1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



547 



some of the minor offices. The following was the 

 successful ticket — a total number of 143 votes 

 being cast. 



President — Joseph Breck. 



Vice Presidents — E. S. Hand, Eben. Wight, J. 

 r. C. Hyde, W. C. Strong. 



Treasurer — William R. Austin. 



Corresponding Secretary — Eben. Wight. 



Recording Secretary — F. Ljman Winship. 



Professor of Botany and Vegetable Physiology 

 — Prof. Asa Gray. 



Professor of Zoology — J. W. P. Jenks. 



Professor of Horticidtural Chemistry — E. N. 

 Horsford. 



LETTER FKOM MR. BROWN. 



An Old Town — >feiT3papcr establisheil — First Editorial — A 

 Young Bride and a New Baby — Tyranny of Business — An 

 Old Church, and an Old Swamp— Effects of Draining and Cul- 

 tivation — Profits — Sheep on Old Pastures — Rural Residences 

 near the Ocean — Uood Examples — Sunday — and Considera- 

 tion for Hoops. 



Eingham, Mass., Oct , 1859. 



Gents. : — Many years ago, I was a citizen of 

 this ancient and pleasant town, — and here, after 

 a ramble through most of the States of the Union 

 in order to see what lay outside of the pasture I 

 had been feeding in, I embarked in business. 

 That business was the establishment of the first 

 newspaper of the place, in connection with a 

 young chum as full of zeal as myself. Never to 

 be forgotten by me, are some things that hap- 

 pened at this period. It was easy to set up a 

 press and finger the types, but where were the 

 editorials to come from ? The village must have 

 its newspaper — its advertisements, its political 

 calls, and notices of various kinds, together with 

 its marriages, deaths, poetry and stories. All 

 these now stood in fair array before us, but there 

 was no editorial. There was nothing to write 

 about — nothing — the world was blank ! "No 

 man knows what he can do until he tries." This 

 old saw haunted me continually, until in a fit of 

 desperation the pen was seized, and the first edi 

 torial was born ! Eureka ! 



Here, too, I brought my young bride, scarce- 

 ly nineteen, and only a ninety-six pounder, but 

 as full of energy as the largest girl that ever 

 bewitched a boy on the South Shore. In the 

 progress of events, it seemed sort of strange 

 that there were three of us in the family ; the 

 house appeared odd ; there was an air of im- 

 portance about every body, and a sly winking 

 that betokened something either good or bad ! 

 But when the outsiders told me such was the 

 way of the world, I reconciled myself to it with 

 the best grace I could, and concluded to let it 

 wag on. But I could scarcely make up my mind 

 which delighted me most, — the birth of the first 

 editorial, or the birth of the first baby ! 



All my associations, business and social, with 

 the good people of the town, were of the most 

 pleasant character ; acquaintances were rapidly 



formed, and mutual benefits, 1 trust, were re- 

 ceived from contact and labor with each other. 

 The newly-born paper flourished in its youth, 

 and grew into a manly vigor, so that "news from 

 all nations is lumbering at its back" at this day. 



Business is a tyrant, gentlemen. It had cut us 

 off, — by the word us, I mean, not the editorial 

 plural, but the corporeal, flesh and blood, tis, my 

 good wife and myself, — business had cut us off 

 from all association with our early and excellent 

 friends, now, for some fifteen years, and that is a 

 loss not to be balanced by gold. So we resisted 

 the temptations of business, and came to this old 

 town to see our old friends, when the sun was 

 shining softly upon October leaves, and the earth 

 seemed as lovely as on that delightful May morn- 

 ing, when I entered the town with a young lady 

 at my side, under a Leghorn hat almost as capa- 

 cious as the hoops of to-day. 



This accounts for my dating at this place ; and 

 this essential preliminary being settled, I will 

 leave personal reminiscences, and proceed to re- 

 gale your readers, if I can, with some account of 

 what I have seen and heard here. 



HiNGHAM lies on Boston harbor, about a doz- 

 en miles from the city by water, and a trifle more 

 by land. The town nestles pleasantly among the 

 graceful undulations that form the surface, hav- 

 ing several streets lined with substantial dwell- 

 ings, churches, stores and school-houses. The 

 old church — the oldest in Massachusetts, I be- 

 lieve, if not in the country — stands upon a gen- 

 tie eminence, still in good condition, and has had 

 but five pastors in the space of tioo hundred and 

 tiventy-four years ! The population of the town 

 is mainly agricultural, though at a former period, 

 a brisk and profitable business was done in the 

 mackerel and cod fishery. 



Unusual attention has been paid to the agri- 

 cultural capacities and interests of the town with- 

 in a few years, which has resulted in frequent 

 gatherings of those interested in the subject, in 

 the organization of a vigorous town society, and 

 in the reclamation of new, and the better culti- 

 vation of old, lands. One of the finest exam- 

 ples I have ever seen of reclaiming a bog swamp, 

 is on the farm of Jedediah Farmer, Esq. I 

 saw this swamp several years ago, when it was 

 in reality a dismal sioamp ; it was low, wet, un ■ 

 even, and covered with water brush, brakes, and 

 uncounted numbers of wild rose bushes, that 

 made it perilous to enter its repulsive borders. 

 When these had been cut and cleared off, and the 

 plow put in, the moss was ten inches deep, and 

 would so rise up under that implement as to raise 

 it two feet from the level. But the axe, hoe, 

 plow and fire, reduced all obstacles, aided by the 

 draining which preceded them, and now that 

 home of frogs, muskrats and miasma, is a fertile 



