^\)t iTarmcv's iUont()lr i btsitor. 



117 



weeks before leaving home were sailly deranged 

 und irregular. In tvvo weeks llieir action hail he- 

 come easy, reinarkahly/rcc, regular and pleasant. 

 My hands and hair grew moist; finger and toe 

 nails soft. I gained flesh, and no longer felt a 

 tiielancholy, sullen leclinK wliiili had for n long 

 lime very much oppressed me, and which 1 could 

 not shake otf. I left in u little over four weeks, 

 entirely free from all soreness about my breast, 

 my couL'h and exiioctoration confined pretty 

 mnrh to the morning — weighing thirteen pounds 

 more than when 1 arrived here, and sioiit as a 

 young mountaineer. I continued to gain after I 

 Inft, and in a few months was entirely free from 

 .oiigh, with which I have not since been trou- 

 bled until about one year ago when I got wet, 

 look cold, and it returned again. My health, in 

 every respect, now, is far belter than when I came 

 here in 1811. Every word of this about my case 

 in 1841 is true, und if any of your readers aie 

 similarly afflicted, I can say to them with the ut- 

 most confidence come and do likewise. 

 A curious formed country is this Allegany region 

 — this " hill-country" of Va., and I should think 

 it was a little beyond the influence of the " Visit- 

 or," because I do not believe any of the hogs 

 have sharp ears, long sharp noses, long legs and 

 hump backs where the " Visitor" circulates. The 

 Visitor (in my opinion) is edited -xvith iriore judg- 

 ment and ability than any of the half-dozen ag- 

 ricultural papers which 1 am accustomed to read. 

 Now I do not say that to flatter the editor, or dis- 

 parage any other paper — anyone of which would 

 be perfectly safe in declaring that I am no judge 

 — (I wish there were of the poorest of them an 

 bimdred where there is but one; the country 

 would be the better for it) — but such is merely 

 my opinion, and I choose to express it, as J'at 

 chose to flog his wife, because he could do it. 1 

 read the Visitor with more satisfaction than I do 

 any other agricultural paper. 



This great Allegany moimtain,and all the little 

 mountains upon it, are, in the main, rock, yet 

 ihere is soil enough in the valleys for farming 

 ])nrposes. and upon the sides of the little moun- 

 tains, where not toostee|), is a very good growth 

 of timber. But the rock slicks out all around. 

 In the valleys, in the bedsofall the little mountain 

 streams, in the gorges, and upon the tops of the 

 highest peaks, it is visible. The best corn 1 saw 

 on my way here, is between this and the Warm 

 Spring, 80 miles east of this place. 1 am told 

 however that many fields of corn have been en- 

 tirely destroyed this season by worms — that the 

 cut-worm first came, and when he had done what 

 injury he could, the grub-worn) connuenced,and 

 alter that the joint-worm put on the finishing 

 touch. May not all this be owing to a want of ro- 

 tation of 01 op.s .' [Rather is it due, perhaps, to 

 superficial cultivation — to repeated crops taken 

 oft' under shallow surface ploughing — the loo 

 common mode in Virginia and elsewhere. — EJ. 

 Visitor.] 



There is some fine looking land about hero ; 

 but the people know nothing about how easy they 

 might make ten times as much money from it as 

 ihey do. They depend mainly upon raising cat- 

 tle for which they find a market in Richmond. I 

 have seen some very good cattle among these 

 mountains, but not extraonlinary, at all. 1 have 

 seen better horses than cattle : every body in this 

 region seems to ride on horseback. [Is this be- 

 cause they have miserable carriage roads ? The 

 want of good roads to market towns is sailly to 

 the disadvanfSgc of old Virginia : if she had these 

 with our New England facilities, millions of acres 



of best lands in the country would open to invite 

 the bettor sort of emigrants: let her look to this 

 matter.— £</. Visitor.] There are few or no pri- 

 vate carriages, and no roads of much conse- 

 quence after leaving the stage road, no bridges, 

 no barns : or if there »:e, they have no doors, 

 :ind chinks between each hewn log (of which 

 they are all built) large enough for a wharf ratio 

 jump through and not touch. And I am at a loss 

 to discover what use their few barns, such as they 

 are, are appropriated to, icir all the bay and j,rain 

 appears to he stacked in the fieUI. This barn 

 business is characteristic of Virginia wherever I 

 have travelled in her. What a contrast is pro- 

 duced by placing her beside old Pennsylvania. I 

 will not go fm-ther north. Old Pennsylvania, 

 without any long line of illustrious ancestry, with- 

 out a long catalogue of " first families," and even 

 without the '• Jeeines river bottoms," is powerful 

 and wealthy. Her industry and her enterprise 

 have made her rich. But upon what meal doth 

 this our Virginia feed, that she hath grown so 

 poor.' There is but one answer! 



I will try after a few days, and see if I cannot, 

 with the aid of Mr. Adair, the worthy postmaster 

 at ibis place, get a few subsxribers for the Visitor. 

 I do not know of any other way by which I can 

 confer a benefit upon the larmers in this vicinity, 

 whose interest, in common with the great farm- 

 ing interest generally, I certainly feel anxious to 

 protnotc. 



1 have much more to say to thee, and will call 

 again at " some other convenient season." 

 Very truly yours, 



DAN. GOLD. 



For the Farmer's Monttily Visitor. 



South Hardwick, Vt., June, 1847. 

 Hon. I. Hill & Sons — 



Enclosed is one dollar for your Monthly Vis- 

 itor, for tsvo years, if the terms of your invalua- 

 ble paper are the same as the two years past. 

 Vou sent me the January number (not paid) since 

 which I have received none from you ; and in 

 sorrow had supposed that your paper bad gone 

 to the " tomb of the Capulets": but happening, 

 yesterday, to see the May number of your most 

 welcome Visitor at one of my neighbors, I find 

 it is still "alive and kicking," and hope it will 

 still live and kick and grow, to the delight of ev- 

 ery good farmer; and that its blessed influence 

 will be felt and remain long after its original pro- 

 prietor shall have left our midst. I had supposed 

 the subject matter of your paper might become 

 exhausted, and of course would cease to interest, 

 or become insipid; but I find that it becomes 

 more and more interesting, like our beautiful 

 mother Earth which gives richer fruits and flow- 

 ers the more she is cherished and cultivated. 

 So, for the future, I shall not despair of the long 

 continuance and freijuent visits of your welcome 

 Visitor, if we fiirmers and the editor are but true 

 to our professions: therefore please, Mr. Editor, 

 to si*nd the back numbers of February, March, 

 April and May to me at South Hardwick, Vt. 



The remarks or suggestions contained in your 

 paper, have, in its practical and experimental op- 

 eration, more than a hundred fold paid lor its 

 price of subscription; and henceforth I will on 

 no consideration be deprived of it, and shall strive 

 to have my neighbors take the same ; no good 

 farmer, if he truly knew his true interest, would 

 go without one. Farming in all its operations is 

 founded as much on knowledge, on <eac/inWe, sci- 

 entific principles and improvements as any other 

 art or profession ; and he wliO pluils in the old 

 way of his grandtather or grandmother, with a 



contempt of book-learning or the lights daily 

 communicated by periodical papers, will certain- 

 ly be stationary or left behind this age of " go- 

 ahead improvement to perfection." In saying 

 this 1 do not mean we should rashly adopt every 

 new or untried suggestion or experiment, or dis- 

 card every practico of our forefathers. No, there 

 is much, very much of the former age lb ,1 I could 

 wish had remained, and much too of the present 

 time that should be altered ; much that must be 

 altered, if we would thrive and be Iridy indepen- 

 dent. Among the habits of the former days is 

 the untiring industry and true economy of our 

 ancestors; of raising and working up the wool 

 and flax, with their own hand^, instead of selling 

 to the manufacturer or wool-speculator at a price 

 that hardly pays for the raising; and as a conse- 

 quence our farmers' daughters do not feel that 

 1. 1 lUe and ambition they once did, to see how 

 many skeins of wool yarn and flax they could 

 spill in n day on the old-fashioueii wlr I ; and 

 how many yards of stout or fine home made 

 cloth they conid weave in the hand looiri. Most 

 of the personal wearing apparel, grain bags, tow- 

 els, table cloths, or diapers, sewing thread, mitts, 

 stockings, &c., were then made by the busy fin- 

 gers of our mothers and sisters ; and they were 

 as happy and more so than most of us who de- 

 pend on the merchant or manufacturer for them, 

 and as a consequence are running in ileht; and 

 by losing or unlearning the art and skill of keep- 

 ing the distafl^and looni,&e., busy in every farm- 

 er's house, will be idle or out of employment, go 

 to the large manufacturing towns, or to the west, 

 which may be an lujiny to their domestic habits 

 or health and happiness: and when we look 

 abroad on our expanding country, and see the 

 millions of young coming on the stage that must 

 eat, drink and be clothed, like civilized beings, 

 is it not manifest, Mr. Editor, as clear as a sun- 

 beam, that if we would be truly independent, in 

 some respects as to clothes, that our danghlers 

 must keep the wheel and loom in motion ; that 

 they must feel a pride in spinning and weaving 

 and wearing their own dress ; that such are to 

 be preferred by our hard working farmers' sons, 

 to those who would dress in foreign fabrics.' I 

 admit it would be cheaper buying our materials 

 for dress, if it be but/or once, or a few times only ; 

 but since our wearing apparel must be renewed 

 annually, or as often as the fashion changes, all 

 our life time, our dauglilers must learn and love 

 to s|)in and weave, or we shall certainly lose our 

 independence, or become like the countries of the 

 old world, divided into the very rich and the very 

 poor ; — the landlords and peasantry, the serfs and 

 nobles. In fact 1 take more pleasure in looking 

 at a durable and ingenious piece of household 

 manufaclnre made by the skilful fingers of my 

 grandmother, than at the costliest or finest fab- 

 rics of Paris or London. 



Respectfully yours, C. C. FRENCH. 



Haying--Dnnu's Scythes. 



For the first two weeks of fair weather, while 

 absent in catching weather at the north, our five 

 men at home performed a most successful busi- 

 ness, obtaining much hay at small laljor. Think 

 of twenty-two loads of hay (fifteen Ions at least) 

 on five acres of the subsoiled land of four years 

 ago where we raised those great oats last year! 

 Seven acres more subsoiled with an equal crop 

 of oats now turning from the milk we hope will 

 give somebody iwenly-one Ions of hay next year : 

 the clover and herdsgrass have a good catch. 



Our buying has been done in part with the 

 present of three of Dnnn'a scythes last fall re- 



