10 



THE PARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Take the Stale of New Hampshire from its east 

 to Its westerly line at any distance short of eighty 

 miloB north rifthe line of Massachusetts, and tliere 

 is scarcely an acre, that is not a dear ledge of rock 

 or covered with water, which is not valuable 

 poor ground covered with growing wood 

 in many cases to be worth the most 

 lands of easy productive soil are 



The 

 E found 

 The cleared 

 some cases 



much less valuable. There are poor lands in the 

 vicinity of Merrimack river — lands so poor that 

 twenty and thirty years ago, after the best pine 

 and oak trees had been cut down and wasted, they 

 were disclaimed by their owners, rather than pay 

 the taxes — that have increased from the growth 

 of wood to a value above the best lands of some 

 cultivated farms, and have been sold from thirty to 

 fifly and a hundred dollars the acre. 



Little need be done in the way of cultivation to 

 realize a fortune to the owners of land whicli has 

 a young growth of almost any kind of wood. The 

 poorest lands produce the different kinds of pine 

 and white birch ; and while the former is valuable 

 both for timber and fuel, the latter is so rapid of 

 growth as to be considered more profitable than any 

 other kind of wood, and makes the best of fuel 

 when it is dried and seasoned undercover. 



Much of the high land is natural to the growth 

 of chesnut, which is considered the most durable, 

 more durable than the cedarfor posts to be inserted 

 in the ground. Chesnut is the favorite of all oth- 

 er kinds of wood for the foundation of rail roads — 

 better and less expensive than granite itself, be- 

 cause the interest on the difference of expense will 

 supply the wood faster than it decays — the wood 

 is much better calculated to prevent injury from 

 frost, and the heavy wheels pass over the chesnut 

 rails with much more ease to the passenger and 

 less risque of breaking down than upon the less e- 

 lastic foundation of stone. Extensive contracts 

 were made one year ago to furnish chesnut timber 

 of exact dimensions for the Eastern rail road. The 

 chesnut trees will spring and grow ad infinitum 

 from the roots of the old stump ; twelve and fifteen 

 years will be sufficient to increase the new shoots 

 into timber for posts of respectable si7.e. Reflect- 

 ing on the number of these which will grow upon 

 an acre, and supposing them to be worth standing 

 upon an average ten cents each, the growth in ten 

 or twelve years would be worth at least a hundred 

 dollars. This would soon realize a fortune to the 

 owner of a few hundred acres. 



In the interior of New England we hardly need 

 be at the pains to procure seeds and plant forest 

 trees. If we will take care of those which are now 

 growing or may of themselves spring up, we may 

 in the course of one generation have most valuable 

 timber lots. Near the head of the Londonderry 

 turnpike, and within a hundred rods of the main 

 ■treet in this town, on land now owned by Theo- 

 dore French, Esq. is an elegant grove of white 

 oaks, every one of which the owner would probably 

 consider to be worth at least one dollar. Since our 

 remembrance the trees of that grove, the most of 

 which are nearly afoot in diameter, were not much 

 larger than a man's wrist. 



The growth of wood is so rapid that the increase 

 of our forests, without encroaching on land neces- 

 sary for firming purposes, may be made sufficient 

 for consumption of both timber and fuel to a popu- 

 lation twice as large as that at present upon tlie soil 

 of our State. 



much individual wealth having been gained in the 

 pursuit of the latter. The interior trade of Ports- 

 mouth seems to have fallen away within the last 30 

 years before the greatcr'facilities for trade of other 

 seaboard towns. Trade has wonderfully concentra 

 ted within the last twenty-five years ; the larger 

 trade of Boston has gone south to the city of New 

 York ; and the smaller import trade of tlie second- 

 ary seaboard towns of New England has concen- 

 trated at Boston. Other towns, as New Bedford, 

 have flourished and risen to importance purely by 

 business connected with the sea. Portsmouth, with 

 greater advantages of position and business, has 

 done less by \^ay of increase. 



Next to Portsmouth as places of business and 

 population are the towns of DovKR and Nashua, 

 formerly Dunstable. Dover is situated upon a 

 branch of the same stream, the Piscataqua, whose 

 entrance forms the harbor of Portsmouth : it was 

 first settled near the same time. Thirty years ago 

 it was a village of little hu.siness. Situated near 

 the falls of a river, extensive cotton and woollen 

 factories, worked b) water power, have been erect- 

 ed ; and the buildings and people have increased 

 four fold. Within the limits of the town surround- 

 ing the populous village and in the adjacent towns, 

 are many excellent farms. These are more valua- 

 ble for their proximity to the market which the 

 manufactures afford ; and the manufacturing indus- 

 try derives a corresponding benefit from the abun- 

 dance which the farmer produces. 



Nashua, in its present location, being a border 

 town nearly central on the line of Massachusetts 

 separating that State from New Hampshire between 

 the ocean and the Connecticut river, is new within 

 the recollection of most persons beyond middle age. 

 Thirty-five years ago, where Nashua now is, with 

 its magnificent brick factories, its half a dozen 

 churches of the various Christian denominations, 

 its spacious and neat dwellings, its wholesale and 

 retail stores, its rail road depot busy four times a 

 day with cars and passengers and merchandize, and 

 its 6,000 inhabitants, was only an unemployed 

 stream of water, making its sluggish way through 

 a barren plain of bastard pines and white scrub 

 oaks. There was but a single tavern and a dwell- 

 ing house and store at " Indian Head," where the 

 road up and down the Merrimack unites with the 

 principal road farther west and central through the 

 county of Hillsborough. It seemed to be but a 

 place f'or the starveling and the lean-kine ; and if 

 any one had said at that time " here will arise a 

 beautiful village of six thousand inhabitants with- 

 in the life of the present generation," he would 

 have been set down as a visionary, giving to "airy 

 nothing a local habitation and a name." 



Nashua village is situated near the cofluence of 

 the river of the same name with the Merrimack, 

 tiaving its source thirty miles south-west at the 

 pond in Ashburnham which within the distance of 

 two miles from the highest source of ttie waters 

 feeds in a short space and in successive water-falls 

 many mills carrying machinery for making all the 

 variety of chairs, jjails, tubs, &c. &c. which have 

 been described in a former number of our Visitor. 

 The fall for the great factories at Nashua has been 

 gained bv digging a canal from rapids in the river 

 some three miles above their location. This canal 

 was constructed a great part of the way through a 

 discouraging sand bank, which at first frequently 

 broke loose and discharged towards the ocean the 

 deposits that had been collected with great labor 

 and expense as an embankment to give direction 

 to the waters destined to be the moving power. 



A fresh impulse to the business and jirosperity of 

 Nashua has been recently given by the extension 

 of the rail road from Lowell to that place. This 

 rail road carries vou to Boston, tlie emporium of 

 New England trade, a distance of forty-three miles 

 in the incredibly short space ef one liundred and 

 thirty minutes I It has been in use more than one 

 year; and as yet there has been nn accident in all 

 its operations Injurious to any human being. With 

 the aid of this road persons either on business or 

 amusement may leave home after l)re:ikfast in the 

 morning, spend eight hours in the city of Boston, 

 and return to supper In the evening, jiassing in the 

 time over the distance of eighty-sl.x miles. 



But the most excellent trait in the ohiracter of 

 this elegant village which has arisen from the bar- 

 rens, is that of its moral and religious culture. The 

 last Sabbath of the year which has just flown and 

 Is now numbered with the time that is past recal, 

 was spent by the editor of the Visitor, wliile op his 

 way to Boston, at Nashua. Here are five denomi- 

 nations of christians, Calvinlstic Baptists and Con- 

 gregationalists, Methodists, Unitarians, Universal- 

 Ists, each with its separate place of wor.ship. We 

 have seldom listened to a more interesting discourse 

 than that of the Rev. Mr. Osgood on the last Sab 



Rocial, moral, and religious relations of the people 

 were freely stated and dilated upoH. The cler- 

 gymen of the different denominations are in the 

 habit of interchanging and supplying e^icli others' 

 desks; and at the evening lectures the different so- 

 cieties flock to the same meeting. The Unitarian 

 meeting liouse, situated in the same charming 

 grove with the cemetery for the dead recently set 

 apart as a miniature imitation of Mount Auburn, 

 had been dressed in fine taste for the festivities of 

 Christmas: the " fir tree, the pine and the box" 

 were interwoven as the tapestry ; and the windows 

 were brilliantly illuminated before a crowded audi- 

 ence. The discourse brought into view the memo- 

 ry of some who had departed, recounting as well 

 their expiring words as the character of their lives. 

 The service of the evening, highly interesting to a 

 stranger, must have been a *' sovereign balm to ev- 

 ery wound" of the connexions and friends of the 

 departed. 



We were delighted with the spirit of the clergy 

 and people at Nashua. Four or more sfTcieties, each 

 taking its place in the Sabbath evening lecture by 

 turns ; the minister prepares thirteen lectures for 

 the year to be delivered at his own church. By 

 understanding, if not by agreement, the time of 

 his lecture interferes not with the time of any oth- 

 er. The subject as well as the time of the dis- 

 course is understood by all the people in the village. 

 Having ample time for previous preparation, the 

 performance may be made niuoh hotter than a hur- 

 ried third sermoH delivered at the qloec of every 

 Sabbath evening. 



" How good and how pleasant it is to see breth- 

 ren dwelling together In unity." Every man as he 

 advanceB in life finds it to be his interest, as it will 

 contribute to his peace of mind not less than to hii 

 worldly prosperity, to repel all covetous jealousy 

 from his bosom. Nothing is gained eve'n by rivals for 

 the public favcr in any kind of business by becom- 

 ing objects to each other of " envy, hatred and mal- 

 ice." Even if there be not room enough for all, 

 all can best live together in a spirit of harmony 

 and kindness each towards the other. The Mil- 

 lenium will never arrive until those who call them- 

 selves christians can tolerate christians of other de- 

 nominations; the strongest evidence of true Chris- 

 tianity is exhibited in that charity which forgives 

 as it would be forgiven, and concedes to others who 

 may entertain a w'rong belief the right to embrace 

 whatever opinion conscience dictates. 



A spirit of catholic charity seems to be gaining 

 ground in thfe religious conimunitj' even among the 

 the severer sects. We are quite sure that the rigid 

 demeanor of old times is done away in a generation 



A disconrse about some of the priucipal 

 towns of New Hampshire, and about that 

 charity Avhich Christians shoulO enter- 

 tain toward ■ each other. 



There is no city within the limits of the State 

 of New Hampshire: its more than two hundred 

 townships, each with a population varying from 

 twenty persons to nine thousand, are all of a simi- 

 lar character. Most of the towns have villages, 

 generally near their centres : at these villages the 

 professional men, the clergvman, the lawyer, and 

 the doctor, set themselves down. The mechanics 

 of the various occupations, and the trader, who of- 

 tentimes is the most important pef.ior.age of the 

 whole corporation, uniting in his own person the of- 

 fices of chairman of the board of selectmen, over- 

 seer of the poor, representative to the general court 

 and justice of the quorum, are likewise found at this 

 point. 



The- largest town corporation of the Granite 

 State, Is Portsmouth, containing at this time a po- 

 pulation of about nine thousand inhabitants. Tills 

 town Is the only considerable seaport, having one 

 of the best, if not the very boBt and safest harbor 

 in the United States — it was the place of first set- 

 tlement by the whites within the present State lim- 

 its. It is a place for ships and commerce, more or 

 less of the former being annually built bere, and bath afternoon of the erpiring year, in which the 



which la growing up. 



Taking up a printed copy of 

 a beautiful hymn written for the consecration ser- 

 vice of a church in our own village which num- 

 bers comparatively few votaries within the limits 

 of this State, we were pleased to find its author to 

 be among those who had not formerly looked upon 

 this denomination with the most favorable eye — an 

 individual too who, although by nature among the 

 most kind and amiable, had suffered much in the 

 public estimation from being supposed to be of that 

 class in a great question of agitation who think with 

 unconverted Saul that they are verily doing God 

 service by persecuting with intolerable zeal all who 

 differ froin their own opinions. The spirit breathed 

 through this hymn, beautiful as it is in itself, is 

 heightened to extacy when it comes over us as a 

 voluntary offering from one whose faith and whoso 

 worship had not been the faith and worship either 

 of the "earthly house, an emblem faint of that a- 

 bove," or of its "minister," with "hands ever 

 clean and heart most pure." 



CONSECRATION HYMN, 

 For St. Paul's Chu.ch, Concoril,jY. H. Jan. 1,1340. 



These walls we dedicate to thee. 



Father Supreme ! to who^ be given, 



In union with the Sacied 'Phree, 



All praise en earth, nnd all in Heaven;. 



These portals, opening li t!iy praise, 



Welcome tlie King of Glory in; 

 This choir, resounding Zion's lays. 



The songs of Heaven on earth begir,. 



This altar, lighted from above. 



We consecrate to thy great name ; 



lis holy incense, truth and love, 

 Shall ever rise, a living flame. 



Iti minister, thy servant, Lord — 



Hands ever clean and heart most puro — 



Faithful shall preach thy Holy Wora, 

 The great salvation to secure. 



The witness of this earthly house — 

 An emblem UilDt of thit above, 



