424 



NEW ENG].AND FARMER. 



Sept. 



persons suppose, from irritation of the mucus 

 membrane of the mouth, occasioned by the point 

 of the tooth, but frequently from the pressure on, 

 and irritation of, the dental nerve. The remedy, 

 (instead of tormenting the suffering creature with 

 a red hot iron for the purpose of 'burning out the 

 lampas,' as some persons profess to do,) is a 

 common thnmb lancet. Make an incision through 

 the gum or mucous membrane of the mouth, in 

 the region of the tusks or incisors, wherever the 

 difficulty may be, and relief is almost immediate. 

 This is a sure remedy to relieve local distension 

 of the mucous membrane of the mouth, if it exist, 

 and at the same time prevents the fang of the 

 tooth from irritating the dental nerve." 



LETTER FROM MR. BROWN. 



Bochester, Mass., Aug. 7, 1858. 



Dear Sir: — This was formerly one of the 

 large towns of Massachusetts, in territory, but 

 has recently been reduced in dimensions, by 

 dipping from its borders, and erecting two other 

 towns, Marion and Mattapoisett. The latter 

 town lies directly upon an arm of Buzzard's Bay, 

 and in seasons of greater commercial prosperity, 

 had quite a lively business in ship-building, 

 which was of considerable importance to the 

 people, in the absence of manufactures, which, in 

 one form or another, may be found in almost 

 every section of our State. The herring fishery 

 of Mattapoisett, and the lumbering of Rochester, 

 give a little variety to the occupation of the peo- 

 ple, and are each a source of considerable in- 

 come. 



All this section of Plymouth county is quite 

 flat, and a large portion of the land is rather un- 

 inviting to agricultural pursuits ; some of the 

 land is sandy, evidently once covered with a 

 growth of pines, while large tracts are thickly 

 studded with granite boulders, and a plenty of 

 small stones to keep them company. Although 

 farming is the principal occupation of the peo- 

 ple, it is obvious that it has not been looked up 

 on as a pursuit demanding study and investiga- 

 tion, and one requiring considerable head-work 

 as well as hand-work. The great obstacle to 

 progress here, seems to me to be, the possession 

 of too much land. On inquiry of one farmer 

 how much land he owned, he replied yb«r hund- 

 red acres, and added, that his grand-father divid' 

 ed it between four sons, but he had managed to 

 get it all together again ! This desire amounted 

 to a passion with him, and although now nearly 

 eighty years old, he will not consent to the sale of 

 a single rood. Yet on this 400 acre farm, I saw 

 no evidence of an income equal to what I fre 

 quently find on a 40 acre farm under good culti- 

 Tation, — as less than a dozen head of cattle are 

 wintered on it, and the amount of stock kept, as 

 a general rule, is the criterion by which I usu- 



ally judge of a farm. If three-fourths of tb« 

 outlands of this farm were sold at a moderate 

 price, and the proceeds well employed on the re- 

 maining fourth, there can be no doubt that tb« 

 profits of the farm would be trebled, and a new 

 aspect given to everything about the ancient 

 homestead. 



On such lands as compose many of these farms 

 it is a pity that farming was ever resorted to as 

 a source of supply. The labor of clearing them 

 of the rocks and stones is immense, and even 

 when that is accomplished, they are too flat for 

 most of the hoed crops, and in seasons like th« 

 present poorly reward the care and toil bestowed 

 upon them. But directly or indirectly, good 

 seems to come out of everything. These aftem 

 realities which meet the people at every step, 

 have excited a good deal of activity of mind in 

 other directions, if not in that of farming. The 

 extensive forests that prevail, have suggested 

 many curious devices in the way of circular and 

 other saws, turning lathes, and boring and plan- 

 ing machines, to convert them into a thousand 

 articles of ornament or utility, — while the rocks 

 which have impeded the plow and obstructed th« 

 scythe for generations, could scarcely fail to stim- 

 ulate some minds to devise the means of getting 

 them out of the way ; and this has been most 

 signally accomplished in 



A MACHINE FOR LIFTING ROCKS. 



I was invited to the farm of Thomas Ellis, 

 Esq., of this town, to see this machine in opera- 

 tion, and a simple account of what I saw it do, 

 will be better evidence of its value than any glow- 

 ing description or high-sounding phrases. It is 

 necessary, however, first to state that the rocks 

 do not require any digging about, unless they are 

 entirely below the surface, and then only enough 

 to make room to apply the hooks by which they 

 are raised ; a slight indentation is made on two 

 faces of the rock with a common drill, into which 

 the points of the hooks are placed. The machin* 

 is a simple, stout framework, upon which is a lit- 

 tle cast-iron gearing, and the whole mounted up- 

 on strong wheels six feet in diameter. Two men 

 and a boy with a pair of oxen and a horse, or 

 two pairs of oxen, if the rocks are very large, are 

 all that is required to work it, and there is no 

 hard lifting, no chocking of wheels, no prying 

 with bars or levers, no vexation or swearing ne- 

 cessary in the most eff'ectual operation of the ma- 

 chine. 



At 9 o'clock, it was backed over a rock show- 

 ing only 3 inches out of the ground, and in 5 

 minutes the rock was upon the surface, in the 

 cheerful sunlight, whose warm rays it had prob- 

 ably never felt so plainly before. It was then ta- 

 ken to another, the hooks applied, and in 6 min- 

 utes it was^upon the surface. The weight of this 



