£l)c jTcirmcv's Iltcmtl)lij lltPitor. 



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Agriculture in Vermont. 



Tlie largest collection of people that has ever 

 taken place at Montpelier, is said to have come 

 together on the occasion of the meeting at the 

 revival of the Washington County Agricultural 

 Society, on the first day of October last. An ad- 

 dress, replete with practical good sense, was de- 

 livered by 'Roderick Richardson, Esq., a farmer 

 of Waitsfield. From the great number of pre- 

 miums awarded as furnished in the two Montpe- 

 lier papers, we may well imagine the scene was 

 truly animating to the enterprising and indus- 

 trious sons and daughters who "labor in the 

 earth" of the fruitful Green Mountains. It was 

 a grand sight in that tine country of the dairy, to 

 see three farmers, to wit— A. K. Warren, of 

 Berlin, S. Denny, of Northfield, and John Nich- 

 ols, of Barre, coming up, with each his live 

 hundred pounds of butter In competition. Then 

 ■gnifl the cheese — seldom does any had cheese 

 coine from the Green Mountains — Jesse Scott of 

 Birre, N. D.ivis of Montpelier, and Philip Sliote 

 of Calais, take oft' the three premiums. Three 

 persons take premiums each, for the largest 

 quantity of Maple sugar, viz. K. Wheaton of 

 Barre, Martin Davis of Moutpelier, and R. Stod- 

 dard* of Waitsfield ; for the best 500 lbs. sugar, 

 Lyman Gale of Barre, F. Dngget arid A. D. Ames 

 of Montpelier, each takes a premium Ibr the 

 best refined sugar. Mrs. G. W. Collamer of Barre, 

 H. Allen ol Berlin, and T. C. Kelinu of Mont- 

 pelier. each has an award'. To the town of Barre. 

 the first, Calais, second, and Middlesex, third pre- 

 miums for the five best yoke of oxen from any 

 town. O. Wood, and J. f wing of Barre, and II. 

 P. Wilson of Calais, premiums for best pair of 

 single working nvn. J. Howes of Montpelier 

 was awarded the highest premium for his beauti- 

 ful full-blood Ayrshire. Gov. Charles Paine, took 

 premiums for each, a full blood and a half blood 

 Durham hull — also for the best calf, and like- 

 wise for the best cow. Jacob Scott of Barre, 

 Ibr best fat oxen. Of the fruits and vegetables, 

 Mr. Cottrell of Montpelier,took premiums for each 

 the best table beets, tomatoes,beans anil squashes: 

 Mrs. Cottrell, for a braided rug. gentleman's feet- 

 ings and for six pairs gentleman's shirt collars. 

 For the production of farm implements, J. W. 

 Howes of Montpelier, took three premiums on 

 ploughs, one for a cultivator, one fur harrows, 

 and one for a fan mid. The two first and the 

 fourth premiums for ploughing, fell 10 ploughs 

 manufactured by Ruggles, Nourse and Mason ; 

 the third to Prontv and Co. and the third best 

 with oxen to Robinson's improved plough, of 

 Concord, X. H. 



Tin; farmers of Central Vermont are awaken- 

 ing up to their true interest. The new railroad 

 passing by them, will add fifty to an hundred per 

 cent, at once to the productive value of labor to 

 all those within twenty miles of its reach. Ver- 

 mont will become the best and the richest a»ri- 

 cultual State perhaps in \'ew England. 



Gardeuing at Xaliaiit. 



The following article we take from the August 

 minder of the Horticulturist. The success of 

 Mr. Tudor's experiments in gardening, ou the 

 bleak promontory of Nahant, shows what may 

 be done, in spin? of unfavorable circumstance*, 

 by intelligent energy and perseverance. We 

 hope his example will be imitated: 



A few miles east of Boston, boldly jutting into 

 the Atlantic, lies the celebrated promontory ol 

 Nahant. Nature has made it remarkable Ibr'the 

 .'jrandeui- and bleakness of its position. It is a 

 headland — of a hundred acres, more or less — 

 sprinkled with a light turf, and girded about with 

 bold cliffs of rock, against which the sea dashes 



with infinite grandeurand majesty. No tree an- 

 ciently deigned to raise its head against the i aide 

 breezes that blow here in the winter, as if tern- 

 pest-driven by Boreas himself; and that, even in 

 summer, make ofNahunt, with its many cottages 

 and hotels, a refrigerator, for the preservation of 

 the dissolving souls and bodies of the exhausted 

 population ol' Boston, in the mouths of July and 

 August. 



At the present moment, the interesting fea- 

 ture at Nahant, after the Ocean itself, is, strange 

 to say, one ol the most remarkable gardens in 

 existence. We mean the grounds of the private 

 residence of Frederic Tudor, Esq., a gentleman 

 Well known, in the four quarters of the world, 

 as the originator of the present successful mode 

 of shipping ice to the most distant tropical coun- 

 tries ; and, we may here add, for the remarkable 

 manner in which he has again triumphed over 

 Nature, by transforming some acres of her bleak- 

 est and most sterile soil into a spot of luxuriant 

 verdure, friiiifulness and beauty. 



To appreciate the difficulties with which this 

 gentleman had to contend — or, as we might 

 more properly say, which stimulated all his ef- 

 forts — we must recall to mind that frequently, in 

 high winds, the salt spray drives over the whole 

 of Nahant; that, until Mr. Tudor began his im- 

 provements, not even a bush grew naturally on 

 the whole of its area; and that the east winds, 

 which blow from the Atlantic in the spring, are 

 sufficient to render all gardening possibilities, in 

 the usual way, nearly as chimerical its cultivating 

 the volcanoes of the moon. 



Mr. Tudor's residence there now, is a curious 

 and striking illustration of the triumph of art 

 over nature, and as it involves some points that 

 we think most instructive to horticulturists, we 

 trust he will pardon us for drawing the attention 

 of our readers to it at the present time. Our 

 first visit to his grounds was made in July, 1845, 

 one of the dryest and most unfavorable seasons 

 lor the growth of trees and plants that we re- 

 member. But at that time, perhaps the best 

 possible one to test the merits of the mode of 

 cultivation adopted, we found Mr. Tudor's gar- 

 den in a more flourishing condition than any 

 one of the celebrated [daces about Boston. The 

 average growth of the thriftiest standard fruit 

 trees about Boston, at that time, was little more 

 than six inches to a foot. In this Nahant garden it 

 was two feet, and we measured shoots on some 

 of the standard trees, three feet in length. By far 

 the largest and finest cherries we tasted that 

 season, were from trees growing there, and there 

 was an apparent health and vigor about every 

 species within its boundary, which would have 

 been creditable anywhere, but which at Nahant, 

 and in a season so unfavorable, quite astonished 

 us. 



The two strong points in this gentleman's 

 gardening operations at Nahant, appear to us to 

 he the following': first, the employment of 

 screens to break the force of the wind, producing 

 thereby an artificial climate; and second, the 

 thorough preparation of the soil, by trenching 

 and manuring. 



Of course, even the idea of a place worthy of 

 the name of a garden in this bald, sea-girl cape, 

 was out of the question, unless some mode ol 

 overcoming the violence of the gales and the 

 bad effects of the salt spray, could be devised. 

 The plan Mr. Tudor has adopted is, we believe, 

 original with him, and is at once extremely sim- 

 ple, and perfectly effective, 



It consists merely of two, or, at most, three 

 parallel nuts of high open fences, made of rough 

 slats or palings, nailed in the common vertical 

 manner, about three inches wide, and a spare of 

 a couple of inches left between them. These 

 paling fences are about sixteen feel high, and 

 usually form a double row, (on the most exposed 

 side a triple row,) round the whole garden, The 

 distance between that on the outer boundary and 

 the next interior one, is about four feet, The 

 garden is also intersected here and there by tall 

 trellis leiices of the same kind, all of which help 

 to increase the shelter, while some of those in 

 the interior serve as frames for training trees. 



The effect of this double or triple barrier of 

 high p.ding is marvellous. Although, like a com- 

 mon pafuiir, apparently open and perinillipg the 

 wind free passage, yet in practice it is found en- 

 tirely to rob the gales of their violence, and then 

 saltness. To use .Mr. Tudor's words, « it com- 



pletely sifts the air." After great storms, when 

 the outer harrier will be found coveted with a 

 coating of salt, the foliage in the garden is en- 

 tirely uninjured. It acts, in short, like a rustic 

 veil, that admits just so much of the air, and in 

 such a manner as most to promote the growth 



of the trees, while it breaks and wards off all 

 the deleterious influences of a genuine ocean 

 breeze— so pernicious to tender leaves and 

 shoots. 



Again, regarding the luxuriant growth, which 

 surprised us in a place' naturally a sterile gravel, 

 we were greatly Struck with the additional argu- 

 ment which it furnished us with in support of 

 our favorite theory of the value of trenching in 

 this climate. Mr. Tudor has, at incredible labor, 

 trenched and manured the soil of his garden 

 three feet deep. The consequence of this is, 

 that, although it is mainly of a light porous tex- 

 ture, yet the depth to which it has been stirred 

 and cultivated, renders it proof against the effects 

 of drouth. In the hottest and driest season.", '.he 

 growth here is luxuriant, and no better proof can 

 be desired of the great value of thoroughly 

 trenching, as the first and indispensable founda- 

 tion of all good culture, even in thin and poor 

 soils. 



It is worthy of record, among the results of 

 Mr. Tudor's culture, that, two years after the 

 principal plantation of his fruit trees was made, 

 he carried off the second prize for pears, at the 

 annual exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, among dozens of zealous competi- 

 tors, and with the fruit most carefully grown in 

 that vicinity. 



We have observed also, and noted as indicative 

 of no small degree of practical skill, that in va- 

 rious quarters of the garden are standard trees, 

 apples and pears especially, that have been trans- 

 planted from Boston, wish large heads and 

 trunks, six or eight inches in diameter, and are 

 now in a stale of complete luxuriance and fruit- 

 fulness. 



There are, of course, hut few individuals who 

 have the desire and the means thus to weave a 

 spell of freshness and beauty over a spot which 

 nature has created so sterile and bald; perhaps 

 there are still fewer who would have '.he courage 

 lo plan and carry out improvements of this kind, 

 to the attainment of so beautiful a result, in the 

 very teeth of the elements. But there are many 

 who may learn something valuable from Mr. 

 Tudor's labor in the cause of Horticulture. — 

 There are, for example, hundreds along the sea- 

 coast, to w horn gardening of any sort is nearly 

 impossible, from the injir/ious effects of breezes 

 loaded with salt water.' There, are, again, ir*ny 

 beautiful sites that we could name ou the shores 

 of some of our great inland lakes, and the num- 

 ber is every daj increasing, sites where the soil 

 is deep and excellent, an.! the skies warm and 

 bright, hut the violence of the vernal and au- 

 tumnal winds is such, that the better culture of 

 the orchard ami garden makes little progress. 



In all such .-lies, .Mr. Tudor's Nahant screens 

 for sifting the air, wiil at once obviate all the 

 difficulty, temper the wind to the lender buds, 

 and make lor the spot a soli climate in a natural- 

 ly harsh and bleak aspect. 



The nature of the sod of Nahant is like that 

 of much of what is considered barren, rock- 

 bound coast near the sea which to look upon in 

 its natural slate would seem little heller than 

 Hint rock for cultivation. Nut many years since 

 our attention was called to a statement id' what 

 some gentleman connected with the hotel upon 

 Nahant had done in raising rula haga anil oilier 

 vegetables, after having dug to the depth of fif- 

 teen or twenty inches into the face ol' the hard 

 soil, extracting die rocks, w ith the due applica- 

 tion of manures, From the foregoing statement 

 it would appear lhal exposure to the winds of 

 the ocean was an obstacle to be overcome not 

 less than the hardness of the ground. When 

 not too much exposed we had supposed that the 

 spray of the ocean would generally he favorable 

 io the growth of vegetation : we are quite sure 

 that the grass stands longer in hearing, and the 

 bay is more abundant, where the saltness ol the 

 ocean is felt. 



