THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



93 



Rev. Zephaiiiah Lallie took up the business of a 

 preacher, being himseir a good farmer; and when 

 Hosea iiallciu began preacliing he cauic to the work 

 with the hard hands wliich in his youthful days 

 had been cnsaifed in chopping down the trees and 

 cultivating Ihe^land of his father in the town of 

 Richmond, N. H. 



Most of the clergymen of those times other than 

 the congrcgationalists, were itinerating preachers : 

 they were considered by the settled town minis- 

 ters to be intruders, and treated in some cases as 

 enemies to the souls of men. What a change in 

 respect to religious toleration has since gone over 

 the country ! 



Of the itinerating denominations were the Meth- 

 odists, the Freewill Baptists, Christians, and even 

 the regular Baptists. Law suits were instituted to 

 compel the.'ie to support and conform to tlie "regu- 

 lar standing order." There was enmity between 

 brethren who took upon themselves the name of 

 one Saviour and one Lord ; the severity of the con- 

 test has fortun.itely resulted in establishing more 

 Burely the principle of law and right which se- 

 cures to every man liis rights of conscience and 

 liberty to pay and support just such religious opin- 

 ions as he j)leases. 



The Freewill and Ciiristian denominations had 

 many preachers who supplied the word generally 

 " without money and without price" in tlie thinly 

 settled districts: these preacliera were denomina- 

 ted "Elders." They were men of strong minds, who 

 had road tlieir bibles so often as to have the doc- 

 trines of scripture at their tongue's end. Many of 

 them we know to be excellent farmers ; of such 

 was the late Elder Young of Cantiirbury, Elder Dy- 

 er of Loudon, Elder Knowlton, formerly of Pitts- 

 field, now of Maine, Elder Perkins of New Hamp- 

 ton, Elder Biizzell of Weare, and others almost 

 too numerous to mention. 'J'hese men were fre- 

 quently elected members of the State legislature 

 in both branches. Tlicy were sound men of excel- 

 lent bearing and judgnjent in all things. As far- 

 mers, no less than as moral and religious profes- 

 sors, their example was worthy to be followed by 

 all men. The most of them were entirely inde- 

 pendent in point of property, and preached solely 

 from the love which they bore their Master and the 

 concern tliey felt for the souls of men. 



Improved Hoes, 



Milton, Strafford Co. JV. //. June 10, 1840. 



Hon. Is.KAc Hill— ilcrtfiir,-— Will you please 

 to accept half a dozen hoes manufactured by me 

 in a fashion which I think greatly superior to any 

 other hue in use ? ' 



You will see, at a glance, that it is constructed 

 for durability. The socket and back plate are in 

 one piece, of malleable cast iron, tough enough to 

 make horse nails. The hole through the blade is 

 cut by a pioiiess oblique to the surface of the hoe 

 and in the direction of the handle, and tlic socuet 

 is made to precisely fit the hole cut for its recep- 

 tion. The rivets merely keep the socket in its 

 place and are not strained upon at all in the ordi- 

 nary use of the hoe, but the blow comes not upon 

 the rivets, hut upon the blade whore the socket 

 passes through it. So that the rivets will not be 

 cut of!" and working loose, or the hoe broken a- 

 round the plate, or the handle working loose as in 

 the goose neck. Nor is the handle cut to pieces 

 and weakened to receive a shank, which is always 

 becoming loose, and is fastened with much diffi- 

 culty. 



Li mine you will see tlie handle has the whole 

 strength of the wood, and if it ever works loose, a 

 wedge confines it at once. And besides, the sock- 

 et is made a little smaller on the lower side of the 

 hoe than it is on the upper side, that the handle 

 may be fastened by driving. 



Pvesuining tliat every improvement in agricul- 

 tural implements is interesting to you, I take the 

 liberty to send ynu a specimen of my hoes for your 

 examination. 



Respectfully vours, &c. 



GEORGE VVORSTER. 



Jj^' The above hoes were received in the middle 

 of the month of June, at a time wheii hoes are 

 most in requisition. 'I'hey have a face so bright 

 and liang so beautifully on the handle, as almost 

 to tempt any man to wish to use them in a fair 

 field. Our land is all free of stones, and this year 

 has so few weeds, as not to try hard the strength 

 of the hoe ; but one of our men who has used Mr. 

 Worster's newly palrnted hoe, thinks it the best 

 he ever used in this country : he is a native of a 

 country, (Ireland) where the hoe is not known as 

 an agricultural implement; From the appearance 

 of these hoes we are of opinion that they are a ve- 

 t' great improvement in the part connectirig the 



handle with the hoc plate, making the implement 

 light and at the same time strong. 



Wilton, June 15, 1840. 



To the Hon. Isaac Hill — DcaT sir: — You will re- 

 ceive by the bearer a specimen of cast steel hoes, 

 which 1 am engaged in manufacturing. The cast 

 steel hoe is an article which has been in pretty 

 general use for some years ; and its superiority 

 over othor hoes is generally acknowledged ; still 

 its liability to break by reason of the method gen- 

 erally adopted to attach the handle has caused a 

 complaint which has become quite universal. I 

 was led by this consideration to attempt an im- 

 provement of this most useful of all agricultural 

 implements. Whether my object has been attain- 

 ed the yeomanry of the country must he the judg- 

 es. The plate of the hoe is pressed into the par- 

 ticnlaf shape in which you will perceive the speci- 

 men to represent; thus giving to it much strength 

 and stiffness. The plate is tempered by a peculiar 

 process, whereby all fire cracks and unevenness 

 of temper are obviated ; and it receives what is 

 sometimes called a rowel temper. Not a single in- 

 stance has come lo my knowledge where a hoe has 

 been broken or battered up. The eye is made of 

 malleable iron, for this purpose not inferior to Rus- 

 sia iron. The eye forms a proper clamp in which 

 the plate is inserted. In this it differs from other 

 hoes ; and we give it the name of the Clnmj) Eijcd 

 Hoe. The plate and eye are drilled for riveting, 

 and are then counter sUnk and riveted upon both 

 sides of the clamp. 



A further description I deem unnecessary, rely- 

 ing on the hoe to give itself all the description and 

 recommendation its merits deserve. Should you 

 after examination conclude that the public can be 

 benefitted by this improvement, a notice of it in 

 your most valuable periodical will be gratefully ac- 

 knowledged. 



Let the agricultural community encourage do- 

 mestic mechanical skill, industry, and enterprise, 

 and we have nothing to fear from foreign competi- 

 tion. 



Your most obedient servant, 



JOHN AUBOTT. 



Oj" It is not a little remarkable that the editor of 

 the Visitor should on the same day (the 17th of 

 June — the day when thousands representing every 

 town of the State were collected in tiiis village) 

 receive more than one present of that indispensa- 

 ble instrument to tlie farmer, the hoe; and that 

 these presents should come from two towns differ- 

 \na in name only hy the alteration of a single let- 

 ter. With the town of Wilton, situated about for- 

 ty-five miles southwesterly from Concord, whose 

 centennial celebration was noticed at length in the 

 Visitor for the month of April, the most of our 

 readers are already familiar. Milton, the other 

 place for manufacturing hoes, is situated about for- 

 ty-five miles from Concord in a northeasterly and 

 opposite direction on the line of the Stale of Maine. 



Wc know Mr. Abbott's WiUon hoc to be an ex- 

 cellent implement, because on the day of this wri- 

 ting the editor himself has done his full lialf a 

 day's work with it — from 7 o'clock, A. M. to 12 

 M.; and he never worked a hoe more to his satis- 

 faction. This hoe seems to be better adapted to 

 what is called hard hoeing, to rocky and grassy 

 ground, or where there is abundance uf weeds, than 

 any hoe we ever took in hand. Its width and depth 

 of plate is leas, and its shape each way from the 

 eye is different from Mr. Worster's Milton hoe. 

 The cast steel plate is also thicker land of conse- 

 quence stronger and more durable than almost any 

 other hoe. We are inclined to think Mr. Abbotts 

 hoe to be equal, if not superior to any hoe that has 

 yet made its appearance. 



For the last season the editor of the Visitor has 

 made use of several beautiful, well tempered and 

 well constructed hoes manufactured in this town 

 by Mr. Harry Houston, a blacksmith and partner 

 at the carriage factory of Davis &Neal. For per- 

 fect and thorough work there are few mechanics 

 who will go before Messrs. Gale and Houston. 



The Post Ollice Department of the United 

 States. 



Tiiercis no more sure and satisfactory evidence 

 of the increase of the production and wealth of the 

 United States than an exhibition of the increase of 

 the revenue, the post offices, the miles of road 

 covered and the miles of annual transportation of 

 the mails of the United States. It is a settled 

 point in the policy of this country that the Post 

 Office Department shall be sustained by its own 

 revenue. Our belief is, that if the postage 

 on letters was reduced to one third or one half of 

 their present rates, the amount of revenue would 



not be much decreased. An inconvenience, might be 

 felt from tho reduction at first; but the public accom- 

 modation and the utility of the Department would 

 be greatly increased by such reduction : the num- 

 ber of letters sent through the mail would soon be 

 doubled, because thousands who now refrain from 

 writing on business or to convey interesting infor- 

 mation between individuals and families on account 

 of the expense, would no longer be prevented for 

 that reason. The increased correspondence would 

 come in aid of that which already exists ; and those 

 men of business who now pay fifty or an hundred 

 dollars a year for postage, would have their present 

 accommodation for half the expense, or else doub- 

 le their accommodation at the same expense. 



The revenue and business of the Post Office 

 Department five years ago, having advanced with 

 a rapidity truly astonishing when we consider that 

 in the year ISOO they were scarcely one fiftieth 

 part as much — were great beyond all previous cal- 

 culation ; but only consider that since the latter 

 period the increase of receipts up to July l^IiO — 

 one year ago — has been fronr a little less than tiiree 

 millions of dollars to about five millions of dollars 

 in a year, and that the annual transportation of the 

 mails has increased from less than twenty-six mil- 

 lions to about thirty-five and a half millions of 

 miles; and where can be the limit of our calcula- 

 tions of this widely extended nation ! 



If agriculture, if the productions of the earth 

 did not make progress, the revenues of the Post 

 Office Dc[iartment, rupporting increased thou- 

 sands of miles of mail transportation, could never 

 be increased. We may therefore take the increase 

 of the Post OlSce Department to be evidence of 

 the rapid increase of the acres devoted to agricul- 

 ture and the blessings which the Almighty bestows 

 on the labors of those who till the ground. 



The relative means and condition of the Post 

 Office Department are to be found in the following 

 tables extracted from a report made in the House 

 of Representatives of the United States by Mr. 

 M'Kay, Chairman of the Committee on Post Offi- 

 ces and Post Roads, May '26, 1840: 



1st July, 1835. July 1,1330. 

 Revenue for 1 year $3,!)93,.556 f 4,476,6'38 



Miles of road cov'd by service 113,744 133,999 

 ITilcs of annual mail trans'n 2.".,869,486 34,496,878 

 Cost of mail transportation f!l,8.")7,773 $3,194,201 

 Post offices supplied 10,776 12,780 



The increase of the revenue of the department 

 has been as follows: — 

 For the year ending 1st July, 1836 $385,180 



1837 721,868 



1838 134,472 



1839 242,536 



Tornadoes. 



Observation during the action of the Natches 

 tornado strengthens the correctness of the theory 

 lately broached that a tornado is a violent wliirl- 

 wind — caused by the rushing in of the air on all 

 sides and then passing upwards when the currents 

 meet. 



This central part or core of the whirl maj' be 

 half or sometimes a mile in diameter, and as it 

 passes along every thing which lies in that space 

 will feel its effects. Hence the opinion formerly 

 entertained that they were veins of wind. This 

 whirling motion also accounts for the strange ef- 

 fects of tornadoes, such as roofs being lifted up and 

 scattered in every direction. Persons being lifted 

 up and carried over walls and fences, or into trees; 

 and rooms bursting outward — for as the air rushes 

 with such tremendous violence there is a rarefac- 

 faction produced on the outside, the natural pres- 

 sure is taken off the sides and the air within ex- 

 pands and bursts open the building or room. — Mv. 

 Former. 



Storms. 



At Vandalia, Illinois, there has been a severe 

 storm. Many houses blown down and unroofed, 

 and much stock killed. 



There has also been a heavy stor n on the lakes, 

 with damage to the shipping. 



At Fayetteville, N. C. and vicinity, there was 

 lately a most violent hail storm. 20 or '30,000 

 panes of glass broken, crops and fruit destroyed, 

 were some of the results. The Fayetteville Obser- 

 ver says that "one of the h.nl stones measured 9 

 1-2 inches in circumference." 



In Washington county, Missouri, a hail storm 

 accompanied with high wind, done considerable in- 

 jury. A little boy was dashed by the wind against 

 a tree and killed. 



The cultivation of the arts has introduced a ben- 

 eficial change in our domestic arrangements.— 



