1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



439 



agination, as to leave it, m the hope of bettering 

 my condition by removing to Iowa, or any other 

 place west of the Mississippi. And I consider 

 Iowa as good a State as any other out of New 

 England. It is certainly a healthy place where I 

 am located. I have been here nearly three years, 

 and in my capacity as the minister of more than 

 an average congregation, have been called to at- 

 tend but a single funeral, and that of an infant, 

 for more than fourteen months ; and of but a 

 single adult during the whole three years. 



My wife suggests that I shall be considered 

 homesick, from my letter. I confess to a little 

 of it ; especially since the citizens of the county 

 seat of Cedar, under the combined influence of 

 the hard times, high taxes, party spirit, and igno- 

 rance of their own best interests, have just voted 

 down a flourishing union school founded on the 

 free school system lately adopted in this State. 

 If the question should be asked, whether this 

 type of sickness is not somewhat prevalent, just 

 now, in our otherwise healthy State, truth would 

 probably compel us to admit it. M. K. c. 



Tipton, loica, July 30, 1858. 



Remakks. — We regret to hear so unfavorable 

 accounts of matters in the West, and sincerely 

 hope our friend's forebodings will be brightened 

 by a good many gleams of sunshine which he 

 cannot now anticipate. He will accept our thanks 

 for the records of events in the West which he 

 has been so kind as to frequently send us. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LETTEK FKOM A TKAVELLEK. 



Danvers, Aug. 3, 1858. 

 Dear Brown: — As I am roving about New 

 England, I hardly know how I can better employ 

 my time than in giving you a few of my experi- 

 ences. My last letter was written at Chester. 

 From that steady, unexcitable old place, the 

 judge and your humble servant put out for Exe- 

 ter, the day following that writing, where I re- 

 mained until yesterday morning, when we took 

 the cars — the judge and I — at half-past six, and 

 arrived here — at the hospitable head-quarters of 

 Major General William Sutton — between 9 and 

 10, A. M., where we met 



"A more than Highland welcome." 



Prior to dining, the General took us to the Pea- 

 body Institute, where we spent the best part of 

 an hour in examining the interesting matters in 

 that monument of liberality, which was erected 

 by George Peabody, of London, as a token of his 

 love and veneration for his native town. It con- 

 tains a fine library, many curiosities of literature, 

 such as autographs, autograph letters, &c., and 

 other things which I cannot stop to particularize. 

 Its lecture hall is one of the best arranged rooms 

 I have ever seen, and capable of seating between 

 1500 and 2000 people comfortably. The build- 

 ing itself is plain, but handsome and substantial- 

 ly built, brick, enclosed in a handsome and dura- 

 ble iron fence. It is an honor to the town and 

 the generous donor. 



From thence we went to "Harmony Grove" 

 cemetery ; a very beautiful home for the dead, 

 containing some forty acres of hill and dale, hand- 



somely laid ov.t, in which are some very hand- 

 some monuments, enclosures, &c. There is no 

 more consoling observation for a living man than 

 the one that cannot but be made, in these times, 

 by every one, of the vast stride that has been 

 made within the past twenty years toward a care 

 by the living for a resting-place for the dead, 

 that shall carry with it pleasant associations. 

 Any one who will, as I did, visit the old, forlorn, 

 weed and thistle clad cemetery near the Salem 

 and Danvers line, whose chief attraction is, that 

 there lie the remains of Elizabeth Whitman, once 

 made famous among novel readers as "Eliza 

 Wharton," and an hour afterward the beautiful 

 "Harmony Grove," must be most forcibly struck 

 with the immense change that has come over the 

 public mind in respect to this matter. 



AVe next called at the office of Mr. Proctor, 

 one of your correspondents, I believe ; but he 

 was not in. He joined us, however, after dinner, 

 and accompanied us in our excursion over Gen. 

 Sutton's farm. As soon as we had partaken of 

 dinner we started to see the farm. We visited 

 the barns, tool-houses and work-shops first. The 

 barns were filled — shiffed is a more appropriate 

 word — with hay, and all the arrangements about 

 them were of the most modern and approved 

 kind ; but I am not enough of a farmer to ap- 

 preciate, perhaps, all that I saw there. I only 

 know I was very much interested ; but when I 

 came to the tool-house and work-shop, I confess 

 my admiration. In the former, there were sho- 

 vels, spades, hoes, rakes, cultivators, plows, 

 chains, scythes — indeed, about every tool neces- 

 sary for the cultivation of the farm and garden, 

 ancient and modern, old and new, and all ar- 

 ranged with a method that would do credit to 

 your publisher's agricultural implement estab- 

 lishment. I have seen a great many tool-houses, 

 but never one that came within a long distance 

 of Gen. Sutton's. Of the work-shop I could 

 judge, as I have one of my own, and should as 

 soon think of getting along without cooking 

 utensils in my house, as without a work-shop 

 and tools. But, my friend the General's placed 

 mine in total eclipse ! With one of his arrange- 

 ments I was particularly struck, and shall assur- 

 edly adopt it. I noticed that all his screws, small 

 nails, tacks, rivets, and such small things, were 

 sorted, and each sort put in a wide-mouthed 

 glass bottle, giving his shelves somewhat the ap- 

 pearance of an apothecary's shop. It struck me 

 as a capital, and most convenient arrangement. 

 Indeed, method and order are impressed on eve- 

 ry thing about the General's establishment. 



From the buildings we proceeded to the farm, 

 and we were taken a right good tramp, I assure 

 you. The General's farm contains some 400 

 acres ; we did not go all over it, but we saw 

 enough to convince us that few farmers in old 

 Essex will house more of the good things that 

 the farm provides of all kinds than our friend. 

 His corn, and potatoes, and onions, and turnips, 

 and mangols, and khol-rabi, equalled any thing 

 I have ever seen on anybody's farm. One of his 

 mowers was upon the ground, which led to a 

 conversation upon the subject of mowers, when 

 he told us that he used a yoke of oxen, Avith a 

 horse on before them, in mowing with his ma- 

 chine, and found it a very great improvement. 

 The General and Judge had a regular talk, both 



