©l)C jTavmcv's illcintl)lij lltsitor. 



183 



peiiiaiice: it is not, however, that puie grniiite 

 which preserves stunothiiess in ago, like the 

 New Hampshire perfect granite, taken from tiie 

 bosom of old Uatile.snuke. The j^enllenian who 

 nt first started suei-essfully the stone business at 

 Quiney, informed us that he visited Concord, 

 ahodC the lime of erecting our State House, in 

 1816, for the purpose of viewing our le(l:;e, 

 which equalled all his expectations, hut that 

 some trivial accident turned his attention, and 

 that of his employers and associates, to Quin- 

 cy. A large portion of the best stonemen of 

 Massachusetts, splitters and hewers, originated 

 in our own vicinity. They ore sending here 

 from Massachusetts for stone monuments, and 

 for the better kind of imderpinning, and other 

 building ornaments. Prepared granite may be 

 sent from Concord by railroad lo all parts of 

 the United Slates. The stone at the entrance 

 of the new brick railroad depot, in this town, 

 is perhaps a fair specimen of the common Con- 

 cord granite. We have a beaiiliful sample in 

 the door-posts, caps and sills of the dwelling 

 linuse upon our premises: these were prepared 

 fifteen years ago, by some of the best stone cut- 

 ters in the State— in exposure to the atmosphere, 

 the freezing and thawing, and the damp of all 

 that time, they have suffered no perceptible 

 change, either in the wear of surface, or in their 

 beauty of color. No marble or other stone of 

 the exterior of buildings within our knowledge 

 has suffered so little change. The beauty of 

 this perfect granite is not in fancy merely: true 

 to a correct and accurate taste, the color and 

 grain of this permanent rock is beautifully har- 

 monious and sparkling at all times. 



The diftererjce between the Quincy granite, 

 nnd tlie New Hampshire Rattlesnake granite, is 

 this: the Quincy granite is composed of feld- 

 spar, hornhlende, and a small portion of quartz. 

 The perfect granite here, as every where else, is 

 composed of quartz, feldspar and mica, particles 

 of which sparkling give its beantifid color. The 

 hornblende is hard and lough, making the compo- 

 sition of the article unequal after exposure to 

 the atmosphere, and is much harder to be manu- 

 factured. 



For the F^irmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Ploughs and Ploughing. 

 Mr. Ediior : —I have thought that a few 

 uew ideas given on the above subjects might 

 not be out of place, although the idea of saying 

 any thing new, does not predominate, as the 

 ground has been so often gone over. 



The plough as a farming implement is of an- 

 cient origin ; in fact it must have been known in 

 the early ages of the world, from its being so 

 often alluded to in the Scriptures. If all ibe 

 various patterns and styles of ploughs were 

 brought together from the first one made, to the 

 ptesent time, it would certainly be a 'sight' 

 worth seeing. It is said, if we mistake not, that 

 in the days of Pliny, the plough was simply a 

 crotched stick, |)artedatthe ends, and for a team 

 to draw it, an ' old woman and an ass ' were 

 yoked up together. Certainly this would be a 

 ludricrous 'team 'to look upon at the present 

 day. 



Perhaps strictly speaking there is no one im- 

 plement to which agriculture owes its success 

 more than the plough, from the fact of its being 

 the first implement to enter the field for culti- 

 vation. As long as it has been used, it is only 

 till a late period, that it has been brought to that 

 state of perfection, which it so well displays. — 



For^fifty years previous to the inlroduciioii of 

 the iron plough, as near as we can find out, very 

 little improvement was made in the construction 

 of this implement. If some veteran farmer of 

 four score years would give a history of the 

 make and improvements of this implement* 

 from the days of the revolution till the iron 

 plough came into use, we think he would con- 

 fer a favor upon the public. 



Perhaps you couhl, Mr. Ediior, do good ser- 

 vice in this cause, if you were to set yourself 

 about it. The old wooden ploughs we well re- 

 member, though when they went out of dale 

 we were quite too young to make any great 

 'fist,' between plough handles. Their awkward 

 and clum^iy appearance, however, we shall not 

 soon forget, as in their construction very little 

 mechanical science was exhibited. In this sec- 

 lion of the country, if we mistake not, every 

 mechanic who bore the name of ' wheelwright,' 

 was also a ' plough maker ;' and hence some were 

 made on one principle, and some on another, 

 ami others, we suppose, on no principle at all. — 

 It is now over twenty years since ihe first iron 

 ploughs made their appearance in this section 

 of the country, and though quite young then, 

 we well remendier the prejudice in the minds of 

 farmers against them. Some said that all they 

 were good for was to plough in perfectly smooth 

 ground, and that in rough, stony ground, you 

 woidd break a plough every time you went 

 around the lot, while others said that, ' after all, 

 they vvould'nt turn a furrow as well as their old 

 bull plough would ;' and so on to the end of ihe 

 chapter. After a while this prejudice died away 

 and the iron plough came into general use. — 

 The first iron plough that we bad was the Hitch- 

 cock & Burrows plough, (if we mistake not the 

 firm). This plough we used for some time, and 

 then afterwards we obtained one of their letter 

 D. pattern, which was a good plough, and this 

 plough is well known all over the country. — 

 Since that time, we have used two or three dif- 

 ferent kinds of ploughs, but none of them in all 

 respects were as good as Hitchcock's pattern 

 till we obtained Pronly's Centre Draught. And 

 now lo go into the merits of this plough, we do 

 not think that it is neces.sary, as we have before 

 alluded to it, and the public generally, or those 

 interested in im|)roved implements, know its 

 worth There are many different patterns of 

 ploughs now in use, which work on correct 

 principles, and we do not think that it makes any 

 essential difference which kind the farmer uses. 

 i5ut the difficulty lies more in getting them into 

 use at all ; farmers are so averse to let their old 

 ploughs go for better ones, fearing, as it would 

 seem, that they should lose sight of the good 

 old way. Now as to ploughing and its princi- 

 ples, we shall not alleinpt to lay down any spe- 

 cific rules for others lo go by, leaving that to 

 older heails than ours. However, that kind of 

 ploughing which [)ulverizes the ground most 

 we think it safe lo say, is the best. Now there 

 is a diflference of opinion among farmers as to 

 wide or narrow furrows in ploughing. As for 

 us we do not think that one rule can be made to 

 apply to all kinds of ploughing. For instance, 

 if we were ploughing a sward ground with a 

 plough which would cut a twelve inch furrow 

 and tmn \ it over clean, we should not thiid< il 

 advisable lo plough the field into six inch fin-- 

 rows, for we could not make good work. Yet 

 perhaps in mellow ground the six inch furrow 

 might be preferable, inasmuch as the soil would 

 be more thoroughly pulverized. 



There is a great deal of poor ploughing done 

 by fartncrs, and very little that is good in com- 

 parison to the whole amount. This is owing in 

 a great measure, to using ploughs of bad con- 

 struction, anil yet we have seen very iniliff"erent 

 ploughing made by the use of good ploughs. And 

 whenever we see this latter principle carried 

 out, we are satisfied that the ploughman is care- 

 less ^nd indifferent as to whether he makes 

 good work or not. A good and careful plough- 

 man, with even a poor implement, will merit 

 much more approbation than the other. As to 

 deep ploughing over shallow, it is now generally 

 understood, that ' Deep ploughing, high manur- 

 ing, and clean culture,' is the perfection of all 

 good husbandry. 



Having extended these remarks beyond our in- 

 tention, we will closg by saying, that we hope 

 the efforts made in behalf of the plough will 

 continue to go ahead. 



Yours, &.C, 



L. DURAND. 



Derby, Ct. September 13, 1847. 



0;;7='Although the following communication 

 has been quietly ensconced and kept from our 

 view nearly a whole year after the writing. It is 

 not too late even now to publish it as our best 

 ajtology to the writer, who in becoming a good 

 farmer piesumptively den)Oustrates that he is 

 a safe and good lawyer. — Ed. Visitor. 



Exeter, N. H. January 14, 1847. 

 Hon. Isaac Hill — Dear Sir : 



In the Visitor of December post I have this 

 moment noticed my name at full length, in con- 

 nexion with some statements of my friend, Mr. 

 Brown, of the city of Washington, which 1 think 

 you have incorrectly reported. As 1 hope one 

 day to have Mr. Brown for my next neighbor 

 here, I should be glad to preserve his reputation 

 as good as a ten years' residence at WashingtOQ 

 will permit, and as there is one statement attrib- 

 uted to him by you, that any body here would 

 know to be incorrect, 1 feel called upon for an 

 explanation. 



You understood him to say that upon land 

 owned by him and myself, we had cut two and 

 a half tons of hay to the acre where little or 

 nothing grew before. 



Now we bought our land last spring and cut 

 whatever grass chose to grow upon it which 

 was nothing to boast of, and I presutne you have 

 "got a part of two stories" mixed as to the 

 grass. 1 have a field here in which Mr. Brown 

 is not so fortunate as to own a share, of which 

 I feel particularly proud, the beauties of which 

 1 have impressed upon the minds of most of my 

 agricultural friends; and ! presume it was in re- 

 lation to this fi'^ld, that Mr. Brown njade the 

 statement about Ihe large crop of grass. It is a 

 long time since I have v\ritteu tor the Visitor, 

 and longer since I liave written for any other 

 paper ; but I still retain iny taste for agricultural 

 pursuits, and have many times intended to re- 

 mind you that I still belonged to this earth, and 

 that a small portion of the earth slill belonged 

 to ; me and now " as I have the floor " I will give ' 

 you a brief account of my operations upon the 

 field already named. 



I will say in the outset however, that amuse- 

 ment and not profit has been my main object, 

 but still I have hoped to make my amusement 

 [>rofitable to others, if not to myself, and lo that 

 eiiil, have kept an accurate accotmt of all expen- 

 ditures upon the fiehl, and of all crops taken 

 from it, that I might illustrate what I have long 

 believed lo be a fact, that liberal, judicious ex- 

 penditure upon good land in New Hampshire is 

 a good investment of money — better and safer 

 for men of small means than the pm-chase of 

 bank and railroad stocks. I do not mean lo say 

 that every mere money-maker, who worships 

 any sort of graven image so it be of gold — every 

 stock-broker and speculator may — forsake his 

 idols at once, and make more money with a quiet 

 conscience from the soil, than he before made 

 without any ; but I do think that our farmers, of 



