CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HII,!,. 



" Those loho labor i 



n the earth are the chosen people of God, whose breasts he has made his peculiar depositefnr stibstantial and genuine virtue."-jEFr-EKSov. 



VOLUME 2. 



CONCORD, N. H., JUNE 30, 1840. 



NUMBER 6 



THE VISITOR. 



A rough soil and a colil climate not incon- 

 sistent with profitable farming, as e\em- 

 plificd in Scotland. 



The most thorough farminir, where the best cul- 

 tivation is continued through successive genera- 

 tions, wliere tlie best practical men and women are 

 raised, will be found where the face of the soil is 

 forbidding, where labor, patience and perseverance 

 are indispensable to success, and where a geni^ral 

 and constant vigilance becomes a liabit of life. 



Cases of great individual wealth are found where 

 the soil is more fertile and easy. Under the tine 

 climate and the excellent land which every where 

 abounded originally in the southern and western 

 States, men speedily made their fortunes out of 

 the ground who never themselves put a hand to 

 the Tabors of the field. The extreme productive- 

 ness of the viro-in soil soon accumulates the means 

 of wealth to the owners of slaves in the regions of 

 country in the United States where tobacco, rice, 

 sugar, and especially the great staple of foreign 

 commerce, cotton, are produced ■ the region of 

 producing these is also adapted to w-heatand corn ; 

 and an almost incrr'tlible amount of produce, after 

 raising supplies for domestic consumption, is at first 

 raised" fur ctportaticn. Soon, however, under the 

 slave culture, tlie land becomes exhausted, and a 

 second and a tliird generation from the first settler 

 becomes poor on an impoverished and worn out 

 plantation, and abandons tiie premises either to 

 settle on new lands or to clioose a new occupation 

 elsewhere. 



In that part of the southern country which is 

 worn out by cultivation, the condition of the plan- 

 ter seems not to be as eligibl.-^ as that of a New 

 England farmer on our rougli hills, who knows 

 how to put his own hand effectually to the plough; 

 but even in Virginia, in the Carolinas »nd in Geor- 

 gia, science in the cultivation of the ground comes 

 t!) the aid of the practical agriculturist ; and many 

 of the gentlemen planter.-, whose production has 

 been lessened by the exhausting process, are turn- 

 ino- their attention suscesslully to the means of re- 

 novating their lauds. 



There is a large range of country north ef the 

 river Ohio and westerly from the Hudson river 

 where tlie business of farming is more immediate- 

 ly productive than in New England. Vast tracts 

 of tliat country yield excellent crops almost with- 

 out the application of manual labor or of stimulat- 

 ing manures. Wheat is raised many years in snc-_ 

 cession ; and it is said tliat on the bottom lands of 

 some of the rive's of Ohio, Indian corn has been 

 produced for forty successive years without any ar- 

 tificial stimulant whatever. 



The facilities of communication, by means of 

 canals and rail r.)ads,liave greatly added to the val- 

 ue of the produce of tliis great western range^. 

 Not many years ago wheat there sold for 2.5 to 37 

 1-2 ccntsabuahel,and Indian corn was 10 and 12 

 1-2 cents a bushel. If articles were raised iri a- 

 bundance, there was no means of transporting 

 them to market, and their value was merely nomi- 

 nal. Tlie State of Ohio, within a few years, has 

 become a large exporter of produce : she not only 

 send.5 vast quintities of flour and pork to the At- 

 lantic coast, but she has siiiiplied the thousands of 

 emigrants to Indiana, Michigan, and regions fur- 

 ther west with the means of their first sustenince. 

 So o-rcat has been this emigration, that the price 

 of provisions has frequeirtly been higher there than 

 oil the seaboard. It was not until two years ago 

 tliat the State of Michigan, tl.e finest wheat grow- 

 ing country of the west, produced half enough 

 for its ov.-u consumption. After the crop came off 

 two years ago, the price of wheat for export was 

 there one dollar the bushel : at Rochester, N. Y. it 

 was worth our dollar and thirty to fifty cents ; and 

 at tlie city of New York it was twenty-five to thir- 

 ty-seven and a Iialf cents hi^J■hcr This was at a 

 time when the millers were enabled, through bank 

 accommodations, to monopolize the bread of the 

 counlrv. The speculators had been able for sever- 

 al 3ca'=ons'to bu^ the farmer? so short as to oblige 



thei.i to repurchase bread at the advanced prices be- 

 fore the next year came round. 



The fertility of the great North West, including 

 a large portion of Upper Canada, in the wheat pro- 

 duction, is of that kind, with the prices reduced to 

 one half of what they have been, as will enable the 

 emigrants from this section of the country to fur- 

 nish the means of competence and even wealth. 

 Men there will become farmers on a more exten- 

 ded scale than in New England ; it will be quite 

 common that the farmer shall have his one and 

 two hundred acres of wheat — some will have tlieir 

 thousand acres. But in a few years the mass of 

 the population, from the habit of producing much 

 with little labor, will not be as well off as a similar 

 numljer of men in one of our rough New Eno-l-ind 

 farming towns. Easy production, a soil yielding 

 the fruits of the earth almost spontaneously, will 

 be pretty certain to beget those habits of indolence 

 which every where tend to poverty . 



We think there is an evident improvement in the 

 habits of the farmers of New England within the 

 last few years. Wherever there is improved culti- 

 vation of the ground, there we shall find improved 

 morals. 



The hardness of our soil, tlie far remove of our 

 position from the w-aruiing influences of the sun, 

 are not the evils which we ought most to dread. 

 If we have late and early frost (tliere was white 

 frost, which however did no barm, on the hills a 

 little north of this town on the first of June) we 

 do not suffer more frequent injuries from that cause 

 than the people of Carolina and Georgia. We 

 had notice in the month of April, that the i'ruit was 

 cut off in some of the southern States by an un- 

 timely frost before even the buds had begun to put 

 forth in our latitude of forty-three degrees north 

 Change of seasons and climate from cold to hot, 

 from dry to wet, is quite as likely to injure the 

 crops in Louisiana as in New Hampshire. 



Next to actual personal observation in any new 

 section of country, do we enjoy the reading of some 

 topographical description of a location about 

 which our previous information is merely general. 

 We are charmed with the idea that some obscure 

 corner of a country surrounded by rough moun- 

 tains and forests, under the hand of industry, has 

 been made to produce the means of living to man 

 and beast : in proportion as the aspect is more fur- 

 bidding so is the surprise and pleasure increased at 

 the exhibition of the means of comfort and compe- 

 tence. 



The countr of Sutherland, the extreme north 

 county of Scotland, is situated in the .octb ilegree 

 of north' latitude, parallel to Gottenburgh in Swe- 

 den, and Labrador in .\merica, and not two de- 

 grees further south than Cape Farew-ell in Green- 

 Fand— full fifteen degrees farther north than this 

 central point of one of the most northern States of 

 the Union. The county consists of a peninsula, 

 nearlv of a square form, washed on the west by 

 the Atlantic ocean, on the north by the great North 

 sea, and on the east and south by the county of 

 Caitliness, and by that portion of the German o- 

 cean called the Moray Frith. 



One would suppose that a country so far to the 

 north would put at defiance all attempts at cultiva- 

 tion of the soil ; but the exhalations from the great 

 bodies of water surrounding it moderate the rigors 

 of winter and the heats of summer, causing at the 

 same time a dampness during every season, more 

 especially during the vernal and autumnal equi- 

 noxes, f ivorable to urass, but not propitious every 

 year to the sowing and ripening of wheat and oth- 

 er kinds of grain. 



The centre and east portion of this county, ex- 

 cepting a strip along the south east coast about 

 two miles in breadth, rests on mountains compos- 

 ed of r.-neiss and micaceous schistors, with here and 

 there a mass of primary limestone or some bluff 

 hill of red sand stone. These mountains are brok- 

 en into almudance of wild scenery, and are subdi- 

 vided by many lakes and streamsof water, and are 

 covered chiefly wiiU peat bogs, on which grow va- 

 rious alpine plants, given in kindness by Provi- 

 dence to those countries where the extreme length 

 of winter and the absence of spring forbid, during 

 a great pirtion of the year, the vegetatiop. of plants 

 of a mori' feeding, but less hardy nature. 



The tillage farming of this county, with one ex- 

 cejition on the north coast of the liu-iestone district, 

 is limited to the narr<nv strip above mentioned. 

 Here there has been formed, from the disintegra- 

 tion of the mountain rocks, a soil consisting of 

 loam of different depths, and all of it adapted, 

 when limed, to the growth of heavy crops of tur- 

 nips. 



From the mountainous part of this county, ap- 

 propriated chlefiy for sheep, is exported annually 

 onr.hundred and f.i(^]itij thousand fteecrs to employ, 

 ani fortif tliOHsa !id sliecp to feed the ma.nufacturera 

 in England. The shores abounding in fish, furnish 

 for exportation more than fifty thousand barrels of 

 lierrinffs. The part of the country employed in 

 tillage furnishes several cargoes of corn (wheat, 

 oats, barley and beans) some choice Highland whis- 

 key, and many droves of cattle ; but this tillage 

 srround is chieily valuable for the turnips and other 

 esculent food which it furnishes to the weaker por- 

 tion of the flocks from the mountains. 



Patrick Sei.l.yr (from whose account we have 

 taken this summary statement) gives an interesting 

 desciiptinn of farms upon these premises owned 

 bv the Marquis and jlarchioness of Stafford, to 

 whom he is the tenant. 



" The first and most important part of the farm 

 possessed by the reporter is in Stratlinaver, a tract 

 of mountain land, on the north coast of the coun- 

 ty, in latitude 58 deg, 30 min. situated helvixt 

 Loch Naver and the sea. The river Naver runs 

 through it from south to north, and it extends, at 

 its greatest breadth, from Loch Laygal on the west 

 to Badanloch on the east. 



" The pasturage consists of a great variety of 

 plants, singularly adapted to the maintenance, diir- 

 ino- every month of the year, of the only domesti- 

 cated animal possessed of a cover adequate to de- 

 fend it by day and night from the effects of such a 

 climate — so light In weight, as not to sink in the 

 peat bog where it finds its food ; and with power 

 and instinct to .•.■;ijc/ (climb) the inaccessible crags 

 with which sucli a country abounds." 



"That part of this farm which falls down on 

 the south side ol the mountain, to a flat of more 

 than four hundred and fifty imperial acres of til- 

 lage land, is Culmally Farm; and is chiefly com- 

 posed of a sharp gravelly black loam, incumbent 

 on sandstone of very compact quality, and on the 

 debris of the sandstone and gneiss rocks, which a- 

 bound In the neighborhood, mixed up with some 

 sea sand and calcareous matter infused into tlie 

 mass, at some remote period when it must have 

 been covered with salt water. The other part, 

 which is on the west side of the mountain, is bare- 

 ly within the gneiss district; it descends to the 

 base of a precipitous mass of rock, comjiosed in a 

 great measure, of amorphous felspar, at the bottom 

 of which is the alluvial flat of " Morvich,' formed 

 of a deep and pretty strong clay loam, in some part 

 covered with mos.i, and measuring better than two 

 liundred imperial acres of tillage land. 



" It is not immaterial to the reader to know, that 

 of these tillage farms, full two hundred and fifty 

 acres have been converted from moor, moss, and 

 pasture, into tillage land, by the reporter,and that 

 lie has thoroughly manured the whole six hundred 

 and fifty acres with lime imported from England; 

 and he mentions these fiicts here, in order to afford 

 him this opportunit}- of adding, that he was indu- 

 ced to make such extensive improvements by the 

 liberal terms granted in his first lease, the unsoli- 

 cited addition of nine years to its endurance, and 

 the abatements of rent given and other acts of 

 kindness which have been, by the venerable mar- 

 quis and his noble lady, conferred upon him, in 

 common with the other ten-antry of the estate." 



" His tillage land is subdivided into twenty-one 

 inclosures, tlie fences of which are dikes or stone 

 walls, all built by the tenant,* viz: sixteen at Cul- 

 mally, and five at Morvich. The sixteen at Cul- 

 mally are wrought in three shifts, v\z. six fields, of 

 the lightest quality in the course are under the ro- 

 lalion of^first, turnipE ; second, barley ; three , 



' An allowance, or ' meliorations,' to be paid by 

 the landUrd to the tenant for certain improve- 

 ments, at the end of the term, is stipulated f«r in 

 the lease. 



