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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



Ftir the New England Farmer. 



LETTER FROM THE COUNTRY. 



Sunday — Extensive Prospects— Lakes, Mountains — Recollec- 

 tions — Tlie Haying Season — Prospect of the Crops — Hay 

 Crops — Country Visits and Watering Places — Visit to Lake 

 Massabesic — Chowder — Music — Effect of Location upon Char- 

 acter — Invocation. 



Chester, M H., Aug. 12, 1855. 



My Deak Simon : — Forgive the familiarity, my 

 dear Lt. Governor, but it does come so natural, ad- 

 dressing you from this, the old place of my nativi- 

 ty, and your cliildhood, and boyhood, and youth, 

 to call you by the old familiar name, by which 

 more than forty years ago, I used so often to ad- 

 dress you, that you will, I know, excuse me, although 

 George IV, never forgave Beau Brummell's 

 "George, ring the bell !" You are more forgiving 

 than the king, I trust. 



This is Sunday morning, and a glorious morning 

 it is too — precisely such an one as old Herbert had 

 ill his mind when he composed Iiis beautiful stan- 

 zas, commencing — 



"Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, 

 The bridal of the earth and sky." 



I am not at the "old homestead," from which my 

 brother Henry — I beg his pardon — the Judge, dates 

 his interesting letters. Let me say, in parenthesis, 

 that if "my feverish longings for fame, and dreams 

 of distinction," were not all gone, I should be trjang 

 to gel in as one of the editors of the JStew England 

 Farmer — "Governors and Judges !" haven't you a 

 vacant Generalship, or sich like, that you could be- 

 stow on a fellow ? As I was remarking, I am not 

 at the old homestead, but am, at present, sojourn- 

 ing ■with his Honor, the Sheriff of the County of 

 Rockingham ; in good hands, you see, and from this 

 spot where you and I have stood many's the time and 

 oft, at this blessed moment a prospect is presented 

 worth a journey from Boston to witness. You know 

 what a sweej) of horizon is presented to the eye from 

 this place — do I exaggerate in saying hundreds of 

 miles ? I think not. Well, there it lies, the interme- 

 diate space dotted with villages, farm-houses, green 

 fields, forests, &c., all glittering beneath the just- 

 risen sun, and every valley filled with mist, pre- 

 senting the exact appearance of lakes and lakelets, 

 studded vnih. islands, headlands, and peninsulas — 

 in the far distance gleams, like a thread of silver, 

 what the oldest inhabitants have ever regarded as 

 the ocean. Not one cloud is to be seen, not one 

 breath of air can be felt, and all that row of elegant 

 trees mentioned in the Judge's letter show not the 

 stirring of a single leaf. If a man's thoughts do 

 not ascend through such a scene as this, uj) to Na- 

 ture's God, he must possess a hardened heart, and 

 Ix;, indeed, a hardened sinner. 



I am here, with all the dear ones of my house- 

 hold, as you are aware, on a visit to my kinsfolli, 

 and to exchange for a short time, the heated atmo- 

 sphere of Wasliington City, for the cool and re- 



freshing breezes of New Hampshire. Either those 

 breezes, or the excellent feed with which the Sher- 

 ifi"'s better half entertains her visitors, (and you 

 have often tried it,) have already added to the fair 

 proportions of your humble servant, as our friend 

 Greenough's steelyards testify. 



I am among the farmers here. Haying is the 

 order of the day. The wet, and somewhat back- 

 ward season, has delayed the gathering in of the 

 u])land crop of grass even to this late day. When 

 you and I used to swing the scythe here, it was not 

 often that we gathered hay from the upland after 

 the advent of August ; but this year, I tliink nearly 

 all the hay in this vicinity has been cut since the 

 25th of July, and much grass still remains standing. 

 The crop is a good one, and, thanks to the new in- 

 vention of "hay-caps," it has, notwithstanding the 

 "long spells" of rainy weather, been got in well. A 

 fi-iend of ours, who resides here, but spends consid- 

 erable time in Massachusetts, and who has recently 

 returned from there, told me a few evenings since, 

 that the farmers in the vicinity where he has been, 

 had heard of hay-caps, but had never seen any, and 

 came to him for a description of them. I presume 

 you have enlightened your readers on the subject, 

 though I do not remember to have seen a descrip- 

 tion of them in your columns. Those used here — 

 and they are getting into general use — are thus 

 made and used ; viz : 



For one cap, talie 4 yards of yard-wide cotton 

 cloth, cut it in two pieces, and sew them together, 

 so as to make a square. Loop up each corner so 

 that a piece of common cod-line will pass through, 

 tie in loops of line, spread the cap over the hay- 

 cock, and with 4 sharpened sticks of about 18 

 inches in length, fasten the corners, by passing the 

 sticks through the loops, either into the hay or the 

 ground. A cock of hay thus protected, may stand 

 through a long storm, uninjured. 



The crops in this vicinity, as all over the country 

 where I have been, promise an abundant harvest. 



In the Judge's "Letter from the Homestead," 

 contained in yesterday's Farmer, he remarks very 

 properly as follows : 



'How rational men and women from the cities 

 can be persuaded to pass the summer at the beach- 

 es and fashionable watering-jjlaces, parading round 

 on the sea-shore without shelter or shade of any 

 green thing, suffering the tortures of Regulus, who 

 was exposed by his enemies to the noon-day sun 

 with his eyehds cut off — how they can endure the 

 lare of the ball-room in dog-days, and the crowd- 

 ed chambers of fiishionable hotels, not to mention 

 the killing conclusion by way of paying the bills — 

 how all this can be translated into pleasure by ra- 

 tional people, when the peaceful, qmet hills and 

 valleys of the country invite them to health and 

 freedom from restraints of fashion and artificial Ufa, 

 passes comprehension." 



Exactly the thoughts that have passed through 

 my own brain, when I have been crammed with all 



