136 



<^l)c Savmtx's i\\o\\i\){]) Visitor. 



sion should require, we fancied it might hecome, 

 jn the clieapened transjiort of railroads, a matter 

 to he carried for their henefit many miles either 

 to the east or west. Sure did we make our- 

 selves that the immense bed of hiack muck at 

 the summit was possested of intrinsic value ; for, 

 after it was dried the present season, rank vege- 

 tation, of a growth the seeds of which to us are 

 inexplicahle, sprung out of it, sliowing iliat as a 

 stimulant at once it had equal power with the 

 most stimulating " excrements of cattle," the al- 

 most alone favorite manure of our friend Buck- 

 minster of the Massachusetts I'loughnian. 



Passing the summit, a slighter fall for a short 

 distance occurs than forty feet to the mile. In 

 the lapse of time every thing in nature seems to 

 become artificial rather than natural. The well 

 at the summit is artificial : if not the ledge in 

 which it was formed, the basin and miick are 

 also artificial. So also is a barrier of pure gravel 

 evidently brought there by the flowing- water 

 from the West, and protected by the ledge, against 

 and over which the water long flowed. Further 

 west, in the comparatively small depression of 

 the water flowing now in that direction, we find 

 other ridges, as if of human invention and con- 

 struction, extending quite across the deepened 

 valley which has become the channel of waters 

 accumulated in no inconsiderable extent of coun- 

 try up north on the westerly side of the Cardi- 

 gan hills. These ridges are broken through most 

 at the point of the present passage of the stream 

 — in other places there are streams formed w hen 

 'he stream had a higher and different direction. 

 Nearer the lowest level the smaller barrier ridges 

 are many rod.s in extent. About two miles be- 

 low the summit, as near as we might judge, 

 where the rock became a barrier, compressing 

 the waters, and through which in the lapse of 

 time it forced itself, making dry land of an ex- 

 tensive valley above, which was first a lake after 

 the waters receded from east towards the west — 

 value easy access of communication and trans- 

 port is ready to impart to many things whose 

 value hitherto has been merely nominal, and how 

 strong are beconjing the inducements for the 

 enterprising men and women, coming upon the 

 stage of action, to remain where all the elements 

 of wealth and domestic social enjoyment may be 

 made immediately available. 



16 DAYS 



In New-Hampshire, "Vermont and the Canada 

 Townships. 



Thus far indifferent has been the progress in 

 describing the July journey : if we go ahead no 

 faster than we have done, our sixteen days may 

 make work for our readers for the heller part of 

 the year. One of the novelties if not pleasures 

 of travel is, that its successive objects presented 

 spin out suggestions for detail of thought : these 

 may or may not be worth something. ' 



The last number of the Visitor on this journey 

 left UB on Monday forenoon, July 14, with the 

 improved cattle of Mr. Howes, at Monlpelier. 

 That forenoon our dcpartme was in the liurling- 

 ton mail stage, and our way down the Onion 

 river twelve miles to Wulcrhury. In this dis- 

 tance there had been laborious and extensive 

 cuttings down and fillinfis Ibr iho track of the 

 Vermont Central railroad : all liiid been aban- 

 doned, and the Irish shanties deserted, to con- 

 centrate the force for the present summer upon 

 the lower half of the road eastward of North- 

 field, to which place a (i;w miles out of IMoiiipi;- 

 licr the calculation is made the roud will be fin- 



ished as soon as the Central road on Connecticut 

 liver shall be met by the finishing of the North- 

 ern road in New-Hampshire. 



The distance from Moiitpelier to Bmlington is 

 short of fifty miles : there is no veiy considera- 

 ble fall in the river for the first twelve miles be- 

 low Montpelier ; but the ledges coining down to 

 the stream are of that hard character which 

 makes them quite as formidable as the much 

 larger granite ledges in New-Hampshire. To 

 avoid these ledges as much as possible, deep 

 fillings over the intervales have been a matter of 

 choice. Exuberant and fertile as are the hills 

 above on either side, the intervales of Onion 

 river, where the limestone and other cropping 

 out rocks have left a space for them, are exceed- 

 ingly rich. From Montpelier through Mi<ldle- 

 sex to the village of Waterbmy, the very heavy 

 crops of hay were just beginning to be seemed : 

 Indian corn was advancjing under the heat which, 

 for the last month, had not here suffered inter- 

 ruption from rain, in a rich exuberance : the June 

 freshet, overflowing the river banks, in some in- 

 stances had drowned out the small grain and 

 corn crops, and the early wet had killed or kejit 

 back and injured much the potatoes. 



Waterbury was the residence of Judge Cutler, 

 formerly a member of Congress and Governor 

 of the State : it is the residence of Judge Gil- 

 lingham, late a member of Congress and one of 

 the candidates for Governor at the coming elec- 

 tion. But in seeing what we supposed to be 

 Waterbury with its village, their [ilace of resi- 

 dence upon Onion river, we see not the one half 

 of the most valuable part of a flourishing Ver- 

 inont town in the mountains. The valley of an- 

 other river opens below this village, tinning to- 

 wards the north, and pursuing its way upwards 

 to Hydepark full twenty miles. On the east the 

 mountains of Worcester and Elmore present 

 themselves as a barrier, and to the west the 

 higher mountain of Mansfield, with less elevated 

 inoiintains, forming the ridge stretching to the 

 north lower down on Onion river. The level of 

 tlie Waterbury river running down from the 

 north is said to have a ciirres|ion(iing level at 

 the foot of the Camel's Hump extending sonthi 

 making a long distance nearly central in Ver- 

 mont among the mountains, where transverse 

 railways may and undoid)tedly will sometime be 

 made connecting the main transverse avenues 

 from the lake to the Connecticut river side of the 

 Stale. In the same mountain range down siiiilh 

 in Massachusetts, the lloiisatonic river lias its 

 course, in which from Piltsfield railways already 

 diverge north and south. Pursuing the branch 

 river from the lower village by the centre of 

 Waterbury, in eleven inih;s we come to Stowe, 

 a most beautiful farming town, said to possess 

 more rich intervale than any other Vermont 

 town, and whose neat imintcd houses and con- 

 venient barns and outhouses, the most of them 

 fresh and new, indicate that the diligence and 

 labor of the farn;er there meet their reward- 

 There are two handsome villages in Stowe, to 

 whose prosperity the water power of the river, in 

 the erection of mills and liirlorics, has essentially 

 contributed. The fields of this valley all the way 

 up were rich and redolent with a verdant vegeta- 

 tion and alive with moving animals, sleek oxen 

 and cows, fiit horses with a colt for iiearly every 

 mare, and hundreds of fine wooled sheep and 

 lambs. 



Above Stone, in the same valley until it 

 ipachos the point where the waters turn north 

 into iho Lainoile, is Morristow ii, another good 



farming town : the rise each way is here so im- 

 perceptible, that the eye while passing along 

 might miss the point of highest elevation. Upon 

 the Lamoile, six njiles from Stowe within the 

 town of Morristown, is the village of Morrisville, 

 with a water power snflicient for extensive ope- 

 rations. Above Morristown, upon Lamoile, on 

 the transverse road from Burlington to Danville, 

 is Hardwick, an outside town of Caledonia coun- 

 ty, abounding in rich fiirms, and excellent in the 

 cattle, which have in many years passed by us in 

 this direction for the Brighton market. Too far 

 removed from a market, there are many produc- 

 tions of the farms in this region growing almost 

 spontaneously, the demand for which, beyond 

 the consumption of the immediate neighborhood 

 does not encourage adililional supply. Potatoes 

 have been extensively iiroduccd for the manu- 

 facture of starch, as well as fur the table and for 

 cattle feed : the rot making its first appearance 

 upon these rich grounds, for some time arrested 

 the planting of many fields. For the last two 

 years the disease, at first fatal, has nearly disap- 

 peared. Contracts by the manufacturers of starch 

 had been made from ten to fifteen cents the 

 bushel delivered : this year, a hniidred miles 

 north of us, contracts were made in the spring 

 for the delivery in the fall at twenty-five cents 

 the bushel. A common crop of the potato in the 

 rich soil of Vermont is two and three hundred 

 bushels to the acre. Potato starch factories are 

 generally of necessity connected with the use of 

 water power : the demand for the potato starch 

 has been greatly increased, and the ))rices raised 

 in the extension of the cotton factories in New- 

 England : it is easily portable at long distances. 

 Mixed with the common" starch of the cereal 

 grains, the value of both kinds is increased. On 

 our way through Vermont, we passed many 

 starch mills quite recently built and now erect- 

 ing : the raised jirices of the article have nndoubi- 

 edly tenq)leil to an encoimter of the expenditure 

 of thousands invested in the potato starch manu- 

 facture. 



Hydepark, <lowu the Lamoile four miles from 

 Morrisville, is the county seat of Lamoile, a new 

 county taken from portions of the four ailjacent 

 counties, the larger portion from the north-west 

 section of Washington. 



The shores of Lamoile are a continued marl 

 bed all the way down to and including Johnson 

 (The farmers upon this river are in the habit of 

 nianufactm ing fine lively intervales from the 

 bayous or swamp marshes that back into the 

 pwest ground from the overflowing waters. A 

 gtem of water from the hills turueil into the 

 andy clay marl of the bank, carries the material 

 down which brings up acres of sunken lands to 

 the |iropcr level for their bearing. The track of 

 roails is gomctiuies expedited by these water ex- 

 cavations. 



Johnson, next to Hydejiark below seven miles, 

 s a fine township: turning into the Lnmoile 

 river liei-e, comes down from Eden lying among 

 he hills of the north-east, the river Gihou. Di- 

 rectly at the village of Johnson are falls in this 

 river Gihou whose power may be brought into 

 iheuses of machinery at very small expense: be- 

 low these the entire waters of the two streams 

 unite in greater increased fall, which will be oc- 

 cupie<l so soon as the opening coimtry shall call 

 h(;m into employment. 



The soil in this valley of Lamoile is of first 

 fertility from the marly richness in which it 

 iihounds : its mineral qualities seem to have giv- 

 en it a character of pcrmanciico and durability 



