|) Msitox. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



*Tho3e who Labor in the earth are the cHostn peofi.e of God, whose nRCAUTi he has made his peculiar dkposite for substantial and genuine virtue," — Jefferson. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. OCTOBER 31, 1843. 



NUMBER 10. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



PUBLISHED BY 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



1S.SUED ON THE LAST DAY OF EVERY MO.NTK, 



At No. 3, HilPs Brick Block. 



J)::5"f'E^ERAL AoESTs. — B. Cook, Keene, N H. ; Thobias 

 R. Hami'ton, Wiisliinpton City, D. C. ; John RIarsh, Wash- 

 in :^ton St. Boston, Muss.; Charles Warren, Brinley Row, 

 Worcester, Mass. 



TERMS.— To ^inglp subscribers, Fifty Ccvt.i. Ten ixi 

 cent, will be allowed tu tJie person who shall semt more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will be sent for the advance 

 payment of Five Dollars; twenty-tive copies for Tai Dollars; 

 sixty copies for Tioeittij Dollars, TJie payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



{f^Jloticii and subscriptions, bij a regulation of the Pout Master 

 Oencraf, may in. ull cases be rcmitUd by the Post Master, free of 

 posta or. 



9::;^ All gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents are 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of tJie names 

 already on our books. 



®l)c illontl)lij bifiitav. 



t^or the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The fruits and flowers of Washington. 



" You me (bud of faiining," siiid my tavern ac- 

 quaintance after dinner as we were sitting in the 

 reading room, "and so am I. See here, there 

 is to be an exiiihition of the Society, says the 

 newspaper tliis ui'tenioon to which we, as a por- 

 tion of the public are invited. As yon leave to- 

 morrow for the North, it will fill out your chapter 

 on the Linnean hill visit. Let nie see — at the .\l- 

 deriiien's room city hall at 4 o'clock — it wants 

 but a (jiiarter to the time : let us go." And in 

 five minutes we entered through a long wing of 

 the building, and then we began to ascend the 

 stairs in company with baskets, and bo.\es, and 

 flower pots, and men in a hurry and sweat, for it 

 was hot weather and still and close besides. The 

 room we reached was small, and some coiiversa- 

 sation was in circulation about a disappointment, 

 that the room was in use foranotlier purpose, iVc. 

 and the exhibition was soon arranged, evidently 

 to a disadvantage. 



The fruit was good as I had ever seen, especi- 

 ally the peaches, and some ai)ples of superior 

 flavour. From the varieties of this fruit hcji; that 

 I have seen I think them superior to any 1 have 

 met with at the North. I mean the varieties that 

 ripen during the siiminer and autumn, and they 

 are very abundant in the market. 



The peaches, tliat splendid fruit, were, I think, 

 superior in size and appearance to any 1 have be- 

 fore seen, and one of the busy members inform- 

 ed me was the " Jersey fruit" — the trees general- 

 ly have come from New Jersey, which is the 

 great peach State. The climate here is well ad- 

 apted to peaches, for they were plenty in market 

 at nine pence (V2i cents) the peck, or at the rate 

 of fifty cents a bushel. 



In the exhibition of flowers we were highly 

 gratified; and here the ladies who attended the 

 exhihilion appeared, over in taste, to bestow much 

 of their attention. The public grounds, and pri- 

 vate green houses ( " conservatojies") hold a sort 

 of rivalry for this branch of nature's beauty, and 

 it appeared to us that the proprietors, as we sup- 

 posed them to he, felt a livelier interest in what 

 was said and observed in relation to the flowers 

 than the fi nils and vegetable productions. As to 

 these latter, the time lias parsed when the City 

 was <lependant upon the north for the best; for 

 better and finer I never have met with any w here. 



Those who retain the iujpressions of twenty, 

 thirty, or forty years past, can hardly believe that 

 it is Washington when they perceive beauty, 

 taste, and plenty all around them. At the close 

 of the exhibition there appeared a sort of scram- 

 ble for the an ides. This does not in the long 

 rmi [lay for the [)roduction, and empty honor in 

 time is iiy.l to wear out. I wuj n gainer and tast- 



ed a number of fine peaches, &c., which I should 

 have been willing to pay for, and I thought that 

 if they had, as we do, sold them at the close to 

 the highest bidder, for the good of the treasury, 

 it would have been belter; for, having got saucily 

 elbowed once in scrambling for Rank stock, I have 

 disliked the usage ever since. 



A TRAVELLER. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Qualifications of Farmers' Wives. 



To THK Editor of the VistToa: — A writer 

 in the Visitor for May speaks of the great impor- 

 tance of females, especially the wives of farmers, 

 being acquainted with all duties of a domestic 

 kind, and bestows high encomiums upon her 

 " who rises with the lark," prepares suitable food 

 for her family, &-c. My opinion perfectly coin- 

 cides with hers in the importance of a farmer's 

 wilt; being well acquainted with all that is ne- 

 cessary for a farmer's wife to know, and that she 

 superintend and assist in her domestic duties, so 

 that every thing be done as it should bu. Yes; 

 I would praise her for her skill in preparing the 

 good hot cakes, and clean breakfast. Yet I would 

 contend for the superiority of her who with 

 neatness and ceremony performs her routine of 

 domestic duties with alacrity, in order to spend 

 a few hours in reading, that she may impart 

 light and knowledge to those around her, thereby 

 enriching her own mind, and those of her fami- 

 ly, so that they may become useful members of 

 society. Time is making vast ravages among 

 those who take an interest in the welfare of our 

 country. 



Who are to take their places and build up the 

 decaying walls of our little Republic ? Shall we 

 look to our large cities ? Do not many of their 

 yoiuig men live in idleness and dissipation.' 

 Are they accustomed to that close application to 

 study, and business, which is necessary to disci- 

 pline their minds, and fit them for important 

 places in government ? Where, I say, are we 

 to look for our future legislators and statesmen, 

 but atnong the sons of our honest yeomen .■• 



And does not the formation of their minds 

 depend upon their mother ? Are not the first 

 impressions the strongest and most lasting .' And 

 are not those received from the mother? Is not 

 the child tauglit the love of good and evil, and 

 the love of God and his comitry, from his moth- 

 er .'' Does he not imbibe her sentiments and 

 feelings with tiie first dawnings of reason .' How 

 important, then, that slie be intelligent, and that 

 her sentiments be correct and her judgtiient 

 gooil. 



The business of farmers requires constant at- 

 tention through the busy seasons of the year ; 

 they have but little leisure for intellectual piu'- 

 suits, or instruction of their children, and the 

 woman who spends some portion of her time in 

 useful reading and imparting the informaton 

 thereby gained to those around her, does abun- 

 dantly more to benefit her family, than she could 

 po.ssihiy do in raking hay or picking potatoes. 

 We are creatures of imitation, monkey like. If 

 a child see.! Iiis mother take a book, he likewise 

 will take one. If she speaks of what she reads, 

 he will likewise, and so iuqiriiit it on his memo- 

 ry. The ijiflnence of such a woman is great. 

 It will he IVlt aroimd her, and it will lell upon a 

 generation yet unborn. The mind of man is 

 natiM-ally grovelling, but reason bids it rise, im- 

 prove and be useftd. 



Women possess quicker sensibilities, and finer 

 fceliuL's thaji men, and they have more leisure 

 for impiovemen;. Let them improve their time 

 to the best advantage and we snail have an in- 

 telligent community. 



A man's mind is not very likely to expand, or 

 be elevated, whose wife can talk of nothing but 

 feeding the ducks and chickens, though the 



ducks and chickens should be fed and fed often 

 too. ACCA. 



Piltsfeld, Oct. 12, 1843. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Exhaustion of the Soil. 

 The soil may be, and doubtless has been, ex- 

 hausted in numerous cases within our country ; 

 but it is believed that it has been produceil by a 

 suspeion of crops, without returning any thing 

 in the shape of tnanure, to supply what was thus 

 taken away ; for we believe, where manure is 

 used not only that the soil is capable of main- 

 taining its fertility, but that it can be raised to a 

 standard beyond its natural condition. In one of 

 the numbers of the New England Farmer, piib- 

 lished at Boston, sotnething opposite to this opin- 

 ion is asserted, and after, no doubt, very learn- 

 ed use of Professor Liebigs views, and a plenti- 

 tiful top dressing of ammonia, alkali, gallipots, 

 and blow pipes, which good naturedly puts us in 

 mind of the extraction of suidjeams from cu- 

 cunfljers, the conclusion is arrived at, that the 

 lands near the city of Rome became exhausted 

 from use, and have been ever since barren. 

 From what authority this conclusion has been 

 drawn I know not, hut in my recollections of 

 hi.story, I was under the iinpression that unhealth- 

 iness, and not sterility, has left the Campagna 

 without cultivation. 



If recent travellers are to be accredited, even 

 the terrors produced by the fatality of the cli- 

 mate have been lately encroached upon, and 

 this level, this tertile barrier to;ihe '-eternal city," 

 ig becoming cultivated. When Rome wa.s in the 

 height of her power, when it was the focus of 

 wealth, the seat of letters, and the arbitrer of 

 what was called the civilized world, the whole of 

 the plain now called the Catnpagna was under 

 cultivation, or embellished by taste. Gardens 

 and country seats were there, with industry and 

 tastejto accomplish and adorn ; but whent be giant 

 and barbarous Goths and ^'andals broke their 

 fetters, and struggled to escape from the bondage 

 of disgrace, ali the accmnulaiions of abused 

 power were overwhelmed and swept away by 

 the enraged and mighty tide. The city was 

 wasted, and its forced accumulations sunk back 

 to a natural level. Then the fertile fields that 

 surroimded it were abandoned, and portions of 

 them have not yet resumed their former produc- 

 tiveness and fertility. 



This exhaustion, this ebb that knows no re- 

 turning flood, can it be correct ? If we but 

 turn to the East, upon the banks of the Ganges, 

 the garden still of the Globe, do we not find the 

 most fruitful soils; and was not this soil fruitful 

 and productive before Rome rose ? From that 

 time to thi.s, as these people then were, they havo 

 continued ever since, ignorant of the refinements 

 and results of chemistry. If there has not been 

 time enough in some three thousand years to 

 produce this irredeemable exhaustion, and for- 

 ever prostrate sterility, still may we not consider 

 it long enough to answer our purpose ; and not. 

 like the man of eighty, shiver at the thought that 

 in about nine hundred years the coal mines 

 wotdd give out. 



Willing to believe thiit great improvements 

 may be made in cultivation resulting from chem- 

 ical analysis and having no other disposition than 

 to praise this Queen of the sciences, still may 

 it not he doubted whether these refineujcnts will 

 profit the mass? Wheat straw in quantity is an 

 excellent maniu-o; but the (|uantity defeats the 

 idea of an application by Farmers in general. 

 Things may do tor experiment and tipon a small 

 scale that are too minute and expensive for gen- 

 eral use; and can we expect or hope with all the 

 agricultural chairs as they are called in the imi- 

 versities at home and abroad, to seo our farmers 

 bottling up ammonia, or using gallipots, and cru- 

 riblfls instead of the old fashioned manure aiul 



