<^I)C iTanncr's iHoittl)lij Visitor. 



53 



unreasonable [in'jiuUce with vvliirh it is in many 

 jilaccs regiinleil 1)) llie poor. 



— JVewhwyporl Herald. 



(,'oiint Kiiinroril's E-ssay, |nil>lislieil in n Iiili; 

 nntnhor of the Visitor, written li:ilt" a fuinihcd 

 vc.ir.s ago, on thi; various njuihoily ol' |>r<'|iariii!; 

 Inilian corn lor Tooil. has atlrartcil the favorahle 

 attcniioji anil nolii-i: of olheri> than oorselvcs. 

 Indian rorn is vi;ry easily raised in the South: 

 tlie hominy as prepared in the Southern Slates 

 is !i most hisrions artic-le^the rorn cakes coni- 

 niori on the Sontlicrn tahli^s are also very palata- 

 ble; lint the preparations ol' corn feeding there 

 ari! dcridedly inferior to the preparations com- 

 mon in New Kngland in old liiries, so well de- 

 scribed in the essay of Count Ilnmford. The 

 most palatable article we now eat dminj; the day 

 is llie brealifast preparation of warm Indian corn 

 cakes and hotter: we throw aside the best liiead 

 made from Genesee wheat flour when these come 

 before ns. The meal made from the yellow 

 corn of New England we much prefer to that 

 made fr<nn the hard flint corn of the Sooth. 



The fertile lainls of the Sonlh and West pro- 

 dLice Indian corn at tar less labor and expense 

 than ue do in this cohler and harder region. 

 We raise our corn only witli, careful cnltivation 

 with the hoe: there the corn is grown in fields 

 of hinidreds of acres, without manme in the 

 new lan<ls, andoidy the plough and the cidtivulor 

 drawn by horses or mnles are used in the pro- 

 ce.«s. Conid corn from the Mississippi valley be 

 transported to the European markets without 

 danger of injury in the transporting process, the 

 extensive prairies of the West tnight furnish a 

 sntliciency to fee<l millions of people. We can- 

 not but hail the piospecl of opening trade in 

 Great Britain for the receplion of the various 

 agricultural productions of the United States. — 

 Ed. Visitor. 



What one man has done. 



" Where 'er 1 roan), whatever land I see. 

 My heart, untraiainclled, ever turns lu thee." 



There goes forib into the world no better pop- 

 ulation than the natives of New Hampshire. The 

 stanuna and enterprise of her sturdy first settlers 

 — the coinluct and courage which carried youth- 

 ful America triumphantly through the early 

 French atid Indian wars and the war of the rev- 

 olution — which first cleared and settled our rough 

 and rocky hills and seized with avidity all the ad- 

 vantag<'S of the heaulifnl alluvion lands along our 

 rivers ; — that noble spiiit of enterprise comes 

 down to the second and ihini generation of ihe 

 sons of the Granite State. We see its results in 

 the wealth of individuals in Boston and other 

 cities extending to the fir Soutliv\p.st, some of 

 whom can count their liimdreds of thousands and 

 even their millions gained in honest traffic and 

 business. The editor of the Visitor, boy and 

 man, has resided in New Hamiishire nearly forty- 

 four years: many are the individuals within his 

 personal knowledge whose progress to wealth 

 and emii:eiice he ran trace, who have grown up 

 from boy to manhood in that time. He has been 

 surprised at the success which has altendt-d many 

 young men who left the State without property, 

 within the last twenty years ; and it is not uncom- 

 mon to hear of individuals whom he has known 

 who have laid the loundation of substantial for- 

 tunes abroad in ten or even five years. 



Rarely does a son of the Granite State forget 

 the generous mother who has nnrtnred him. — 

 ftlany of these, after having gained a competency, 

 return to enjoy life among the people and rough 

 hills where every dollar gained is hardly earned. 

 Some turn their attention to farms and improve- 



ments here while continuing in business abroad, 

 h will not be considered out of order for the 

 Farmer's Visitor to be personal wherever exam- 

 ples may he salutary in their ojicration ; and with- 

 out asking it be has taken the liberty to let his 

 little world of readers know what use may yet be 

 made of the remaining dark forests among, and 

 upon the sides of the hills and momitaiiis extend- 

 ing through the whole length, from south to north, 

 of New (lampshire. 



Mr. Lewrs F. Merrill, yet in appearance a 

 young man not over thirty-five years of age, is 

 among the adventurers who go abroad to engage 

 in business, at first glad to obtain employment in 

 Ihe hnniblest labiu-. A few y<>ars fonml him ma- 

 king money sutricient to appropriate a surplu.sin 

 the laril business, which he siill keeps np in South 

 Boston. Attracted lo his home in New Hamp- 

 shire most probably by notices of the value of our 

 mountaii: lands nearly seven years ago, be com- 

 menced operations in Groton, Grafton county, 

 upon a tract of land then an almost entire fiirest, 

 two miles south of B.d<er's fiver, upon the con- 

 templated ronle of the Northern jind Montreal 

 railroad. Here he has maile a farm upon which 

 he summered and wintered through the season 

 of 1844-5, sixty head of horned cattle and five 

 hinidred sheep. 



The cleared |)art of Mr. Alerrill's IJirm now con- 

 sists of four hundred acres : the original forest is 

 a thick and heavy growih of hard wood, rock and 

 white maple, beech, birch, interspersed with 

 spruce and hemlock on the higher wet lands. — 

 Better able than most of the first settlers to meet 

 the expen.se, JMr. Merrill (dears bis land more ef- 

 feciiially than they do, burning ofl" the trees en- 

 tirely. It seems to bo iTiatter of regret that so 

 much beautiful timber, within the distance of fif- 

 ty miles above us, should be got rid of by fire 

 when it is now so valuable at the railroad depot 

 to be used in the towns and xilhiges growing n|) 

 below us before we arrive at the seaho,ird. The 

 cost to Mr. Merrill for clearing bis land from the 

 forest, whore he pays his workmen generously, 

 is ten and eleven dollars the acre : the land is 

 worth in its forest state three dollars per acre. — 

 When he does not fail of the first crop of rye or 

 wheat, this is often sufficient to clear out both 

 the price of the land and the cleiuing: the two 

 first crops, well attended to, never liiil to do it. 

 The pioduce of the first crops generally depends 

 upon the goodness of the burn. Many of the 

 fine iKistuies upon the moniitain sides of this 

 State have been cleared by lalling the trees at an 

 expense of from two to five dollars the acre, sim- 

 [ily running the fire over them when the wood 

 became dry. Grass sceii, herds grass, red top and 

 clover should be sowed — these will caich in the 

 spring, strew eil upon tl e snow. The white clo- 

 ver, or honey-snckle, springs naturally from the 

 soil growing the maple and beech. The higher 

 these mountain pasture.^, the sweeter atid more 

 lasting seems to be the feed which they produce. 



When i\lr. Merrill commenced his first clear- 

 ing, he had difficulty to procure the assiuit of ihe 

 town to the n aking of a road which should let 

 the settlement have access to the habitable world. 

 His farm now pays an annual tax for the support 

 of the town expenses of sixty dollars ; and the 

 neighborhood seltlement called " Meirill's Val- 

 ley," the whole of which paid not over six dol- 

 lars tax when it was wood and forest, now con- 

 tributes its shareof one hundred dollars. Of this 

 land, Mr. Merrill cleared in 1844 one hundred 

 acres, and in 184.5 fifty acres. He had a beauti- 

 ful crop of spring wheat upon the new ground 



of 1845, of more than five hundred bushels, 

 which he sold at .§1,25 per bushel— since worth 

 ?l,50. 



There are still left in New Hampshire many 

 mountain tracts of land as valuable as lliutof the 

 farm of Mr. Merrill. When the northern rail- 

 roads shall be completed, these lands will be 

 brought so near them as to render the wood and 

 timber growing upon them of great value: per- 

 bap.s niilil that time it will be well that the axe 

 should not be used upon them with too much 

 freedom. Much of these lands when cleared 

 have not more locks than will be useful for fen- 

 ces, fi)r drainage, causeways, cellars, &c. Even 

 where the rocks and ledges cover from one-third 

 to one-half the surface, there are some of the 

 sweetest and most valuable pastures. The high 

 mountain lands present the most desirable loca- 

 tions for orchards: the frosts upon them hold off 

 much longer than in the valleys. As soon as the 

 winitu' snow disappears, the green grass springs 

 upon them. Mr. Merrill's farm thus early produ- 

 ces about one hundred tons of English hay. The 

 land is natural to grass: its first cultivation is ex- 

 cellent for Indian corn and the smaller grains. 

 It is the best soil in the world for potatoes, which, 

 when the rot shall pa?s away, with the fiicilities 

 of railroad transportation to the seaboard, is des- 

 tined hereafter to boa most profitable crop to the 

 New England farmer, furnishing in exchange a 

 great [lortion of our bread stufl%. 



We have been furnished with the loan of sev- 

 eral curiosities from the papers and eflects of the 

 late President VVeare, the first Chief Magistrate 

 of New Hampshire under its republican consti- 

 tiKioii. That eminent Patriot is but too little 

 knowti and appreciated by the present generation. 

 " Our fathers, w here are they ?" Shall we, who 

 owe them so much, forget them forever.' Presi- 

 ident VVeare was a patron of Agriculture as well 

 as a Statesman, contributing his [lart to produce 

 from the earth what so eminently enabled New 

 Hamp.'^hire to do every thing for the country when 

 the services of her sons were called for in the 

 tented field. Among the books of President 

 Weare we have now before us a volutne entitled 

 " Tke whole Ari of Husbandry, contained in four 

 books,"' printed in London in 1031, two hundred 

 and sixteen years ago in beautiful English black 

 letter: from this book we intend to present ex- 

 tracts hereafter, showing that those of olden time 

 have duly estimated the business and occupation 

 of the farmer. 



In the mean time, that our readers may better 

 know one of its most eminent patriots, we pre- 

 sent the following sketch of President Weare, 

 published in the N. H. Historical Collections of 

 1837, written by the late Judge Paine Wingate, 

 who was a native of the same town and contem- 

 porary with President W. The sketch was writ- 

 ten after its author was ninety years of age — he 

 was also a graduate of Harvard. It is imich to 

 be regretted that we have not more facts in rela- 

 tion to such men as these. The following origi- 

 nally appeared in the Christian Register, pub- 

 lished in Boston : 



" Hon, Meshech Weare, the first president of 

 New Hampshire under the new state constitu- 

 tion, was bom at Hampton-Falls, then a parish of 

 Hampton, on June 16, 1713. He was descended 

 from an honorable parentage, and a line of res- 

 pectable ancestors, who were in the early getlle- 

 nieiit of Ham[iton, among the influential cliBinc- 

 ters in the town and province. In 1C63, during 

 Cranfield's administration, when the people in 

 the old and new settlementa of New Hampshire 

 conceived themselves grievously oppressed, both 

 in their civil and religious liberties, they appoint- 



