516 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



stant delight to the children of the whole neigh- 

 borhood. I think so well of the ram that I should 

 be glad to give you a full article on the subject. 



There is not the slightest difficulty in any of 

 your readers having water in abundance, if in 

 the vicinity ef their barns they have brooks or 

 springs from which a sufficient supply can be ob- 

 tained to fill an inch and a half driving pipe, 

 with a two feet fall. w. D. B. 



Concord, Mass., Sept. 21, 1858. 



Remarks. — The article which you would be 

 "glad to write," ten thousand readers will be 

 glad to read — so write it as fast as you can, and 

 send it along. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CONNECTICUT BIVER VALLEY FAIK. 

 BY MRS. A. E. PORTER, SPRINGFIELD, YT. 



Messrs. Editors : — You will probably have 

 an official account of the Connecticut Valley Fair, 

 held this week, across the river from here, in 

 Charlestown, N. H. ; but I have collected a few 

 little waifs which a regular reporter may not have 

 noticed. Sometimes a few fresh mosses and way- 

 side blossoms are welcomed, even though richer 

 bouquets and cultivated flowers are in sight. 



The counties on both sides of the river in New 

 Hampshire and Vermont are represented at this 

 Fair, and in all the region, beautiful though it 

 is, perhaps no pleasanter spot could have been 

 chosen than Charlestown. 



But as I heard the whistle of the cars, which 

 were hourly bringing men, women, children, 

 horses, oxen, cows and sheep, and saw the long 

 trains of country wagons loaded with sturdy 

 farmers with their wives and children, I wondered 

 how many of these thought of the fact that less 

 than a hundred years ago, this spot M'as consid- 

 ered an advanced frontier military post, cautiously 

 guarded from the savages, and that the gay mul- 

 titude passed on near the spot where the Indians 

 took a whole household captive to Canada, and 

 burned the buildings of the settlers. For a long 

 time this fort was occupied by a garrison, and 

 more than one bloody skirmish was witnessed 

 there. "Number Four," as Charlestown was called 

 for many years, was well known in the annals of 

 Indian warfare. No wonder the Indians gave 

 up reluctantly the rich and fertile meadows which 

 bound this town, one of two hundred and the 

 other of five hundred acres. The village itself 

 is very beautifully located, its long, wide street 

 shaded by a row of elms on one side and a row 

 of maples on the other. On the north, a short 

 distance from the village, are the Fair Grounds, 

 a park of thirty acres, a noble, level piece of land, 

 lacking nothing but a few shade trees to make it 

 perfect as a gathering place for the multitude. 

 The race course is half a mile in circuit, and very 

 smooth and hard. There are seats for two thous- 

 and persons. Everything is very plain, but con- 

 venient and substantial. 



When I arrived, the cattle-pens, coops and Me- 

 chanics' Hall, were pretty well filled, and Floral 

 Hall was filling with homespun blankets, "good, 

 thick and warm," fancy bed-quilts, where one is 

 puzzled to decide upon the comparative merits of 

 shells, stars, vase-work or tulip-shaped, wrought 



rugs, worsted rugs, rag rugs and rag carpeting, 

 fine and soft as one could desire. These, with 

 cheeses that looked creamy and rich, and butter 

 yellow and sweet, were the work of Vermont and 

 New Hampshire matrons, for I observed "Mrs." 

 attached to most of them. Some nice oil paint- 

 ings, embroidery, hair-work, wax flowers, pasted 

 flowers, &c., attested the taste of the young la- 

 dies. Never mind, Mr. Editor, the long faces of 

 croaking men who tell how their mothers wove 

 and spun, and fancy that young ladies of the 

 present day will make worthless wives ; they are 

 mistaken — for there are no better wives the world 

 over than these same Yankee girls ; and the 

 dainty hands that now color these flowers and 

 weave so lovingly the vines and fancy work of 

 scarf and collar, will be just as proud of nice 

 bread, sweet butter and good coffee, when they 

 find a husband values them most. A love of the 

 beautiful never disqualifies a woman for the use- 

 ful, for as she grows older she will learn the true 

 beauty of use. 



I found in the Mechanics' Hall quite a collec- 

 tion from our little village, and as I hope some 

 day, Mr. Editor, to see you here making a per- 

 sonal acquaintance with your subscribers, I will 

 introduce you to a few. Here is Mr. Watkins, 

 with a table of surgical instruments, made with 

 great neatness and skill. Here are legs and arms, 

 fingers and hands, for those who need, almost as 

 good, and the manufacturers seem to think a lit- 

 tle better, than those endowed with nerves that 

 are sensitive to pain. Next is Mr. Fullam, with 

 a set of stencil tools for marking, and here at 

 the adjoining table is something new for the la- 

 dies ; "Loveland's Scissor Sharpener," quite a 

 useful and pretty invention — can be kept in a 

 lady's work-basket and used by herself without 

 aid from the noisy scissor grinder. Mr. LovE- 

 LAND, the gentlemanly inventor, yields his seat 

 that I may rest awhile and examine his invention, 

 which is well worthy of notice, and will no doubt 

 receive the patronage of the ladies. Here is 

 Randall's Cheese Press and Ingham's Fanning 

 Mill and Separator, in which beans and grain ar- 

 range themselves with almost milit^y precision, 

 according to size, while all dust and rubbish is 

 obliged to leave in haste. Our ingenious me- 

 chanics. Parks & Woolson, had a new Suction 

 and Force Pump, well worth examination. 



I was sorry to observe among the vegetables, 

 only the largest kind ; enormous squashes that 

 look as if made for antedeluvian monsters, long 

 radishes and beets that seem fit for nothing but 

 to commence an artesian well. We seem to be 

 a great while in learning that the largest are the 

 coarsest and generally unfit for table. The small- 

 er kinds are choicer and more concentrated. Lit- 

 tle things are not to be despised. 



"Ask why God made the gem so small, 



And why so large the granite, 

 Because lie meant that man should set 



A higher value on it." 



As to potatoes, I was happy to learn that the 

 potato known with you as the Eastport, here as 

 the Blodgett, is ranked the best. It tallies with 

 our own personal experience, rich, mealy and 

 well-flavored, not yielding largely, but without 

 the rot, on light soils. 



I passed on, having a desire to see some of the 

 fine stock for which this region is noted ; but 



