. u^; __^ _J 



Sl)e jTarmer's iUontljlu IJxsitor. 



29 



The Cattle Show for Somerset County wus 

 held in Bloomfield on the opposite side of the 

 Kennebeck from the village of Skovvhegan, on 

 Friday and Saturday of the same week in Octo- 

 ber, 1642, as that of Franklin County at Farm- 

 ington. There was not so large an attendance or 

 so great an exhibition. The farmers of the 

 county in mass seemed not to he moved for the 

 occasion ; but the energy atid laudable public spir- 

 it of its President, Doct. James Bates, seemed to 

 be infusing itself at all points. His own example 

 as a farmer in the beautiful town of Norridge- 

 wock — the labor and expense he has bestowed in 

 the introduction of improved cattle, sheep and 

 swine — his experiments and leadings in domestic 

 economy — go far towards placing him in the 

 ranks of the first philanthro|iistsand agricultural 

 patrons of his State. Di'. Bates has been twice a 

 member of Congress from Maine. 



The teams of oxen on the Kenuebeck exliihit 

 evident marks of the improved breeds of cattle 

 which have been introduced by the Vaughan 

 lamily and others at Gardiner and Hallowell more 

 than twenty years ago. It is said that twelve 

 hundred yokes of cattle are employed every 

 winter liigh up the Kennebeck river and the 

 blanches at its sources and about the Moosehead 

 lake in transporting logs to the river : these logs 

 are floated down the river, and manufactured at 

 the saw mills on the way. At Hallowell and 

 Gardiner, besides numerous tnills at the latter 

 place propelled by water power, there are sever- 

 al steam saw mills which are constantly employ- 

 ed in tiie manufacture of boards and other lum- 

 ber. It is conjectured that the timber brought 

 down the Keimebeck is nearly if not quite 

 equal to that which comes from the Penobscot and 

 its branches. 



There were at the Bloomfield exhibition some 

 specimens of large oxen with the power to give 

 locomotion to an immense weight. 



Among the curiosities of vegetation at Bloom- 

 field, Mr. Drew of that town exhibited cabbages 

 raised from the stumps of former years, which 

 he said he could produce from year to year by 

 the sim|ile process of taking out the sprouts with 

 narrow leaves, and retaining the sprouts with 

 broad leaves, transplanting or setting them out in 

 the spring. The cabbage heads exhibited by Mi'. 

 Drew were three heads from as many branches 

 of a single root. 



Maj. Daniel Allen of Fairfield, who keeps from 

 sixteen to twenty cows, made a grand exhibition 

 of butter and cheese and other articles, from his 

 farm: of these a pair of worsted hose, spun at 

 the rate of thirty-eight skeins, manutiictured by 

 Mrs. Bowman, the mother of his wife, a native 

 of Sandwich, N. H. and 73 years of age, attrac- 

 ted our attention. 



This town of Fairfield lies below Bloomfield 

 on the westerly side of the Kennebeck, all the 

 way down which are heanfiful lands and first 

 rate farms. Of these farms, that of Mr. Ivory 

 Low,'an emigrant from Cape Cod, presented the 

 length of two hundred feet in barns. 



We were so fortunate as to fidl into the best of 

 company, and meet the most generous treatment 

 all the way on this ex|)e(litiou. For these atten- 

 tions we were indebted almost solely to the cir- 

 culation which the Monthly Visitor had gained 

 among the farmers of Maine. Gen. Locke, who 

 keeps a public house at Bloomfield, and who al- 

 though a mechanic and a publican has enjoyed 

 the confidence of the State of Maine in both 

 high civil and military offices, made us welconje 

 at his house over the Sabliath. 



About leaving Bloomfield on Monday morning 

 in the stage, we fell in with a gentleman well ac- 

 quainted with the country, who in Ids gig offered 

 to take us to Augusta. This gentleman was 

 Benjamin Bjown, Esq. of Vassal borough, the 

 patron of the Hospital for the Insane, at Augusta, 

 to whii-h he had presented in its origin the sutn 

 of ten thousand dollars, a like sum being given 

 for the same object by the Hon. Mr. Williams of 

 Augusta. 



On our w;iy down the river we passed on the 

 west side of the river to Waterville, the seat of a 

 flourishing college under the patronage of the 

 Baptist denomination: the colleges, three edifi- 

 ces of brick, are situated at the north part of the 

 town. Not very far north of Waterville is Ken- 

 dall's village, where mills with machinery to car- 

 ry three hundred saws have been erected. The 

 cost of the mills was .$180,000 ; and the whule 



has recently been sold for the diminished sum of 

 $0,000 ! 



The compact part of Wateiville is a village of 

 some hundred houses: here are the Ticonic falls, 

 being three successive falls of the whole mass of 

 water flowing down the Kennebeck. The day 

 previous to our visit an Irishnjaii, under the in- 

 fluence of liquor, run these falls with a canoe: 

 he stove his canoe, and mutilated his face, but, 

 to the astonishment of all, escaped with his life. 

 A bridge crosses the Kennebeck at Waterville; 

 and within a fisw rods of its termination the 

 Sebestacook, a river as large at the mouth as the 

 Merrimack at Concord, comes in from the east 

 side. At this point is the ancient site of Foi t Hal- 

 ifiix. Directly and within a ndle from the village 

 of Waterville, we come into Winslow, where the 

 first places that present themselves are the 

 splendid farms of Messrs. Dingley and Green. 

 The latter, a native of Dover, N. H. has intro- 

 duced a fine stock of imjiorted cattle, which he 

 is constantly improving. 



All the way down on this side of the river to 

 Vassalhorough is a succession of farin.s, general- 

 ly large in extent, well cultivated, and speaking 

 the wealth of their owners in their neat houses, 

 their commodious barns and outhouses and their 

 fine oxen, cows and other animals. The soil is 

 generally of a stifferand more clayey quality than 

 that upon the New England rivers farther west. 

 It is the more productive the deeper it is plough- 

 ed anil the more it is worked. Ploughing deep 

 in the fall the ground is pulverized by the winter 

 liost, so that with the aid of no very great quan- 

 tity of stimulating manures large crops are pro- 

 duced. 



Vassalhorough on the east, and Sidney on the 

 west, over and against each other on the Kenne- 

 beck, each extends six miles on the river and 

 eight miles back: they are both towns of great 

 wealth and have been made valuable by agricul- 

 tural improvements. Situated upon the river, 

 their produce is of easy access to a market. Al- 

 though Vassalhorough is above the falls in the 

 Kennebeck, ship building has been carried on 

 there. Benjamin Biown, Esq. residing here many 

 years as a merchant, ship owner and farmer, has 

 done a great business. He has built ships in 

 that town, which have been taken down the river 

 at high water, of 350 tons burden. There are in 

 this town extensive tanneries which have done 

 a large business. It is only a few years since, 

 that Mr. B. and his friends considered his for- 

 tune to be ample. Besides his business at Vas- 

 salhorough, managed with skill and ability, he 

 was connected with large lumber operations on 

 the Penobscot, and owned extensive mills at 

 Orono. The managers there were not as careful 

 and skilful as himself; and at the advanced age 

 of more than threescore years, involved as have 

 been many other men in pecmnary obligations, 

 his hundreds of thousands of hard-earned 

 property have taken to themselves wings and 

 flown. 



As places of cm-iosity in Vassalhorough, Mr. 

 Brown pointed us to a housi^ in which while in 

 the Canada expedition Arnold and Burr slept 

 with each other; also to the residence of John 

 Gilley, an Irishman, who there died a few years 

 ago at the great age of 124 years. 



The Insane Hospital of Maine stands opposite 

 the lower end of Augusta village, fronting the 

 State Capitol, and ahout one mile below the Au- 

 gusta bridge : between the bridge and the Hospi- 

 tal is the United Slates Arsenal with the granite 

 buildings attached. The lot of land attached to 

 the Aisenal, the property of the United States, 

 consists of thirty or forty acres extending from 

 the river to the road which luns parallel to it: 

 these groimds are surrounded by a substantial 

 picketed iron fence ; and the ample wharf upon 

 the river is of solid stone masonary. The smn 

 laiil out for the erection an<l accommodation of 

 the .Arsenal must be some hundred thousands of 

 dollars. 



The Hospital with its adjacent buildings and 

 grounds cost some hundred and thirty or forty 

 thousand dollars. It differs not very much in size 

 and shape fiom the Hospital at Worcester as at 

 first erected, and that of New Hampshire erected 

 since : the two latter are of biick — the former is 

 granite taken tVoni the H.illowell quarries. In 

 the month of October there were seventy patients' 

 at the Augusta Hospital. I'ollowing the laudable 

 example of the Worcester Hospital, the attention 



of the su[)erintendentaud directors of the Maine 

 Hospital lias been turned to the cultivation of the 

 grounds about it. The situation was a fiirm and 

 part of the donation of Mr. Brown. The culti- 

 vation of land, the rearing of crops, isone of the 

 most salutary modes of employing that portion 

 of the patients who are of suicidal or homicidal 

 predisposition, where association in numbers of 

 more than two persons makes it always safe to 

 have them work together — the propensity of de- 

 structiveness being secret and stealthy in incep- 

 tion and execution. It is quite as likely that one 

 suicide or homicide would prevent the vicious 

 action of another as that a sane person would do 

 it. So that it is perfectly safe to trust several 

 persons of these predilections in the satne com- 

 pany. 



The farm attached to the Hospital is abundant- 

 ly large for all the purposes of such an institution. 

 It is a beautiful olilong square with its base on 

 the Kennebeck river rising gradually and extend- 

 ing to the road on the east. The improvements 

 on these grounds made within the last year are 

 great. On about hidf a dozen acres between 

 the stone edifice and the street on each side of 

 the lane running on an inclined plane down to 

 the Hospital, twelve hundred bushels of potatoes 

 were raised the last season. 



The land has been graded on the west front 

 between the Hospital and the river. The drain- 

 ing from the buildings, like that at Worces- 

 ter, is carried into pans for the manufacture of 

 manure. Only one constant hired iTian is kepi 

 there for the labor out of doors : nearly all the 

 improvements upon the ground are made by the 

 voluntary labor of the insane inmates. The farm 

 consists of severity acres of strong soil, on which 

 improvements will be more lasting aii<l perman- 

 ent than in almost any other of all the varieties 

 of soil in our countiy. Tiie quantity of hay 

 upon this ground has already been much in- 

 creased. 



A workshop gives employment to many inge- 

 nious triechariics especially in the \\ inter: the 

 work comes from their hands in great jiei fection. 



At the time of this visit there were seventy 

 patients at the Hos|)ital. Doct. Fay, the princi- 

 [lal, and Mrs. Bartlett, as the matron, fill their 

 places very acceptably. 



Moral Effect of Music. — Major Davezac, 

 in his chapter on Gardening, in the last nundjer 

 of the Democratic Review, speculates thus on 

 the effect which the cultivation of music has 

 upon the German character: 



Whoever has sojourned in Germany long 

 enough to associate much with Germans, must 

 have remarked the singular tnildness, the [ileas- 

 ing simplicity of manners, the elegance of hab- 

 its, and the general urbanity of deportment, 

 forming the characteristics of a people which, in 

 order to hold a first rank among the great pow- 

 ers of the earth, need only to be united under a 

 single and national government. That a people 

 so long oppressed by a multitude of petty princes, 

 domineered over by a numerous and heartless 

 aristocracy, inliabiling, too, a countiy often ileso- 

 lated by the invasion of foreign armies, which 

 for centuries have made it their Imllli'-groiind, 

 should have preserved, nevertheless, the primi- 

 tive kindliness and amenity of their nalure, is a 

 ni.iial phenoniPiion which, while visiting in that 

 country both the palaces of the gre.-itest and 

 linmblest abodes of the peasantry, I li.iva been 

 leiiipted lo aiiribute more to the love of music 

 that obtains tliiougli all classes of German soci- 

 ety, than to any other cause. There the fiercer 

 passions kindled during a day of suflciing and 

 trial, instead of being cxaspeialed by the angry 

 repinings of ihe family circle, when the work- 

 ingman letmns lioiiie, .-u-e, on the contrary, hilled 

 to rest by the harmony of song. The iii:idiiess 

 of Said yieldeil to the harp of David. I'olyhins 

 says, that music softened the ferocity of the 

 Arcadians, who inhabited a region where the 

 climate was iiii|iiire anil damp; while the people 

 of (-'ynoptlie, ulio held that science in contempt, 

 continued to he the most barbarous of the Greeks. 

 In Germany, nnisic creates for the care-worn 

 laborer another and belter world, a middle re- 

 gion between this earth, where wealth and the 

 enjoyments it procures are allotted to the few, 

 wliile to the many are assigned privations, con- 

 tumelies, irremi'diable poverty, and that future 

 world where equality that Imnished exile from 



