98 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



the wntrrs from wliicli pass througli the Suncook 

 to the Merriinnck. Around these ponds, as is gen- 

 erally the case in tiie elevated mountain regions of 

 New Hampshire where swaujpy land does not 

 prevail, are many fine farms, the valleys of which 

 concentrating the waters from the hills i'orm swails 

 of natural mowing, which annually undergo the 

 process of irrigation, and produce as mucir graSs 

 as can be dried on the ground. Through sources 

 like the.-ie the farmers near the mountains reap the 

 benefits of the continued disintegration of the sur- 

 face rock which conies down at every flow of the 

 waters. 



From the complexion of the land and buildings 

 upon the turnpike wnich passes about eight miles 

 through the whole length of Northwood, there can- 

 not he a doubt that this town lias become wealthy, 

 almost exclusively from its agriculture. The signs 

 of improvement are ahnost every wiiere visible. 

 The fine shower of rain which came so opportune- 

 ly to us, we believe on the night of the first of Ju- 

 ly, passed off to the south of Northwood : yet the 

 ground there did not seem to suffer from drought 

 e.vcept in the lightest sandy soils that had had no 

 benefit from manure. In the elevated land upon 

 the hills there are never falling springs of water, 

 which approach so near tlie surlace that tliey afford 

 a constant humidity supplying the growing crops 

 with their aliment, while the light plains below are 



{>arching and parched, leaving the pastures entire- 

 y dertitute of every green thing. The large and 

 capacious barns, the neatlv painted white houses 

 finished in a style which would do credit to the 

 handsomest villas, the well arranged fences and 

 walks set with the mountain ash or other native 

 trees around the yards and buildings, the neat and 

 flourishing gardens, show that tlie farmers of North- 

 wood lack neither taste, wealth nor ability ; by the 

 aide of these come tiie fields of corn, wheat, rye, 

 oats, and barley, with now and then a plat of flax, 

 all '^dressed in living ?reen." The grass in the 

 well cultivated, well manured lands, was the jier- 

 fect contrast of that in the ground which had Ijoen 

 many seasons mowed after it had been stocked 

 down with no adequate previous dressing of ma- 

 nure. As a whole there are few interior towns in 

 the State, whose agriculture is much in advance 

 of the town of Northwood : its strength and qual- 

 ity of soil is greater and better than mo..^t others : 

 and the mnjority of its farmers, in advance of the 

 recommendation of the Montlily Visitor, pursue 

 the renovating system, obtaining better crops from 

 a constantly improving cultivation. We perceiv- 

 ed in some places on the road where we passed that 

 attention was jjaid beyond that of many other 

 towns to the production of fruit trees other than 

 apples : pear, plum, cherry and peach trees in some 

 cases appeared to be carefuHv cultivated. The 

 rich grounds upon the side hills having a south- 

 easterly declination, stony, light and moist, are the 

 best for orchards ; and we should think there are 

 many positions in Northwood llic best that can be 

 imagined, if not for the more tender fruits, for the 

 abundant production of apples, the select kinds of 

 which being the most palatable of all fruit and 

 sought for in parts of the world where it cannot be 

 raised, is destined lo become a more and more pro- 

 fitable article of production to the farmers of New 

 £ngland. 



Barringtoii. Nottingham. Lee. 



From Northwood, the turnpike (now made a 

 free road) runs first into Nottingliam, then touch- 

 ing a southerly corner of Barringlon, passes Ihrouo-h 

 the northerly section of Lee, and then strikes 

 Durham. The road is through a poor part of all 

 these towns, and with a very few exceptions be- 

 yond the limits of Northwood on the west and 

 Durham on the east, there has been little apparent 

 improvement in agriculture directly on the road 

 within the last thirty years. Nottingham and ).ee 

 to the south of the road are both good farming 

 towns. Nottingham near the square, at a pretty 

 high central elevation, was the first residence and 

 place of nativity of the Cilleys and Bartletts — 

 names conspicuous in the revolutionary recollec- 

 tions of New Hampshire. The late Bradbury Cil- 

 ley had a beautiful farm upon the square, and at no 

 frteat distance was the farm of Gen. Cilley : we 

 have not passed that way for nearly twenty 'years, 

 and of course cannot say what have been the im- 

 provements of Nottingham; but we have been told 

 that the grandson, CM. Joseph Cilley, who did 

 honor to the name of his grandfather by leading 

 the attack at Lundy's Lane during the last war 

 carries on the business of a farmer in its true spir- 

 it, and is making good headway in the march of 

 improvement upon the same premises occupied by 

 his grandsire. The present Representative of Not- 

 tingham in the State Legislature resides on a part 

 'jf the Furber farm on the the north road. This 



farm as a whole seems somewhat to have degener- 

 ated in production since the death of its first land- 

 lord and settler. The Representative, who was a 

 regular soldier during the war, was doing justice 

 to his part of tlie extended Furber premises by be- 

 ing afield at labor when we passed : his persever- 

 ance will make a farm worth having from the rough 

 country wliich surrounds him. 



Below the Furber stand at no very great distance 

 is a small stream ruuniiigfrom an extensive swamp 

 or morass, part of which is in the town of Bar- 

 rington. Turning the eye to the left up this stream 

 as we pass the turnpike, we discovered an immense 

 granite structure across the valley of the stream ; 

 and on inquiry of a gentleman at work in an adja- 

 cent field we were t<dd that this granite dam had 

 been erected by the New Market Manufacturing 

 Company, at an expense of between thirty and 

 forty thousand dollars, and the swamp and adja- 

 cent land had been purchased at an expense of 

 from six to ten thousand dollars. The dam was 

 intended to raise a reservoir of water to be drawn 

 for the supply of the cotton mills at the mouth of 

 Lamprey river, some t\velve or fifteen miles be'ow 

 In another direction at the southwesterly head of 

 the Lamprey river, a similar purchase had been 

 made by the same proprietors, and a dam erected 

 at about the same expense for the purpose of mak- 

 ing a reservoir for a like purpose. The expenses 

 of crenting additional water power at Dover and 

 New Market have been immense, and must make 

 the moving power to the factories at those places 

 cost a sum of money far greater than the great 

 water power at Lowell, Amoskeag and other con- 

 templated factory villages upon the Jlerrimack 

 river 



V/ith the town of Barrington north of the turn- 

 pike, said to contain many first rate farmers of the 

 new improving system, and with the town of Lee, 

 on the south side, which we know to have con- 

 tained many excellent farmers, and which we be- 

 lieve have not since kept behind their neighbors — 

 \Vith these two towns we hope hereafter to culti- 

 vate a better acquaintance either by written com- 

 munication or personal inspection. 



Durham. 



Of the ancient town of Durham, it was unpleasant 

 to witness as we passed through the village so much 

 evidence of its former prosperous basiness contras- 

 ted with its present desertion. The shops and 

 stores were there closed as if the week day had been 

 the Sabbath. The attorney's office sign of a friend 

 who had removed to Washington six oreight years 

 ago remained over an open door of a modern brick 

 building intended for ready access to the best en- 

 terprise of the vill.Tge, as if " Poor Richard" with 

 his "quips and cranks" was still upon the spot rea- 

 dy to give advice or draw a writ for a -fee, or to tell 

 story or crack a joke without a lee. We knew 

 the name above not to represent truly ; and we 

 feared further that this "outward sign" vvns but 

 an indication that the' closed shutters of the 

 village did not represent the entire vacancy witli- 

 iu. The business and activity of the village at 

 Durham have been drawn, as the passing thunder 

 cloud draws the lesser cloud lo add to its dimen- 

 sions, from that place to New Market and Dover, 

 located in opposite directions north and south, ei- 

 ther of them at the distance of five miles. 



Of tire entire town of Durham we are hap])y to 

 be informed that notwithstanding the apparent de- 

 pression of the village, the farming interest was 

 never more flourishing than it now is. Farms 

 bear a higher price than they ever did before : their 

 production is improving. They have good mark 

 ets at no very great distance for tlieir surplus pro- 

 duce. 'J he great articles of profit in this region 

 are hay and potatoes, to which the land is exceed- 

 ingly well adopted : these are shipped at once for 

 a market directly from the place, the waters of 

 Oyster river in this village making a harbor 

 large enough to pass down ships wliich have been 

 sometimes constructed here, and the stream being 

 sufiicient for the ingress and egress of loaded 

 sloops and barges. The agriculture of old Dur- 

 ham — and the farmers there, as all good farmers 

 will find it to he for their interest to do, take a 

 goodly number of the Monthly Visitor — is not a 

 whit behind the best farming towns of that region, 

 which is surely a little before the best farming up- 

 on Connecticut river, which last is even still in ad- 

 vance of the farming U)ion the Merrimack and 

 tiirough the centre of the State. 



Madbury : a supposed Marl bed. 



Of the little town of Madbnry, situate as if it 

 were not a town, between L)urham and Dover, it 

 will suffice tu say that it has rich fanners with 

 waving fields of corn, potatoes, rye, wheat, oats, 



its barns and granaries ample— its field culture neat 

 andclcan — its fences direct, and its enclosures of 

 the right dimensions. It has been merJtioned that 

 there is much grass land in Madbury, which is nei- 

 ther low meadow overflowed nor soil suitable for 

 ploughing and frequent cultivation, that produces 

 hay year after year witliout any sensible deteriora- 

 tion of quality or diminution of quantity, with no 

 niaT^ure or other dressing applied. The conjecture 

 of our informant was tliit vegetation here might be 

 supplied by salt exhalations from the sea. It would 

 seem to be almost incredible that such were the 

 fact : we have heard nowhere else of ground sus- 

 taining itself without the application of either an- 

 mal and vegetable or mineral manures and stimu- 

 lants. We are of the opinion that most kinds of 

 subsoil turned up and exposed for a length of time 

 upon the surface will be a great improver of thenp- 

 persoil; but this subsoil requires the "id of vegetable 

 manures to make it what it should be. Much of 

 the land in Madbury and Dover is underlaid with 

 a kind of clay that on analysis mav turn out to be 

 marl. If it be marl, after due exposure to the at- 

 mosp'^ere and the frost of one or more successive 

 winters, it would soon become a great renovator 

 of the ground. Mixed with sand, without any 

 vegetable manure, we are inclined to believe that 

 administered in doses of fifty to a hundred loads to 

 the acre, the low, flat, and apparently heavy lancEs 

 between the Oyster river and the Cocheco,and be- 

 tween this and the Berwick branch of the Piscata- 

 qua will be made to produce in succession large 

 crops of English hay. It is highly important to 

 ascertain the fact whether there be or be not beds 

 of marl in this State, on th» first level within the 

 distance of twenty miles from the sea; and we 

 trust that the inquiries of Doct. Jackson, during 

 his geological examination of the present summer, 

 will be directed to this particular. To the inhabi- 

 tants of the sealioard towns the e.\istence of exten- 

 sive beds of marl would bel(etter than mines of gold. 

 We are so enthusiastic as to believe that not only 

 along the seaboaril but in many places of the inte- 

 rior among the hills and mountains and at the bot- 

 tom of valle3's marl beds exist in the subsoil which 

 has by many been deemed poisonous to the earth, 

 and which is indeed poisonous when administered 

 in its crude state. 



Dover and Somersworth. 



Dover, which is now a place of business second 

 only to Portsmouth, and which is the first in mag- 

 nitude of manufactures within the limits of the 

 State, is also one of the best agricultural towns in 

 the Stale. Somcrsv.-orth, with manufacturing wa- 

 ter power and buildings hardly second to any other 

 town of the State, has also some of the very best 

 farms of the granite Slate, in both towns we saw 

 cultivated fields of rich grain and grass that had 

 stood proof against the severe drought of tlie pres- 

 ent summer. The farm of Samuel Hale, Ksq. of 

 Portsmouth, near the Berwick river in Somers- 

 W(jrth opposite to the beautiful village of South 

 Berwick, from tlie extent of iVs production, and its 

 position upon navigable water to the sea, is one of the 

 most valuable in the State. This fiirm fell into the 

 hands oftlie father of its present proprietor through 

 some connexion with an ancient family which first 

 pitched upon the ground nearly two hundred years 

 ago. To the original farm Mr. Hale has made ad- 

 ditioi^s by pureliase, paying a price for llic pur- 

 chase which would astonisli most farmers of 

 the interior. We were st^ry not to have 

 time enough before us to be able to visit Mr. 

 Hale's farm, and lo make those accurate inquiries 

 calculated to bring out more particular informaliou 

 relative to tfcveral splendid farms in the lower parts 

 of Somersworth and Dover. 

 South Berwick. Judge Hayes' Farm. 



Passing the boundary of New Hampshire and 

 eominij lo the State of Maine, after tarrying with 

 our friend Jordon at Great Falls, who had kindly 

 volunteered to carry us in his own vehicle whither- 

 soever we listed to any part of the State of Maine, 

 we could not decline the invitation of tliut eminent 

 lawyer-farmer. Judge Hayes of South Berwick, to 

 ramble again in fair weather over his extensive 

 premises, a view of which in a foul rainy day had 

 given us so much pleasure a little later in tiie sum- 

 mer of last season. The Judge informed us that 

 his crop of Black sea wheat the last year measur- 

 ed forty-one bushels lo the acre, and that his spring 

 rye, the seed of which he obtained about ten years 

 ago from the Rev. Jeremiah Barnard of Amherst, 

 be'no- a kind of rye belter than he had ever seen 

 elsewhere, produced full thirty bushels to the acre. 

 His wheat and rye of the present year were sown 

 on o-round which produced corn and potatoes last 

 year ; if they shall escape Idiglit, rust and the 



potatoes and grasses. Its houses are commodious, I grain worm or wevil. we cannot doubt the present 



