FHE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



117 



salt on tlicm luis the panic salnlury eflrct it lias 

 on hay when thrown, not t'uliy cured, into the 

 mow. 



HOUSEHOLD MANUFACTURES. 



All three of the ianiilies have their manufae- 

 tnres of fine wool and flaniiels. The (ir.--t family 

 keep about S^OO iMcrino sheep; and many of the.se 

 jri^ e from seven to nine pounds of wool each. 

 This is generally ail sjiiui and nianufaetnred hy 

 the sisters of tlie i'anfily. There is u s| lining 

 jenny at each iiiinily : these draw out ironi ciiiii- 

 ty to a hundred threads; and whether the wool 

 he war]) or IJlliug ;i bell indicates with certainly 

 the pouit of tiino when the twist is sufficient. 

 The spinijinu' upon the htnd jenny is an o]ieva- 

 tion requiring streng-th and causing fatigue: three 

 Icniiilcs take turns by the hour, tv.o resiiug on 

 ligiiter work wliilc the other turns and tends the 

 \\hcel. 



Hand wheels both for fine linen and worsted 

 are much used by the sisters. Ou these they run 

 the threads bj- the eye and the feeling of the fin- 

 gers, witli great exacftncss. The cloth made ilom 

 the threads of these beautiful spinners is fit to be 

 worn by princes. The sisters manutheturc ex- 

 tensively as an article ibr sale at all the families, 

 line woolen flannel drawers: these arc disposed 

 of at a profit in New York and other southern 

 cilica. 



THE ECO:<OMICAL OVEN. 



The oven whidi does the baking for some hun- 

 dred and fifty jiersons at the first family is a cu- 

 riosity. It is constructed of free stone ou all 

 sides, three or four inches in thickness. A single 

 heating of the oven in the morning suffices lor 

 the day. In it iir.-it may he baked beans with 

 pork and pudding lor dinner ; then follow two 

 batches of [lies — in tlie evening, to be taken out 

 lor the mo:nii)g brcak'ast, fine large Icav s of 

 brown rye and Indian, more grateful to the pal- 

 ate when spread with new made butter, than the 

 best manufactured cake tlu t was ever invented. 



COOKINC AND THE LAUNDRY. 



All the cooking establishmcnls of the Shaker-.; 

 are constnu ti'd ujion the ero);o?iiical scale. They 

 cook well and they cook liist. Their cook stoves, 

 whether copied from some ])atentHl sample or 

 constructed by their own ingenuity, arc of tlie 

 best kind. 



Their cstablis!iinei;ts for washing, drying and 

 ironing clothes arc of tlie most perfect kind : they 

 have none of the common fiissand annoyance of 

 the usual wasliing day ; or if they have, it is so 

 comi>act and confined that very few persons are 

 troubled with it. Tiie ffi'st family were about in- 

 troducing a horse power to do tiicir washing, tn 

 save human female strength, cither in turning a 

 machine or rubbing out the garments by hand. 

 From a basement story v.hcre the washing is 

 done, the clothes are raised to the drying room — 

 thence to the place of ironing. «herc all the 

 work is turned off with thos^ fiicilities and con- 

 veniences io wliicli most of the world's people 

 are strangers. 



THY. SEC0>'D FA?.fILV. 



We spent but a short lime at the second or 

 middle tiimily. They have their hundred foot 

 barn, their dairy of tv.'enty cov.'s, their various 

 manufactures, their fine garden on both sides of 

 the road. Tiiis ihmily has (pilte recently erected 

 two additional brick buildings, at a cost of some 

 six or seven tlioiisand dollars each. We went 

 through the rooms of one of tliese Iniildings. — 

 Here the females were busily engaged, some in 

 plying the liai.d wheel and others <lrawing out 

 the numerous threads of the jenny: otiicrs were 

 at the neeVUe making up garments either lor do- 

 mestic use or sale, and others were ]ireparing the 

 curd, pressing tlie fi'esli cheese in the hoop, or 

 tm-ning those which had been taken out. 



THE TUIRD TAMIL!'. 



The third or ui>per family at Canterbury, over- 

 looking both (he others, is a more pleasant posi- 

 tion, perhaps, than either. At this family wo 

 found two sisters of the Wbitcher family, one of 

 whom prepared and surerintendt d the neat and 

 ample dinner to wliicli we were invited. Here 

 too, the lemale fingers and arms were all engaged 

 in the manufacture and making up of fine flan- 

 nels and other kinds of cloth. 



The swine of this establishment, although not 

 as numerous, were as tut and us tiiir as iliote of 



the first family. The method of feeding them in 

 summer on green fresh mowed clover had been 

 adopted : the animals were not only sustained,but 

 increased rajiidly in growth when fed in summer 

 almost exclusively on green grass and other veg- 

 etables. 



The main barn at this family is constructed like 

 that of the .Shakers at Alfred, \\ itli the entrance 

 at the gable end, 'j'his barn is 105 lect in length 

 by (10 feet in width. A centre ]iost in the barn 

 riven by lightning when full of hay, was shown 

 us. It is the oiily case of a barn stricken by 

 ligliliiing after the fresh hay h^.d been taken into 

 it that escajied conflagration. 



A EEAUlTt'UL ORCHARD. 



The most interesting improvement upon the 

 premises of this family v.as its beautifully flour- 

 ishing apple orchard. Peter Foster, a native 

 of Canterbury, cotemporary Avith Parker and 

 W'illard of the first liunily — the shoemaker of the 

 family — in tlie course of six or eight years has 

 made this orchard one of the foieet in the State. 

 The only disadvantage it encounters is its decli- 

 nation to the north, opening it to the rude attacks 

 of old Boreas; but this evil young Foster has at- 

 tempted to remedy by sotting at no great distance 

 from each other a rovv' of tlie rock maple on the 

 norlherly and easterly sides, calculated, when they 

 shall grov.', to break the wind. This orcliaid 

 contains seven hundred grafted apple trees of the 

 best varieties: some of the grafts, four, five and 

 six years old, are already in full bearing. The 

 gralts and the trees then;sslves are green and 

 flourishing beyond any otlier orchard we have 

 seen in tlie interior. They have been nourished 

 and cherished by the single hand of the young 

 man who -will be likely to witness for a series of 

 years the production from them of abundant fruit, 

 so that the liunily will realize great profit in the 

 sale as they will enjoy satisfaction in the home 

 coiisumption of the great favorite of all fruits. 



If apjdes of ordinary finality are not held in so 

 high esteem ibr the manufacture of cider as they 

 were formerly, the impiovcd grafts, the Greenings, 

 the Baldwins and the Russets, are more in de- 

 ma!'.d in proportion to the tiuautities produced. 

 A flourishing ajiple orchard, at the ordinaiy price 

 of the best Iruit in the interior, will yield an 

 equal if not a greit^r profit per acre, than al- 

 most any other productioiL A single tree that 

 will produce twenty dollars worth of apples in a 

 year, must be worth twice twenty dollars if it will 

 do the same as often a.s every other year. On this 

 calculation, what estinir.tc shall we put upon our 

 young friend's orchard? His attention and care 

 in placing the scion upon a stock neither too 

 large nor too small for its ready growth — his dis- 

 crimination in preventing an overgroMlli by jirc- 

 sennng a native litnb as a tender to the artificial 

 shoot until it shall accpiirc stamina to take up the 

 eiitire sap of t'le stock — his attention to the season 

 of pruning and the careful manner in which that 

 work is done — his cultivation of the ground 

 about the trees calculated for their healthy 

 growth ; these, and other methods suggested 

 rather by his good judgment than by the instruc- 

 tion of any experienced orchardist, speak well lor 

 his ingenuity and his talents. 



EE.NEEITS ^U.'.IMED UP. 



^^'e I are thus gone through a lengthy detail 

 of our two days' visit to a people who probably 

 ];ass tluough life with higher and more uniform 

 enjoyment than almost any people that ever liv- 

 ed. Where shall ^vc find a set of men in any 

 coiiiuiunily — so ininiy together according to the 

 wiiole number — ^^ho have enjoyed uninterriqited 

 good health, and whose sun, passing from the 

 uii-.rnins' ot Hie througli the meridian, seldom ob- 

 scured bv the clouds of adversity, is setting in a 

 serene and clear sky; as the patriarchs a.l Can- 

 terbury ? 



There are reasons why a society constituted as 

 tJiis is — where benevolence prevails over mere 

 selfishness — should be hapjiy beyond the lot of 

 mortals engaged in the bustling turmoils and 

 struggles of the Avorld. They desire property 

 only as a community ; therefbre there is no indi- 

 vidual temptation to dishonesty. They contract 

 no debts ; therefore they have no trouble or con- 

 cern of mind how debts shall be paid. Dea. 

 Winkley, reverting to the condition of the people 

 forty-eight years ago, when the church which is 

 yet standing was erected, said they had not a 

 hundred dollars to l>egiii with : vet lie said a 



way alwa^.s seemed to provide itself to go on 

 without nuining in debt. Tlieyhadno money to 

 buy glass ; but going to Coucord they found a 

 friend to furnish their glass in exchange for some 

 of their then rude n«imifaetures, in the person of 

 the late Hazen Kimball, Esq. who had just 

 commenced trade on a small scale, and who in 

 stdjsccpient years became a successful and for a 

 time a v\ealtliy merchant at Savaiinab, in the 

 !*tale of Georgia. "Owe no man ;iiiy thing" 

 (the Deacon .said) wa.s a cardinal point of their 

 doctrine. He recollected the time when the ven- 

 erated .loB Bishop was at the head of their tem- 

 poral affiurs and himself was young, that one of 

 the brethren went to Concord ibr the purpose of 

 looking out some shoemaker's tools. He pur- 

 chased to the extent of all his money ; but he 

 wanted a few articles more, and he was urged by 

 the trader to take them, to the amount of a dollar 

 and fifty cents, on the assurance that no charge 

 should be entered on the book, and that payment 

 might be made whenever it ^vas convenient. 

 The brother returned with n report of his doings. 

 No sooner was the story told than Elder Job, di- 

 recting his speech to him, said, " Francis, you bad 

 better saddle your horse and ride to Concord be- 

 fore you sleep, to pay that debt." He did not go 

 that night; but be was on his way in season to 

 ride \2 miles, and offer payment, before the next 

 morning's sun had made his appearance. From 

 that day to this had the monitorial lesson of El- 

 der Job Bishop been remembered by nil the fam- 

 ily — '■ Never run in debt." A pcojde can hardly 

 avoid becoming rich who never go in debt. 



HEALTH and LOXO LIFE, 



The position of the Canterbury families — be- 

 ing in an elevated and generally a Serene and 

 clear atmosphere — where tlie purest water gush- 

 es from the granite rocks — where the Ibetid mias- 

 ma generating disease finds no lurking place — 

 is peculiarly conducive to health and long life. 

 Recently tomb stones designating the name and 

 age of all who have died since the Uniti d Breth- 

 ren sat down upon this ground fifty-eight years 

 ago, exceiiting two burials in a distant field, have 

 been erected. The grave yard is upon the left 

 liand of the road as you pass from the first to the 

 second family : the graves arc disposed in rows 

 in a direct line, those in each successive row be- 

 hind those of the front row. Although A'ery fe^v 

 of the Society have been born upon this ground, 

 there is a continued accession of young children, 

 both boys and girls, from the mere inlimt to six 

 and a dozen years of age. The elder people 

 prefer to take the younger children, because they 

 can better mould them by instruction in that 

 mode of life which gives them contentment, and 

 permits no desire to return to the practices of the 

 world. One of the families sometimes will take 

 a dozen boys and girls in a single year ; so that 

 there is always in the Society a due proportion of 

 young people. The following numbers are the 

 ages of all the deaths, with the two exceptions 

 named, that have occurred in all the families for 

 sixty years, via : — 



87, 77, S3, 24, 58, 101,* 56, 32, 80, 81, 44, 74, 

 7.'"., 22, 38, 43, 7!), 82, 65, 2D, 34, 80, 43, 28, 76, 

 23, (i4, 74, 92, 27, (>.5, 40, 4!>, 8lS, 16, 23, 72, 55, 

 74, 74, 83, 21, 70, 40, <JO,t 78, 57, 71, 50, 95, .32, 

 26, 56, 56, 59, ti, 5!i, 71, 5, m, 29, 102,t 72, 25, 

 35, (33, 29, 58, 82, 22, 71, 57, 24, 17, 75, 44, 22, 

 73, SO, 26, 37, 76, 54, 34, 39, 23, 86, 59, 27, 65, 

 17, 41, 52, 83, 59, 25, 15, 60, 19, 38, 57, 8.§ 



The united age of one hundred and two per- 

 sons given by figiu-es in the foregoing table, is live 

 thousand one hundred and sixty-nine years — 

 making an average to each ))erson of fifty years 

 and eight months. Here is a table of longevity 

 in which, it is lielieved, will not be found a paral- 

 lel in all the tables of modern times. Very sel- 

 dom does a death occur among these people, but 

 from an originally delicate constitution or some 

 organic defect, before passing the middle age. 

 Rarely do attacks of dysentery or ll'\er, or other 

 complaints peculiar to either \vann or cold un- 

 healthy weather, aflect the health, or destroy the 

 lives of the Canterbury families. ^V'ilh limbs 



* Mary Fowler, a native of Hopkinton, taken captive 

 by the Indians wlien sixteen yearn old. 



t Chase Wiggin, uncle to the .\inericau merchauto of 

 that imine in London. 



i" Abigail Sanborn. 



^ A ciiild Iiilliul by .i Ciil durin.^f Jliu p:itil ■-uiiiiiier. 



