152 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR- 



the surface, i-ciiders the soil imfruilful nnd barreu, 

 bv under drains and subsoil i>loughmg. 



From the ditching of low grounds duruig the 

 past suuuuer, thousands of acres ot mowing 

 mound will be made at an expense ot Iroin ten to 

 fifty dollars the acre, according to the extent ol 

 the improvement, and the previous state ot the 

 •Tround A double pm-pose is irequently answer- 

 ed in this labor in the rich material for compost, 

 taken from the ditches and carted to the yards and 

 sides of the road, and turned into manure lor the 

 uplands. , 



But, another investment for capital, scarcely 

 yet besuii in this country, is to be that of subsoil 

 draining and ploughing in the cold wet uplands, 

 where a hard pan approaches near the surface. 

 Take a field that has been often ploughed, wlicre 

 the upper soil has become heavy. It has yet left 

 many small rocks upon and near the siutace. Let 

 drains be dug at suitable distances, a suflicieut 

 depth to make the drain and stone covering be- 

 low, beyond the reach of the deepest ploughing. 

 After the bottom shall be left for a fiee passage of 

 the water in the drains, conducting it to^^ ards the 

 point where it should pass oft', let the small stones 

 upon the surface of the field be disposed of in the 

 ditch, and ui)on these let there be laid straw or 

 turf, or some other material, that shall prevent the 

 Buperincuinbent soil from mixing with the stones, 

 so as to obstruct the passa{!,c of the water. The 

 dram may be so carefully laid as to last forever ; 

 aud the small stones will he put in a useful place, 

 forever out of the way. After the drains are com- 

 pleted, let the subsoil be at first stirred by the 

 plough made for that purpose, going after the or- 

 dinary plough ; and gradually in subsequent years, 

 let this subsoil come uiion the surface, until the 

 moidd, which is now only four or five inches 

 deep, will become eight, ten, and even fifteen in- 

 ches deep. Land, thus prepared, may call for 

 an investment, in labor almost exclusively, of 

 twenty-five, or even fifty dollars the acre. In 

 many places the whole cajiital would be returned 

 in the additional crop of five or six years ; and the 

 ground forever after\\ards would be worthy four 

 times, nay, ten times, as much as it was hctbre it 

 was touched. 



Gentlemen, I am almost ashamed to say to you, 

 that I have come here with the press of other avo- 

 cations, such as to afford lue scarcely twenty-four 

 hours to prepare for the address which has per- 

 haps been expected from me. Fool, you will say, 

 that you are to travel one hundred and fifty miles 

 for siich a purpose. My apology is, that I did not 

 undertake this business to enlighten you : I came 

 to obtain fioin you that information, and to make 

 those obseratioiis which would add to the stock 

 which I feel the disposition every where to ex- 

 haust, if it can be of the least benefit in adiling to 

 the productions of our beloved country, and will 

 prevent one man from abandoning in despair that 

 soil which, if we will it, may be made a paradise, 

 approximating as near as human fallibility will 

 admit, to that garden of God, presented to man in 

 his state of primeval innoceucy. 



Tavo days in Caledonia County, Vermont. 



The editor of the Farmer's Montlily Visitor, 

 agreeably to the promise he had made some 

 inoutlis before he was placed in a new position, 

 as a public officer, failed not to make his tour to 

 the State of Vermont, at the time whon the only 

 exliibition of the only county of that lair and beau- 

 tiful State took iilace. The agricultural exhibi- 

 tion lor the county of Caledonia was holden on 

 two difterent days in different townships — at Lyn- 

 don, Wednesday, September 30th, and at Peach- 

 am, on Thursday, Oct. IsL Mistaking the days to 

 be Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, when 

 the editor arrived at Haverhill, N. H., while on his 

 way, he was induced by his political friends to 

 engage being back to that place on Thursday, so 

 that he w'as deprived of the greater pleasure which 

 it would have given him to be at Peacham on the 

 second day of the exhibition. 



Both Tuosda) and Wednesday were agreeably, 

 and we hope profitably, spent in the county. We 

 know not whether it be safe to trust our own 

 •senses in judging of a country which we had not 

 before visited: the last sight leaves the strongest 

 impressions, aud whether the opinions we form 

 be favorable or disgusting, all due allowance 

 should be made on that account. 



Arriving at the hospital residence of Hi:>rv 

 Stevsns, Esq., of Barnet, on the evening of 



Monday, Sept. 29th, he gave us the following day, 

 with his horses and carriage, to introduce us to 

 the farmers of Caledonia. 



CURIOSITIES ON CONKECTICDT RIVER. 



Barnet is situated directly above Ryegite, and 

 opposite Lyman. N. If., on the Connecticut river. 

 The Passuinsic river, whose fertile valley extends 

 northwardly towards the Canada line, diagonally 

 through the cciuty of Caledonia, unites with the 

 Connecticut river at Barnet. On this river below, 

 near the lower end of Ryegate, the river at some 

 former remote period, bioke through one of the 

 several barriers that seem to have existed in olden 

 time, making what is at present Connecticut river, 

 a series of lakes, either communicating with each 

 other, aud discharging the waters to the sea. by a 

 diftiirent route fVom the present. The river has 

 become deeper and deeper imbedded into the 

 earth at ditlerent epochs of time, leaving in some 

 places two, and in other iilaces three, higher lev- 

 els, one above the other, on each of which the 

 v/aters at some former period rested for a suc- 

 cession of years. 



The breaking through and imbedding the wa- 

 ters upon this" streani has cut down the flinty 

 rocks alike with the soil, and left no space to 

 make roads, but either by the erection of founda- 

 tions in the river, or by blowing away and form- 

 ing a tract through the ruck itself. Above the 

 splendid Oxbu^v farms in Newbury on the Ver- 

 mont side, the ror.d which has been traveled fljr 

 many years, passes for a considerable distance, as 

 it' it w as suspended over the w ater, looking down 

 a peqiendicular ledge of forty and fifty feet. So, 

 on the New Hampshire side, the mountain which 

 divides the towns of Bath and Lyman, comes so 

 close down at a point in the river where the wa- 

 ters above are compressed to a width hardly one- 

 third the common width of the river abo\e and 

 below, that the road is literally chiseled out of the 

 rock, making a turn at nearly right angles. Still 

 above, near iSarnct, the river cuts directly through 

 an island of rock, making a clumnel that leaves on 

 either side the prominence which shows that both 

 were orisinally shaped into one at some former 

 period. "Above the interval, at Barnet, the ledge 

 falls oft' more than one hundred feet, ai;d the track 

 of the road at this elevation pursues a path niade 

 by the waters at a former period, which found 

 their way through the rock, wearing it down to 

 the proper shape and size. 



Where there is no flint rock or ledge, especially 

 above the compressed waters, between Bath and 

 Newbury, both along the Connecticut and the 

 Passumsic, tliesides of the steep banks wliich have 

 been cut down by the v\ aters, are black clay or 

 marl, containing io their greatest depth the ele- 

 ments of extraordinary fertilily. It is probably 

 the rich sediment over which ihe waters of many 

 lakes flowed for thousands of years, that is the 

 basis of that excellent soil that is found all the way 

 down tlie Connecticut river valley. It is the same 

 quality ren-aining on the soil of most of the towns 

 of Caledonia county, that makes that one of the 

 most delightlftil rich'tracts of country on the north- 

 ern state:;. 



THE 'rOWNS OF CALEDONIA. 



A little above Wells river at Dodge's falls, on 

 the Vermont side, extensive saw mills have been 

 erected. These nulls tin-n oiu large quainities of 

 boards and plaiik.^ maiiufaclnred from pine logs, 

 which come over the fifteen mile falls, all the way 

 up the Coniiectirut river to its sources, near the 

 Canada line. Above, the first village in Barnet is at 

 M'lndoe's f dis, a considerable village : aud four 

 above this village, at the distance of twenty miles 

 from Haverhill, is Stevens' village in IJarnet. 

 The Scotch settlement in Ryegate, the first town 

 on the south line of Caledonia, was made under a 

 srant obtained by the late James Whilelaw, Esq. 

 who was distinguished as a surveyor and author of 

 the first map of Vermont. The Scotch settlement 

 in Barnet was under a grant of land obtained by 

 an intelligent and enterprising man of the name 

 ofllarvey, who reared a family of sons and daugh- 

 ters still" living as among the pride of Caledonia. 

 A son of that Pliinehas Stevens, of No. 4, whose 

 posterity yet remains at Charlestown, N. II., pur- 

 chased that tract in Barnet, which surrounds 

 and comprises the Stevens' yillag(\ At this vil- 

 lagv Stevens' brook, which comes down from Har- 

 vey's |)ond in the westerly side of Barnet, and 

 from the valley constituting a greater i)art of the 

 town of Peochnm, luiiles with ConneciiciU river: 



the fidl of the brook at the village is 130 feet. On 

 this fall there are tv/o woolen ttictories and other 

 mills already elected. The water power through 

 diis region of fine country not yet taken up, is so 

 abundant, that whenever the country shall be 

 opened by rail roads, in that direction, annihilat- 

 ing the long distance now travelled by heavy load- 

 ed teinns, which pass backward and forward to 

 the distance of one hundred and fifty and two 

 hundred miles to the seaboard, room will be given 

 for hundreds of manufacturing establishments, 

 to work up the wood, the wool, and other raw 

 materials which the country produces. 



A. MINE OF INFORMATION. 



Agreeably to previous invitation from Henry 

 Stevens, Esquire, oi' Bai-net, the son of the man 

 who obtained the first grant of land in Barnet, 

 we made ourselves at home at his house. In 

 his house we were surprised to find probably 

 better materials for a complete history of Ver- 

 mont, from its first settlement to the present day, 

 than can be found in all other places put togeth- 

 er. Mr. SteA'ens ivas so fortunate as to obtain on 

 easy terms the collections of newspaiiers. pamph- 

 lets, and manuscripts of the late Major Whitelaw, 

 and he has been indefatigable in laying hold of 

 and preserving every thing curious and interest- 

 ing that pertains to the State of Vermont. The 

 newspapers printed as far back as 178-1, at Ben- 

 nington and Windsor — the first rude eflbrts of 

 Haswell and Spooner, to fiirnish the " folio of 

 tour i)ages, hap)jy work, ■which not even critics 

 criticise," carrying intelligence to the log-houses 

 first erected — are in Mr. Stevens' collection ; and 

 the history of politics and legislation, and of the 

 progress of improvement and wealth, are brought 

 down through these fugitive collections to a point 

 of time reached by the memory of the present 

 generation. Here we have oiiporlunity to learn 

 all about the peculiar traits of character of Ethan 

 Allen, who on " the authority of the Great Jeho- 

 vah and the Continental Congress,'' captured Ti- 

 conderoga, and made prisoners of its British gar- 

 rison, nearly simultaneous with the day of Lex- 

 ington battle. Here also we trace the bold good 

 sense of Thomas Chittenden, the first Governor, 

 the father of a race of strong-nuuded, eminent 

 men. We also can find out all about Matthew 

 Lyon, the son-in-law of Chittenden, who figures 

 in having ])rovoked the " powers that be," by 

 doubting the patriotism of the President ;md_ob- 

 taininu' sentence of fine and imprisonment, from 

 a United States Judge, under a prosecution for 

 sedition. The first legislative acts of the settlers 

 of the " New Hampshire Grants," are marked 

 with that sterling good sense and regard for 

 sound jiolitical economy, which was more preva- 

 lent in the public men of that d;iy, than they havo 

 been since. The files and collections of Mr. Ste- 

 vens, jiresent a fund of information, ancient and 

 rare, more accurate in marking the histoiy of 

 Vermont, than we ever expected to find. We 

 might have spent a month jirofitably in searching 

 tor that kind of knowledge which it would be ex- 

 tremely diflicult to find any where else, and still 

 have left many interesting volumes unexplored. 



THE SCOTCH BUTTER M4KERS. 



Tuesday morning, Sejit. 29, with a pair of horses 

 and dearborn wagon, we took together a jaunt 

 among those farmers in Barnet, who for several 

 successive years have been successful competitors 

 for the higii irremiums on butter wOiich have been 

 oft'ered by a society in Boston. As this comjieti-^ 

 tion was open to the whole country, the merit of 

 the Scotch butter of Barnet w^ill be the more high- 

 ly ajipreciated because it has outstripped the best 

 butter of those fine farmers in Connecticut and 

 Massachusetts, w here the country has been longer 

 settled, and where it might be taken for granted 

 that better opportunities for learning the trade and 

 mystery of butter making might exist. Our guide 

 was a gentleman famihar with most of the farm-_ 

 ers and farmers' houses in Caledonia , and of 

 i>onrse there w^^s very little ado in introducing us 

 fiom the kitchen pantry to the cellar of each 

 thrifty estaiilishment. 



Mr. Alexander Stuiul. inheriting with jj' 

 er William, the farm of his father. '' 

 fanner doing most of the laljfv^„_ |jp 

 hands, keeps ten and :\X'd pounds in a 

 makes about one Jiie milk stands about fom'- 

 from eacli c.yptbre the cretin is taJcen from lU 

 eisht ' 



I'rotli- 



a gocul 



>■''!] his own 



lieually 



season 



