1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



4G9 



mostly overspread, striped and splashed with 

 two shades of rich, deep, clear red ; the red 

 deepest at the stem end. Scattering, irregu- 

 lar shaped light russet dots and traces, with 

 an occasional raised russet patch. Stem me- 

 dium in length and size. Cavity open, deep, 

 acute, with five or more lines, giving almost 

 appearance as if furrowed. Calyx small, 

 closed with erect, reflexed, narrow pointed seg- 

 ments. Basin narrow, open, abrupt, slightly 

 furrowed. Flesh yellowish white, coarse- 

 grained, breaking, partially crisp, moderately 

 juicy. Flavor pleasant, mild sub acid. Core 

 medium. 



LETTER FKOM MB. BROWN. 



Cornwall. Vt., Aug. 16, 1869. 

 The Green MountainB. — Lake Champlain — Pio^rtea in 

 art a!jd civi.izaion, — Influence of machintry on ihe 

 farm — Grass crop in Addison county. — A Hay-load- 

 er. — How constructed, and how it operates. — Anew 

 mowing machihe and horse pitchfork. 



Gentlemen : — I have been spending sev- 

 eral days in this fertile and delightful region, 

 between the Green Mountain range on the 

 east, and Lake Champlain and the frowning 

 Adirondacks on the west. I have crossed the 

 lake several times, visiting the busy villages 

 that nestle under the gloomy mountains, on 

 the New York side, and have passed through 

 a long tier of towns which lie on the flat lands 

 east of the lake and stretch anay up the sides 

 of Snake and other mountains, that are sepa- 

 rate and independent of the (ireen Mountain 

 range. ***** 



I came to mingle once more with the 

 farmers of Addison county ; to notice their 

 progress in the great art of agriculture ; to 

 see details as well as results ; to look at 

 theij: standing crops ; what cl anges have been 

 introduced in their style of buildings, espe- 

 cially their barns, and in the implements and 

 machines which they employ in cultivating and 

 securing their crops. 1 think all the changes 

 which 1 observed are for the better ; they are 

 clear evidences of a higher civilization ; of an 

 intellectual advancement and greater refine- 

 ment. A true or refined taste in the arts, in 

 the style of our public buildings, school houses 

 and churches, in our dwellings, and in the 

 buildings which surround them, leads to an 

 intellectual refinement which, sooner or later, 

 will change the whole character and condition 

 of a people. Five years ago I visited quite 

 freely among these farmers. Within that time 



many new dwellings have been erected, and 

 yet among all that I saw there is very little 

 resemblance between those that were built 

 only twenty years ago, and those erected with- 

 in five years. The outbuildings share in the 

 same progress. The barns are better, and the 

 dairy-rooms have been completely transform- 

 ed. This progress not only saves money, but 

 it saves health and temper, which are of still 

 more value. It elevates not the individual 

 only, but the whole mas. Children grow up 

 under it with more refinement of feeling and 

 manner ; with less disposition for litigation, 

 and with a grace and ease that gives to social 

 life one of its chief charms. 



In this direction, the influence from the use 

 of machinery on the farm is altogether un- 

 derrated. On every farm I have visited there 

 has been one mowing machine, and in several 

 instances two. To this is always added a 

 horse rake and occasionally a tedder. If a 

 man delves with his hands from day to day, 

 in addiiion to the mental labor required to 

 superintend his affairs, he must sooner or later 

 jield to the strain upon his powers. It will 

 affect his temperament as weL as his health, 

 until his whole nature seems to have changed. 

 It is no longer a bright and cheerful world to 

 him, and moral, intellectual and physical pro- 

 gress are out of the question, in that degree 

 in which they ought to proceed. What cotton 

 and cotton manufactories have done for the 

 civilization of ihe world, farm implements and 

 machinery are still doing. Both are civilizers. 



It is a world of grass in all this region. I 

 have witnessed nothing like it before. The 

 crop in Addison county is larger than it has 

 been in any former season. The lands are 

 clay and admirably adapted to this crop. I 

 have visited fields that were never ploughed, 

 have been mowed more than fifty years in suc- 

 cession, and never manured where they were 

 taking off, before my eyes, from a ton and a 

 half to two tons to the acre of excellent tim- 

 othy and red top hay ! Scarcely one of the 

 farmers whom 1 have visited will cut less than 

 seventy- five tons of bay, and from that all the 

 way up to two hundred tons. In one instance 

 where some old hay was left, the proprietor 

 stated that when all his grass was cut he should 

 have fully two hundred and fifty tons in all. 



Before the introduction of the machinery 

 now in use, the labor of hajing reciuired the 



