1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARISffiR. 



423 



through the tall grass in grand style, and horse- 

 rakes gathering it up for the garner, on some of 

 the farms that appeared as if they were cultiva- 

 ted by live people. The corn crop generally, 

 looked very promising, the hay crop not so good, 

 and the recent rains, which have fallen in rather 

 too much abundance, have sadly interfered with 

 the gathering in of the latter — though, thanks 

 to the invention of hay-caps, the crop is not very 

 badly injured. By the way, we saw many a field, 

 during our early ride, dotted all over with that 

 useful contrivance, appearing like the grand en- 

 campment of an army of Liliputians, and in one 

 field where the caps probably ran out, the owner 

 of the hay had substituted old quilts, coverlids, 

 horse-blankets and even buffalo robes ! That man 

 deserves to save his hay, and I trust his cattle 

 will luxuriate next winter in sweet fodder, while 

 he is comfortably sleeping under those same 

 unique hay-caps ! 



This town of Chester is, as you know, dignified 

 by a long road through its principal village, 

 called "Chester Street." I do not believe there 

 is, in the United States, such a half-mile of trees 

 as that street presents to my eye at this moment, 

 as I sit here in the old paternal mansion, where 

 you and I have passed so many happy hours, in 

 the days long gone by ! One side of the street 

 presents a continuous row of maples and elms, 

 now of nearly, or quite 30 year's growth^ in full 

 foliage, and, as I view them obliquely, showing a 

 half-mile of solid green. This row was mostly 

 planted by an assistant editor of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, in his boyhood ! Towering far 

 above this growth, for a portion of the distance, 

 is another, about 10 feet inside of it, forming an 

 avenue — and it was planted by that same gentle- 

 man's great grandfather, about a hundred years 

 ago. It is principally of ash. There is, however, 

 one large elm ; and as I have been travelling 

 round with a tape line in my pocket, ever since I 

 read the last production of "The Autocrat of the 

 Breakfast Table," in the August number of the 

 Atlantic MontJdy, I measured that elm of a hund- 

 red years. Near the ground it is 12 feet in cir- 

 cumference — 5 feet from the ground, 11 feet 4 

 inches — the diametrical spread of its foliage is 

 90 feet, and some of its limbs would make large 

 trees. Mr. "Autocrat" says — "What makes a 

 first-class elm ? Why, size in the first place and 

 chiefly. Anything over 20 feet of clear girth, 5 

 feet above the ground, and with a spread of 

 branches a hundred feet across, may claim that 

 title, according to my scale." So our Chester 

 elm is still in its youth ! Well, I knew that tree 

 more than fifty years ago ! and it now seems to | 

 me as if it was just about the size then, that it is 

 now. Small as it is, according to our Autocrat's 

 scale, it is an elegant and majestic tree, one of 

 the most perfectly shaped and well-proportioned 

 elms I have ever seen, and so sound.and vigo- 

 rous as to promise to come up to our friend's 

 scale in about a hundred years more ! I hope 

 his grandchildren may have the pleasure of put- 

 ting his "ring" upon it ! I read that production 

 of the Autocrat, for the first time, at Exeter, 

 where there is an elm that the benighted people 

 of that town hav'e always looked upon as a mon- 

 ster tree. One hour after I read it, I had a tape 

 line round that tree, at 5 feet above the root, and 

 lo, it annouced the humiliating fact that it meas- 



ured 14 feet 4 inches ! I wound up the tape line 

 mighty quick, and sneaked off as if I had been 

 caught measuring a stalk of tall corn, and found 

 it 3 feet high ! Nothing takes the conceit out of 

 large things like a measuring tape ! 



But, to come back to Chester Street, where j, 

 am, and where I wish I could say to you, "Simon, 

 look down that glorious avenue ; did you ever 

 see anything more beautiful, or more silent and 

 deserted ?" Poor old Chester, where you and I 

 piayed in our boyhood, loved in our days of 

 goslinship, married in our young manhood, spent 

 some of the best days of our lives, and look 

 upon, even now, with reverence and deep affec- 

 tion ! Although it is shorn of its fair propor- 

 tions, first of Manchester, before we were born, 

 and, since our remembrance, of Hookset and Au- 

 burn, it is still, to us, a green and sunny spot, 

 and never more green or more sunny than on 

 this beautiful July afternoon. 



iTiave just been across the street into the old 

 garden, picking cherries from the grand-child- 

 trees, I . should think, of those from which I 

 picked them in my boyhood. But there stand 

 the old St. Michael pear trees which I saw plant- 

 ed, and in the stocks of which plants I saw with 

 my boy-eyes, my father set the scions when they 

 (the stocks) were, i)erhaps an inch and a half in 

 diameter. Those trees are lusty fellows now, 

 but there is the ring around them where the new 

 scion united itself to the stock — married for 

 richer or for poorer, for better or for worse — no 

 divorce from that wedlock, and even death can- 

 not them separate ! The marriage ring remains 

 a sacred tie to them forever ! Would it wei-e al- 

 ways as sacred ! 



But I am getting garrulous in my old age, and 

 my brief letter is passing the boundaries of your 

 patience, I fear. I am no farmer, as the Judge is, 

 and therefore you must not expect me to tell you 

 how to plant mangel wurzel, lay drains, make 

 wire fences, prune trees, and all that sort of 

 thing, as he does, and I must be suffered to run 

 on in my own way, and write of what happens 

 to come uppermost in my mind. 



It is my candid opinion that I have written 

 enough for this time, and so I subscribe myself 

 your own and the New England Farmer s very 

 humble servant, B. B. French. 



Remarks. — A capital letter. Major — squeeze 

 your sponge again, by-and-bye. AVe are glad that 

 all persons are not farmers ; if they were, we 

 should lose many beautiful shades and tints that 

 we enjoy as it is. 



The Judge presents us with a class of objects 

 and opinions widely different from yours, and so 

 on through our whole list of excellent corres- 

 pondents. It is thus that we are enabled to serve 

 up a Weekly dish, so rich and well seasoned, as 

 to furnish something agreeable and profitable to 

 every taste. 



Teething ix Horses. — The American Veter- 

 inary Journal for June says : — "There is no doubt 

 that many young colts suffer as much pain in 

 cutting their teeth as is the case with children ; 

 and the pain does not always arise, as some 



