1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



471 



rows, although they never war with any other 

 tribe. The Navajoes carry off their stock without 

 opposition. But unlike almost every other tribe 

 oi" Indians on the continent, they are scrupulous- 

 ly honest. Capt. Walker says the most attract- 

 ive and valuable articles may be left exposed and 

 the}' will not touch them. 



Many of the women arc beautiful, with forms 

 of faultless symmetry. They are very neat and 

 clean, and dress in quite a picturesque costume of 

 their own manufacture. They wear a dark robe 

 with a red border, gracefully draped so as to 

 leave their right arm and shoulder bare. They 

 have most beautiful hair, which they arrange 

 with cvre. The condition of a female may be 

 known from her manner of dressing the hair. 

 The virgins part their hair in the middle behind 

 and twist each parcel around a hoop six or eight 

 inches in diameter. This is nicely smoothed and 

 oiled, and fastened to each side of tlie head, some- 

 thing like a large rosette. Tlie effect is very 

 striking. The married women wear their hair 

 twisted into a club l^ehind. 



The Moquis larm in the plain by day and retire 

 to their villages on the mountain at night. They 

 irrigate their lands l>y means of the small streams 

 running out of the sides of the mountain. Some- 

 times when it fails to snow on the mountains in 

 winter their crops are bad. For tliin reason they 

 always keep two or three years' provisions laid up 

 for fear of famine. Altogether, they are a most 

 extraordinary people, far in advance of any other 

 aborigines yet discovered on this continent. They 

 have never had any intercourse with the whites, 

 and of course their civilization originated with 

 themselves. What a field is here for the adven- 

 turous traveller. • 



For the Nttv England Fanner. 



MARROW SftUASH. 



This delicious vegetable is grown in great 

 abundance, on the fertile fields of Marblehead. — 

 While the crops in other places are cut off by the 

 bug on the leaf, or the maggot at the root, there, 

 it would seem, the plants find no obstacle in the 

 way of going ahead. 



Perhaps it may interest some to know how this 

 is brought about. As I passed the field of Mr. 

 Hatuaway, situate on the right hand side of the 

 road, as you go from Lynn to Marblehead, I s;iw 

 more than two acres covered with squashes, as 

 luxuinant as tliough no drought had prevailed. On 

 inquiry of the proprietor, 1 learned that the sod 

 was turned in the spring, and pulverized with a 

 fair coating of compost thereon, and the seeds 

 were planted in hills eight feet apart, leavin 

 three plants in a hill. Now tlie ground is covered 

 with an aljundance of scjuaslies, varying in size 

 from three to ten pounds each, estimatea to ex- 

 ceed ten tons to the acre, commanding in the 

 market $35 a ton — amounting to $300 an aci*e. 

 This was not the only field that I siw, others ot 

 like character are to be seen. On tlic ground of 

 Mr. Wasuuurn, Mr. Mason, Mr. lIowK, Mr 

 Stone and Mr. BaowEa, and others in the neigh- 

 borhood — though not so abundant. Wliether 

 those crojis are brought about by a peculiarity in 

 the Soil — or in the manure api)lied, or in the vigi- 

 lance with whicli they are tenchsd — thc^re they are 

 to be seen by any one who will look at them. 



Aug. 21, 1854. F. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CITY MECHANICS AND COUNTRY 

 FARMERS-No. 3. 



Some months since, two articles were published 

 in the Farmer, with the above caption, and the 

 writer intended to furnisli two or three otliers on 

 branches of the same subject. The tliird number, 

 in which it was proposed to attempt a comparison 

 of the wages, or incomes, of the two classes, was 

 commenced, but having less than usual leisure, 

 and meeting with unexpected difl?cultie-j and disap- 

 pointments in obtaining tlic necessary f;icts, it has 

 not been finished. Having i-ecently spent a 

 week in visiting family connections in Massachu- 

 setts and Vermont, — about one-half of whom are 

 mechanics and the other half farmers, — I propose 

 to give some account of the Journey, and of the im- 

 pressions which my intercourse with t!ie families 

 of both mechanical and agricultural friends hare 

 leftujx>n my mind, as a mode of arriving at con- 

 clusions on the relative [irofits of mechanical and 

 agricultural industry, much jaore easy if not as 

 satisfjictory, as that by the dull path of dead sta- 

 tistics and dry figures. 



My present journey to Vermont was taken after 

 a confinement toa single dingy rooro of a city shop 

 for something over six years, interrupted by onlj 

 one whole day's absence of working tim:e. When 

 I left Vermont, raiirotidi were cx)mmenced there, 

 but the c-ixrs had not passed its boundaries. — 

 While, therefore, to others, the fact of riding 

 from Boston to Windsor, f)y way of Bellows Falls, 

 tetween a late breakfast and arr early dinner, has 

 been fur years an old story. I enjijyed fchecmitrasfe 

 between this style of travelling and iluvt by stag- 

 ing, in all its novelty, fresiiness and excitement. 



Landed amid the dusty labyrinths of the " Wind- 

 sor Depot," I c<iuld not help thinking, as I gazed 

 around mo, fcl>at ixx>z "-Vermont Uentral" might 

 well saj to herself, ' ^Deliver me from my friends?" 

 Hero, where corn and p^itatoes loved to. grow in 

 old times, and whein^ they ought to be oultivated 

 still, stands a Inaiiding- large enough for tlic busi- 

 ness of some Grand Trunk Raihvay termiuns. — 

 Perhaps the stockholders have found out by this 

 time what this huge pile was made for ; if so, the 

 fact ought to I>e recorded, lest future antiquarians 

 Ix! as much troubled to determine its o!>jeet and 

 purpose, as they are to de-cide what the Egyptian 

 monuments were built fop. 



After making a few calls on old friends in the 

 •■'Street," — none more satisfying , by the way. 

 than tliat at the '^' Windsor House," — -we started 

 on foot for the pinnacle of old Ascutney, whoso 

 jagged sides and oap of blue wo had Ixnun "calcu- 

 lating" as the oars wormed their way up the river 

 from the Falls. The prospect from tliis mountain 

 is delightful. Spurning all "connection with any 

 other concern," it rises solitary and alone from 

 the rich intervales of the Connecticut valley. Oth- 

 er mountains, byaidof oombinatiunsand "chains*' 

 — by "piling Alps on Alps." may rear their heads 

 higher into the clouds ; but these accompaniments 

 usually interrupt and mar that wlwleness of view 

 which is enjoyed on the sugar-loaf, shaft-like As- 

 cutney. No Windsor county l)oy, whose imagi- 

 nation first tried its powers in peopliitg Ascutney 

 with Indians and l)ears, can feel that he has real- 

 ly visited the "iiaunls of his childhood" without 

 standing upon the 'summit of this mountain. — 

 WithiQ a few years a still Ijetter path has been 



