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deal for themselves toward attaining it ; and all purely eleemos- 

 ynary establishments of education deserve no support from the 

 community. They are likely to be the resort of the idle, in- 

 efficient and worthless. I do not mean to utter a word in dis- 

 respect of this institution. Its location is extremely favorable, 

 and under good management it will prove a signal blessing to 

 that community ; bat it seems to me an attempt, doubtless well 

 intended, to make an education too cheaply attainable ; — likely 

 therefore to lower the standard of education, and certain not to 

 alford means of increasing the literary advantages of the insti- 

 tution or of adequately compensating the toil of instruction. 



2. Scythe and Snaith Factories. — There is at Shelburne 

 a magnificent water-power, where the Deerfield river, after a 

 union with its two principal branches, makes in the course of a 

 short distance a descent over a broken ledge of rocks, I should 

 judge, of more than twenty-five feet. This presents a most val- 

 uable water power, and the village in its neighborhood is des- 

 tined to become the seat of many factories. 



There is a scythe factory established, where the business is 

 carried on to a considerable extent. The scythe made here has 

 a deservedly high reputation. There is an improvement in its 

 form, which consists in the usual concave bottom of the blade 

 being rejected and a raised edge formed on the upper and under 

 side, by which great stiffness is given to the blade. The blade 

 appeared to me too narrow ; but they are much approved by 

 those who use them. The English scythes are in general much 

 wider in their blades than ours ; they are consequently not so 

 soon ground down and the motion of them is much steadier ; — 

 they are not, on this account, so liable to be bent, and their cut 

 is more even and close. 



There is likewise here, in the immediate neighborhood, an 

 extensive manufactory of snaiths. The particular form of a 

 snaith, or scythe-handle, was formerly matter of chance or 

 sleight of hand. It was scarcely possible to find two alike ; 

 or, after a man had made one, to be sure that he would make 

 another of the same pattern. It is said that in Hingham for- 

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