124 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



ut a liigher point of tlie ciiiiueiicc, Cambriilge, 

 witb the Poit and Lccliineie Poiut, Cliailestowii 

 and the Bunker liill nionunieut, Boston, with the 

 several bridges and avenues over Cliarles river 

 on the onclland, and the islands and South Bos- 

 ton on the other, can be overlooked. A nearer 

 amphitheatre covering clegaiit green fields, gar- 

 dens and villas witb the city part of Roxbury, is 

 likewise spread out before you. 



OREEN HOUSE AND GRAPERY. 



Mr. Gray surprised us by turning the keys of 

 of the outside and inner doors of a beautitid green 

 house shuated on a declivity of a hill upon his 

 premises. This green house had been erected 

 at an expense of" al)out two thousand dollars: 

 one ball' of the expense was incurred in the ap- 

 paratus for creating and using m-titicial heat, by 

 which vegetables may be forced to grow at all sea- 

 sons. The green house is completely covered 

 with glass on the sim side,whicli is raised,o))ened 

 or shut down at pleasure by a very simple pro- 

 cess. 



Besides the cultivation of grapes the green 

 house is used for forwarding eajly garden vege- 

 tables. It is fifty to seventy-live feet in length 

 by thirty feet in width, divided lengthwise by a 

 brick wall, in which are the apparatus for healing, 

 and in the rear or narrow part a place tor coal 

 and hunber : the green house proper cndwaces 

 perhaps two thirds of the space within the out- 

 side walls of the budding, which are of brick ma- 

 son work. 



In the wall on the south side arc apertures 

 through which the grape vines are connected 

 with their i-oots planted on the outside The 

 \ ines run on trestles overiiead, and presented a 

 most astonishing production of fruit. The clus- 

 ters of grapes were each about the size of a 

 quart, thirty or forty of which might be counted 

 on the single stran of one vine. There *ibb evi- 

 dently a greater quantity of grapes than the 

 weight of 3ie vines including leaves and all the 

 vegetable growth besides. On the vines w ithin 

 this small space there proVably bung 900 or 1000 

 poiuids of grapes. The white Sweetwater grapes 

 were now ^Aug. 18) so nearly ripe that the visi- 

 tors picked an ate several luscious bunches. The 

 Black Hamburgh, a larger grape than tlie Sweet- 

 water, ripe about tlie 1st of Septendier, >vasjust 

 turning to its rich mature color. The Black rain 

 or St. Peter's grape was yet more green than 

 cither, not ripening till the middle of Se])tcnil)er. 

 In rearing these grapes it is necessary tlic roots 

 should be planted in rich ground on the outside 

 surrounded by manure. Judgment mid skill arc 

 required in trimming them early in the season. 

 The greatest trouble with those of Mr. Gray was 

 that of bringing down and selecting early in the 

 season tlie quantity to be taken away, tor the bet- 

 ter growth of those w Inch remained. JMr. G. men- 

 tioned that notwithstanding the inmicnse quauli- 

 fy left, many had licen t;dicn off wlieii irreen fur 

 mukii'g tarts, to which use they were peculi;u-ly a- 

 dapted. The ripe grapes sell in Boston market 

 from .'iO to 75 cents a pouncL The present sea- 

 son will prove to be lung enough lor the latest 

 of these erapes without the necessity of forcing 

 them with artificial heat. If a green house can 

 be erected for one thousand dollars, whieli would 

 produce annually grapes that with but a few days 

 labor in the cultivation would sell (or live hun- 

 dred dollars, such an estabhshuient might not be 

 considered a bad investment.. The mere exlijlii- 

 liou to the eye of sucli a jjicturc as the haiiaing 

 clusters presented to the horlicultund aiiiatiur 

 might be worth half the interest on the cost of 

 ))roduction. 



The tomato is becoming a vegetable of com- 

 mon use ru New Kngland: it is hoalthlid us'.-d in 

 ■\arious ways. Roasted, boiled, stewed, or cut up 

 raw, it is the more liked the more it is eaten — 

 it makes the most superb i)ickle, is excellent in 

 a soup,and is extracted into a savory catsu]). Of 

 the tomato pills already celebrated we have not 

 \rt taken sufficient to testify to tlieir merits. Tlie 

 tomato pioduces wonderfully in rich land. Tiiere 

 were tomato vines in Mr. Gray's garden, a single 

 f.talk of \vhich contained clusters measuring near- 

 ly a peck each. 



Tho-trestled peach trees were quite a cm'i- 

 osit}-. The limbs of the tree tied to the trestle 

 •were made to grow flat like the fingers standing 

 upright li'om the band. Tlic advantage of llius 

 directing tlie young tivig was the 'xposin-e of tlie 



fiuit to the sun so as to induce earlier ripeness. 



BOSTO.^ MARKET AKD MARKET-ME.V. 



Thursdaij, Aug. 20. — The market house in Bos- 

 ton, a graiiite structure of se\eral hundred feet 

 in length and probably a hundred ftict wide, pre- 

 sents at siuirise the appearance of bustle and Ini- 

 siness. This noble structure was erected by the 

 corporation of the city some dozen or fourteen 

 years ago, and the stall's are tenanted by industri- 

 ous and active marketers, the most of whom, in 

 tiocks, attend to their business personally. 



Formerly the farmer or gardener fi-om the coun- 

 try went through the town to dispose of his jiro- 

 dnee. Of late years they come to the market 

 with their loaded carts, discharge at once on sale 

 to the occupants of the stalls and return home 

 to their business ; so that the man who formerly 

 returned late in the day or evening, bringing jter- 

 haps a part of bis load ol' unsold stale vegeta- 

 bles, now gets home by nine or ten o'clock in tlic 

 morning, having disposed of his entire stock. 



Prices in the market of the fiirmer's ]n-oducts 

 were high enough, compared wiih the prices of 

 every thing else. Beef 12^ cents; mutton and 

 veal Scents; chickens per pair 75 cents; geese 

 87.] and .'*1 ; lump butter 25, firkin butter 17 

 cents; eggs 14 cents dozeti ; cheese 8 cetits lb; 

 potatoes (!2i cents bushel ; Boston hams Vih 

 cents; middlings pork 10 cents. The vegetables 

 in the market are very fine. Turnii)s of the size 

 of a man's large palm, beautifully w bite and clear 

 as amber ; gieen corn, very fine ; blood red 

 Ijects and yellow orange carrots do., and so of 

 the rest. 



One need only t;o into Boston market to be 

 come convinced that the right kind of cultivation 

 and manuring will do wonders. Why is it that 

 the Boston marketers can always present larger 

 cabbages, better onions, better potatoes, larger 

 asparagus in its season, finer ears of corn, hirger 

 melons, more magnificent si|uashes, than are usu- 

 ally found fifty miles and over from the city .' It 

 is because the ground is generously fed by the 

 best prepared manures, and constant attention i^ 

 paid to its cleanliness: weeds are not permitted 

 to usurp one half the strength of the earth. 



The market farmer is at all times busy. Soon 

 after one o'clock in the morning there is a con 

 stant rolling of cart wheels through the (>rinri 

 |):d avenues leading into the town. The market 

 man is not only up betimes to dispose of liis ar 

 tii-les, but he laliors early and late, in rain and in 

 shine, to raise and gather and |iiepare bis artich 

 lor the market. Formerly a portion of the mark- 

 etinen, when it A\as fashionable lor all to call fijr 

 something to drink, indulged themselves and lie- 

 came intemperate. Now intemperance is almo.st 

 totally superseded, and the time formerly wasted 

 at taverns and tippling shops is devoted to nobler 

 purposes. 



AN EXCURSION. 



A chance of which I could not well deny my- 

 self WH"! this day offered to go into the country a 

 few miles — an exclusion of the craft of tyjie 

 makers, type setters, booksellers and stationers, to 

 which the editor belonged in times of old lang 

 syne. The day was spent in great hilarity : par 

 ticularly were the campiuiy-delighted and enter- 

 tained with the quick retort and lively repartee of 

 a great ■i\it of the city, who once started off leji 

 resenting him who carried the \vorld on bis slioiil 

 <lers, but whom no Perseus will ever turn into a 

 mountain on account of his inliospitality. There 

 \vere some other editors, besides an agriciiltura 

 editor, present, as invited guests to the iijast : we 

 were, poHtxcaUu if not agricuUurnllij, tliere alone; 

 and it becomes us here to say that we verily be- 

 lieve those who were not of our side were quite 

 as civil to us personally as would have been those 

 of our own household. 



Returning iiom Horn Pond in Woburn, which 

 lies at the font of the first stee|) rocky hills to the 

 nortl), Icn miles out of Boston, we jiassed by sev- 

 eral of the fine market gardens mid tiirnis which 

 arc to be seen in various directions north and 

 soutli. From these farms the rich vegetables are 

 carried into tow n ; and to these iiirnis the manure 

 is carried out of town to ihe distance of six, eight 

 and ten miles. The balance of trade between 

 town and country is of late years decidedly in 

 fivor of the countiy — they even make a cash gain 

 atter jiayiiig high prices lor the offal, the dung of 

 the slabirs, and the filth of the streets and of the 

 -inks and vault? of the cilv. The richness car- 



ried to the soil here should i>i)eratc on the culti- 

 vators (iu'thcr in the country as an encourage 

 ment lo them to raise twice, thrice and fburtbld 

 the amount of their present crops by making, 

 .saving and ajtplying jiist so much manure to ev- 

 ery ph)Uj;luil acre as will produce a great croji and 

 leave the laud better than the plough found it in 

 early spring 



THE CAKE-KNIFE BEAN. 



Salurdw/, Aiig. 22. — Visit the stone market at 

 sunrise, and find the men ah'cady there who live 

 seven miles out of town. Peaches brouglit by 

 steam boat from the Jersies by way of New York 

 sell for half a dollar a half-jieck and four dollars 

 a bushel ; they come in ba.skets of about one and 

 a half bushels each, covered and fiistened down 

 w ith thick cloth. A profitable item in the fiirm- 

 er's account, and a good nutritive and healthy ar- 

 ticle fiir the consumer at this season, are shelled 

 green beans. The Seavey or case-knife beau is 

 generally admired : this bcmi runs upon the pole, 

 and it is said a dozen well cultivated hills will 

 furnish a fimiily through the season. They hold 

 on from the middle of August until the frost kills 

 the vines. A market fiirmer of our acquaintance 

 brought in his bushel of shelled Seavey beans as 

 one article, which sold at the stall for six dollars 

 in casli ; and this quantity he is able to rc])eat in 

 successive market ilays. The richest shell bean 

 in the market is a larger kind, called the Lima 

 beau. 



EVILS OF EMIGRATION. 



Perhaps there is no greater misfortune to the 

 States on the Atlantic seaboard than the tempta- 

 tion which the extreme fertility of the land farth- 

 er west holds out to emigration. Our first culti- 

 vation is always on the exhausting system. We 

 get great cro))s from the virgin soil until it be- 

 comes exhausted ; and then we retreat to other 

 virgin soil. This exhausting system of culti- 

 vation will not jirobably be abandoned until 

 the shore of the western ocean shall bring up 

 the swilt-fboted iiioneer. If the exhausting cul- 

 tivation shall become general, our old States 

 must soon be abmidoned. If we do not make the 

 ground better, it will grow worse. 



The southern States have felt the effects of ex- 

 haustion still more fatally than those of the 

 \ortli : tlie norlliern and middle States seem to 

 be awakening to their true interest. Free white 

 labor is more favorable to Agriculture than the 

 labor of slaves : one independent hardy laborer 

 of New England perforins as much work as 

 four blacks. 



We pass through jilains of land , of light soil 

 which seems to be entirely worn out : there is 

 not strength ciiongb in it to make a sward. — 

 Even this land possesses the power, if properly 

 treated, of self renovation. Successive good 

 crops, with deep ploughing, will bring it up in 

 time without the application of manure. It is in 

 our I'oor opinion bad husbandry to skin over this 

 land with a ;'lougli once in three or four years 

 and get oft; may be, eight or ten bushels of rye 

 as the largest croj) to the acre. All such land 

 may be made good by good treaf:iicnt — by deej) 

 ploughing and the application of proper stimu- 

 laiit.s. 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 



There are s.-iid to be thousa'nds of acres of 

 worn out tobacco, cotton or corn lands in the 

 Southern Stales. These have been in many cas- 

 es abamloiied by the planters, wl;o have "trans- 

 ported theniseh es with their slaves to Alabama 

 and IMississi|)|ii^and in a few years havc'thcre ^■o 

 far exhausted their generous mother earth as fo 

 be looking even west of Ihe Mississijipi f<ir land 

 with which to make new iiiantatioiis. 



We were much pleased in conversation this 

 day with an inlelligcnt gentleman of Charleston, 

 S. C. by the name of Holmes, lie ^vas liorii on 

 one of the islands near Charloston, called Edisto 

 island. This is one of the group of islands 

 which originally jirodiiced the celebrated Sea-Is- 

 land cotlon. It bad become exhausted ou Ihe 

 usually bad system of cullivation. For j'ears the 

 sandy soil had become so light and sterile that 

 there -was nothing to prevent die w iiid from tak- 

 ing the surface of the ground from the preniises 

 of one man and trmisporting it to those of his 

 neighbor. This island was indented with a num- 

 ber of ba3s and creeks. By mere accident it was 

 discovered a fijw years ago that the salt marsh 

 mud and niutclcs taken from their place of de- 

 posing by tlie ocean in these creeks and bavs, after 



