14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan 



"With my parish and my farm to look after, I 

 cannot do everything." 



You go through western Massachusetts and 

 you may hear the same excuse 20 years long re- 

 peated out of the tops of the abandoned apple 

 trees, "Don't look at us, our owner cannot do 

 everytliing." 



Plant apple trees, plant fruit trees, and do not 

 neglect them as to the spade at the root and the 

 knife at the top, while they are young. Remem- 

 ber, tlie hearing year never comes to him tvho cul- 

 tivates no trees. A. Foster, Chairman. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LETTER PKOM JUDGE FRENCH. 

 AGRICULTURE IN COOS COUNTY, N. H. 



Lancaster, N. H., Nov., 1858. 



Friend Brown : — An American who desires 

 to behold nature in some of her most sublime 

 and picturesque aspects, need not incur the per- 

 ils of a voyage across the sea, but let him first 

 visit the "Crystal Hills" of New Hampshire. 

 There are many things in the Granite State, lit- 

 tle dreamed of in the philosophy of Boston peo- 

 ple. It is not only a very good State to emi- 

 grate /"rowi, but it seems by the fashionable world 

 to have been, of late, discovered to be an agree- 

 able place of resort in summer, by way of escape 

 from the heat and sinfulness of city life. 



I am told that there were seven hundred 

 strangers quartered at one time last summer in 

 the little village of North Conway, below the 

 Notch of the White Mountains, and a voice is 

 still calling to them to come up higher. 



A story is told of two fast young gentlemen 

 from Boston, who wanted to go to the farthest 

 bounds of civilization northward, so they took 

 the railroad to Littleton, and there chartered a 

 horse and wagon, for a drive into the wilderness. 

 They carefully provided a flask of whisky and 

 some crackers, so as not to incur danger of hun- 

 ger or thirst, and came over to Lancaster, ex- 

 pecting to see the spot where civilization gradu- 

 ally tapered off into the wilds of Indian life, whtn 

 suddenly they found themselves in front of the 

 magnificent hotel, of which I will say enough to 

 show that they who travel this way need not 

 bring provisions or tents. 



THE LANCASTER HOUSE. 



This hotel, which is the largest in this State, 

 a part three, and a part four stories high, was 

 opened last summer lor guests, by Mr. John 

 Lindsay. The building itself, in this country of 

 cheap lumber, cost about $18,000 — and when 

 fully arranged will accommodate one hundred 

 and fifty guests. The rooms of the lower story 

 are thirteen, those of the second story twelve, 

 and those of third, eleven feet in height. The 

 largest suite of rooms open into one spacious 

 drawing-room of the dimensions of 54 by 24 



feet. The house is 190 feet in length, a part be- 

 ing 64 and the rest 40 feet in width. The ample 

 porticos, the lofty ceilings and the broad wind- 

 ing staircases, are arranged with an architectural 

 skill, that gives the structure, both without and 

 within, an effect really imposing. It is designed 

 to accommodate those who in the hot season 

 seek health or pleasure in these grand moun- 

 tain regions, and it is difficult to say where art 

 and nature have better combined for the enjoy- 

 ment of leisure,'than at this same spot, so far north 

 that one looks back from it towards the south- 

 east at the peak of Mount Washington. The 

 distance from Boston is about two hundred miles, 

 by Concord and Littleton, by railroad, and twen- 

 ty miles stage, and two hundred and forty, in- 

 cluding ten miles by stage, by Portland and the 

 Grand Trunk Railway. For those who desire 

 to pass through the Switzerland of America, the 

 stage and lake steamer routes furnish a charm- 

 ing variety of wild scenery through the Notches 

 of the Mountains. 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 



The price of the best rock maple wood, which 

 is from $1,25 to $1,50 per cord, and the price of 

 potatoes at the starch factory, twenty cents a 

 bushel, seem to indicate, that, notwithstanding 

 our spacious hotel, we have advanced somewhat 

 beyond the centre of population. Indeed, Lan- 

 caster is nearer to Montreal in Canada, than to 

 Boston, and the Grand Trunk Railway, con- 

 necting Portland with the cities of the Cana- 

 das, is a great artery which sends out American 

 blood with American principles and sympathies, 

 through all the Provinces. 



England cannot desire to hinder the fraternal 

 relations of her provinces with the States, or she 

 never would have assented to either of the two 

 great steps towards fraternization which have re- 

 cently been taken. 



By one of them — the reciprocity treaty — agri- 

 cultural products are carried free of duty be- 

 tween us and Canada, and so the custom-house 

 mark o^ boundary is, in part, eflfaced. By the 

 other, Carada has adopted the decimal currency, 

 and "the almighty dollar" claims dominion there 

 instead of the former sovereign of Great Britain. 



But to return to the subject of agricultural 

 products. This is part of the valley of the Con- 

 necticut, famous for its fertility, but as this por- 

 tion of it is two hundrer" miles from Boston, its 

 best market, farmers are obliged to send down 

 their produce in a form not chargeable with too 

 much freight. Butter and cheese, cattle and 

 horses and wool, are the principal articles sold. 

 Wheat is grown to some extent, but a great deal 

 of flour is brought down from Canada to supply 

 the deficiency. A great deal of valuable lumber 



