VISIT TO THE FARMER OF MARSllFJELD. 25-S 



A VISIT TO THE FARMER OF MARSHFIELD. 



WITU SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS FARM MANAGEMENT. 



We had once the pleasure of making a visit to this man of gigantic mind, 

 among his turnips and his cattle, a day's journey from Boston down on the sea- 

 board, in sight of Plymouth Rock. The pilotage of a brace of good friends — 

 their odd jokes and rare stories causing the sides to split with laughter on the 

 way — and all attendant circumstances, to its close, conspire to mark this visit to 

 " black Dan" as one among the many green spots in the so far bygone journey 

 of life — the onward view of which is, alas ! rather dry and sterile to look upon, 

 without even what the farmers call a " ivet cloud," promising refreshing showers. 



As to the Farmer of Marshlield, we have our doubts whether any man who has 

 so completely within his grasp the most glorious and covetable of all triumphs, 

 the triumphs of intellect, and all the pleasures that wait on the command of ev- 

 ery social enjoyment, ever more eagerly and heartily withdrew from them all, 

 to the more quiet and careless exercises and amusements of rural life, than does 

 the " great Expounder," when he can get away from Boston to the sea-shore. In 

 his fondness for Agriculture, there is nothing of idleness or affectation. Of this 

 we can judge and may speak from what we have heard and what we have seen. 



At home or abroad, in country or city, Mr. Webster is habitually an early riser. 

 At Marshfield, his early walks are to look at his stables — his horses, his cattle, 

 his sheep, ay, and his ducks and geese, as they play on the bosom of an artificial 

 lake near his residence. Sometimes he takes a gun or a line, and with these 

 fetches down a duck or lands a fish for his guests' breakfast, while they lie snor- 

 ing in their beds. 



His cattle, more especially his oxen, and the young things bred on the farm, 

 seem to attract his particular regards. On the occasion referred to he could boast 

 the largest and the best field o{ ruta bagas in all the Bay State. In a very plain, 

 strong buggy wagon, we traversed his 1200 acres before breakfast, taking one 

 elevated point of view that commands a prospect of the whole farm, and of the 

 waters of the dark blue sea, spread out in the limitless and unruffled expanse of 

 a calm and delightful " summer's morning." On its shores we remember to have 

 seen, for the first time, that remarkable substance called kelp — the more remark- 

 able when used as a manure, in that while it has been proved in Scotland to equal 

 barn-yard manure in several experiments, on turnips and other crops, like plaster 

 of Paris, its efficacy seems to bear no proportion to the quantity used. On the 

 contrary, although it appears to have largely contributed to the increase of crops, 

 that increase has been greatest where the smallest quantity has been used. — 

 " From the quantity of alkali which it contains," says a writer on the subject, 

 " it may naturally be expected to operate by rendering the animal and vegetable 

 matter soluble and a fit food for plants ; but, from a series of facts which have 

 been noticed, kelp would seem to possess other qualities as a manure." 



At a fishing lodge on a creek which meanders through Marshfield, near its en- 

 trance to the ocean, Mr. Webster keeps his boats, and all the tackle and appli- 

 ances constantly in order for his favorite diversion — being, to all seeming, a more 

 willing disciple of " Sir Isaac," than of " Sir Edward." There you find his rods, 



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