74 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



muskets and l)ayonet3,gunpowder and almost every 

 other material of war, is said to be greater tlian 

 the whole possessed by the United States at tiie 

 commencement of the" war with Great Britain m 

 1812. If the n-uns and gun carriages at the forts 

 have undergom- dilapidation, it will lie satisfactory 

 to know that the wherewith may in a few linurs bo 

 furnished from this Arsenal sufficient for the pro- 

 tection of the port of Boston against any anticipa- 

 ted assault from the sea. 



In the yard of this Arsenal are several thousand 

 tons of cannon balls and many pieces of artillery. 

 Of these, several are ancient brass pieces manu- 

 factured lor the use of other governments, some 

 of which were captured from an enemy, and oth- 

 ers presented by some friendly potentate. Of the 

 latter, as matter of the greatest curiosity, was a 

 mortar of thirteen inch bore; sent to this country as 

 a present from Louis XVI, during the revolution- 

 ary war. This mortar was made in 1681, and bears 

 the motto — ^'^ .Vim satis rcidias scd Jovis, fuhnino 

 mitto:" "/ send not the rai/s of the sim, but the thun- 

 ders of Jupiter." 



The ground attached to the Arsenal belonging to 

 the United States, consist? of some thirty acres. 

 It is a light porous soil, and had been thought of 

 not much value for cultivation. Several enlisted 

 men and others are constantly employed here by 

 the government. The smithery, in which various 

 maieriab are made for gun carriages, t&c. is mana- 

 ged to grea: perfection. Other mechanics employ- 

 ed on wood have also their appropriate shops. A 

 steam eno-ine for propelling variou.'! mechanical 

 machinery, is also in preparation. This institution 

 presents the means of doing within itself much 

 that would be more expensive to the government 

 to be done elsewhere. 



The superintendent has availed himself of all 

 advantages for renovating and improving the 

 jrrounds attached to the Arsenal. Gardens have 

 been laid out, which produce abundance of veget- 

 ables for the consumption of the families whose 

 heads are in the public service. Fruit trees have 

 been planted, producing a variety of apples, pears, 

 peaches, plums, &c. Tlie military officer com- 

 manding and the keeper of the Arsenal has each 

 a dwelling house furnished by the United States ; 

 these are built of brick, as are the other commodi- 

 ous buildings which cover and secure a large a- 

 mount of public property. If the arsenals through- 

 out the country are furnished at all in proportion 

 to this, it will not be said that tlie government has 

 been inattentive to the maxim " in peace prepare 

 for war." 



Twelve miles ride round IJostoii. 

 The friend at the Arsenal who kindly met us in 

 Boston and conveyed us to his domicil on Friday 

 evening, next morning gave us the ride on our re- 

 turn through Watertown, West Cambridge, Med- 

 ford, and Charlestown, of twelve miles, in the 

 most beautifully cultivated region to be found in 

 any part of the United States. 



The wealthy genteel farmer. 

 Cushing's farm and gardens in Watertown, by 

 which we passed, are* more interesting creation 

 by artificial means than can be found in any other 

 part of the country. This gentleman is understood 

 to have realized an ample fortune, " more money 

 than he knows what to do with," by commercial 

 pursuits in the East Indies. lie tears down and 

 builds up to suit his pride or his fancy. The house 

 attached to the garden, said to be good enough for 

 tlie residence of the most affluent, had been re- 

 cently taken down ; and some thirty men were bu- 

 sily engaged in digging the cellars and laying the 

 foundations for a new house. It was said the pro- 

 prietor intended to make this house as expensive as 

 would be the cost of constructing its entire exte- 

 rior with silver. The fine, permanent, double wall 

 which divided Mr. Cushing's premises from the 

 road over which we passed, was taken up and re- 

 laying with tlic additional preparation of a large 

 flat cap stone nece.s3ary*only to improve its appear- 

 ance. 



The wealthy nabob who has acquired a fortune 

 in the East may and undoubtedly does enjoy the 

 improvements which he is making from the labor 

 of hundreds of men. His expenditure does a pub- 

 lic benefit, inasmuch as he gives employment and 

 pay to many who might not be able to procure ei- 

 ther. But after all, the worthy farmers of his 

 neighborhood, who cultivate their lands for the 

 profit, and who show equally with him what artifi- 

 cial means can perform in forcing crops from the 

 field, must enjoy the fruits of their labors with a 

 higher zest and keener appetite than can Mr. Gush- 

 ing. 



The soil of Watertown, in that part near Charles 

 river, being the grounds of the Arsenal, is light 



and porous, resembling the marine gravel some- 

 times found near the sea: the water drains through 

 it quite as easy as through the most porous light 

 sand of the pitch pine plains. The drought of the 

 hast year converted the gravel as far as the filnugh 

 had reached into dryneaslike an ash-bed, and de- 

 stroyed the growth. There was scarcely a spot in 

 the vicinity where that dry weather did not operate 

 in a similar in'anner in that season. We are strong- 

 ly inclined to the opinion that this soil contains all 

 the elements of fertility that we are accustomed to 

 expect in grounds more retentive of moisture from 

 a clayey or gravel hard subsoil ; and that the por- 

 tion which has long laid underneath, turned to the 

 surface, will in the exposure of one or more sea- 

 sons give a good foundation for agricultural'opera- 

 tions. 

 Grand improvements in Watertown and 



West Cambridge. 

 Receding f;irthcr from the river is the ridge 

 which divides the Charles river from the basin con- 

 taining the Fresh pond and the two Spy ponds in 

 Cambridge and West Cambridge. On this ridge 

 are several beautiful market farms, many single 

 acres of which yield their annual profit of at least 

 a hundred dollars each. From this ridge looking 

 towards the north is a splendid array of that rich 

 scenery appertaining to the most luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion. Here the low swamp meadows surrounding 

 the three ponds which thirty and fuly'years ago 

 were so immersed in w-ater as to be impassable by 

 cattle or other boasts of burden, have been made 

 highly ])roductive by draining and cultivation. At 

 the north-west side of this ainphiiheatre, in West 

 Cambridge, the ground rises in a ridge of perhaps 

 two hundred feet. Since our remembrance the al- 

 most entire surface of this ridge was an unimpro- 

 ved rocky barren, producing little food for man or 

 beast: the granite mountains of New Hampshire 

 were not more rough, and generally where ledges 

 of rock or the barberry bushes and savins did not 

 cover the ground, the feeble soil upon the surface 

 yielded little beside moss as pasturage for the cat- 

 tle. A large portion of this ground has been 

 improved beyond what could ever be expected of 

 any spot of mother earth ; it is even more valuable 

 as a place for the early production of market veg- 

 etables than the richer low lands at the foot of the 

 ridge which have never been disturbed by rocks or 

 hard pan gravel. 



Cleared of rocks, th? side-hill ground produces 

 probablv quite as much as the natural fertile land 

 below. A portion of the farm of Mr. .Iajik? Kii.i, 

 which we now visited, lies upon this rocky side- 

 hill in a concave basin facing the early sun on all 

 sides. He had sown his early peas on this spot in 

 the month of February ; and on this 24th of April 

 they stocd four inches from the ground in the open 

 air, and were very near coming to the blow. 



&Ir. Hill leaves no effort untried to make his 

 ground productive. A small brook running down 

 the hill is turned to overflow the grass ground up- 

 on its side long enough in the spring to produce 

 an increased growth. His example has been fol- 

 lowed by his several neighbors ; and the fruits of 

 their industry are seen in the genteel and valuable 

 dwenings(wii!te on the outside and"fair and come- 

 ly" witliin, with carpeted parlors and sitting rooms) 

 which have multiplied in the neighborhood — in the 

 spacious barns — and in the abundant fruits of the 

 earth. 



Every thing turned to good account. 



In such a farmer and horticulturist as Mr. Hill 

 there can be no mistake. His labor is never mis- 

 applied ; and seldom has he, during tiie half cen- 

 tury that he has labored upon the ground, done any 

 thing in his profession that has not turned to good 

 account. He has done little merely for beauty or 

 ornament; and yet the trees, shrubs and fruits of 

 the earth are no where more beautiful than upon 

 his premises. We know not the opinions of oth- 

 ers ; but for our part we esteem that cultivation 

 which produces profit, which pays its own expense 

 and at the same time increases the means of the 

 owner of the soil, as affording a far higher gratifi- 

 cation than a splendid exhibition of mere beautiful 

 flowers or grass plants which have been raised at 

 great expense. 



Mr. Hill has succeeded well — much better than 

 others in more exposed positions — in raising pea- 

 ches. He has found the trees generally not long- 

 lived, and frequently suflering from the cireulio. 

 He has also fine apple orchards, which have grown 

 to maturity under his own hand. Few of the old 

 apple trees that were upon this ground forty years 

 ago remain. Mr. H. is of the opinion that it is 

 better to raise young apple tribes than to attempt 

 mending the constitution of old ones. He thinks 

 the better mode for the health and growth and pro- 



duction of the tree is, not to plough and cultivate 

 the ground around it, but, especially in a thin soil, 

 to keep the ground under the shade of the tree in 

 grass, and mow it once or twice of a summer, leav- 

 ing the grass to rot or be consumed upon the 

 ground. The button-wood or sycamore tree front- 

 ing JMr. Hill's house, and which fronted another 

 house forty-five years ago, has increased prodi- 

 giously in size during that time, This- venerable 

 tree now measures seven feet in diameter, and 

 girts twenty-two feet, at a considerable distance a- 

 bove the surface of the ground. 



Population .Tud Improvements about 

 Boston. 

 A ride of twelve miles, in a radius of^ from four 

 to seven miles around ISoston, embracing the towns 

 of Brookline, Brighton, Watertown, West Cam- 

 bridge, Medford, Can.bridge, and Charlestown, 

 presents a more interesting district than can be 

 found within the limits of the United States. The 

 grounds around Philadelphia, if the natural soil is 

 better, will not compare for variety and richness 

 ofproductions, nor, beyond the limits of the compact 

 part of the latter city,will the population and wealth 

 come up to that about the capital of New England. 

 The roads around Boston have been multiplied as 

 the avenues over Charles river connecting the pe- 

 ninsula with the main land have increased : these 

 roads leading in all directions are better than most 

 other roads of the country, the nature of tlie soil 

 being such as to make them hard as the best M'- 

 Adamizcd roads. Ro.xbury on the south, and 

 Charlestown on the north, arc both large enough 

 to be accounted cities : the three villages of Cam- 

 bridge are large enough to be called respectable 

 borough-towns in many parts of the United States. 

 More distant, but within a single hour's ride from 

 Boston, are the towns of Salem, Lynn, and Mar- 

 blehead, with a population little short of forty 

 thousand souls. In fact, the mass, of enterprise and 

 its resulting wealth, the dense population that has 

 grown up around and within the limits of Boston 

 since the revolution, would seem to be unaccount- 

 able. Population and property have increased four 

 fold within fifty years. 



Cliange of Boston itself. 

 Our fathers yet live — our grandsires left us but 

 yesterday ; yet we are old enough to remember 

 when State street, Kilby street, Slerchants' Row 

 aud Long Wharf, embraced nearly all the heavy 

 business of Boston, and when few dry goods shops 

 were found beyond the limits of Comhill. Since 

 that time numerous new streets have been cut out 

 where buildings only filled the space — Beacon hill 

 has disappeared to fill many acres covered with wa- 

 ter in the old tide mill pond. The great hill to the 

 east of the old Charlestown bridge lias furnished 

 the material for extending the city over the waters 

 in that direction. A portion of the old " North 

 End" remains somewhat as it was in 1797, when 

 the noble frigate Constitution, since consecrated to 

 liberty by more than one victory that " man toman 

 and gun to gun" proved the American to be a 

 prouder name than any other under heaven, was 

 constructed upon that ground. Further south, 

 new wharves with rows of splendid Quincy Gran- 

 ite stores have been built up on piles driven into 

 the mud bearing the weight of many thousand tons 

 of rocks and gravel brought from the islands be- 

 low. Northward and southward from Long wharf 

 has the land been extended down to the very chan- 

 nel of the sea, and upon it have arisen streets and 

 wharves and stores doing busine.ss now more ex- 

 tensively than within half a century was the whole 

 mercantile business of the thirteen United States. 

 As if there could he no end to the extension of 

 Boston, a city pent U]i in a peninsula of three steep 

 hills, not only have the hills been levelled to make 

 additional ground, but, since the ready means of 

 heavy transportation have been furnished by the 

 rail roads, the hills and rocks of the country are 

 brought in to extend its limits. On the Charles 

 river side some forty or fifty acres of land near the 

 termination of Cragie's bridge have been made at 

 the Lowell rail road depot : the soil composing th« 

 niiw ground has been taken from the bosom of old 

 Prospect Hill in Charlestown, through which the 

 Lowell rail?road passes — that liill over which the 

 brave old General Putnam marched the American 

 boys in Indian file in sight of the enemy the day 

 previous to thelbatlle of Bunker Hill. On the other 

 side, Boston has been connected with Dorchester 

 Heights, (now South Boston) on which the Yan- 

 kees suddenly appeared one night with the breast- 

 work and hogsheads of gravel intended to over- 

 whelm, by rolling them upon the attacking enemy 

 — a diversion w'hich drove the British troops from 

 Boston, in 1775. Fifty acres and more of land 

 have here been built upon the waters in an incred- 



