J 84 



Ql\)t iTarmcr's iiUn\il)lij Visitor. 



the convictions of an enliglileneil faith. Intelli- 

 gence is diffused wiUi iinexanii)lcd universality ; 

 a free press teems with the choicest productions 

 of all nations and ages. There are more daily 

 journals in the United States, than in the world 

 beside. * * Other governments are convulsed 

 by the innovations and reforms of neighhoring 

 states; our Constitution, fixed in the affections 

 of the people, from whose choice it has sprung, 

 neutralizes the infSuence of foreign principles, 

 and fearlessly opens an asylum to the virtuous, 

 the unfortunate and the oppressed of every na- 

 tion. 

 "And yet it is hut little more than two centuries, 

 since the oldest of otn- States received its first 

 permanent colony. Before that time the whole 

 territory was an unproductive waste. Through- 

 out its" wide extent the arts had not erected a 

 monument. Its only inhahitaiits were a few 

 scattered trihes of feehle liarharians, destitute of 

 commerce and of iiolitical connection. The axe 

 and the ploughshare were unknown. The soil, 

 which had been gathering feriility, from the re- 

 pose of centuries, was lavifhiug its strength in 

 niagirificent hut useless vegetation. In the view 

 of civilization the immense domain was a soli- 

 tude."* 



No American, of either sex, can study the laws 

 of our country, or cherish her institutions too 

 much. What she is to he in futmc ages — wheth- 

 er trampled upon aud enslaved, or standing forth, 

 free, magnanimous, great, .•\nd nnconquerahle, 

 among the nations of the earth, mainly depends 

 upon a knowledge of what she now is by the 

 piesent generations. 



Truly Tours, 



■ ' SIMON BROWN. 



ern part of Massacluisells, to the westward of 

 Boston hay. The pastures un the southerly and 

 easterly sides of that old ujounlain are valuable 

 for reaiing fine-«ooled sheep beyond all coju- 

 mon estimation. 



•Preface to Bancroft's History V. y. 



For the Farmer's Montlily Visitor. 

 Meteorological Journal kept at Concord 



BY A. CH.V!VDI,ER. 



29.84 

 .78 

 .89 

 .70 

 •30 

 .04 

 .29 

 .23 

 .51 

 .81 

 .56 

 .68 



!50 

 .88 

 .83 

 .90 

 .32 

 .67 

 .74 

 .80 

 .76 

 .27 

 .05 

 .24 

 .71 

 .41 



.85 



29.83 — 

 .82 

 .76 

 .68 

 .16 VV 

 .O.'JlN. W, 

 .30 S. E. 

 .30 

 .60 N. VV, 

 .78 

 .58 

 .64 

 .38 

 .60 



N. W, 



S. 



.87 

 .80 

 .30 

 .83 N. W 



.70 



.84 



.68 



.08 



.10 .\. W, 



..38 N. W. 



.67 1 N. \V. 



.68, N. VV. 



.82| - 



.74! — 



.82 — 



N. VV. 

 N. VV. 

 S. E. 

 .\. E. 

 W. 

 N. VV. 

 S. E. 







N. VV. 1 

 S. 1 



— 

 S. E. I 



— 



— 

 N. VV. I 



— 

 S. 1 



2 



— 



— 10 



foggy- 



— 10 

 VV. 8 



3 N. VV. 5 

 2 S. E. 10 



N. VV. 

 i\. VV. 

 N. W. 

 S. E. 



N. W. 

 !V. VV. 

 N. W. 

 N. W. 

 N.VV. 



10 

 N.VV. 



— 10 



— 



— 



— 10 



— 10 



— 10 



— 



— 10 



— 



— 10 



— 10 



— 10 

 N. VV. 5 



— 

 N. VV. 2 



— 



— 10 



— 



N. W. 2 



— 

 S. E.IO 



— 10 

 N. VV. 5 

 N. VV. 5 



10 



.\. VV. 4 



— 



— 10 



— 10 



i\. VV. 1 



— 



— 9 



— 10 

 .V.W.IO 



— 



— 



— 3 



— 10 



— 10 

 N. VV. 8 

 N. VV. 3 



— 10 

 N.W. 2 



— 10 



— 



— 



Mean temperature of the month, 37" I. 



Acknowledgment. 



The editor of the Visitor is indebted to the 

 grower of ihefnest icoot in Ike United States for the 

 present of ten yards of fianiiel, taken from the 

 bodies of his own Saxon sheep and m.inufaclur- 

 uiuler his own roof. This elegant cloth is fit 

 for the hack of the best human being on earth; 

 and we are gratified at least ten times the amount 

 of its value that the industrious worker with his 

 own hands, the intelligent practical fartner and 

 the gentleman, at the usual inclement season 

 should have thought so highly of this poor body, 

 lately emaciated with disease, but even now oil 

 earth made " a more glorious body," as to fur- 

 nish it the splendid material for two entire un- 

 der suit.s. 



That we do not mistake our friend ns the 

 "grower of the finest wool in the United States." 

 we will state that his clip of the past year from 

 three hundred sheep sold in the market at 72 

 cents per pound. His sheep are summered— 

 free from fear of wild animals— upon the Sutton 

 end of Old Kearsarge, a mountain showing it- 

 self from almost every high elevation in the 

 south-easterly part of New Hampshire and east- 



An esteemed friend and excellent practical 

 farmer at Washington city, reviewing an old and 

 valued correspondence, thus writes under the 

 date of Dec. H, 1844: 



"Our autumn has been one of unusual mild- 

 ness and favor to the seeding of our wheat aud 

 rye, and the fields are now covered with a beau- 

 tiful green surpassing what we often see in the 

 spring. Until rather late in the tail the prece- 

 ding dry weather continued, so that we tboULiht 

 turnips and cabbages would almost entirely liiil ; 

 but the rains since and the genial uiildiie.'^s el 

 the weather have made up all defiiiciicics and 

 dispelled apprehensions by an ;diuudant supply 

 of these fine winter vegetables. In fact I liad 

 fine turnips mider new circumstances. About 

 the last of July, then sowing son;e timothy 

 (herdsgrass) seed, 1 mixed with it a small quan- 

 tity of the English or flat turnip seeds. A slight 

 ichower of rain that soon after (ell I suppose 

 sprouted the turnip seed which perished from 

 the dry we;ilher of the whole of August exce|it 

 under the trees : here the young turnips survi- 

 ved, aud began to grow when the trees stop- 

 ped, and T have never seen better, or even so 

 close together, or as matured, wlieie 1 expected 

 none. They had neither thiimiuL' nor hoeing, 

 and it) spots seemed to crowd like good onions. 

 The tops were unusually small, but not on ac- 

 count of the particular kind, a.s 1 have raised 

 from kindred seed turnips with tops of the ordi- 

 nary size. The truth is, thiil in this climate, 

 where the summers arc long and hot, autumn 

 and spring are the favor.ible seasons for the far- 

 tner. The length aud heat of the last summer 

 so ripened my winter apples that they have al- 

 ready nearly all decayed." 



I'eat and Swamp l«uck"Swamp Lands— their 

 value. 



Those who doubt the vahte of peat hog and 

 swamp muck as a material for making compost, 

 or that the most liirbiddiug bogs and fens capable 

 of being drained, can bo coiiveried into the very 

 best and most productive lands— may cornpletelj 

 dissipate these doubts bj visiting the vicinity ol 

 Fresh Pond some five miles out of Boston. .Ac- 

 cess to this interesting region of improvement 

 may be had convenietitly by the Fitrhbm'g or the 

 ice railroad from the depot near Charloslown 

 bridge, IMassachusetl.';. 



Fresh pond lies nearly upon a level with 

 Charles river its it makes the entrance of the har- 

 bor of Boston and Cliarlestown from Boston 

 bay ; hence the low grounds about it were li.ible 

 alwaj's to he flowed out at the high tide.s. A few 

 years ago the owners of several hundred acres of 

 these sw;imp grounds united for the purpose of 

 shutting ofl' the tides ; this was done by a tide 

 gate, and as a consequence a portion of these 

 swamp lands was put in a cotidition to he re- 

 claimed fi-ir cultivation. 



A contemplated branch from the Fitehbnrg 

 railroad to West Camhridge village would furnish 

 a complete dam against the overflow of the tides, 

 and make llie whole safe from iniinilation ; anil 

 ibis was urged as ;:n imporlaut incident to the 

 owners of the land to encour.'ige the undertaking. 

 The stream of water issuing out of Fresh pond 

 into the BIystic or Medford river is the diviiling 

 line between Cambridge and \V'est Camhridge 

 from the pond to the norlh line of Somerville, 

 and also is the dividing line until it readies Med- 

 ford between West Cambridge and the same iii.'W 

 town of Somerville. This last town was recent- 

 ly taken from that part of Charleslown without 

 the neck which embraces the town of Ch.ai les- 

 town including Bunker and Breed's hill. Charles- 

 town formerly extended in a narrow strip some 

 eight miles above the neck against Medford and a 

 part of Woburn : that part of Charlestown which 

 was westerly of the stream running from I\Ied- 

 ford into Fresh pond and through which the 

 tides enter, was a<ided to West Cambridge at the 

 same lime Somervile was made a new town. The 

 area of these towns is so small that the whole 

 land comprising the towns of Cambridge, West 

 Cambridge, Charlestown, Somerville and Med- 

 ford would not contain a measurement much lar- 



ger than a sinirle six miles square township. 

 Sni.all as these towns were, so near the penin- 

 sida of Boston as for all praclical pur|;Oses to be 

 apart of the city which it \\\\\ soon become, 

 since our recollection there was more waste 

 lands within tliis tenitory than is common even 

 in an extended rough country town. Tlie Fresh 

 pond swamps were (brmerly the most unpromis- 

 ing [lart of these waste lands; the swampy part 

 not only lay along the shores of the larger or 

 Fresh pond, but embraced much of the land en- 

 circling the lesser and the larger Spy ponds, all 

 of which were connected with each other by one 

 main stream coiuinning through the whole. It 

 is the improvement and iucrease<l and continual- 

 Iv increasing value of these swamp kinds to 

 which we would direct the attention of our read- 

 ers. 



'I'he swamps are underlaid with a bed of pure 

 blue clay excellent for the manulju-lure of brick: 

 on ihe verge of the Filchbiiig railroad, hrick 

 yards have already been laid off. One establish- 

 ment has contnicled ibr the delivery of six mil- 

 lions of bricks the ensuing season. The railroad 

 brings the transport of the fuel fiiun the wharf 

 aud the finished bricks to the wharf to cost a 

 mere trifle. The bricks are manufactured by new 

 and perlect machinery. 



The ice establishinents, as well on the shores 

 of Fresh pond as about the upper and larger Spy 

 pond, are immense eslablishmeiits. Tbey are 

 large wooden bnilrlings generally in tiie shape of 

 barns; they are walled in with bark Inn to the 

 eaves; and in them, above ground, the ice taken 

 from the ponds in winter is kept through Ihe 

 warm season, re.idy at any lime to be transported 

 over the railroad ami form a cargo to the w;iiling 

 ship. So valuable is the ice of Fresh pond, that 

 artificial wooden platforms have been laid on the 

 slioies, into which the water is carried by a 

 windmill : in these pans or reservoirs ice is made 

 before the pond freezes over in early winter. As 

 a substitute or in tiddition to the large ice houses 

 iif wood, an immense brick buililing with walled 

 apartments covering an area ofsomething like an 

 acre ol land has been recently bnill from beauti- 

 ful bricks made near the spot: Ihe cost of this 

 building and its apparatus aud a|ipeudages ex- 

 ceeds $30,000. The im|irovemenls are such that 

 two years slock of ice is to be kept in time of 

 plenly, so that when an open winter occurs the 

 supply for shipping and for the use ol"the city of 

 Boston may be kept up. 



The improvement of the dyked meadow is to 

 be seen liom the old Cambridge road on the m;u- 

 ket garden of Mr. S.vmuel BuTTERFiELn svhich 

 has been gradu;illy extended from the light sandy 

 soil above the margin down far into the morass. 

 Sand or tenacious swamp, the enlire premises 

 exhibit lliroui;h the summer .-inil liill a giant veg- 

 etation truly astonishing to those who have had 

 the opinion that light ground leached iind lost 

 the value of the manure placerl upon it anil who 

 wonder at the sight of a shaking saturated hog 

 turned into a most luxuriant potato field. 



Of the swamp principally between the liitie 

 Spy pond and tlie Fr>'sh pond is the splendid 

 giirden tarm of Mr. AvAts Hill, a large porliou of 

 which be lias ch.iiiged fioni a useless hog yield- 

 ing scarcely the wild grasses — a safe resort for 

 the bhickhirds, u hose nests wete inticcessible to 

 the wanton boys who hunt bird's eggs — into pro- 

 ductive fields of almost every kind of vegetation 

 such as sells in Boston mat kel. Ou this farm as 

 a second cio|i, Mr. Hill has been known to take 

 in a year S'lOOO or more for the single item of 

 cucumbers for pickling. As another item which 

 costs nothing now, and from Irecsall planiedand 

 grafted long since .Mr. II. hegim upon ihe spot, 

 500 to 1000 barrels of the finest apples, such as 

 the Gilliflower and the Balilu in, is another con- 

 sideration of value to these |ireiiiises. 



The Fitehbnrg railroad passes directly throngli 

 Mr. Hill's farm, dividing it iii almosi eipial parts; 

 for the ground at its eslimaled value fur cultiva- 

 tion, the road paid him -SISOO in cash. The su- 

 perintendent of the road, who thought it indeed 

 a pity to cut throuj;!) so rich and so deep a soil to 

 the interruption of ihat fertility which seemed as 

 if it might last fore\er, inlbrined us that he bad 

 marked down and considered Mr. Hill to be the 

 very best fiirmer in the United Stales. Consider- 

 ing what the whole of the land constituting his 

 present farm was w hen he begun upon it about 

 ibriy years ago, wo must do him the justice to 



