THE PARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



75 



ibic sliorl spicc of lime ; and over the new made 

 land the brick edifices oontinuc to grow. 



All these improvements and this growth of Bos- 

 ton are but the nnerring index of tlie prosperity of 

 the interior country. It is the AGnrcuLTiiKE of 

 New England tliat is the parent of all. Witli wliat 

 intense anxiety should we cherish. the soil and its 

 productions. Every man, be he merchant or me- 

 chanic, lawyer, doctor or priest, owes it to hnnself 

 and his country to encourage the farmer as the 

 great instrument, under heaven, of comfort and 

 happiness to tlie people. 



All age of Miracles. 



Thus much for the reflections upon a forenoon's 

 ride in the environs of Boston. Ten years ago it 

 would hardly have been deemed credible that a 

 full day's bu.siness could be accomplished in Bos- 

 tifli, and next morning's sunrise find us rested at the 

 wliarf in New York. If the Boston improvements 

 have been magnificent, what shall we say of aland 

 journey of five hours one hundred miles to Nor- 

 wich, Connecticut, with such an agent of trans-port 

 as our ancestors would have hardly dreamed ? If 

 they had been told that tlieir children would at this 

 time fly tlie distance on artificial wings, they migiit 

 have considered it as not entirely beyond tlie 

 bounds of probability. Had they been informed 

 that relays of the fleetest animals would carry a 

 hundred men with a weight of baggage as great as 

 the live stock transported, twenty miles an hour, 

 for five successive hours, they might have contra- 

 dicted tJie false prophet to his face. But if it had 

 been said to them that fire should produce that ex- 

 pansive efiect upon water as with little ado to car- 

 ry men and weight over land at a rate almost e- 

 qual to the flight of birds, they would have given 

 no more credit to the story than they would to that 

 •of constructing a bridge which should enable man 

 to travel directly to the moon. 



The 'Worce.ster and Norwich Railroads 

 and numerous Factories. 



The rail road to Worcester, constructed through 

 a country much more difficult (han the routes gen- 

 erally upon our rivers, carries the passenger into that 

 beautiful town after a flight, with a few short stops, 

 of about two hours. This rail road leaves the de- 

 pot at the cove (now filled up) and passes through 

 the peninsula under the main or Washington street 

 and thence over the bay of Charles river on the 

 westerly side of Boston, in full view of Roxbu- 

 ry, Brighton, the villages of Cambridge and 

 Charlestown. The more distant object is Bunker 

 and Breed's hill, at the north-east, and turning 

 hack tQ\vards the south we have a fine view of the 

 northerly half of the city of Boston, surmounted 

 with the dome of the spacious, State House. On 

 the other hand looking towards the west, the ruins 

 of the Nunnery upon an eminence between Bun- 

 ker hill and Winter hill in Cliarlestown stand in 

 the same position that the fire left them — a monu- 

 ment speaking trumpet-tongued to the beholder of 

 the iidolcrnnce of professed viodcrii liberalUij- Tiie 

 barbarous spirit that applied the torch to this insti- 

 tution for the cheap and thorougli education of fe- 

 males, erected from funds created by a truly Chris- 

 tian charity, was worthy only of a more dark and 

 i-rnorant age — it is a stain upon the Protestant, no 

 less than the intolerance of the former professors 

 upon the Roman Catholic faith. 



The Worcester rail road pursues its course along 

 the south bank of Cliarles river passing the villa- 

 ifes of Watcrlov.'n, Waltliam and Newton; it af- 

 terwards enters the valley of anoihcr stream said 

 to be one of the sources of Concord river falling 

 into the Merrimack at Lowell, until it arrives on 

 the height of land a few miles eastward of Wor- 

 cester, when, breaking through an immense ledge, 

 that beautiful town appodra in full view, adorned 

 on all sides with trees and vegetation. The Nor- 

 wich rail read commences at tliis village and cros- 

 ses tVom the west to the east of the track of the 

 Springfield rail road about half a mile out of town. 

 In the course of a few miles the Norwich road en- 

 ters upon tlie valley of French river, a branch of 

 the Thames, which discharges its waters into Long 

 Island Sound, at New London.' French river has 

 its source in Leicester, and unites with another 

 branch running from the west in Killingly, Cl. 

 Tlie stream again unites with another branch from 

 the west at Norwich, to which place the tide flows 

 fifteen miles above New London. The distance 

 over the railrond from Boston to Worcester is for- 

 ty-four miles — from Worcester to Norwich, sixty 

 miles. Worcester lies at the highest elevation on 

 the route : for the first ten miles from the latter 

 towards Norwich, the route is through a valley of 

 easy light soil to Oxford, at the centre of which i.; 

 the celebrated pi?_in on whiclithe army of 1798 en- 



camped. Leaving Oxford v/e pass down the stream 

 to the new town of Webster, taken from Oxford 

 and Dudley. All the way down the French river 

 factory follows factory. For these the ancient 

 county of NVorcester is remarkable : here are the 

 sources of the streams; and here, near tlie highest 

 point from whence the waters How, the various 

 machinery of manufactures is propelled by the 

 power of the fiilling waters. There are several 

 factories in Leicester near the very sources of 

 French river — there are others in Oxford, the next 

 town below: in Webster, the factories are still 

 more numerous. In this last location S.\:\iuel 

 Slater, who first introduced into this country ma- 

 chinery for spinning cotton by water power, spent 

 the latter years of his life, leaving some seven or 

 more factories to his two'sons. Tliis gentleman at 

 first resided in Rhode Island. He was the great 

 and successful patron of manufacturing industry 

 in this country — zealous for im])rovements, and 

 ready at the invention and perfecting of machine- 

 ry — he necessarily became connected with many 

 others of like enterprise with himself. At one 

 time he owned a part of the great water power at 

 Anioskeag on our own Merrimack, wiien there was 

 a talk that he might there take up his residence. 

 Involved i'n responsibilities for others in the year 

 1829— after the protective tarift'of lS-28— his af- 

 fairs became so embarrassed that he contemplated 

 an asjignmcnt ot his property, when relief was 

 afi'orded hiin by a wealthy house at Providence, R. 

 1. Those for whom he was surety were afterwards 

 able to pay him for responsibilities only in facto- 

 ries; of these he became the owner in several pla- 

 ces — among others, of a small establishment on 

 Fish river. To this place he removed, purchasing 

 the land in the vicinity and the water power for a 

 trifling sum. This water power he continued to 

 improve until he had erected a factory for almost 

 every kind of manufacture of which cotton and 

 wool is the material. The swift river passes over 

 a rocky channel ; and the establishments, some of 

 wood, Obliers of^ brick and some of stone, lie along 

 the stream at convenient distances, each surround- 

 ed by its cluster of dwellings, occupied by the op- 

 eratives employed in manufactures. Elegant 

 broadcloths and kerseymeres as well as cotton 

 cloths of various kinds, threads, &c. arc here 

 made. The rise in the value of land alone in the 

 vicinity of these establishments would have been 

 sulHcientto make any one family wealthy. Rocky 

 and sterile as had been the face of the soil, im- 

 provement in its cultivation was apparent. 



Rugged route through Connecticut. 



Just over the line of Massachusetts in Webster, 

 the track of tjie Norwich road is into Thompson 

 in the State of Connecticut. The valley of the 

 river as it passes down becomes more rough, and 

 the impending banks more precipitous; but crook- 

 ed and rocky and precipitous as these banks are, 

 a way for the location of the rail road fails not to 

 he found. At this point, just over the line, anoth- 

 er manufacturing village owned entirely by one 

 a'entUmen and his soub, presents itself: the factory 

 building, large and beautiful, is constructed of gra- 

 nite — tiie dwelling houses attached, uniform in 

 size, are built of brick : the residence of the own- 

 erhimself is a neatly painted wooden house, front- 

 ing the river, rising through the yard in a succes- 

 sion of steps. For more than a mile before reach- 

 ing the factory from above, the land on both sides 

 of the stream belongs to the same owner, who u- 

 nite; to successful manufacturing enterprise 'the 

 business of profitable (cultivation, on ground ex- 

 ceedingly rougli. The name of this gentleman' is 

 FisuER, a native of Dedham, Massachusetts, and 

 relative to the celebrated Fisher Ames. This vil- 

 lage bears the name of FisherviUe, from that of its 

 ov^ner : it has been constructed within the last ten 

 years. 



Below FisherviUe and approaching Norwich, the 

 valley becomes more and more rugged on either 

 hand. A passage through the Notch of the White 

 Mountains could be hardly more rough ; a route 

 down the Souhegan river from its source to its 

 mouth could not be more diificnlt, than that of the 

 rail road down the Quinnebaug, whose shores were 

 so winding as to require what would etpial the en- 

 tire curve of a circle in the distance of a mile. 

 The bed of this river, as it breaks through the 

 rocks above Norwich, presents as wild scenery as 

 any we recollect ever to have witnessed : for a con- 

 siderable distance the course of the road has been 

 forced through a solid rock, emerging from which 

 we soon enter an extensive nuinufacturing village 

 in Norwich: still further on at no very great dis- 

 tance, stands the city of Norwich, on a point of 

 land where two rivers unite and form the river 

 Thames. 



Elevation changes climate. 



The difi'erence of vegetation between the eleva- 

 ted ground which is the source of the stream, and 

 that in the valley as the road approaches the sea, is 

 very striking. The rye fields were barely green 

 and the common pasture grounds had scarcely star- 

 ted at the highest jioint; but approaching Nor- 

 wich, where the ground was sandy and light, the 

 winter grain had started aiiead ; and the farmers 

 were diligently engaged in making preparations for 

 planting. 



There is a wonderful dificrence at this early sea- 

 son of the year between land well cultivated and 

 laud indilTerently cultivated. The stimulant of 

 good manure makes ground a whole fortnight ear- 

 lier than where there is none or very little manure. 

 We are decidedly of the opinion that true economy 

 teaches the iiighest niauuring and best preparation 

 of land for a crop of Indian corn. Light land, 

 well manured, is best for this crop. This kind of 

 land assists the manure in throwing forward the 

 crop ; and a week or fortnight gained in the first 

 part of the season, frequently saves the whole crop 

 of the year. There is, besides, payment in full for 

 high manuring and good cultivation in the increa- 

 sed quantity of the product. 



A sea Fog. 



Saturday^ .'Ipril^ 25.^After a quiet but dark niglit 

 passage up the Sound the whole distance of Long 

 Island, one hundred and fifty miles, the early mor- 

 ning found our moderate and safe steamboat, Nor- 

 wich, at the wharf in'the city of New York ; and 

 a change from that to the Philadelphia boat at half 

 past seven o'clock, took us on our way further 

 south. Between the city and Staten Island, pass- 

 ing over a distance of seven miles, the boat was 

 suddenly enveloped in a fog. This fog is extremely 

 vexatious to all sea-faring persons : it is often liigli- 

 1}^ dangerous, and many a gallant ship enveloped 

 in fog, has been stranded upon the rocks while 

 pursuing a calm and quiet course in a smooth sea. 

 In a narrow channel, under the power of steam, 

 there is increased vexation and danger in the wa- 

 ter craft. Such a small boat as navigates Staten 

 Island Sound cannot comfortably contain the num- 

 ber of passengers that travel between the two great 

 cities of the Union. Our boat this morning num- 

 boied full three hundred souls ; and thus freighted 

 in the fog, it came within an ace of ru«ning on a 

 dangerous shoal near New Brighton. The captain 

 and hands, at the sudden discovery of land, seemed 

 to be fully as much frightened as we had felt our- 

 selves when discovering once on Lake Ontario 

 that the steamboat was on fire! 



Fruitless Speculations. 



The shores of New Jersey and Staten Island be- 

 tween the city of New York and Perth Amboy 

 are ciiequered with frequent buildings, elegant to 

 appearance on the outside. Perhaps one half of 

 the whole number are uninhabited : many of them 

 had been erected to assist the sale of city lots on 

 paper in the famous speculations of 1836. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands and perhaps millions of dollars 

 had been sacrificed in the inflated prices of lots 

 here laid out. The lesson of those times ought 

 not to be logt on the present generation at least. 

 The money thrown away in ornamenting grounds 

 and buildings that stand "solitary and alone," 

 would account for no inconsiderable amount of the 

 pecuniary distress that has followed; the money 

 sunk in payment for lands and lots actually of no 

 value, would of itself furnish ready capital for the 

 pursuit of a good and sound business in nearly ev- 

 ery village of the country. 



In New Jersey and upon Staten Island, thefruit 

 trees were (April 25) in full blossom, as forward aa 

 they HOW are at Concord, N. H, nearly four weeks 

 later in the season. 



Riches in Jersey under ground. 



Passing from East to West Jersey over the rail 

 road, the country is level. AVith a light soil, fre- 

 quently tlie thin soil of a pitch pine jilain, either 

 sand or gravel, resting upon the same porous ma- 

 terial, the country has seemed to he exceedingly 

 barren and sterile. But we are gratified to say that 

 the journey of every succeeding year improves the 

 appearacne of much of that sterile country. 

 Throughout its whole extent that half of the State 

 of New Jersey nearest the sea, is said to be un- 

 derlaid with a body of shell marl. The farmers 

 are preparing their fields for planting. Marl and 

 lime are very common ingredients for manure: 

 one or^otii were laiti out in piles upon the plough- 

 ed fields. Upon the lighest, silicious soil clover 

 had already sprung up. in its richest green. 



The extensive peach orchards, for which the light 

 soil of Jersey is well adapted, are said to be very 

 profitable to their owners. The trees are set out 



