S6 



THE FARMER'S MONTH LV VISITOR. 



tertained exlraordiiiary respect — such as you feel 

 for an old fiuiiily Jiicture of a ifpntlciiian of the old 

 Bchool, of which there are sn few specimens left 

 us, — 1 asked him if Col. Maynndier were not tlie 

 oldest jjentleiuan in .'Vnnapolis.— " Yea sir," said 

 he, — " he's the oldest white gentleman — I am the 

 oldest of the colored people ! " Well eve.i he had 

 never heard of putting ijeet seed in hoiling water, 

 and was afraid it would not answer. — It seemed 

 against all nature — no one gave me the least cn- 

 couran-emcnt, and as tor an up and down Irisli la- 

 borer — by name Timotliv O'lJrion — he swore at 

 once that my neighbor meant to make a fool of nie, 

 and that " sure any man on^ht to know it was a- 

 i;ainst rason.'' — Still said I my friend is a practical 

 farmer — a prcmiuin taker for root crops, and would 

 not attempt to quiz me, in so serious a matter as 

 that of destroying an acre of su.'rar beet. To make 

 •a long story short, sir, — 7iot a seed rcgctatcfl, while 

 in about half an acre planted fVom the same par- 

 cel, not put in boiling water, not a seed missed ! 

 Therefore^ nrrcf povr boiling ipntcr on beet seeil. 

 On reflection, I should add, that my friendly ad- 

 viser is a polished gentleman, a ripe scholar, reads 

 the reviews, is something of apolitician, and with- 

 al, has a first rate vifiiiagcr .' 



I might not so readjly have committed the f mix 

 pns^even with him as my fugleman, if I had not 

 known tliat (lie covering of tlie seed is very rougli 

 and hard, and was under the impression that boil- 

 ing water is poured on the seed of thorn and locust 

 to make them vegetate. Now you might not have 

 been troubled with tiiis cautifui, were it not that 

 you have often e.\Iiorted vour correspondents to 

 proclaim their failures and mistakes, as well as 

 their discoveries and successes. 



AN OVERSEKa. 



ry presents such a picture 'o the passer-by, shall 

 not he be called a benefactor to the community .' 

 Has he not done much to improve and bless socie- 

 ty by his example i" Has he not buiha monument 

 to his own honor, more eloquent than the marble? 



THE FARiVIKRS MFE. 

 BV II. roi.M.VN. 

 What a means of imparting pleasuie is an im- 

 proved agriculture. How many charming exam- 

 ples present themselves among us of improvements 

 which every eye gazes upon with unraingled de- 

 light. Let a man, according to his power, take his 

 ten, his twenty, his fifty, his hundred acres Let 

 him comb the hair, and wasli the face of nature. 

 Let him subdue, clear, cultivate, enrich, embellish 

 it. Let him smooth the rough i)]ace3 ; and drain 

 the wet, and fill up the sunken, and enrich the bar- 

 ren. Let him enclose it with a neat and substan- 

 tial fence. Let him line its borders and road sides 

 with ornamental ti-ees, and let him stock every 

 proper part with vines and fruits. Let his fields 

 and meadows wave with their golden harvest, 

 and let his hills be covered with the herds rejoic- 

 ing in the fullness with which his labors, under the 

 blessing of God, have spread their table, and who, 

 when he goes among them, hasten from all sides 

 to meet him and gratefully recognize in hirn a friend 

 and benefactor, and lieU the hand which is accus- 

 tomed to feed and fondle them. Here now let us 

 see th'e neatly painted cottage with its green 

 sluides, its piazzas trellisud \\ ith vines, its sides 

 covered with the spreading rdnr or flowing acaeiji, 

 with hove and there the beautiful fur to sludi? the 

 picture, and the mountain ash showing its rich 

 clusters of crimson fruit among the dee]) green fo- 

 liage, and the smooth and verdant lawn stretching 

 its soft and beautiful carpet in the front view; then 

 look again and see tlie parents at the close of day, 

 resting froin their labors and enjoying the calm ev- 

 ening, witli the pledges of mutual and devoted af- 

 fection rioting before them in ;J1 tlie Ijuoyancy of 

 youthful innocence and delight; and if, at such an 

 hour as this, you can hear the hymn of grateful 

 praise rising from tiiis humble ahode of peace and 

 love, and its charming notes mingling with the mu- 

 sic of the gurgling brook that flows near by, oi 

 broken by the occasiortal slirill and hollow notes of 

 the gentle and fearless birds, which deem them- 

 selves loving members of this loving household ; if 

 then, whether traveller or sojourner, your heart is 

 not touched ^vith this charnung and not unusual 

 picture of rural felicity, cease to call yourself a 

 man. If still you sigh lor the bustle and the noise 

 and the confinement of the city, with its impure 

 water, and its offensive odors, with its despicable 1 



affectations, with its heartless formalities, with its I ral town marks the stability and the value of the 

 violent excitements, with its midnight festivities, i farmer's occupation. The "census shows, amonn- 



Censa.s of 1840. 



We anticipate the most pleasing developements 

 in relation to the condition of this State when the 

 results shall be made known of the census taking 

 by the order of Congress in pursuance of the pro- 

 visions of the Constitution, during th.e present 

 year. The direction to the Assistant .Marshals is 

 for an accurate account of the numbers, families, 

 sexes, ages and conditions of the inhabitants, and 

 of the means and productions of the country. 



Thousands of our native sons and daughters 

 have not only emigrated, but have taken with them 

 much of the means which had been here earned, to 

 the new countries of the west and south : yet are 

 we not u'ithout the anticipation tiiat both our num- 

 bers and our resources have been constantly accu- 

 mulating, and that the last ten years will fall short 

 of no previous ten years, in every desirable im- 

 provement. 



Experience will have demonstrated that our Ao- 

 Ricui.TeRE is our great relinnce. 'In the produc- 

 tions of the soil it is impossible we should do too 

 much ; for even if we had here less manufactures, 

 a greater production from the ground by a greater 

 fertility from the same labor would furnish tiie sure 

 means of extended wealth in the increased tratfic 

 and commerce. Let us suppose that the farmers 

 of New Hampshire could at once double their 

 crops and their flocks and herds: the operation 

 would no sooner take place, than one of two things 

 would occur — the surplus produce would move oiT 

 in quest of consumers, or consumers would move 

 to the surplus. If the producers, those who labor 

 in the earth to bring forth its fruits, lived no better 

 and consumed no more, their w-calth and capital 

 must increase in the ratio of their increased pro- 

 ductions. So long as the facilities of transport ex- 

 ist, there never can be danger that the farmer will 

 raise too much. 



The first verbal reports we have had of the cen- 

 sus is from the towns of Sanbornton in Strafi'ord 

 and H.MipTo.v in Rockingham counties. These 

 towns, we are informed, give a gain in population 

 of about twenty per cent. They are both almost 

 purely and exclusively agricultural towns. 



Sanbornton is situated fifty to sixty miles from 

 the se.iboard ; and although divested of a jiortion 

 of its limits by tiie setting off its southwest part 

 to include the new town of Franklin, it probalily 

 comprises a snrfiee four times as large as Hamp- 

 ton, with a population in ]S30 of a?6G. The soil 

 of this town is almost universally good ; itti high 

 hills are especially fine for gracing, and it is fa- 

 mous for its cattle and its butter and cheese. It is 

 nearly surrounded by the waters of the Winni- 

 pisseogee lake, bays and river on the east and south, 

 and the Pernigewasset branch of the Merrimack 

 on tlie west. 



Hampton ie situated near the sea in <he county 

 of Rockingham, and between it and Portsmouth 

 intervenes only the town of Rye. Its eminences, 

 among which is the famous Roar's Head near an 

 extended beach upon the seashoie, aff"ord roman- 

 tic views of the ocean, of the Isles of Shoals and of 

 the sea-coast from Cape .'Vnn to Kitlery. Fishinir 

 is carried on by some of the inliabitantj of this 

 town in winter, large quantities of cod and haddock 

 being carried frozen into the interior of tlie State, 

 into Vermont, and even into Canada. The best 

 cured dun fish, so much admired by those who best 

 appreciate the value of good fish, are sometimes 

 furnished from Hampton. On more than one oc- 

 casion in former years has a box of these fish been 

 received from that town for our use. But the 

 principal occupation of the citizens of Hampton is 

 Agriculture, in which they are scarcely now ex- 

 ceeded, and were formerly not equalled by the 

 town of Rye itself 'J he population of Hampton 

 in I8I30 was 1103: an increase of twenty percent 



The Art of Health. 



\Valking is the best possiMe exercise. Habitu- 

 ate yourself to walk very far. The Europeans 

 value themselves on having subdued the horse to 

 the use of man ; but I doubt whether we have not 

 lost more than we have gained by the use of this 

 animal. No one thing has occasioned so much de- 

 generacy of the human body. An Indian goes on 

 foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as 

 an enfeebled white does on his horse, and he will 

 tire the best horses. A little walk of half an hour 

 in the morning when you first rise, is advisable. It 

 shakes off' sleep, and produces other good effect.s 

 in the animal economy. — Jefferson's Memoirs. 



Regularity and uniformity of habits, especially 

 in the quantity and times of taking sustenance — 

 in all seasons those frequent ablutions ol' body 

 which shall soften the skin and keep open the pores 

 —and the habitual exercise of walking, and walk- 

 ing " very far" — walking even after pretty severe 

 labor; these are secrets of health better than all 

 the medicines that ever have been or ever can be 

 invented by the physicians. 



We have very good physicians in this village — 

 several who are young, as well as others of more 

 experience, of jreat prudence, who are not only 

 careful in administering medlcinee, but who select 

 the right kind of medicines for the intended effect; 

 hut we think the physician among them best of all 

 who administers the least medicine, and in fre(|uent 

 instances prescribes entire abstinence. Last win- 

 ter, a person who had taken no doctor's medicine 

 for more than 20years,in a severe attack of catarrh 

 upon the lungs, became nearly sufl'ocated, and 

 sent for the doctor, supposing some severe medicine 

 was necessary to throw oft' a lung fever, or possi- 

 bly alleviate an affection of the vital part that 

 might already have become incurable. The doc- 

 tor came and prescribed no other severe operation 

 than a simple plat of cotton battmg on the parts 

 nearest the diseased organs. Producing perspira- 

 tion the cough was gradually eased; and without 

 the taking of any medicine, the patient was cured 

 inafewdays. He had stood out against sending 

 for a physician nearly a week, growing worse dai- 

 ly ; but the good doctor when he came was so kind, 

 knowing his aversion to its administration on his 

 person, as to cure him without medicine, and to 

 make in his case only one visit and a call necessi- 



Now it is an opinion which we have formed af- 

 ter much observation of the habits of different per- 

 sons and families in the employment of physicians, 

 that if there was not over one dose of physic ad- 

 ministered where there are ten, the ages of men and 

 women would be much lengthened out. IrreTu- 



ity of habits, want of exercise, fancied inability 



la 



to move about, very soon put a person into the 

 condition of sending for a doctor; and when tile 

 doctor comes, nothing will satisfy shoit of a dose of 

 physic That too much physic is taken is not so 

 often the fault of the physician as of the patient. 

 The administration of the first dose lays the foun- 

 dation for a second ; if it rectifies the passage of 

 the bowels, or the quality and circulation of the 

 blood, nature will require the aid of the same arti- 

 ficial stimulant so soon as the effect passes away. 

 Thus we find ninny persons who never can pass by 

 certain times and seasons without going through 

 sundry severe operations of medicine. The con- 

 sequence is sooner or later that the constitution is 

 undermined, and the career of life is shortened 

 sometimes ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years. 



The best pliyslcian in the world is attention to 

 the habits of every day living, neither pampering 

 and overfeeding or starving the appetite, neither 

 exercising and working too much or too little, nei- 

 ther resting and sleeping like the sluggard, nor go- 

 ing without the accustomed rest at suitable inter- 

 vals. 



" Walking is the best possible exercise." We 

 have found it so, and can cheerfully subscribe to 

 this as we do to almost every other opinion of Mr. 

 Jefierson. Since we have passed middle age and 

 within the last ten years, we have walked over more 

 ground than during perhaps the whole forly-two 

 years of previous life. I.,ame in one limb from in- 



with its utter destilntiou of sympathy, with its low 

 estimate ofhuman life, with its squalid poverty, lis 

 multiplied forms of wreiclieduess and crime, its 

 pride, its vanity, its ambitinn, its pomp, its servili- 

 ty ; then go back to your gilded prison .house, and 

 to pleasures, which an uncorrupted and refined 

 taste, accustomed to drink in the free air cd' heav- 

 en, and to appreciate its freshness, its purity, and 

 its salubrity, will find no occasion to covet or envy. 

 TtiB man v.ho by his cultiv^.tion and good husband- 



lu^the last ten years of this exclusively agricultu- I fancy, and cast in that kind of labor which was 



sedentary for as many as thirty years, our walking 

 exercise was very little. Indee'd with the Imbitof 

 walking little the belief was that we wanted physi- 

 cal ability, and where walking only a mile never 

 failed to be accompanied with pain, the natural sup- 

 position was that the pain Would increase and the 

 ability to walk grow less when we attempted to 

 walk two miles. We now walk not only one and 

 two miles, but sometimes three and fourmlh s on 

 a stretch, and eight or ten miles in a day. The 

 weaker limb isstrengthened and newenergj- given 

 to it by walking frequently very far — an exercise 



the agricultural products of this town, furty-eiir/il 

 thonsiind bushels of potatoes. Tlie area of the town 

 is 8,l.'i() acres : and of these ISOO ore salt niars'i, 

 and G.">0 acres sand banks between the marsh and 

 the high waters of the sea. Of the potatoes raised 

 probably 'lO^OOO bushels are shipped ta southern 

 ports : these at the average price of 4IJ cents tlie 

 bushel pay the farmersa sum of .«;16,0I)0 — probably 

 twice as Uiuch as the town pays for the purchase 

 of all articles not produced v.'ithiu its own limits. 



