438 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



fabric, or high heels set fair damsels a tiptoe in 

 everj' lovely vale or on every breezy hill I have 

 visited. You cannot hem in a true Yankee, body 

 or soul, or draw a cordon thick and strong 

 enough to keep the fashions away from a young 

 Yankee girl whose pulses are beating with health 

 and joy — bless her heart — among these healthful 

 and inspiring hills. When you come into this re- 

 gion, you will find a touch of the modern in every 

 thing, whether railroads traverse it or not. The 

 same animics that moves the modes and styles on 

 the pavements, inspires the same nature in this 

 world among the clouds — so that you not only 

 find a pleasant elegance in the sitting-room and 

 parlor, and often in the architectural taste mani- 

 fested in the fonstruction of new buildings, but 

 a suavity of manner and a refinement of feeling, 

 not often surpassed in any New England society. 

 The stage we passed to-day had eighteen passeii- 

 gers on and in it, beside the driver, and a world 

 of baggage, probably just from some fashionable 

 resort on the sea-shore, Hampton, Cohasset or 

 Nahant ! What power could keep these "free and 

 independent" people in, is a question more perti- 

 nent than to ask how they get out. 



But my good steed is at the door ; the hot cof- 

 fee, corn bread and sweet butter have received 

 due attention, and I must now be on the road 

 again. Old Monadnock and the White Mountain 

 range are in view, as we snuff the cool mountain 

 air, and slowly creep down "Cork Hill," and ap- 

 proach the sources of the ancient Piscataquog, 

 where the Indian once threw his spear, and built 

 his forest fire. 



Before closing this sheet, I cannot forbear to 

 speak of the excellent roads which I travel over 

 in every part of this State. I have not found 

 their equal in any part of Massachusetts, for an 

 equal extent. On inquiring of Capt. Josiah 

 Stone, of Hancock, how they managed them, he 

 said that as early in April as the condition of the 

 roads would permit, they pass over them with a 

 heavy harrow, stirring the gravel as deep as they 

 can make the teeth of the harrow penetrate. A 

 slight filling up of the low places, and a rolling 

 finishes the work, and the result is the finest 

 country roads we have ever travelled over. 



Very truly yours, SiMON Brown. 



Joel Nourse, Esq., Boston. 



Franklin County Fair, Vt. — We learn with 

 pleasure that Col. Daniel Needham, of Hart- 

 ford, Vt., win deliver the annual address before 

 the Franldin County Agricidttiral Society of 

 that State, at St. Albans, on the thirtieth of 

 September next. The Col. is a practical, as well 

 as an educated man, and he will prepare an ad- 

 dress that will be profitable to those who give 

 their attention to it. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MATTEBS IN IO"V^A. 



I wish all discontented New England farmers 

 could be out West this summer. It would teach 

 them a lesson which they very much need to 

 learn, viz., to stop croaking. Of all the hard, 

 dull, blue times I ever knew in Massachusetts, 

 the present times in Iowa are the bluest. Prop- 

 erty of all kinds, except money, has depreciated 

 from one-third to one-half its estimated value 

 one year ago. There is not half so much money 

 in circulation as there was a year ago. The crop 

 of wheat and oats, in a large part of the State, is 

 less than half of last year ; and in many instan- 

 ces will not pay for harvesting. My nearest 

 neighbor has sold his wheat in the field for the 

 seed ; i. e., as many bushels as he sowed. An- 

 other neighbor does not consider his worth cut- 

 ting. The season has been very wet, more so 

 than was ever known before. Weeds and vines 

 are rank enough ; corn and potatoes doubtful, as 

 yet. Moreover, almost everybody is in debt, and, 

 like a fly in molasses, can't get out. The harder 

 one tries, the worse off he becomes. Borrowing 

 money only sinks him in deeper trouble ; for in- 

 terest is high, and property is stationary or 

 still depreciating. Many will be obliged to give 

 up their farms, one-half and two-thirds paid for, 

 to cancel the balance. 



The prospect for another year is dark enough. 

 Immigration from the East has been less than 

 usual, and few improvements are being made. 

 We have enough to eat for some time to come. 

 And so have the farmers of Massachusetts ; and 

 in addition to that, they have many other comforts 

 and conveniences which cannot be had here. 



Nevertheless, as Mrs. Hemans has beautifully 

 sung : — 



"The gloomiest soul is not all gloom ; 



The saddest heart is not all sadness ; 

 And sweetly o'er the darkest doom, 



There shines some lingering beam of gladness." 



There must, it would seem, some good grow 

 out of all this evil and trial. It will curtail some 

 of the reckless speculation which has raged for 

 years past. It will show men the folly of run- 

 ning in debt so much, and the advantages of the 

 cash system. Men are too eager to be rich and 

 independent of labor ; too much bent upon their 

 own gratification and self-will ; too impatient of 

 the restraints of morality and religion. All this 

 needs a powerful check, and the hard times 

 would have been of but little benefit, if they had 

 passed away as soon as men wished and proph- 

 esied. The medicine will not only be more bit- 

 ter another year, but will effect a more thorough 

 cure. Prosperity will doubtless return again, 

 sometime, but not speedily ; and herein. Gov. 

 Seward, who foretold a recovery as rapid as the 

 depression, has proved himself a mistaken proph- 

 et. 



Yet some of our people have been so profound- 

 ly beguiled, that they are not yet awake to the 

 stern reality. A man who came from New Eng- 

 land some twenty years ago, told me, lately, that 

 he did not believe he could get a living on one 

 of the best farms around Boston. I replied that 

 if I owned one of them, and was on it, I would try. 

 If I owned only a very ordinary farm in any heal- 

 thy, respectable locality in ^Massachusetts, I would 

 not so far sih'render niv ?ood sense to mere im- 



