exposure to the action of tho atmosphere, almost 

 entirely clianged (lie nature ot'tlie soil : tlie growth, 

 whether ot" cotton, or corn, or other production, 

 soon hecunic highly luxuriant, producing excel- 

 leut crops. 



Our inlbniiant mentioned one gentleman who 

 raised upon this island in one season, upon land 

 resuscitated by marine manure, some eighty bales 

 of the beautiful Sea Island cotton. This cotton is 

 so valuable ibr the finer manulactuies that scarce- 

 ly any of it finds the way to the New England 

 manutaeturer — it is cauglit U]i by the agents of 

 the fine manufacturing establishments in England, 

 who go where it is produced that they may not 

 lo.se the chance of obtaining it. The ])lanter last 

 named refused seventy-five cents the pound for 

 his crop, and obtained during tho last year eighty- 

 seven and a half-cents the pound. 



The Sea island cotton is gathered and prei)ared 

 with much greater care and labor than the com- 

 mon upland cotton. It is picked in the field be- 

 fore the i)0(l has become fullyand widely opened, 

 being taken off of the tree or bush when in the 

 shape of a half way blown rose : it is taken at 

 this time to iireserve that essential oil which gives 

 the fibre its life and elasticity. It is dried with- 

 out long exposure to a scorching sun, and it is 

 handled with great care. The roller gin, an in- 

 strument different from the ordinary cotton gin, 

 is used in the cleaning. This gin is an instru- 

 ment standing upon a table about the heiaht of 

 the breast, upon which are placed two cylinder 

 rollers turinng in opposite directions. The long 

 cotton catches and passes between these rollois, 

 ^^■hile the seeds are shut back and pass oft" with 

 the dirt in a different direction fi om tlie cotton. 



In a slave country like the Carolinas it is not 

 common for the wlute })eop!c to jjcrlbrm manual 

 labor on the land — this is the task almost exclu- 

 sively of the colored race. It nfi;.'ht he supj^osed 

 that the common practice of omitting ordinary 

 labor by the whites, extending to morals and to 

 luiiul, would contribute to the creation of an en- 

 ervated if not a vicious race of men and women 

 in theSouili. This is not so. Tlie South, and 

 especially tlie state of South Carolina, has pro 

 duccd some of the greatest men in the nation. Of 

 those whom we have personally known as be- 

 longing to the citj' of Charleston we might 

 name a I.owndes, a nrayton,a Hayiie, a Hamilton 

 and a Pinckney. These men have become emi- 

 nent, not because tiiey were born in a land wliere 

 genius and talent are displayed as tiom intuition, 

 hut because they have applied themselves to the 

 labor ofthc severest study and ajiplication. 



Charleston is one of the most steadily pros- 

 perous cities of the United States: it contains 

 great individual wealth, and has suff!-red less from 

 revulsions and changes than almost any other 

 city in the coimtry. The merchants there have 

 pursued a steady business, seldom trading be\ ond 

 their means, and rarely rushing into IJie vortex 

 which has swallowed up liundreds in n.carly ev- 

 ery other city. Severe personal attention to bnri- 

 ness is there peculiarly a characteristic oi'lhe 

 merchant. The case of onr informant, which 

 was related without ostentation, may be menlion- 

 (■d as an illustration of this jioint. He was n 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



125 



man of middle age, and had 



sucress.hil 



pm-snei 



the business of an auction and commission mer- 

 chant ibr several years in company wilii an En- 

 glishman. Their store was always ojien at six 

 o'clock in the morning; and in their articles of 

 agreement it was made a condition that one 

 should dine at two, and the other at three o'clock, 

 so that one of them might be ;)resent to the bu.si- 

 nessofthe store during the daj'. 'i'his discover- 

 ed industry and perseverance in business worthy 

 the best character of New England. 



Monday, Aug. 2-4 — found us at home after an 

 absence oftwelve days : in that time the crojis not 

 yet taken oft' had essentially changed Ibr the bet- 

 ter. The Brown coj'ii upon our jiremises, so far 

 already ripened as to be out of the way of the 

 frost, still preserved a lively green better than at 

 midsummer. The potatoes generally were flour- 

 ishing; some kinds however discovered symp- 

 toms of rust. The kinds most free from it were 

 the long reds, the Rohans, and that furnished by 

 our friend Wright, who lives on Connecticut river 

 in Massachusetts. The potatoes planted on ma- 

 nure covered entirely with the sod ten inches 

 deep will this year have the undi)ubted advantage 

 of tliose planted upon ground ploughed equally 

 deep wliere the ninimre was spread after the 



ploughing upon the surface. Our beans and our 

 buck wheat u])on the pine plain have outstripped 

 our highest expectations : we w ill have enough, 

 probably double the quantity necessary to give us 

 that neiv title which we might not want if we 

 had not already obtained more titles than we ^^ ish 

 to attach to us in the common addresses of lili?. 

 Half an acre of broom corn is now more forward 

 than the same article was last year at the time 

 of the first severe liost. But oiir ruta bagas and 

 sugar beets look by no means so promising as we 

 exi)ected. The growth of the lormer has been 

 retarded by something .seeming to operate on the 

 roots, at the same time the lice narrow down 

 many of the broad leaves of a Ibrttnght ago to 

 half their original dimensions. 



The cabbages, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, 

 beets, &c. &c. look well in Mr. \Vliitney's gar- 

 den, which is our joint concern, but for which lie 

 deserves all the credit. We will do well this 

 3 ear on this new ground of about two acres, and 

 we may do better next year if we should live ;uid 

 be i)rosi)ered as we have been this j ear. Land 

 thus cultivated grows better year by "year. This 

 garden is more tree from weeds than any other 

 garden we have minutely examined this season. 

 Il'edmsday, Axig. 3jJ. h, frtqueutly I'.assing 

 over the lieavy road on Merrimack river between 

 Concord and Nashua we cannot omit reflecting 

 how much the value of the whole tract has been 

 raised w itliin thirty one years, bemg the time 

 which we first traveled the same roatL Then the 

 Anioskeag falls of more than fifty feet, the Hook- 

 sett Falls of fifteen to eighteen feet eight miles 

 ahove,and Garvcn's Falls of some twentyfive feet, 

 live miles aLo(e the last, having been just sur- 

 mounted by locks and canals at great expense, 

 were considered an obstruction which made 

 them worse than worthless. Now the water 

 jiowcr oftiiese fiills, the most extensive and ele- 

 gihle for manufactures in New England, will he 

 estimated as of much greater value than the en- 

 tire navigation of the river. Tlie business of 

 liiiildingiqion the river, and the increased con- 

 sumption oftimber and fiiel which the new pop- 

 ulation occasions, has already raised the value of 

 a portion of the lands — the least estimated lands 

 u itliin four miles of the river — more than ten 

 fohi. 



Land that has been esteemed too jioor or too 

 hard for cultivation, all the w.ay down the river, 

 v.hetlier it grow pine or oak, white birch or ches- 

 mil, is most valuable tor its g-rowth of wood and 

 timber. Every cord of wood is worth fiom one 

 dollar to one dollar filtv cents standing : the tim- 

 ber is all worth double the wood for fuel. The 

 white biicli, which has always lieen considered 

 an inferior wood, is valuable lor fiicl, and excellent 



to be manufactured into charcoal. The chesnnt 

 makes tho very best posts and rails, and is pretisr- 

 red even to the white cedar lor ibundations to 

 the tracks ol'rail roads. It will last longer in the 

 ground without powderpost or any kind of rot 

 tliaii the hardest oak or maple. Wiien the chcs- 

 iiul trees are cut down, the sprouts spring up 

 the Siuae season, and the new generation, wliicii 

 is as four tor one of the old one, grows large 

 enough for new posts in a very few years. 



Oneindivlduai, Gen. William 1'. KiDDi.r.ino- 

 cured in Hooksett, (ioft'stown and Bedford, in 

 1838 thirty tiiousand rail road jiosts ibr theNasii- 

 ua road — in 1839 he procured thirteen thousand 

 of the same, for the Eastern rail road, for 

 which he olitained twenty-three cents each, and 

 lO.COO conmion posts and rails. In IS-IO, pursu- 

 ing the same luisinesi? until July, he had got out, 

 read} to befloated down,8CC() more of the rail road 

 posti\ 



The early stage, which now leaves Concord 

 at four o'clock in the morning and enables the 

 traveler to arrive at Boston by noon, turns off tlie 

 river road at Piscatatpiog village in the north- 

 east corner of Bedford, and jutssiug throngii ttic 

 centre of the town, by the extensive brick yards 

 of that town near the north line of Merimack, 

 unitesagain v.ith the river road about eight miles 

 above Nashua. We were much gratified at the 

 considcralile agricultural improvements which 

 have been made on this road. 



The fir.st improvement ^vo shall name was that 

 of Gen. Piiddle on a very sterile and worn out 

 piece of pine plains land. He purchased a boat- 

 load of leached ashes at Nashua containing some 

 thousand bushels, which were laid on about lour 

 acres. The eficct of these was seen in th" first 



year m producing two or three times the crop 

 of rye on the rye-worn-out field that it had before 

 produced. If Gen. K. ^^ ill now take his rye field 

 and iiut on say twenty-five or thirty cartloads of 

 barn or stable manure to the acre, he need fear 

 no danger from the filtering or running away the 

 strength of his manure through the bottom of his 

 light soil. 



Another grand operation (we believe on the 

 farm of Doct. Peter P. WoodburyjIs in reclaim- 

 ing an extensive meadow bv ditching and trench- 

 ing It, extracting all the stumps and roots. This 

 land, like that of Col. Farmer in Goftstown on 

 the river above, will be of the most valuable kind 

 when the great improvement shall be completed. 

 It will yield three Ions of the best hay to the acre 

 with very little dressing applied once in three or 

 four years. 



Those are by no means the best farmers in 

 Bedford w ho live on the easiest land : there are 

 excellent farms in the westerly part of that town, 

 winch have for many years borne the evidence 

 of their good cultivation. The fine farm.<! of 

 Thomas and Samuel Chaivdler are upon the 

 river. 



A bridge of 470 feet span, the longest of which 

 IS 140 feet, is erecting o\ er the Merrimack near 

 the north line of Bedford, bringing the Piscata- 

 quog village in near contact with the great village 

 which has commenced on the east and opposite 

 side of the river. Merrill's falls of eight feet are 

 one mile below Amoskeag, and over these the 

 foundation of the new bridge rests. The wood 

 work ofthis bridge coat $5000. The abutments 

 of tlie bridge are thirty-two feet high. The bridge 

 is built after Towne's patent, with lattice work ; 

 and instead of the frame being placed over the 

 traveler, the whole strength and protection are 

 found in the extended frame work underneatli. 

 The canal at Merrill's falls over which the new 

 bridge passes i.s half a mile in length. Yet a 

 little below is the mouth of Piscataquog river, at 

 which in the year 1818 the late Isaac Kiddle, a 

 man of much enterprise, built a canal and lock 

 lor his own private convenience at an expense 

 of fifteen hundred dollars. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



Baltimore, Md. August 1, 1840. 

 GovER.NOR Hill— Dear Sir:— Being born and 

 lired a farmer in one of the agricultural districts 

 of New England, it has ever been with livelv in- 

 terest since 1 left that honorable employment— 

 that employment >vhose tendency is to" elevate 

 the immortal mind of man, by bringing it to be 

 hourly con\ersant with nature's o|ierations in all 

 her multifarious forms — that which was man's 

 primogenial employment, and that to which I 

 must return if I would obtain that boon for which 

 all men are striving— happiness ; that I liave not- 

 ed the improvements which have been made rel- 

 ative to the manner of cultivating the .soil. And 

 it is with ]ieculiar interest that I liave seen Chem- 

 istry and the other natural sciences lending their 

 aid to tiie elevation ofthis only original source of 

 wealth, notw ithstanding all that has been said re- 

 pudiating '■ book fanning" as diametrically op- 

 posed to that kind of experimental knowledge 

 H'hich every fiirmer needs. 



liowever, I would merely remark that (his 

 kind of " book farming" which is spoken of .so 

 contemptuously by many who wish to " keep to 

 the good ol..' way"" and do as their fathers have 

 done before them, is nothing more than I do 

 when I take the advice my neighbor save ine on 

 the last rainy day, viz : "that if I would put tho 

 manure of four acres upon one, and instead of 

 planting corn four feet one way, and three tho 

 other, and cultivating four acres I would plant 

 shirty inches by two tijet, and cultivate one acre, 

 I should raise more corn, with less trouble. 



Neither does this repudiated "hook farming" 

 any njqre deserve the name than mine does, when 

 after trying, unsuccessfully, for years, to raise a 

 decent crop from a certain piece" of sandy laud, 

 I concluded, from the little knowledge I have of 

 Chemistry that there probably is a certain natural 

 manure, which, if put upon it would incorporate 

 with it, and I should secure good crops ; I try the 

 experiment, it proves successful, and I reconi- 

 mend it to my neighbors. Here is the whole 

 sum and substance of book farming. 



The subject upon w liicli we would now like to 

 say a tt^w words throueh the columns of votir 



