il\)t iranner'0 iiloutlily bisxtor. 



Yet the blocked up loada by no inetnis prevent- 

 ed the fm-meis fioin turning out then- teams to 

 gnther tlic sea-weed for manure thrown upon 

 the beach, and laving it out in piles where it was 

 to be used. The farraerri here are diligent to 

 gather the means throughout the year to make 

 the land fruitful. Potatoes for exportation are 

 the article most cultivated here ; and whei;„er 

 these sell at 95, 30, 40 or 50 cents the bus',,,.)^ „o 

 less value is placed upon the lands 'producing 

 them by the farmers of Rye. 



Formerly it was thought the P^rtOplc upon the 

 seaboard were less enligbtei' ,5ff j,„fi even less 

 moral, than those farther i ;,, i\^g interior. The 

 soil in its original state s^eemed not to be so well 

 calculated for fnrmin'^ purposes— it was hard and 

 rocky and required much severe labor to make 

 it productive, ''i he inhabitants were sailors and 

 fishermen— exposed to cold and suffering which 

 seemed to '.ning in strong drink and intemperate 

 habits as the only relief The uncertain returns 

 tVoni the ocean," the. failure of the market, or 

 gome other cause, as, a matter of necessity drove 

 the fi.shermen to the use of the soil as a main de- 

 pendence. And it is remarkable that in the town 

 of Rye there is iK,t now to be found a solitary 

 dram shop. In tl lis town there are four brick 



,1 " " 



school houses, 



ach thirty-five feet square, in 

 which the whole rising generation, male and fe- 

 male, receive in .struction at the public expense 

 neprly the vvhcle year round. The school at the 

 centre at the time of our visit had ninety-six 

 ■scholars. Be sides the old town meeting house 

 nearly one hi indred years old, still standing but 

 jio longer oc eupied, three elegant new meeting 

 houses, pain ted white, for the use of Congrega- 

 tionalisls, F i^ipiists and Methodists, have lately 

 been erectt ;(1 at the centre. So much more en- 

 lightened ii .re the industrious citizens of this town 

 than tho.se of the country, that while a citizen 

 from Coil, ^ord, directed by a sleeper under Mes- 

 meric ins tructlon, was digging for chests of mo- 

 ney siipp osed to be buried long ago by Kidd or 

 some oil ler freebooter of the ocean upon an is- 

 land oft" Rye beach over which the sea flowed at 

 high tid .e iu the midst of lliecold and ice of win- 

 ter, the farmers of Rye considered the prospect 

 of gain to be much more certain from going to 

 these.- .-.shore and securing the rich materials 

 throw ,1 upon the beach by the storm from the 

 bosom . of old ocean. 



The Value of Irrigation. 



Th le agency of water in the process of vege- 

 tatio n (says Mr. Stevens, an eminent Scotch ag- 

 ricu ralislj has not, till of late, been distinctly per- 

 ceiv ed. Dr. Hales has shown that, in the sum- 

 mer months, a sun-flower, weiglii'nS three |iounds 

 avoirdupois, and watered regularly' every day, 

 paf ised through it or perspired twenty- two oiii.'C- 

 es fjnch day, that is, half its weiglit. Dr. Wood- 

 ward found that ill the space of seventy-s>.°v*^" 

 days, n plant of common spearmint increase,'^ 

 seventeen grains iu weight, and yet had no other 

 food but pure rain water; but he found also that 

 it increased more in weight when it lived 

 spring water, and still more when its fooi. ..„., 

 Thames (river) water. The next most important 

 mgredieiit to the nourishment of plants is earth, 

 and of the difiijrent earths the calcarious seems 

 the most necessary, as it is contained in ruin wa- 

 ter, and absolutely speaking, many [)lant3 may 

 grow without imbibing any other. ' Earths enter 

 into plants in a state of sojution when suspend- 

 ed in water in a slate of division, as minute as if 

 they had really been dissolved, i'liat silicions 

 earths may he suspended in such a state of riivis- 

 ifiM appears from various experiments, particu- 

 larly those of Ueryman, who found it thus dif- 

 fused in the purest waters of Upsal. 



We were not aware that pure spring water was 

 better for irrigation than common rain water, al- 

 tliough we were quite sure that the water of tur- 

 l)id rivers overflowing their banks produced 

 gi-ealer fertility than pure clear water would do. 

 Much depends in this respect on the soil which 

 IS at the .source of the rivers an<l through which 

 they flow. _ The sediment brought ,Ioun in the 

 tre8het,s ol Coimecticut river make a more fer- 

 tile soil than It does upon the Merrimack. 



1 he great fertility of the banks of the Egypt- 

 ian Nile results from the rich sediment which 

 eomes all the way down from the mountains of 

 Arabia. It ,s but lately that philosophers have 

 turned their attention to accurate calculation* on 



this subject. It is ascertained that the "'■"J''"' 

 soil depositp.d by the Nile amounts to 14,874,000 

 solid feet ',n an hour ; and that the deposit of the 

 Mississ-jipni per hour is 8,000,000 solid feet. We 

 liav-e known a single freshet on the Merrimack 

 r ,ver to cover the ground overflowed where the 

 waters backed in with a black sediment three 

 and four inches thick ; and the same fi-esbe 

 flowing over directly would cover acres of land 

 with pure sand, from six inches to three feet in 

 depth. The solid embankment of a bridge a 

 part of the way across the Potomac at Washing- 

 ton city has arrested many million cords ot allu- 

 vion coming down from above, partially choking 

 up the wiiole channel of the river between that 

 and Georgelowu. At the time of Braddock s 

 exiicdition previous to the war of the Americati 

 revolution, a British fleet of heavy ships moored 

 in the river above Georgetown— now it is with 

 areat difficulty a ship of considerable size can 

 float in the waters above the Washington navy 

 yard. , 



The rivers are not only in some places con- 

 stantly wearing their channels deeper into the 

 earth, but in others their waters are receding, 

 leaving less depth for the purposes of naviga- 

 tion As the forests are cleared away, the quan- 

 tity of water flowing down probably becomes 



''irrigation, other than in the natural overflow 

 of streams, is but little known and practised in 

 the United States. In some parts of Mexico and 

 South America, owing to the peculiar position ot 

 the mountains drawing away the clouds,tliey have 

 no rain the greater part of the growing season. 

 Of a consequence they must irrigate their lauds 

 from the rivers or obtain no crops. Rice in the 

 warmer climates cannot be raised without irri- 

 gation, . , , . 



In the Island of Great Britain, the production 

 of the grasses has been gradually increased by 

 irrii'ation ; and this too where rains are more 

 frequent than in the United States. It is there 

 (bund that running water occasionally ov';.,riow- 

 iii<' causes verdure of the sweetest grasses,wbile 

 stagnant water converts land to q niarsh. When 

 water is allowed to lie upon ,|,y surface any con- 

 siderable time, the finer '^[.usses disappear. 



Draining is the mr^(|,p,. „f „)) other improve- 

 ments in cultivate'^ i^,-,,] . ^nd in heavy adhesive 

 grounds subterr rtuean draining should precede 

 surface irrigi';,|on. ' J 



A couiit:,-y of mountains, bills and vallies, a : 

 country of hard soil and fVequent springs, rilte 

 and rivers, is best adapted to the benefits oV irri- 

 gation. Ill hills of conical forn.>,at the ve^y tops 

 of which, we frequently find soui'ces Oi iiinning 

 water, very little labor and expense are nqni. '" 

 to flash over mowing grounds the water which 

 for years in succession will produce Jargc crf>os 



r»r li:i V "" V 



23 



lected with a numerous population in an eminent 



degree. How gratifying to poor human nature 

 is it to find that the most offensivo materials ol 

 animal and vegetable decay are the elements 

 which may be made to beautify and adorn the 

 works of a new creation. „^ , ^ , 



Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, has many 

 advantages over the most of hersister cities: the 

 large supply of excellent spring water is one ot 

 the greatest blessings to her numerous inhabit- 

 ants, both in respect to household purposes and 

 keeping the streets clean, as well as irrigating 

 the extensive meadows situated below the town, 

 by the rich stnfl' which it carries along in a state 

 of semi-solution, where the art of man, with the 

 common sewer water, has made sand hillocks 

 produce riches far superior to any thing of the 

 kind in the kingdom or in any other country. 



About two hundred acres of grass land are 

 made rich by the long continued accumulation 

 of rich sediment. Although the formation of 

 these meadows is irregular and the management 

 very imperfect, the effects of the water are as- 

 tonishing : they produce crops of grass not to be 

 equ.alled: being cut from four to si.x times ayeai^ 

 and the grass given green to milch cows. One 

 acre has been known to produce as high as ±-57 

 profit in a single season : so testifies Mr. Stever^s, 

 a man who urges from his own knowledge the 

 great advantage of irrigation. 



The Heart of the old Commonwealth. 



There is not perhaps a cultivated country of 

 equal extent Jithin'the limits of the thirteen 

 S ates where the surface soil was originally hard- 

 er, more rough and rocky and ""even than te 

 comity of Worcester, in the centre f Massachu- 

 setts : and we believe there is no dis net of coun- 

 ry where the improvements during the last twe.i- 

 tl^ears have been greater-no.ia containing a 

 population of laborevs so enterprising ""'' '" «'- 



tering all the arts and "^'^^^;;"^;ny ,owns of 

 ;?"''^i;S'"Th:'^300 inh:^"i^tJ of Wor- 



:;::(Sr^^M"eXt; audioes. th,irn.nu- 



factured furnitu 



PV into the county 



chase ofthe 55,000 dependent on 



the supplies they c»"- 



re of wood and iion, bring mon- 

 which enables them t" 



"gncii lure «li 

 •iH.re, and take i- ■ ' "" 



of hay, 



^''!..':°"'If i^ easily turned upon a side hi 



m 

 was 



to increase the capacu, 

 ot the means by wlii-^iv i., 



:^.tyour main condnctor^r fi^eder from wSEc^r" 



I est prices. The clemXH "^ d bJ'r'" '"^''• 



oHhe farmer : .. '"''"Tjpr '", '""'"' '^'^^^effonl 

 tr% in/...„ -t or Ills lanri ;» r. • . 



new efForts 

 ,'a>Kl_,t furnishes 



a stream sufiicient to 



be supi 



rrifiate the l-,nrl i, i l« tJ"^"'*''^ "'''<^'' ''"e is ahi„ '" improve hi., 



"ig-.te the land below.- 1 fields to yield double and four-fold tty^'' farmer 



DrorJJJCIlon 



ong the highest poln^of iUe-^^UMy^Z leZ^'iSi^ '''' ^^"^"^ """^ 



intended w' ^^ watered with a 



and an 

 kept in 



ffi'iiJi.o^i J I 1 •' ' — '■ "-^"'""s'' •'aiuaiJie above the best sui) 



5:"!'."^' I'^S^P' I '?:h<^'-« agriculture has to seek for a market a' n 



equal J""' ^o that all the water shall be distance- 

 equal mo. 'O'J- .Wo part of the str 



„„ I » J J '^'' " country, capital may be safelv 



,■,.,'- :- ■• i,„.i:,- , , earn expended 00 poor land. ^ 



should be upon a level . mtlined planes are nu- The roiiinv nr \u,^..„„ . 



of water shall V.of-„7, i^ of Worcester is represented n 



or water shall be | Congress by a pla.;;. ,„„„ of excellent sense-self 

 taught and practical : this gentleman has obtained 

 "1*; nonors of his county l)y the use he has made 

 of his own personal observation in the every day 

 business of life. He was appointed to deliver the 

 address before that noble institution, the Wor- 

 cester County Agricultural Society, in October 

 last ; and from his adilress we make the follow- 

 ing extract: — 



From Hon. Mr. Hudson's Address. 

 The great object wilh the farmer, is, to find a 

 market for his produce. It is to no purpose that 

 he raises more than he consumes unless lie can 

 dispose of the Fur])lus. And who are his pur- ' 

 chasers .' Not those engaged in the same pur- 

 suit with liimself"; they have generally enough 

 and to spare. His purchasers must be found 

 among the manufacturers and mechanics, the 

 merchants and trader.s, and those engaged in oth- 

 er callings than agriculture. The farmer, then, 

 has nothing to fear from those in other avocations, 

 or from the increase of their numbers. And what 

 if the young men leave the farm for the work- 

 shop, the mill, the counting-house, or the profes- 

 sions ? Tliey may find, ai many »f th«m d« t* 



cessary, so that every droj" 

 kept in constant motion. 



A gentleman who travelled in Italy informed 

 the editor of the Visitor that the whole conn'-,., 

 for many miles in extent is beautified to [„e ali"- 

 pearance of a garden at the foot of tlie Alps by 

 irrigation. The entire streams coming dowii 

 from the mountains are arrested for this purpose 

 and cast into artilicial reservoirs from which' 

 branch sti-eams that fertilize the whole country 

 about. The.se streams are paved with small 

 rocks that the water may not carry away the soil 

 or do injury by suddenly breaking down the 

 banks. Our informant did not doubt that the la- 

 bor and expense in creating and using these ar- 

 tificial means produced a greater profit to agri- 

 culture than as much labor and expense would 

 denve from our mode of cultivation. 



The wastage of material for fertilizing land in 

 large cities is immense. The saving of this ma- 

 terial would he doubly paid in its use upon the 

 land and in the cleanliness and health to which 

 the using and preserving it would contribute 



But the city upon elevated land may turn to 

 Its advantage the offal and offsnsivs mattsr eel- 



