THE FARJVIER'S MO^JTHLY VISITOR. 



163 



which he pin'chased in the 3 car 1807 tor a mere 



trifle. Tlieir near neighljor is J. B , Esq. also 



from Concord, who mirried their relative, and 

 who settled here some years hetbre them. All 

 of them have beautiiul farms, fnrnishing in abun- 

 dance tiie means of subsistence for man and 

 beast. Capt. E. says he can raise upon his up- 

 land here every kind of produce with less labor, 

 excepting Indian corn, tlian he could upon the 

 best Concord intervale. The growth of the fine 

 swells of land in Exeter and the adjacent towns, 

 is rock niiple, beech, wiiite ash, &c. indicating a 

 strong and not a lieavy soil. Mr. Higgins, of 

 Exeter, the last season raised as high as forty 

 bushels of wheat to the acre. The Black sea 

 wheat has been introduced into that region, an J 

 is found to be a more certain crop than any other 

 kind of wheat. 



THE VALUE Of A NEW COUNTRY DEVELOPED 

 GRADUALLY. 



We have barely touched upon the county 

 of Oxford, and have never been in Somerset or 

 over a great portion of Kennebeck. Portions of 

 Lincoln and Waldo we passed in the night ; so 

 that from actual personal observation we cannot 

 say which jjart of Maine is the better or more 

 feasible land. AVe are, however, altogethei- dis- 

 appointed in the soil of Penobscot: it is far bet- 

 ter than our anticipations ; and when the town- 

 ships in that county embracing the swells of land 

 which are the sources of the stieams running on 

 either hand into the Kennebeck and the Penob- 

 scot shall have gained the present age of the Ken- 

 nebeck towns, we are of opinion that this will be 

 a richer and more prosperous agricultural region 

 than any county westward in the State of Maine. 

 When the country is in a wilderno>v? state, the 

 very best land, situated at a distance from roads 

 or other avenues of conuiiunication — shut out by 

 _strean)s that are not easily forded, bj' impenetra- 

 ble morasses and swanjps, and blocked up by 

 thick woods, or interrupted by intervening hills 

 and ravines — is deemed to be of little or no val- 

 ue. The interior of Maine has been viewed in 

 this light, even after it was partially explored, un- 

 til successive isolated openings and settlements 

 have brought each other to be united. Particu- 

 larly has this been the case in the interior of Pi;- 

 nobscot and the other lower counties. For lifty 

 and a himdred years liave there been small settle- 

 ments along the seaboard and up the navigable 

 livers, holding their conununications by water or 

 by floor roads exnending from one town to its 

 nearest neighbor. These first settlements for a 

 long time made little progress; and during all 

 this time the interior country was looked upon as 

 of no value beyond w here cedar and pine timber 

 and other wood could be carted to the seapoits to 

 be transported to the ports of the old New Eng- 

 land States, where timber aud wood had become 

 scarce. 



To show what ^vas the impression relative to 

 the Penobscot region, it will suffice to say, that 

 an old gentleman named Holland, still alive, aud 

 we believe a member of the Society of Cincin- 

 nati, and if we mistake tiot, author of an ancieut 

 map of Maine, about forty-five years ago was 

 employed to survey a i-oute for a road from the 

 Penobscot to the Kennebeck, a distance of about 

 sixty-five miles. He was a finished surveyor for 

 his tin)e, aud after a long and careful examination 

 of the proposed route, re|)orted to the persons 

 who employed him, that it was utterly impossible 

 ever to construct auy road between the points 

 proposed on account of the intervening hills and 

 swamps! Over the same route now the mail 

 stage runs daily at the rate of ten miles the hour 

 for nearly the whole distance, and a rail road is 

 in serious contemplation, which may be yet con- 

 structed before the old gentleman, who luade the 

 unfavorable report, shall die. 



THE BETTER FACILITIES IN THE M0RTH-EA9TEK- 

 I,Y STATE. 



When the boundary question comes to be set- 

 tled—as settled, we truFt, it never can be except 

 under the strict letter of the treaty of 1783, which 

 is more definite and certain than any other lan- 

 guage can make it — the State of Maiue will con- 

 tain more acres of land capable of cultivation 

 than any other present State of the linion. It 

 lnul^t be ultimately the most valuable and the 

 nin?t wealtliy State of the Union. Its better fa- 

 cilities for a market cannot fail to make it so. — 

 The land in tlic valley of the St, John's i& eome 



of the very best in the country. That part on the 

 Aroostook, now in the possession of the United 

 States, is more fertile by nature than almost any 

 other laud in New England : it is of the lime- 

 stone tbrmation, a dark colored loam inclining to 

 red, and of such a quality in its natural state as to 

 turn out the most luxuriant crops. On this rich 

 laud potatoes grow so that at the distance of three 

 and (bur leet from each other, the vines, continu- 

 ing green through the season, cover the ground. 

 The lighter soil is natural to wheat. The Mar- 

 shal of Maiue, who had personall\' taken the cen- 

 sus of the new county of .Vroostook, of the agri- 

 cultural items of that county, informed us that 

 Messrs. Shepurd Cary aud company at Houlton, 

 raised on their own |)remises this year, five thou- 

 sand bushels of wheat: this was produced part- 

 ly on old land that had been before cultivated 

 and was now ploughed, and (jartly on new buint 

 ground. The yield was generally twenty-five to 

 thirty bushels to the acre. Spring sowii wheat 

 was the kind produced. It was worth in that 

 country one dollar and fifty cents the bushel, dou- 

 ble the value of the same article in Michigan and 

 the western part of New York. A |)erson by the 

 name of Noland, an enterprising Yankee, who- 

 had been a soldier in the United States service, 

 clearing land which he had found means to pur- 

 chase, raised the present summer two thousand 

 bushels of wheat, all upon burned new land. — 

 Mr. Cary is a representative in the Legislature 

 for lloulloii. The house to which he belongs 

 have erected a beautiful set of grist mills four sto- 

 ries high on the Military road, four miles from 

 Houlton. 



There can bo no hesitation as to what williie 

 the true interest of the young men of New Eng- 

 land designing to enfigrate and pitch upon new 

 lands. They will find in the new lands of Maine 

 a soil not less piodiu'tive than the best lands of 

 the western States. They dread the deep snow 

 and the cold long winters; hut it is a serious 

 question which we slioidd be willing every west- 

 ern emigrant, who has settled and lived one, two, 

 or five years in a log cabin should decide, wheth- 

 er there is not more comfort and enjoyment in one 

 of our steady cold, long winters, where there are 

 seldom sudileu changes, where the ground is 

 Avell protected with a covering of snow, where 

 the merry sleigh-hells Jingle before the traveller 

 as he swiftly glides over the hard smoothed path- 

 way, and where the facilities of ready transport 

 of timber and ^^ood in the forest, and of produce 

 to the market, are ten-fold better upon snow than 

 upon liare ground — than in the unsteady, open 

 winters of the western States, where the roads 

 are impassable from mud, where all comfort in 

 travelling in the winter mouths is out of the ques- 

 tion, where the fire-side enjoyments of thanksgi- 

 ving and Christmas visits from distant friends arc 

 seldom realized, aiul where cold weather is a more 

 micomtbrtable gu(?st from the total want of pre- 

 paiation to meet it .' 



The cold weather with its suflerings in Maine 

 bears no comparison with the mihealthy climate 

 of the new countries at the West. There is 

 hardly an instance known of the New England 

 emigrant at the West escaping the "chills and 

 fever." For the last three or four years the west 

 has been th" grave of many enterprising sons and 

 daughters of New England. A rich soil is but a 

 poor com[)eusation for other privations. We are 

 apt in some parts to consider the prevalence of 

 rocks to be an evil to the farmer; but does not 

 the New England emigrant, who for hundreds of 

 miles cannot find materials for stoning his cellar, 

 envy those he has left for the possession of his 

 abundance of locks '•' The New England settler 

 finds the heavy woods standing on his land to be 

 cleared, a burden he would gladly be rid of; but 

 how does the western settler, who cannot find 

 either wood or rocks for fences or fires within the 

 distance of miles, look back with longing on the 

 rough wooden country he has left ? His rich 

 ands will turn out great crops : suppose they 



success which has attended hundreds of New 

 Hampshire farmers who have settled in the State 

 of Maine within the last thirty years, proves that 

 the latter is a good State to emigrate to. For all 

 hardy, enterprising young men, we believe no 

 part of the country affords more decisive advan- 

 tages than the Aroostook country. 



MOUNT KATADIN SEEN FROM THE HIGHLANDS OF 

 PENOBSCOT. 



Returning to the Penobscot highlands, from 

 them we have a view in the north-west at some 

 twenty-five miles distance overlooking a portion 

 of the county of Piscataquis, of a rauge of moun- 

 tains in the vicinity of Moosehead lake ; aud fur- 

 ther to the north-east at the distance of some six- 

 ty rniles, the two heads of Mfpunt Katadiu make 

 their appearance. By some, Katadin is said to 

 be of greater attitude than Mount Washiugton it- 

 self: to appearance the former reaches not to- 

 wards the sky in the same majesty, as the latter. 

 Katadin is the high land near the sources of the 

 Penobscot aud south of the valley of the St. 

 John's river. Piscatatpiis running easterly unites 

 with the Penobscot some forty miles above Ban- 

 gor. Dover, the shire town of' the new county of 

 Piscata(|uis, situated on the river of the same 

 name, more than half way fioin its mouth to its 

 source, is only about forty miles distant froiri Ban- 

 gor in a northerly direction. There is a fine 

 water power on the Piscataquis, and a village sit- 

 uated partly in the towns of Dover and Foxcrofl 

 between which the river is the bound, where is 

 an extensive aud flourishing woolen factory. In 

 the town of Dexter, twelve miles south-west, on a 

 steady stream of water emptying into the Penob- 

 scot river, there arc also two other large woolen 

 factory establishments. 



THE VALLEY OF THR KENNEBECK AND ITS 

 TOWNS. 



The mail road from Bangor to Augusta takes 

 its course the first five miles down the Penobscot 

 river to Hampden, when it leaves aud passes 

 across the country over the hills in Dixmont by 

 Albion, China, and through Vassalborough to Au- 

 gusta, the eajiital of the State. China, at the dis- 

 tance of about twenty-five miles north-east of 

 Aueusta, is one of the best farming towns in the 

 State under cultivation. This town received 

 iiiore money for the State'.-* premium on wheat 

 in 1838, than any other town. Vassalborough is 

 an extensive to« n above Augusta, extending ten 

 miles on the east shore of the river. A large por- 

 tion of its inhabitants are of the denomination of 

 Friends: it mmibers nearly one thousand voters, 

 having several small villag'es. The soil of Vas- 

 salborough is good : it is j'enerally highly culti- 

 vated. The buildings are well finished — the 

 houses neatly painted, and the barns of that large 

 size that indicates farming here to be done on a 

 large scale. There are excellent apple orchards 

 in this town, from one of which there were seiU 

 to the markets at Augusta and Hallowell the pre- 

 sent winter, five hundred bushels of fine winter 

 apples. 



Below Vassalborough we first come to Augus- 

 ta which divides with Hallowell an original ten 

 miles square township, extending five utiles east 

 and five miles west, and ten miles up and down 

 the river north and south. Tiie tow n split in two 

 leaves both towns with a tenitory on each side of 

 the river, Augusta being the upper or northerly 

 division. The population of both towns proba- 

 bly exceeds ten thousand inhabitants. Here are 

 evidences of wealth, such as none but a highly 

 productive agricultural district of country can af- 

 ford. The valley of the Kennebeck river, al- 

 though embracing a region settled many years af- 

 ter that of the Connecticut or Merrimack, pre- 

 sents villages and buildings and improvements 

 which are not l)ehiiid the older settlements on 

 either of those rivers. Augusta is indeed a beau 

 tifiil town. Connected by a splendid bridge, the 

 village extends to both sides of the river. The 

 U. S. Arsenal, and the Asylum for the Insane, 



should be double the New England crops, is not just now finished at an expense of more than one 



the one half here intrinsically worth more than 

 the whole there ? 



We do not believe there is a better country in 

 the world for the New England farmer to emi- 

 grate to, than the State of Maine. We cannot 

 rt'conimend to any 3'oung man to fix hiiiKself 

 down on land before he has seen it. He who has 

 been brought up in cultivating the ground can- 

 .... -j.j^^ 



hundred thousand dollars, ore on the east side. — 

 To this humane institution. Judge Williams, of 

 Augusta, and Mr. Brown, of Vassalborough, con- 

 tributed each ten thousand dollars. The female 

 Academy is also on the same side ; and of the el- 

 egant private houses, that of Judge Williams 

 will attract the attention of the traveller as he 

 passes from the road on the east side to cross the 

 bridge. Blocks of brick wtorivi, eihopii and dwell- 



