122 



(Sl)c JTarmer's ilIcmtl)lB bisttor. 



all example— its very bar-room of cominon re- 

 sort, to be soiltid witb mini uiul Just, a pattern 

 of neatness to tlie most particular farmer's house- 

 wife— its prices scarcely lialf the charges thai 

 we are wont to meet in sometimes crowded pub- 

 lic houses with half iicconimodalions ; we might 

 gU()pose the men and families who leave the city 

 in summer to enjoy a fresher air, would travel a 

 long way to reach, and tarry long after tliey had 

 arrived, at such a hotel as that of Mr. Cottrell. 



In the three northern States of New-En'iland 

 the churches of tlie prolestant episcopal denomi- 

 nation, less ardent in the work of particular 

 jiroselytoism than perhaps any other, are " few 

 and far between.'' It was pleasant in this par- 

 ticular mooil of mind and health to find in the 

 growing addition of Montpelier since we before 

 sojourned there upon the Sabbath, that a neat 

 little cliurch of this denomination bad come 

 along with the beautiful cottages and dwellings, 

 extending the village west; and we thought that 

 even one in ill health might better go to the 

 house of God upon the Sabbath, than loiter with 

 a book half asleep at home. The forenoon ser- 

 vice and excellent discourse of the morning, with 

 the recognition of the sole lady of our acquaint- 

 ance in the church, inviting for the interval be- 

 tween the forenoon and afternoon service to the 

 house of her marrieil daughter, presented the 

 inducement for attending the second service on 

 the same day at the same place. Among the 

 high hills of a mountain region fair weather is 

 sometimes broken upon by sudden clouds and 

 rain : at this time dry and dusty, such an occur- 

 rence nt Montpelier might not be unwelcome. 

 While the afternoon service was reading, the 

 rumbling thundei- denolcd that the storm-spirit 

 was moving upon the mountains. Nearer and 

 more distinct as became the successive peals, the 

 voiceof the speaker ill sermon-time was partially 

 drowned in the loud crash of thunder suddenly 

 following the successive flashes of lightning. 

 It marked the great equanimity of the minister, 

 that not a siii;;le .«eiitcnre was interrupted either 

 by the lightning and thunder, or by the dashing 

 of the ruin llirougli the windows, or the slam- 

 ming of the blinds by the hurricane wind. The 

 cloud and the storm passed over just at the close 

 of the service, presenting a fair breaking out son 

 on leavins the church, when the smoke of a fire 

 over the hill at no very great distance indicated 

 that the electric agent had spent its sudden pow- 

 er upon some building. It turned out to be the 

 barn of a firmer in Berlin, over the Onion river, 

 upon the side hill, out of direct view, a mile and 

 a half olf: this building look fire, not in the 

 tiiiiall quantity of hay and combustibles which 

 usually so soon discover the effect of lightning, 

 but in the roof covering. The building was old, 

 and the loss iijcoiisiderable. To the surrounding 

 country, as far as it reached, this shower was at 

 that time a welcome visitant. A few miles dis- 

 tant at the north next day, we found the country 

 hail felt none of it. 



Vegetation every where among the mountains 

 of Vermont is upon a mist nuigniiicent scale. 

 So easy havn the crops been produced here in 

 the first vir^rin use of the soil, thai the liirmei's, 

 tiincly-nine in a buiuln;d, seem not as yet con- 

 Kci'jiis of the elfect or benrlils of deep plough- 

 ing : in theory llierc sn|)erficial ploughing by some 

 is set down as the best. Some havo thought 

 that in proportion as more soil is stirred a greater 

 quantity of stiinulaling manures will be reqii 

 bite. There i>" a slamiiia generally in this Ver- 

 iijont toil wIikIi \m1I iiiake tall oats grow and 



stand well to the filling, where it has been com- 

 mon on the valley of* our own Merrimack, with 

 rich stimulating manures, for oats to grow large 

 in straw, and fall down before filling. The rea- 

 son of the difterenca, we apprehend to be, that 

 the mineral qualities necessary for the cereal 

 grains are more rife in the Vermon^ soil than 

 in onr own. 

 The great slreugth of soil upon the Vermont 



hills makes it highly fruitful in the grasses: the 

 pastures there grow better the longer they are in 

 use. The farming part of Montpelier comes not in 

 the view of the traveller who passes only through 

 the village: the land of the town is said to be 

 equally fine as the hills of Randolph, and the 

 most feasible and productive farms of the State. 

 Every year we have specimens of the lusly fat 

 cattle coming from that region. The common 

 native oxen and cows coming from Vermont are 

 excelled by no cattle of the country. Of these 

 we have observed that the Vermont farmers have 

 generally been iu advance of the lower counties 

 of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. Perhaps 

 something is due to the better capacity of the 

 Vermont soil, which turns out more constant and 

 abundant grass feed. Something, indeed, we 

 think to be due to that pride of the farmer for 

 beautifiil oxen and cows which induces him to 

 choose the best calves and cherish the best breeds. 

 The Vermont cattle, horses and sheep have 

 been much improved by admixture with the best 

 foreign breeds. Her improved sheep furnish the 

 best wool : her Morgan and other mixtures give 

 us the best service and work horses; and she is 

 im|)roving her dairy cows and working oxen by 

 inlrodiicing the Durham, Devonshire, Ayrshire 

 and other improved cattle. Wliile saiini«ring an 

 hour in the village of Montpelier, our attention 

 was attracted, by the agricultural indications on 

 the outside, to the store of J. W. Howes, Esq. of 

 Montpelier. Tliis genlleiiian at the moment in- 

 dicated the interest he felt in earth's production 

 by leaving his desk to show us about his estab- 

 lishment. He conducted us to the stable in which 

 was kept a fine Ayrshire bull which he had re- 

 cently purchased from the stock of E. P. Pren- 

 tice Esq. of Mount Hoj)e, near Albany, the gen- 

 erous patron of agriculture iu New-York. fllr. 

 Prentice in 184'2 imported a cow with some of 

 her calves, all bearing a striking resemblance. 

 This cow (says the .Mbany Cultivator) though of 

 very small size is a perfect model in shape of 

 the cow, and her product at the pail is remarka- 

 ble, giving iipwarils of twenty quarts of milk 

 per day. Her size, as that of a Slittland pony, 

 to a coach horse, makes thisqnanlily of milk the 

 more remarkable. Highlander, the bull purchas- 

 ed by Mr. Howes, is two years old, but weighs 

 hetwoen ten and eleven hundred pounds. He is 

 the beau ideal of perfection in shape — with the 

 hair of his skin delicate as silk to the touch. 

 Mr. H. look ns to another part of the village 

 whore he shewed us a full-blood Ayrshire heifer 

 calf which he had procured as a breeder. Run- 

 ning in the field with this calf, he had a native 

 cow, old and of singular shape, but un extraor- 

 dinary milker. The progeny of this cow under 

 his ownership had heroine so celebrated as to 

 have invited its inlroduction into Massachusetts. 

 Samii!l Pliinney, Em]. of Lexington to whost' 

 charge was committed the imporlulion of blood 

 cuttle by the MassaclnisiUts .\gricultnral Society, 

 was so well pleased with the report of Mr. Howes' 

 extraordinary cow as to pnrchaso one of her 

 calves for the better iniprovcmenl of bis own 

 stock of cattle. The good taate and cnterpribc 



of Mr. Howes may be expected to do much for 

 improving the cattle of central Vermont. Much, 

 very much, depends in the certainty of procuring 

 a good ox or cow upon the character of the pa- 

 rent bull or cow ; and the characteristics of the 

 imported breeds, either for work or milk, carried 

 into the best native breeds are known to effect 

 such improvement as makes creatures of the 

 same cost of great difference in value. 

 [To be continued.] 



Headins 



John Tyler* 



The Raleigh (N.C.) Standard tells a story which 

 is good enough to be repeated in an abridged 

 form, and which may withal be true. The point 

 of it is that some of Mr. Tyler's neighbors in 

 Virginia — the Standard says they are Wbigs, and 

 acted in the matter through the promptings of 

 political dislike — undertook to "head" the ex- 

 President by solemnly electing him to the rather 

 ungracious ofiice of road overseer ; but that the 

 e.\-President turned the tables on them by going 

 into the business of the road-making with such 

 a will — levying contributions of workmen from 

 the fields and plantations of the unlucky neigh- 

 bors aforesaid — that before many days were gone 

 they were fain to wait upon him, in all humility, 

 and beg him to resign his ofliee, or the crops on 

 their farms would be nil when harvest time 

 came round. The Standard says he turned a 

 deaf ear to their entreaty, and kept on until he 

 had made one of the best roads in the whole 

 country. — Hallowell Cultivator. 



The point of the above story would seem to 

 result from the fact that by the law of Virginia 

 the " ungracious oftice of road overseer" gives 

 him the power to call on the people of his dis- 

 trict to make the roads passable and good to his 

 satisfaction. From the best roads we have ever 

 travelled in that ancient commonwealth we might 

 conclude that this power of the road overseer 

 was seldom exercised: we have known the trav- 

 elled way from Washington City to Mount Ver- 

 non for twenty year.s, and of all that part of the 

 way within the limits of the Old Dominion, in- 

 cluding miles of distance through the estates of 

 Washington, we never saw where a stroke had 

 been made by human bands for repairing the 

 road. The c.Vrriage wheels cutting down the 

 sides and tilling the deepened ruts, seem to be 

 relied on entirely for reparation of the highways. 

 When the mud-holes in the track become no lon- 

 ger passable, the ingenious black hack-drivers 

 cut out by the side into the woods and make a 

 circuit to the i)oiiit of the road which is passable. 

 This road to Mount Vernon is in part the great 

 mail route from the federal city South. The U- 

 nited Stales rely on the Potomac river keeping 

 open for a regular transmission of the mail the 

 first forty or fifty miles in Virginia ; whenever 

 the ice closes up the river the great mail must 

 pass over this all but impassable road, which is 

 beyond comparison worse than the roughest and 

 most impracticable travelled way in the wilder- 

 ness or inoiintains of New-England. 



Ex-PrcsideiU Tyler, since he left the cares of 

 the high ofiice to which he was accidentally call- 

 ed, has retired to the farm which he purchased 

 while he sustained the. Presidential office. This 

 gentleman is every inch a Virginian : believing 

 no other Stale to be its equal, while ho had pat- 

 ronage or oftice to give, no Virginian, with a 

 smattering of qualifications or ri^spectability, 

 would by him he deniiMl any reasonable rccpiest. 

 Generous to a fault, if the Ex- President could 

 grant no public fiivor, his heart and his purse, as 

 long as it had any thing in it, were always open 

 to the necessities of bis countrymen, and espe- 

 cially to one of his own State. It will surprise 

 nobody to be told that Mr. Tyler came into oftice 



