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S^xmexB j!Icrut()lyi tesitar, 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



"Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people op God, whose DBEASTS he has made his peculiar DEPOBITE for SUUaTANTIAL AND GENLINE VIRTUE."— Jf^trjiOJI. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. MARCH, 31 1843. 



NUMBER 3. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



PUBLISHED nV 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED ON THE LAST DAV OF EVERY MONTH, 



At No. 3, Hiirs Brick Block. 



J)5=General Agents. — H. Cook, Kccne, N H. ; Thomas 

 R. Hampton, WrtPhingtoii City, D. C; John Marsh, W'asli- 

 ington St. Guston, Mass.; Charles Warren, Briiiley Row, 

 Worcester, Mass. 



TERMS.— To single subscribers, Fifiy Cents. Ten per 

 cent, will be allinved to tlie person who shall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will he sent for the advance 

 payment of Mrc Dollars: twenty-five copies for Tim Dollars: 

 sixty copies for Twenty Dollars. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



9c5^Jl/onpy and subscriptions^ by a resrufation of tke Post Master 

 General, may in all cases be remitted by tke Post MaMer, free of 

 postage. 



95°"AII gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents arc 

 reqiiested to continue their Agency. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will pleaye notify us of tlie names 

 already on our hnuks. 



iJt)c iHontl)Iij bisitra. 



Manufactures iu Vermont thirty years since. 



We corainijiirl to tlie farmer readers ot' the 

 Visitor the follouin^' article, wliicli we find in 

 the Moiitpelier Patriot, from our friend Henry 

 Stevens, Esq.. of Barret. He lias done well to 

 cast back to that point of time when the liiir 

 liaiids of Vermont mannfactiired in tlieir own 

 families more than the whole value of the cloth- 

 ing of that State — because if money was carried 

 out to purchase the ra\v material or any other 

 article of fancy, more was brought in from the 

 sale of woolen and linen manufactures sent abroad 

 for a market. 



A return to the times when oiu' mothers spun 

 and wove the strong cotton-linen which was im- 

 rivalled tor its strength and durability — when the 

 finest of the wool dyed with indigo blue, was se- 

 lected and wrought into cloth, fidled and dressed 

 by the village clothier, and made up by some 

 ingenious seamstress into the comely Sunday 

 suit — when the tidy linen, cotton linen or linsey 

 woolsey female dress best adorned the beauty of 

 the maids and made most comely and comfort- 

 able the mothers and grandmothers; — a return 

 to those pure and spotless times, when there was 

 a fascination and a charni in the evening fire- 

 side, when the songs of the females accompa- 

 iiicfl the music of the spinning-wheel^when the 

 youngest were sent to their early evening repose 

 while the elders assisted their mothers in the 

 household afiiiirs, and the boys studied their les- 

 sons for the morrow's scliool, or both boys and 

 girls, and .sometimes titthers and mothers united 

 in innocent sport after tlie day's wojk was done ; 

 a return to these times may not be expected at 

 the |)resent day. Our clothing may not now be 

 all made under the (iu-mer's own roof — it would 

 be impossible to return to the slow process by 

 which cloth was made in most fjimilies: if it 

 might be done conveniently, it po.ssibly might 

 not be expedient to do it where so much is .saved 

 in labor by the inventors of new niachineiy in 

 our mauiitacluriiig eslablishments. But we oii^'ht 

 to profit by the tacts disclosed fiy flir. Stevens in 

 another way. It should be the" study of every 

 industrious liirmer's tiiinily to invcid some siibsli- 

 tule lor the domestic; manufactures of thirty and 

 forty years since. Theie are many fimilies who 

 now do this: more wfiuld do it, if" tlicv had the 

 o))portunily. 



I'he brai(jing of palm leaf and straw has been 

 a good business in years past: the: fingers of 

 New England females filled up the world with 

 the palm leaf mannlacttne till the article is no 

 longer called for. We wonder why it is there is 

 no better encouragement for the" braiders and 

 sewers of our own bright straw, for surely there 

 is no lady so proud that she does not ;ippe"ar bet- 

 ter with a neat bonnet made of the straw li-om 



our own fields than in one of the most costly 

 imported materials. 



The raising of silk with its inanufactures might 

 employ many females under the roofs of their 

 fathers' houses. The introduction of labor-sav- 

 ing machinery has brought up the mamd'acture 

 of fine woolens in the Shaker families of this 

 State: the business of making fine flaitnels for 

 the markets of our cities has been carried on by 

 them to good advantage. That inilustrions com- 

 munity of people manufacture nearly all their 

 own clothing, and much more that they ilispose 

 of. They are a living example, demonstrating 

 that some of the present generation as well un- 

 derstand true domestic economy as did our fath- 

 ers and mothers thirty and forty years ago. — Ed. 

 Far. M. Visitor. 



New Platform for Vermont. 



MR. STEVENS TO DANIEL BALDWIN, ESQ. 



Barnet, March }st, 1843. 

 Dear Sir: — In my last 1 named the encour- 

 agement oflTered in 1787, by the General Assem- 

 bly of this State, for the growth of wool and the 

 manidactures of cloth. To give you the num- 

 ber pounds of wool shorn, the mnnber yards of 

 cloth manafactured, annually, during the exist- 

 ence of said law; also, the statistics embraced in 

 the fiist census of this State, in 1791, and 1800; 

 (during this time the wool and cotton were card- 

 ed by hand,) to give you all these statistics, con- 

 nected with this State, would make this commu- 

 nication much too long. For the present, I give 

 you, below, extracts from the census of this State, 

 in 1810. It is with pleasure I inform you that 

 from the census of 1790, 1800, and 1810, Ver- 

 mont stands at the head, in point of household 

 irianufactures. At that time no State in the 

 Union manuliictured so many yards of cloth, in 

 pioportion to her population, as Vermont. From 

 1792 to 1806, we were toasted on the 4tli of July 

 celebrations, throughout the Union, as a "hard 

 money people." Again: "Vermont, the back- 

 bone, hip, shoulder, kidney and pluck of New 

 England." Look for a moment to 177<). Our 

 then populatioji did imt exceed 25,000 ; in 1783, 

 about 33,000; in 1791, nearly 80,000; in 1800, 

 154,465; in 1810, 217,714. liming this period, 

 we find that the inhabitants of this State maim- 

 facturecf most of their own clothing. In those 

 days "all the women that were wise-hearted, did 

 spin with their hands," The IMinisteis vvolild 

 now and then say to us, that " the virtuous wo- 

 man seeketh wool and flax and makelh willingly 

 with her hands. She layeth lier liands to the 

 spindle and her hand holdeth the distaft'. Her 

 husband is known in the, gates where he silteth 

 among the elders of the land." In looking over 

 the following extracts from the censLis of 1810, 

 we must conclude that most of the women at 

 that period "were wise-hearted and did spin with 

 their hands." Their husbands wei-e known in 

 the ilischarge of theii- official duties as lieingclad 

 in their own manulaclures, I have been told 

 that, dining the emb.irgo or non-intercoin'se, the 

 General ^ssembly of this State ])assed a joint 

 resolution, saying that it should be considered 

 ungentleman-like lor a Member of the House or 

 of the Coimcil to appear in his seat other tliati 

 clad in the growth, production and manufaclun' 

 of the State. Please examine the statistics, not 

 only of llie Si.ite, the county of Caledonia, but 

 the town of Aloutpclier. 1 here give you tin' 

 extracts from the census as to your town in 1810: 

 Number inhabitants 1,877; nimdier looms 139; 

 number wheels t)18: number yards linen cloth 

 24.388; luunber yards cotton cloth 1,125; num- 

 ber yards woolen cloth 10,8(i3; number pounds 

 sugar 19,774; number of sheep 2,746. Ucie we 

 have .36,376 yards of cloth. .\t that lime there 

 were, say 400 females over fifteen yeai's of iige ; 

 therefore the average number of yards manufac- 

 tured vvotild be more than 90 yards, and more 



than 19 yards of cloth for each person in town, 

 and more than 261 yards to each loom. The 

 [topulation of Moutpelier in 1840 was 2,985; the 

 household maiiufiictures, as by the census, .$7,349 

 — less than $2 50 to each individual, and not 

 enough to furnish each male person with a fash- 

 ionable hat, and each female with a fashionable 

 bonnet, to say nothing about other necess:iry 

 apparel. As it is with Alontpelier, so is it witli 

 the State. The free trade politician may say to 

 you, sell your wool and agricultural productions 

 and buy your necessaries. 1 contend that the 

 annual average of necessary woolen goods is 

 equal to 89 00 to each person ; say from the 

 feeting to the outer coat. Therefore, to furnish 

 the inhabitants of Montpelier with necessary 

 woolen goods, $26,865 is wanted. How are you 

 to pay this ? I propose to take all your wool, say 

 12,00"0 (lounds, at 30 cents per pound $3,600 



400 liogs at .'t:12 00 each 4,800 



300 head of fat cattle at $20 00 each 6,000 



All that you can spare of your dairy, say 6,000 

 1000 fat "sheep at 1,500 



$21,900 



Here is a balance you tmist secure by mortgage 

 of $4,965, on real estate, or club together and get 

 the money at the Bank. 



As it is with Montpelier, so it is with about 

 every town ru the State. There is no necessity 

 of laying our present embarrassments to any 

 particular class of individuals or party. We 

 have all gone astray; we have forsaken the poli- 

 cy pursued by our fathers, by exchanging the 

 raw material for mannfactnred articles. I am 

 sorry to be under the necessity of informing you 

 that, in jioint of household inanufactme.s, Ver- 

 mont is beat, out and out, by Missouri, Kentucky 

 and Arkansas, three slave-holding States. Ar- 

 kansas stands at the bead of this Union; her 

 household manufacluies are more than .$5 00 to 

 each inlialiitaiil ; Missouri and Kentucky more 

 than $3 00. Once patriotic Vermont, for many 

 years stood at the head; now side by side witli 

 Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. I ask, if it is 

 not a disgrace to Vermont, to be beat by Arkan- 

 sas, a slave population, fuid to be ranked with 

 slave-holding Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee ? 

 This stain must be wiped away before 1850. 

 Such being our situation, I am not surprised that 

 a saying should go abroad throughout the land, 



'■'Tliat llie known resources of the Stale are inadequate 

 to the support of its native population.'' 



Amidst the suflijrings of the people from 1769 

 to 177.5, in the contest with the "land jobbers," 

 and the siifTerings during the revolutionary war, 

 no such expressions as to our " resources" as a 

 people, have ever gone forth from our legislature, 

 i>or fiom a coinmiitee appointed by them. Our 

 present embarrassments are not occasioned for 

 the want of materials, nor tf)r want of "rcsoKrccs." 

 The census of 1840 will certainly settle the 

 question. There is no State in this Union, take 

 into consideration the number of inhabitants, 

 number of acres of improved land and its ap- 

 praised value, that produces so large a (]iiantity 

 and value of agricidtural productions as Ver- 

 mont. We can speak of filling our grau.-iiies 

 with five million bushels of grain, our hills as 

 being covered with one anil a hall' million of 

 sheep; more than 384,000 head of cattle; more 

 than 203,000 swine; nearly 9,000,000 hui-liels of 

 potatoes; more than 800,000 tons of li.iy ; the 

 production of our dairy estimated ;it more than 

 2,000,000 dollars. Yet, in the midst of this alum- 

 dance, fi)m-fiftlis of the population of this State 

 are mostly clad in the manufacture of our si.-iter 

 States, or foreign conntrirs. Nine out of ten of 

 those in public office, from the haywards to the 

 highest office, aiie clad other than in the manu- 

 fiicturc of this State. The policy which this 

 St.ite, as a State, has pursued for years, in rela- 

 tion to her agrictiltural, meciianical and nuinii- 



