188 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



For the Farmers' Monthly Visitor. 

 A SIGHT OF A PASTORAL, LIFE. 



Whiit living worlis of mortals s.iy is there, 



F.quaf to nature's everlasting tow'ers; 

 JXot half so awful, beauteous, or fair. 



As the high mountain hung with viny bowers 1 



I,ook to the city that was built of old, 



Bagdat in all its glory and its pride ; 

 Strong lofty towers tlio mighty walls did hold, 



Two chariots abreast might drive, they were so wide. 



Through its two walls Euphrates pushed its flood. 



By mighty palaces on either side, 

 With lolly pillars and arch'd windows stood, 



.And many arches deep the waters did divide. 



Hi:^h were its gardens mounted in the air, 



Leaded with vines, and trees, and shady bowers, 



'I'iif living works of mortals wond'rous fair, 



'rh.Vt o'er the mansions shed a fragrance from its flowers. 



Twelve brazen gates on every side there swung, 

 Through which it poured its warriors to the tight, 



All dress'd in armour, while the trumpet rung. 

 In lines and columns wheel'd in garments bright. 



Where is it now ? ask ye the golden Sun : 

 He saith '•' the days 1 lighted it are o'er ;" 



Ask old bald-he.ided 'i'ime, as he flies ot), 



'' Fve seen it in my flight, but now it is no more !" 



Look to high .\thros mantled up in green 3 

 Fr.,wning on earth stands its eternal walls 5 



When the creation morning shone serene, 



It stood as it does now a tower that never falls. 



O! let my spirit wander on its height. 



More than the shining towers of Babylon, 



Behold at morn the beauteous country breadth, 



Long when the Earth is dark ascend the morning sun. 



When the day's dawn doth light the fields below, 

 yVnd the rude Shepherd drives his bleating flock, 



From the low cottage does the laborer go, 



Tije hills and silent groves the herd.-man ^vild does 

 mock. 



Whetiier in vernal spring his team doth lead. 



The plough-share deep and fresh turns up the ground j 



Along the harrowed earth he sows his seed, 



Up to some silent nook, thick hedged with trees around. 



Or cut the rank grass in the level meed, 



Along some winding river sleeping still j 

 Reflected o'er its face the bright clouds speed, 



The Swallow dips his wing with clatter shrill. 



Or later enters he the harvest field. 



Under Aurora's ruddy countenance j 

 Against the bearded host his sickle wields, 



"Breadth after breadth upon Ids task advance. 



And let me see when sable evening comes, 

 Tlie moon long e'er it lights Ilie earth bclowj 



The constellation in their clear blue home. 

 Whose trembling tapers there forever glow. 



Here fi-tes he his glass, the Astronomer, 



To view the wonders in the moon's broid face, 



And ull the various aspects it doth "wear, 



Finds out the wheeling orbs through everlasting space. 



And when the heaven puts on its boisterous shroud. 

 Loud roars the north wind round the mountain's top ; 



The (1 iring eagle saiU amongst the clouds. 



Hears round the whistling winds as he is mounting up. 



An 1 'viien the thunder gathers round its head. 

 Wide glares the lightning o'er the hills and vales ; 



Then bui-sts the thunder as 't would raise the dead, 



And through the doors of Heaven the rushing torrents 



v.^^il. 

 Epping, Nov. 10, 1S40. 



I armius; aud Ovchard.s in Chester, N. H. 

 Mr. William Ji. Pakne, of Chester, N. II. 

 seven years jigo purchased a lot of luiitl of seven 

 aorns for wliicli lie gave one liuudied dollars un 

 acre. This huid he has ciiltivated and improved 

 seven years, and lie stale? that in this time he has, 

 ob!:iined from the land in actual prolit the whole 

 amount of tiie original |j;ii'chase. lie has a tan- 

 nery in the vicinity of tlio land, and his practice 

 has been to pass the contents of ilie vats, the 

 iinieand oftal of the yard, tln'oiiffh the hog pen 

 where it liecoines inannrc of groat strength. 

 This he has applied at tlie rate of twenty-two 

 loads of about tinty biisln'ls each to the acre, and 

 has kept about two acres each yenr under culti- 

 vation, ehangiiitr from a corn and pot:.toe to a grain 

 croj). and from that into t!rass. Tho last season 

 he spread his manure directly upon the sward of 

 ons acre, and turned the sod imdi'r. VVilhont 

 further maiiiniiii' ha |i!anled with potatoes, and 

 had about two hundred and lifty buslicls of pota- 

 toes. This was donhle the quantity produced on 

 land Wiiicli had an equal quantity of manure ap- 

 plied upon and nearer to the surface, and the 

 crop was .".s mncli improved in the tpinlity as it 



was increased in quantity. The improvement 

 doiihllcss resulted in no small degree ti'om the 

 extreme dryness of the season, so that there 

 nfiglit under other circumstances, have been no 

 particular advantage in Inrning the mainire un- 

 der the sward. Mr. Paine has constantly in- 

 creased the |)roduction of this lot of land by 

 putting his strong manure each year upon a 

 small space of ground, and by going over the 

 ground in rotation year after year. His profits 

 have been somewhat increased from the apple 

 orchard, which he has been constantly improving 

 on the same land. From this orchard he gath- 

 ered last fall aiiout thi'ee Imndrcd liushels of se- 

 lect ajiples, worth from lifty to seventy-five cents 

 the bushel. 



Since the last crop has been taken oft he has 

 sold his seven acre lot lor one thousand dollars, 

 being an ailvance of three hundred dollars 

 on the original purchase, and carrying the price 

 of the land up to nearly one Inmdred aud fitly 

 dollars the acre. The increased [nice of the land 

 has manit'estly arisen on his bands from the in- 

 creased production by the added cajiacity to the 

 soil, resulting from his mode of treating it. 



How decisively does the experiment upon this 

 tract of land prove the value of good cultivation 

 and the renovating system? The land must 

 have been highly cultivated and productive when 

 Mr. Paine entered upon it, else lie never would 

 have given for it one bmidred dollars an acre 

 when there were thousands ot acres of the same 

 kind of land within a few miles which had not 

 been improved that might have been purchased 

 for twenty dollars the acre. Suppose j\lr. P. had 

 cultivated this land with leaving oft" manure that 

 was worth thirty dollars a year entirely, and ta- 

 ken (i-oin the ground that was lich when it came 

 into his possession all he could gather from it. 

 From ^'ear to year his labor would have been 

 equal to what "it has been — his annual crops 

 w-ould have been less the first ya:ir, and continu- 

 ally growing less in sulisequetit years; he would 

 not, in tlie term of seven years, probably have 

 procured half the amount of i.roduce lor the 

 same labor and expense ; and at the end of hi.s 

 term, instend of being able to sell his land for 

 more than one hundred and forty dollars the 

 acre, taken according to its intrinsic value, the 

 price would have been reduced from one hundred 

 dollars to at least fifty dollars the acre. 



Take another supposition in relation to this 

 lot of land. Supjiose he had taken his forty 

 four loads of manure, (equal in strength to nearly 

 double liie (piantity of ordin.-iry stable manure) 

 and a))plied it to the whole seven acres in one 

 season ; and ihnt be had another field of the 

 same size which should receive this maniu'e the 

 second year, when the first was turned to a crop 

 tli.it diilnot require, or on which it was not usual 

 to place manure. In that case, dift'iised over so 

 great an extent of ground, nearly the whole 

 strength of the manure would be exhausted the 

 first j'car, so that the land would not he benefit- 

 ed for a subsequent crop ; and at the end of the 

 seven vears, even under a rotation of crops, the 

 lot would not sell for as much money as the 

 price first paid for it. 



.'Vdjoining the lot of Mr. Paine, but in the rear 

 of it from the ro. d, is another lot of f.early the 

 same s;z.^, which was jiurehasod by the llev. 

 JoxATiiAN- Ot.kment afiiw years ago at tlie jirice 

 of two hundred and fifty dollars forthe lot. This 

 land had been treated upon the too prevalent 

 system of exhaustion, and wa.= but a sorry cold 

 pasttu'O with a few old cider apple trees standing 

 iqion difloront ijarts of it. RJr. C. although one 

 of the first scholars and most jiopular and talen- 

 ted divines in the State, has a ta.sie ibr (arming, 

 having been born and broU;';lit up a farmer 

 in thai county of Vermont, who.se agricultural 

 statistics show to so sireat advantage in this num- 

 ber 0!' the Vistor. lie has been in possession of 

 the lot only five or six years; but he early com- 

 !!il graitiiig the apple trees 



menced t>runm; 



upon it ; antl this yer;r have been pickcl eighteen 

 barrels of the grafted fruit which we understood 

 Pvir. C. to say were >.vortli to him upon the trees 

 con.viiltrably more than the anniu'il legal interest 

 Ujion th.e cost of the vrholo let. 



In addiiion to tiiis, while he continues a por- 

 tion of the lot in ])MSture, BIr. Clement has com- 

 menced the renovating process of agriculture 

 upon a small space of the ground at a time — 

 thoroughly subduing and highly manuring his 



ground. The improved land he linds very pro- 

 ductive, and doubts not that he will soou give to 

 his lot two or three times its original value. 



A still greater improvement and piofit than 

 either of the foregoing is a small apple orchard 

 of two acres and a half along side of tlie laud 

 sold by Mr. Paine, which has for several year.s 

 been owned and occupied by iMr. .Joseph Robi.n- 

 soN of Chester. We had the curiosity to go and 

 see this orchard, notwithstanding a recent snow 

 had just covered the ground and lodged upon the 

 trees. From this orchard Mr. Robinson has ob- 

 tained a clear profit year alter year of three hun- 

 dred dollars. The last season he |iicked iiom it 

 six hundred bushels of fair beautiful apples. The 

 trees of this orchard seemed to be of the growth 

 of thirty to forty years ; they were set so near 

 each other as almost to shade the whole ground, 

 the vacant space lelt by one tree being filled up 

 by its neighbor in a dilTfrent row. Mr. Robin- 

 sou's mode of treating this orchard has been 

 simply the manuring of the ground highly and 

 keeping it constantly under the plough : as a sec- 

 ondary object he somctiiues procures from the 

 shaded ground a decent cro;) of potatoes — at 

 other times, oats or peas. He has been very for- 

 tunate in the selection of his kinds of apples, 

 which find a ready market in the fall and winter 

 at Lowell, Newbury]iort and Portsmouth. A 

 popular and valuable kind of apple raised in this 

 litle orchard is the New York Pippin and one of 

 the varieties of Russet which remains a most pal- 

 atable apple until the succeeding summer. The 

 trees of this orchard had been tarred, a practice 

 quite unusual so tiir in the country. The catei- 

 pillars and an army of canker worms had attack- 

 ed the trees; but Mr. Robinson was quite too 

 vigilant and courageous a warrior upon these ver- 

 min to sufter them to obtain any headway. The 

 orchard itself is a euriositv, and the careful at- 

 tention of its proprietor is worthy of imitation. 

 The trees had been so trimmed and pruned that 

 there was no supernumerary limb interruptincr 

 the action or growth of so luaiiy brandies us 

 were proper to give the tree its greatest product. 



The ea.sterly village of Chester is situated upon 

 an elevated swell ol land about thirty miles west- 

 erly from Portsmouth, and twenty-five miles 

 southeasterly of Coiicoid. At and near the village 

 a commendable ambition for agricultural im- 

 provement, fostered liy a few individuals, has 

 lieen awakened. The efteet has been already to 

 raise the pirico of lands in the iumtediate vicini- 

 ty of the village. We did not expect so great 

 iiiqirovement as wc witnessed here in the several 

 aiiple orchards, nearly all of which have within a 

 very few years, old trees as well as young', been 

 changed from the natiual sour cider apples tA 

 select fruit. Almost every owner of an orchard 

 does his owu grafting, and he improves his or- 

 chard in this way every year. Begiitjiin'g on 

 one side of a large tree the limlisare talien off at 

 the proper jioint for grafting: it is found btist to 

 insert the scion upon a smaller than a larger 

 stock, as the limb will sooner become perfect at 

 the point of insertion. When the grafts on one 

 considerable limb have become surely set and 

 thrifty, other parts of the tree are devoted to the 

 same object, until the tree bears none hut the 

 intended new fruit; and if the original kind bo 

 of any value, the amiual production need not be. 

 much interrupted wiiile tlio i)recess is going ou. 



The quality and flavor oi' fruit are said to be 

 afTected by the stock into which the graft is in- 

 serted. If the original tree bear largo ai)ples, 

 or if land be highly cultivated, both the size aud 

 the flavor of the same kind of selected fruit will 

 be improved. An old tree whose growth lias 

 been retiirded, into which new fruit has been in- 

 serted, will not present as lively or as large ap- 

 ples as a thrifty young tree. V»'o liiul supposed 

 that the same species of fruit were alike when 

 ingrafted into any tree. 15ut comparing the com- 

 mon Baldwin apples obtained in tlie Boston tnar- 

 ket with some of the same kind ]iresonted us by 

 the lady of Henry F. French, Esq. which were 

 raised on his premises in Chester, wc found an 

 apple much larger and fiiirci-, more lively and 

 more juicy, with a higher scent and flavor; at 

 the same time it was evidently one and the same 

 kind of fruit. The better "cultivation of the 

 ground improves the ajiple and other fruit tree no 

 less than it does any vegetable crop ; and we 

 cannot doubt in the coitrsc of time, apples, 

 peaclip.>;, ]ilums. aiifl cherrip-= m.-y be made as 



