 

 drawn from the blades, cut, bent and inserted so as 

 to complete a common hand card in a few minutes. 

 This machioe was invented by Mr. Alios Whit- 



TEMORE, a native of West Cambridge, prior to the 

 expiration of the last century ; and the late Rev. 

 Dr. Holmes in his "American Annals" mentions 

 the invention of Mr. Whittemore as one of the on- 

 ly two extraordinary discoveries in mechanics dur- 

 ing that century. Those discoveries have undoubt- 

 edly been eclipsed by others of the present centu- 

 ry. Forty years ago, who dreamed of the wonders 

 which are now worked by steam ? who then be- 

 lieved that man and matter, by means of this agent, 

 might be made to outstrip the fleetest horses on the 

 land, and to fly on the water as with the wings of 

 the eagle .^ The manufacture of cards at West 

 Cambridge, by the application of steam power, is 

 carried on extensively by three sons of the invent- 

 or who is now deceased, and by their uncle, Hon. 

 William Wihtte.more. The total value of the 

 manufactures of West Cambridge in the year end- 

 ing April 1, lb37, was estimated at $3r2,500. 

 Great Agricultural Improvement. 



But it is not the value of the manufactures or the 

 peculiar local position of West Cambridge, to which 

 we would call the attention of the readers of the 

 Visitor: the great agricultural improvements rcliick 

 have been made on this spot, the persevering indus- 

 try, the enterprise and skill of the West Cambridge 

 farmers, are here noted, that we may encourage 

 farmers farther in the interior to "go and do like- 

 wise." 



We well remember, although then but a mere 

 youth, many of the localities of West Cambridge, 

 as they existed forty years ago. The town embra- 

 ces all the varieties of soil. The north-western 

 half consists of nearly as hard and rocky soil as we 

 have ever seen. At the foot of these rocky hills 

 commences a more level territory, a small portion of 

 which only is choice land somewtiat resembling 

 river alluvion, but a much larger portion is either 

 apparently barren pine plains or swampy, low 

 grounds, some of it originally morass, and all of it 

 producing in its natural state coarse meadow grass 

 or bushes. No one could realize better than we 

 can the wonderful improvement that has been made 

 by the present generation on the land occupied by 

 their fathers half a century since. We have been 

 absent, and the scene of the whole improvement 

 struck us at once, while others of our age, witness- 

 ing the progress from step to step, do iHit see the 

 whole at once. 



Forty years ago the rocky and rough part of the 

 town was, with few exceptions, dry and unproduc- 

 tive pasture, much of the ledges covered with bar- 

 berry bushes and savins. Nut trees prevailed in 

 that part which remained in forest, and were now 

 and then left for shades in the pasture grounds. — ■ 

 Thorn locusts were also natural in the hilly grounds. 

 A portion, and but a small portion, of the low mead- 

 ows was mowed, producing coarse hay scarcely 

 worth the labor of cutting, curing and housing it. 

 The arid pine plains produced little or nothing. 



The change wrought upon the grounds is truly 

 astonisliing. Whether the soil be hard pan and 

 rocks, or morass trembling for want of foundation, 

 or simple sand parching vegetation at the appear- 

 ance of the sun, the West Cambridge farmers have 

 found out the way to make it all productive. It is 

 true they possess advantages of location which the 

 farmer farther in the country does not possess : they 

 are tempted to stimulate the earth to early and in- 

 creased production by the demand for the articles 

 whicli it bears. Manures of various kinds, and 

 clean cultivation, are'the great secret of the extra- 

 ordinary process. Common stable manure carted 

 six to eight miles from Boston costs them not less 

 than seven dollars a cord : night manures from the 

 city and its environs are procured at still greater 

 inconvenience and expense. Cost what it will, the 

 cultivator here stints not his arable grounds. Where 

 a second always and sometimes a third crop is ob- 

 tained from the same ground in one season, a sec- 

 ond application of manure is frequently made. 



The farmers of this town have brought up the 

 produce and value of their lands by a diligence that 

 is rare farther in the interior. We tarried three 

 nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with tlie 

 friend and relative near our own age with whom 

 we had been most intimate, by whose dwelling was 

 the main road to market. Saturday and Monday 

 mornings at two o'clock the market carts were on 

 the move, and the passing cf the njatket-men was 

 kept up till day-light. Formerly tl)« sales at mark- 

 et wore effected by the countrymen tlicmselves: of 

 late years the load is all taken up by the market- 

 men in the city occupying stalls, so that the farm- 

 er is not detained, but at once returns to his busi- 

 ness. 



A farming neighborhood. 



Where people are so successful from their own 

 efforts as are those farmers, the mutations and chan- 

 ges are much less from year to year and from one 

 generation to another, than in places of more sjiee- 



ulation and less production. It is very rare in the 

 country that you see the same neighborhood of 

 families continue. Children are brought up to oth- 

 er occupations than those of their parents, and fam- 

 ilies are scattered in pursuits of speculation and 

 trade, which too oltcn turn out to be unfortunate. 

 Whole neighborhoods frequently change positions 

 within the space of a few years. On the road irom 

 the meeting house towards Watertown is a village, 

 close for farmers, extending for the distance of one 

 mile, containing some twenty families; and it is be- 

 lieved there is not a single instance where the di- 

 rect descendants do not inherit and occupy the 

 the same land owned by their fathers. 



The spot to which we allude is one of the most 

 lovely and inviting in creation. In vain may we 

 travel west or east for lands more productive, for 

 scenery more beautiful in the green season, for all 

 the fruits of summer and autumn more plentiful 

 and luxuriant, than are to be here found. Here the 

 land yields ten for one what is necessary for the 

 sustenance of its population. Here labor is crown- 

 ed v/ith a flowing return hardly less than the finan- 

 cial gains of the dreaming speculator. 



This community of farmers seem to have gained 

 a knowledge of the best methods of making land 

 productive from their own experience. They ven- 

 ture much expense in preparing their grounds ; and 

 they hardly ever fail to produce the desired result. 

 A secret of their trade is, to make their crop the 

 more certain by leaving nothing undone that shall 

 contribute to its early growth. By so much as land 

 is improved for future use in its present cultivation, 

 so is the present crop to be taken from it made sur- 

 er from the same cause. The West Cambridge 

 farmers understand all this ; and they attempt to 

 raise no crop where their ground is not prepared in 

 the best manner. 



Extraordinary profit from Strawberries. 



They are also vigilant to seize on every thing 

 which the land will produce turning to the best 

 profit. Without expending any thing for mere or- 

 nament, their fields are no less beautiful than the 

 grounds of wealthy individuals who expend large 

 sums for their artificial decoration. The early fruits 

 are produced in abundance at West Cambridge. It 

 was remarked during our visit that more money 

 was taken in the town for the single item of straw- 

 berries sent to market for each of the present and 

 a few past years than was taken thirty years ago in 

 a year for all the agricultural products put together 

 which were sold from the same town. 



Orchards furnish great gains. 



The apple orchards in this town, now covering 

 plats of ground which were late unproductive, 

 rough ground over which Cittle ranged, put to 

 shame most of the orchards in the interior. Every 

 tree yields the best of fruit for the market — every 

 tree is either budded or grafted, and whole rows of 

 trees are found bearing the same kind of apples. 

 The bodies of the trees themselves show the same 

 superior thrift as the fruit gathered from them, and 

 as does every thing of the fields in which they 

 grow. Two hundred, three hundred, five hundred 

 and sometimes a thousand barrels of carefully pick- 

 ed choice apples are produced in a single year by 

 one farmer. These are at once bought up in the 

 fieid the present season at the high price of three 

 dollars the barrel. 



Most of the apple trees are of the rapid growth of 

 the last few years; and they cover ground which 

 is profitably cultivated for other crops without much 

 interfering with the production of the orchard, 

 which yields the more abundantly from frequent 

 ploughing and manuring. 



An extensive Piggery. 



We visited one establishment near the Spy pond 

 in West Cambridge which will be thought remark- 

 able : it was on ground very near the precise spot 

 where in company with a grandmother and some 

 elder female cousins, at the early age of five or six 

 years, all of us got lost and wandered in terror late 

 in the afternoon, in a swamp of the high blue berry 

 bushes. It is now a place for hogs, where no 

 less than nine hundred of these animals, from tlie 

 smallest size to the lusty two-year-old wcicrhintr 

 eight hundred to a thousand pounds, are kept. And 

 how will the reader suppose so many devourers 

 could be sustained pent up in a pen of not more than 

 one or two acres, without starving .' It is in this 

 wise ; — Some five or six years ago the proprietor of 

 this hog establishment engaged to pay the munici- 

 pality of the city of Boston twenty-five hun- 

 dred dollars a year for the delivery on the spot of 

 the ofl'al collecU'd from the kitchens of the several 

 families in the city who had not other means of 

 disposing of it. This oftal was fed out daily to as 

 many swine as it would keep. The first contract 

 of two or more years turned out to be of great profit 

 to the proprietor. A second contract was made, 

 aud tbe sum w«b adT«aced to thirty-five huudreii 



