1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



647 



For the Nete England Farmer. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE SHOW. 



Fkiend Brown : — By the politeness of Mr. N 

 White, the superintendent of the State Fair in this 

 place, 1 am favored with an opportunity of sketch- 

 ing what I have recently seen, on the plains, over 

 •which you have so often roamed, in times gone by. 

 By-the by, Concord is beautifully located on the 

 banks of the lovely Merrimack, containing, as I 

 am informed, about 12,000 inhabitants, with souls 

 as free and pure as the air they breathe. I Hke to 

 go among such people, who are not so starched up 

 as to forbid an approach within speaking distance. 

 It does one's soul good to meet such cordial hospi- 

 tality. 



Soon after I arrived on the ground, I learned 

 that the ever-ready Gen. Oliver was holding forth 

 in his happiest strain of argument and wit, for the 

 edification of the people of the Granite State. I 

 \fastoo lateto hear him. But fortunately, I did hear 

 ex-President Pierce, and were it not for my preju- 

 dices, I should judge him, from his fluent and ready 

 speech, considerable of a man. He told the peo- 

 ple of Concord that he had returned to hve among 

 them ; and he still hoped there was left for him, 

 on his native hills, many days of usefulness ; and 

 ■whatever they might say or think, hi, was deter- 

 mined to till his own 'acres among them, if he could 

 find such to till. 



By the kindness of the late President of the 

 Hillsborough County Society, now at the head of 

 the State Reform School in Manchester, I was con- 

 ducted through all the departments of the Show 

 — and I am happy to say, that there are some 

 things worthy to be seen, besides those of which 

 ■we boast so much in old Massachusetts. Here 

 were animals of every class and every variety — 

 chiefly Durhams, Devons and Natives — Siy, natives, 

 shall I say it ? notwithstanding the wisdom of those 

 who deny the existence of such. The uniform tes- 

 timony, as I collect it from the farmers themselves, 

 "unadullfrattd by interest or prejudice, is that the 

 "very best aoimals they can get for milking purposes 

 are from our own New England stock. I have long 

 been of this opinion, and am happy to hear it affirmed 

 by the verdict of the farmers themselves. Tell of 

 the superior cream of the Jerse)s, and the superior 

 butter from the Devons, and the abundance of milk 

 from the Durhams — I can find enough of all these, 

 and good enough, without going away from home 

 — and whoever thinks different, possesses more 

 vanity than wisdom. There were many fine animals 

 exhibited, and what is quite extraordinary, the 

 finest bull on the field was brought in by the Shak- 

 ers of Canterbury, who, as a people, are presumed 

 to know least of the value of such animals. But 

 so it is, creeds and lives are not always found in en- 

 tire correspondence. 



In the evening I had the honor to meet the 

 farmers of the Granite State — where they were 

 agreeably entertained by Senator Hale and others 

 — and passed a couple of hours very instructively. 

 This morning, all hands were wending their way to 

 the plowing field, escorted by more pieces of brass 

 than there were ploivs of iron in the train. This 

 display of sound does not exactly accord with my 

 taste ; I had hoped to meet some 40 teams on the 

 plowing field, instead of one quarter part of this 

 number ; what were there worked well, but there 

 ■was not enough of them — and the farmers make a 



mistake, when they hold back in this important de- 

 partment of labor. I was much pleased with the 

 operation of a double ploiv, built by that veteran 

 artizan, Robison, of Concord. He told me that he 

 had so constructed it, that it would do the work of 

 the common breaking up plow, or the Michigan 

 double plow, as you chose to have it. It certainly 

 did its work as perfectly as could be wished, with 

 a team of four fine oxen attached to it. 



I had almost forgotton to mention the favor I 

 had of viewing the highly improved grounds of 

 Mr. Walker, a descendant of Count Rumford, and 

 of one of the early ministers of Concord, who must 

 have been a gentleman of the old school, judging of 

 him by his descendants. Such men are Nature's 

 noblemen, whatever may be their genealogy. On 

 the whole I passed my day most agreeably and in- 

 structively at Concord, and when another display is 

 made, "I hope to be there to see." Essex. 



N. B. I intended to have said something of that 

 veteran teacher of farmers, the late Got. Hill, of 

 C.,but as you know him so much better than I do, 

 I must leave this to your pen. He certainly did 

 much more good by his farming than by some of 

 his other hobbies, which he abandoned in his latter 

 days to a great extent. 



Concord, JV. H., Oct. 9, 1857. 



AGRICULTURAL FAIRS IN VERMONT. 



Since the occurrence of the Slate ^air in Ver- 

 mont, of which we recently gave some account, 

 several county societies have held their annual ex- 

 hibitions, which are represented as having been un- 

 usually well attended, and in most respects superior 

 to those of any previous year. 



As we assured our friends in Windsor county, a 

 few weeks since, that they might expect a good 

 Address this year, we take pleasure in copying the 

 following notice of it from the Vermont Chronicle. 



MR. FLETCHER'S ADDRESS. 



The Address delivered at Woodstock by Mr, 

 Fletcher, before the County Agricultural Society, 

 had the merit of novelty, as well as of ability and 

 raciness. Mr. F. was born upon a farm, and passed 

 his earlier years among farmers. He left his fa- 

 ther's house and the circle of agricultural relatives 

 and friends familiar to him, with the comparison 

 between their condition and prospects and those of 

 mechanics — a vivid youthful picture — in his mind; 

 and with a keen practical insight has studied it 

 through the various changes of his experience and 

 observation. His address embodied the result, with 

 adundant illustrative facts. 



Mr. Fletcher proposed for consideration the fol- 

 lowing questions : 



What becomes of those who annually leave, not 

 only Windsor county, but every rural district of 

 New England ? 



Do those who leave farming, get rich faster than 

 those who remain ? 



Do those who follow other occupations become 

 more honorable and influential than farmers ? 



Do the families of those who leave farming en- 

 joy advantages superior to those that are brought 

 up on a farm ? 



Dc men of other professions live easier and die 

 later than farmers ? 



