1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



467 



For the Neiv England Farmer, 



FARMING IN WESTERN MASSACHU- 

 SETTS. 



BY PROF. J. A. NASH. 



In the hundred or more towns in Berkshh-e, 

 Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties, there 

 are a few large manufacturing villages, a great ma- 

 ny small ones, and still more little, unpretending 

 establishments, where more or less hands are em- 

 ployed. Among the articles manufactured are 

 •woollen and cotton goods, whips in quantities suth- 

 cient to do as much whipping as ought to be done 

 in the whole country, cigars, more than the whole 

 world ought to smoke, plows, axes, cutlery, cultiva- 

 tors, harrows, steam engines, railroad cars, scythes, 

 arms of all descriptions, tools for nearly all pur- 

 poses, and too many other things to name, employ- 

 ing a great number of men, and paying such wages 

 as enable them to be good customers to the farmer. 



In this same district, there are two colleges, 

 drawing their students mostly from out of the 

 State. There are about five hundred of the col- 

 lege officers and college students, including the 

 families of the -former. There are two female sem- 

 inaries, with at least five hundred persons connect- 

 ed with them, drawing still more largely from with- 

 out the State bounds. And there are many male 

 and female boarding-schools, of a high order, draw- 

 ing largely from other States. 



Besides these, there are the marble and iron of 

 Berkshire, and the clay beds for brick and tile drains, 

 which employ a large number of men, and yield a 

 large revenue. And, further, this region is well sup- 

 plied Avith professional men ; and, though the people 

 are considerably industrious, there are here, as every- 

 where else, some idlers, who nevertheless eat, and 

 we suppose, pay for what they eat. 



The farmers of this region, then, have a pretty 

 good array of customers ; and there is little ground 

 of fear that they will not continue to have. Our 

 fathers would have drained their swamps, cleared 

 off the boulders from their uplands, and enriched 

 their faiTus, if they could have seen as many cus- 

 tomers at their door. But they could not. Ne'-er 

 in their day was there a fair prospect before them, 

 that they would be able to obtain a reasonable 

 price for all they could raise. There was no reason 

 in paying the lawyer fifty cents for a dunning let- 

 ter in potatoes at ninepence a bushel, or in giving 

 the merchant fifty cents a yard for India cotton, 

 and paying him in veal, at two or three cents a 

 pound. And since labor was higher in proportion 

 to produce than now, I see not how they could 

 have done better than to skim such parts of the 

 farm from time to time, as could be skimmed with 

 the least labor. 



assure the farmer that he will have a stable market ; 

 not as high, perhaps, as the past year, but high 

 enough to make him a reasonable compensation for 

 his labor. Now, then, he can improve his land 

 with a fair prospect of being the gainer by it. He 

 can borrow money, if need be, with no quixotic 

 hope of being able to pay it, and retain a profit for 

 himself, in the increased value of his farm. 



If it be said that the great West will run us 

 down M'ith produce more cheaply raised, the an- 

 swer is, that we have now a home market, and that 

 it will demand all we can raise, aside from such ar- 

 ticles as the West can compete in. There is enough 

 for the New England farmer to do, that must be 

 done among ourselves ; the growing of heavy arti- 

 cles that cannot be transported, for low as trans- 

 portation is, it must ever remain a complete pro- 

 tection against the West, on certain important ar- 

 ticles, and those, in most cases, the very ones best 

 adapted to his soil. 



August, 1856. 



aUEEN ELIZABETH'S DINNER. 



A gentleman entered the room bearing a rod, and 

 along with him another, who had a tablecloth, 

 which, after they had both kneeled three times with 

 the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table, 

 and after kneeling again, they both retired. Then 

 came two others, one with a rod again, the other 

 with a saltcellar, a plate and bread ; when the y had 

 kneeled as others had done, and placed what was 

 brought upon the table, they too retired with the 

 same ceremonies performed by the first. At last 

 came an unmarried lady, (we were told she was a 

 countess,) and along with her a married one, bear- 

 ing a tasting-knife ; the former was dressed hi white 

 silk, who, when she had prostrated herself three 

 times in the most graceful manner, approached 

 the table, and rubbed the plates with bread and salt, 

 with as much awe as if the queen had been present. 

 When they had waited there a little while, the yeo- 

 men of the guard entered, bareheaded, clothed in 

 scarlet, with a golden rose upon their backs, bring- 

 ing in at each turn a course . of twenty-four dishes, 

 served in plate, most of it gilt ; these dishes were re- 

 ceived by a gentleman in the same order they were 

 brought, and placed upon the table, while the lady- 

 taster gave to each of the guard a mouthful to eat 

 of the particular dish he had brought, for fear of 

 any poison. During the time that the guard (which 

 consisted of the tallest and stoutest men that could 

 be found in all England, being carefully selected 

 for this service) were bringing dinner, twelve trum- 

 pets and two kettle-drums made the hall ring for 

 half an hour together ; at the end of all this cere- 



r^, , , , . . . ^ o monial, a num.ber of unmarried ladies appeared, who 



They lacked mcentives to exertion ; and as often ^,j^jj peculiar solemnity lifted the meat off the ta- 

 I think of their position, no manufacturing | j^l^^ ^^^^^j conveyed it into the queen's inner and 

 among them, no working of marble and iron, "01^^^^.^ pj-i^ate chamber, where, after she had chosen 



colleges, seminaries, and boarding-schools, few me 

 chanics, and not an overstock of professional men, 

 I wonder, not that they became rather dull, a little 

 fogyish, as we should deserve to be called, were we 

 not to wake up to an appreciation of our altered 

 circumstances, but rather that they retained so 

 much enterprise as they did. No wonder that the 

 old swamp by the barn afforded a lurking place for 

 serpents and frogs. But that after the prices of 

 the past few years, the frogs should peep out of the 

 same holes, is too bad. Everything now goes to 



for herself, the rest goes to the ladies of the court. 

 The queen dines and sups along with very few at- 

 tendants, and it is very seldom that anybody, for- 

 eigner or native, is admitted at that time, and then 

 only at the intercession of somebody in power. 



0C?= It is less tiresome to walk than to stand still 

 a given length of time, for in walking, each set of 

 muscles is resting half of the time, but when stand- 

 ing still all the muscles are continually exerted. 



