THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



163 



A common old-iashioned hand cliuni is used. 

 The biitier is woiked in cold water, drained ofi' 

 successively until the milk entirely disappears: 

 generally three waters are sufficient. The less 

 the butter is handled the more perfect an<l beau- 

 tiful it will be. It is put down directly in clean 

 new' tubs which will hold from thirty to fifty 

 pounds. The surface of the butter upon the top 

 is covered with a thin cloth over which fine salt is 

 sprinkled. The quantity of .salt vised depends upon 

 the season. If it be warm weather more salt is 

 required for the perfect |)reservalion of the but- 

 ter. Mr. Stuart makes use of blown salt, and has 

 no particular rule as to tlie quantity used, — his 

 lady, who should have the credit of making the 

 butter, consulting her judgment exclusively. The 

 butter as fast as it is made is disposed of in the 

 tubs in the coolest part of the cellar; the milk 

 also iu warm weather is set in the cellar. 



Blr. Alexander Brock, whose farm lies to the 

 westward of Mr. Stuart's farm, has a dairy this 

 season of six cows and four two year old heifers. 

 He makes from this dairy, besides what he con- 

 sumes in his own family, half a ton of butter and 

 half a ton of pork for sale. Most of the citizens 

 of Barnet, who were not too old or too young, 

 were this day engaged in a squirrel hunt in the 

 old fashion vvhich has long existed in New Eng- 

 land, of choosing sides. Mr. Brock was of the 

 number, and we did uotsee him— but his very in- 

 telligent, lady-like wife, who personally superin- 

 tended the work of the house, gave ns all desired 

 information. Her premium butter in Boston had 

 sold as high as thirty cents the ])ound in 1837,— 

 in the two following years the butler sold at 27 

 and 23 cents respeciively. Tlie milk stands ge- 

 nerally forty-eight hours. She washes the butter 

 in the same manner as is done at Mr. Stuart's, 

 but never works it — for working leaves the but- 

 ter stringy, and makes it adhere to the knife. In 

 sahiug down she measures the quantity, and puts 

 in more or less according to the necessity of the 

 season. The butter is covered with a clean white 

 cloth, alter it is disposed of iu the firkin, and is 

 surrounded slightly with pure brine. She says 

 she makes her hundred pounds hi a summer, 

 from each of the two year old heifers. In the 

 cellar were seventeen beautiful tubs, besides a ti:-w 

 Piupty — the butter from which the family had 

 used, weighing from 'S3 to 50 poiuids each. The 

 lady was "a daughter of the elder Harvey, who 

 purchased the land on which the Scotcli settled, 

 and in honor of the name had called a fair, full- 

 faced boy of two years old, Rob Harvey. 



At no very great distance ii-om the last farm, 

 fronting Harvey's pond, we visited the prcjnises 

 of Mr. Williani Bacliop, who settled down here 

 thirty-six years ago, and has reared up an amia- 

 ble and accomplished family of daughters and 

 sons. Mr. Bachop came to this country first when 

 he was fourteen yeai's of age. His first lioiise has 

 been worn out in service, and he has erected in 

 its jdace a beautiful stone house whose interior 

 is the residence of easy hos|jitality and elegant 

 and polished mannei-s. " Mr. Bachop's farm con- 

 sists of about five hundred acres, ncaiiy half of 

 which remains in forest. He has sometimes kept 

 twenty-seven to thirty cows ; but the jiresent year 

 has oidy seventeen. He has obtained the first 

 premium from the society at Boston, for butter, 

 three times. Iu all he has taken liom Boston tive 

 premiums : .9100 twice, and $50 three times. The 

 wife, he said, was entitled to the exclusive credit 

 for the butter, and she insisted she had no un- 

 common knack lor that business. She usually 

 obtained in a season about 125 pounds for each 

 cov.'. She lets the nfilk set iu warm weather 

 about diirtv hours, and in coinnion, cool, weather, 

 about forty-eight hours. In the hottest season 

 she applies s-ix pounds of salt to 100 pounds ot 

 j,„tter — in cool weather four pounds. 



;le 

 [um- 



No salt- 

 iietre is given to die butter, but about a sing 

 pound of loaf sugar is sprinkled into each liui 

 dred pounds. , 



Mr. Bachop, this season, raised about lUO 

 bushels of wheat, 25 bushels to the acre. He 

 keeps from fitly to one hundred sheep, the wool 

 of which is nuumlacturcd in his family. When 

 he came to these premises, he said he was net 

 wortii five dollars in the world. His granite house 

 was built twcutv years ago upon a side hill : the 

 collar is on the back side on a level, and oi)emng 

 to the front rooms of the house : into this he has 

 contrived by means of a covered passage \\ay to 

 briu"- in the" cool air. Mr. Bachop and his family 



enjoy an easy affluence — his children are well 

 educated ; and this reflects great credit on the use 

 of industry and economy which he has ])ursued. 



* ' THE moor's rLOlGH. 



Westward of Mr. Bachop, and much more ele- 

 vated, is the farm of Mr. Leland Harvey. He 

 was turning up a field of grass sward land, driv- 

 ing his pair of horses and holding the plough, 

 and at the same time if it passed over or touched 

 a fast stone, an iron bar carried on the plough 

 was used to loosen and bring the stone upon the 

 surface, whence it was taken by a team of oxen 

 employed for the purpose, and carried to be laid 

 into a substantial new double wall which he was 

 constructing upon the road. The plontrh much 

 used at Ryegate and the vicinity, is Moor's |)lough, 

 constructed not to invert completely the sward, 

 but to throw the furrow up edgewise. The plough- 

 ing is commonly not over five inches in depth. 

 The laud in this vicinity being very rich in its 

 natural state, deep ploughing need not be so 

 much regarded as iu a soil of inferior quality. 

 Mr. Harvey is one of those thriving farmers who 

 go a-head by both holding the plough and driv- 

 ing himself, and does credit to the occupation 

 which he pursues. 



GREATEST PRODUCTIONS IN CALEDONIA. 



In sight of the farm of Mr. Han'ey, over a val- 

 ley distant about two miles, is the (iirin of a Mr. 

 M'Laughlin and Sons, on which, it is said, was 

 the greatest production of any farm in the county 

 din-ing the present year. Mr. M'Laughliu has 

 raised as one item of production, 2000 bushels of 

 oats. He has added farm to farm as the fruit of 

 the work of his own hands. Seventeen years ago 

 he was as poor as the jjoorest man in Caledonia. 



PEACHAM AND ITS INHABITANTS AND FARMS. 



Leaving Barnet, we passed into and through 

 the town of Peacham. This town is one of the 

 most fruitfiil that we ever set foot upon. It is a 

 characteristic of this part of Vermont, that, except 

 we go to that part where the mountains are abso- 

 lute ledges, there is an equal fertility on the high 

 as upon the low ground. From the Harvey farm 

 in Barnet we have a panoramic view of that part 

 of Peacham, situated south of the centre meeting 

 house and academy. The farms in this view are 

 really s|ilendid : there are few rocks to interrupt 

 the smoothness of the well cultivated fields. At 

 the nortli-->vest, from the main travelled road, run- 

 niug towards Dauville, is the fine farm lately the 

 property of Gen. William Chamberlain, an emi- 

 grant from the vicinity of Concord. Still further 

 north was the place of residence of Rev. Leonard 

 Worcester, «ho, originally a printer, afterwords 

 became the pastor of one of the oldest churches 

 in that jiart of Vermont. This gentleman, the 

 brother of a family famed for their talents as well 

 as their theology, has lately left the people of his 

 charge, and sold the farm on which he had long 

 resided. The purchaser was improving this farm 

 much by excavation and draining. 



The soil of Peacham and Danville seems to lie 

 but the beds of several lakes from which the wa- 

 ter has been drained at some former point of time. 

 The hills surround the valleys on every side, 

 sometimes oblong, sometimes nearly round, but 

 always in the shape of those surrounding some 

 pond" or lake. Tiiese hills are very free of stone, 

 and this commonly limestone which lays under 

 the surface, at times breaking tlirough and mak- 

 ing its appearance above ground. These hills are 

 fertile to the very. tops— there being no percepti- 

 ble difference between the liiaher grounds and 

 the low. The land hardly ever fails of a crop of 

 any kind of vegetation common to the climate. 



ill passing tlVrough Peacham, we took tlie op- 

 portunity to" call u|ion a veteran lady, a sister of 

 the Eastmans', aiul a native of Concord, now 

 more than eighty years old. AVith a si.ster who 

 married brothers, she was one of the first settlers 

 of Peacham ; and both of them had raised ni> 

 sons and daughters, some of whom had become 

 judges and magistrates, and all of tliem, men and 

 women, respectable and independent. Another 

 gentleman, who had the kindness to accoinpauy 

 ns, that and the succeeding day, iilso a native of 

 Concord, has gained wealtli and respectability as 

 a farmer and a merchant, first in the State ot 

 Maine, and latterly has set down on a delightfiil 

 tarin very near the academy, in Peacharn, and 

 overlooking the surrounding country. 



\ LAWYER, POLITICIAN, AND FARMER. 



The member of Congress elect for this district, 



who, we believe, has the good luck to succeed al- 

 ways when he offers as a candidate, who has gath- 

 ered an ample fortune in the |>ursuitof his iJiofes- 

 sioii, and who has often proved himself the gene- 

 rous friend of youihfiil enterprise, if he has not 

 hesitated sometimes to take the pound of flesh, 

 when the law would give it, resides at the village 

 central in this beautiful town. For old ac<|uaint- 

 ance sake, although at political antipodes, we hes- 

 itated not to partake of his proferred hospitality, 

 and we were happy to find him so far inter- 

 ested in the prosperity of agriculture as to take 

 pride iu the exhibition of the products of his own 

 field. His potatoes were a true sample of the 

 exuberant soil round about him, two bushels of 

 which he had, since, the goodness to present at 

 our own door, one hundred miles distant. He 

 had paid great personal attention to his apple or- 

 chard, which in appearance resembled the heal- 

 thy orchards so i)rofitable to their owners in the 

 vicinity of Boston. Speaking of the condition of 

 the farmers of Caledonia, compared with what it 

 was a few years ago. Gen. M. said, the advantage 

 was much more in their tayor than his own : they 

 had all redeemed their mortgages, so that in any 

 present intercourse of business he was now the 

 debtor and dependant, and could seldom obtaui 

 their obligation in exchange for any s))arc money 

 which might be lying useless. 



THE PENNSYLVANIA POLITICIAN. 



New England is the soil which has bOrne many 

 enterprising sous : her young men, with no bet- 

 ter protection than their own shrewdness and tal- 

 ent, go forth to other States, and report soon 

 echoes back their names as distinguished men in 

 a laud of strangers. The academy at Peacham is, 

 we believe, the oldest in all the northerly half of 

 Vermont, eastward of the Chain]dain lake shore ; 

 and the town of Peacham has sent forth into other 

 States more than its pro])ortion of educated men, 

 who have been instructed in the rudiments at this 

 institution. Political men will remember the 

 man who, in the State of Pennsylvania, three 

 years ago, possessed an influence beyond all other 

 political men around him. This man is a native 

 of Peacham ; and it is to the credit of Thaddeus 

 Stevens, that, leaving the ])lace of his nativity, 

 without proiierty and without patrimony, he re- 

 turned ill a few years and jiurcbased one of those 

 beautiful farms on the hills, which extend around 

 the town in a circle, on which he jjlaced his 

 widowed mother. More recently on this farm, 

 which is well cultivated, under the superintend- 

 ence of a bachelor brother, he has furnished the 

 means for substituting a new house for the old 

 one which had become dilajiidated, and new 

 barns in the place of the old. Exercising the 

 right of ownership at her own home, the old lady, 

 at the age of seventy years, carries herself with 

 all the jiropriety of a venerable matron, w ho has 

 nursed those sons, \\ ho in more elevated life for- 

 get not the tenants of the humble log housL's in 

 which they spent their first, and may be their 

 happiest days. 



A SAMPLE OF UNEER-DHAININC. 



Passing from Peachaiu to Danville the farm was 

 pointed out which had been a few years improv- 

 ed by a Mr. Leach, a Scotchman. The furniers 

 who are contimially arii\ing from Scotland and 

 England, bring with them those improved me- 

 thods of cultivation that are highly useltil in the 

 neighborhoods of their location. We only saw 

 Mr, Leach's farm as we passed it ; but we were 

 struck with the efiectthat his better manageiuent 

 had produced on laud, which in its natural state, 

 is more productive than much of the land in otiier 

 jjarts of New England, that is well cultivated. 

 Mr. Leach has advantageously introduced liie 

 Europetm method of under-draining, by earring 

 utt' the superabundance of water naturally re- 

 maining an injury to the crops by means of cover- 

 ed passways. We know of many persons, me- 

 elianics and others, who cultivate only a small 

 lilat of ground, say from one to five acres, and 

 keep no stock licyoiid one or two cows, and pcr- 

 hajis a horse. If their laud be of the he^vy kind 

 with a pan filled with small stone.*, how can they 

 better imiirove it than by making covered diains, 

 disjiosing of the small rocks under ground I el )w 

 the depth of the plough. After the lan.d is su'l- 

 ably drained, continued deep idoughing will 

 make the heaviest ground productive beytnd all 

 |)revious calculation. 



Near the line which divides the towns of Peach 



