84 



S!)c Saxmtfs iitontljlu bisitor. 



hands of the Indians of Mexico, which exhibit 

 no less taste than skill. The Mexicans strongly 

 resemble the Chinese in their skill anil ingenuity 

 in manufacturing delicate and ingenious articles. 

 Their images, whether made of metal, sugar, 

 stone, or even rags, are most delicately correct 

 and beautiful. The lady of one of our most dis- 

 tinguished officers in Mexico, who resides in this 

 citv, has some specimens of the rag images ol 

 the Mexicans which are most extraordinary in 

 their taste, perfection, and beauty. They would 

 be taken as wax-work if they were not far more 

 correct than images in wax can be made. The 

 dress, the expression of the face, the altitudes of 

 the figures, which are in groups, are equal to the 

 most finished paintings, we have ever seen. — 

 We do not think there is any people in the 

 world who can compare with the Mexicans in 

 this department of art. The ancient Mexicans 

 possessed great skill in carving and in the orna- 

 mental art, and the present generation has im- 

 proved upon this, if upon no oilier quality of 

 their predecessors. With practice, experience, 

 science, and a more familiar intercourse will) 

 the ingenious and civilized nations of the world, 

 there are strong reasons to hope and believe that 

 the native Mexicans are destined to become the 

 Chinese of this continent, and to contribute 

 largely by their skill and industry to the pleasure 

 and enjoyment of the civilized world. 



Slje Ittsttov. 



CONCOKD, N. H., JUNE 30, 1848. 



Farming iu Concord. 



It is a remarkable fact that on that cold first 

 day of June, when we were viewing Gen. Huii- 

 derson's cornfields at Washington, then dressed 

 after planting three times, our own corn after 

 the potatoes was planting the present season. 

 Our last field near Bow of ten acres, which pro- 

 duced the excellent crop of potatoes last year, 

 was planted, (six with corn and four with pota- 

 toes) on the first, second and third days of June. 

 Much of the planting in this part of the country 

 was delayed until the last of May, because there 

 was absolutely before that time no way of duly 

 and truly preparing the ground earlier. Some 

 of our neighbors, planting their corn first, were 

 hoeing it the first time when our men were 

 planting ours. Friday and Saturday, June 24 

 and 25, our field of six acres of corn was hoed 

 the first time : in the previous vveejv the growth 

 in every twenty-four hours was clearly percepti- 

 ble. The same weather continuing until the 

 fourth of July, this corn of ours will be as large 

 as the best corn generally is at that time, planted 

 from the 35th to the 20th of May— a fortnight 

 sooner. 



The forwarding the growth of our light lands 

 by the stimulants contained in our muck com- 

 posts (by no means of the richest materials) 

 twice and thrice in as many successive seasons ap- 

 plied with a mixture this year of 200 lbs, each ol 

 African guano and ground plaster — aided by the 

 deep subsoil ploughing once only done whe-n ihe 

 ground is broken up — is certainly all we could 

 wish. We have twenty-two acres, (fifteen of po- 

 tatoes, six of corn and one of marrow squashes) 

 planted in our own mode of manuring and cul- 

 tivation, which now promise better, for the time 

 and season, than any crops of the kind we have 

 before cultivated. Four acres of early potatoes, 

 planted about the 25th of April, on light pine 

 plains land, last fall broken up and suhsoiled, we 

 will present on a challenge with any other four 

 acres in the county of Merrimack : they are now 

 (June 26) nearly budding for the blow. We can 

 almost warrant this suhsoiled pine-plain crop ol 

 potatoes to he free of the rot. And we are not 



without hope that our later planted potatoes on 

 suhsoiled intervale sward manured with com- 

 post, guano and plaster, may likewise escape the 

 contagion. 



Our oats sown on light, but previously well 

 manured land, a!>out the first of May, do not yet 

 show as our oats did last year in a heavier clay 

 soil — they are not what we expected them to be. 

 We have yet possibly to learn that oats are not 

 the right crop lor a sandy river soil where some 

 other crops (as on this ground last year marrow 

 squashes and Indian corn) might yield well. 



The grass on twelve acres of our suhsoiled 

 intervale (the sorrel and weeds nearly expelled) 

 presents at this writing a most luxuriant and 

 exhilirat'mg aspect: these acres will give what 

 hay might satisfy the desire of the most over- 

 reaching farmer who was obliged to mow it with 

 the strength of his own arms. 



Our absence, but not our personal neglect, has 

 lost us the income of a fine rye-field of five 

 acres lor the present season. This field is situ- 

 ated in two hollows of the plains out of sight 

 from our residence and the usual places of work. 

 We minded not so much the keeping of cows 

 and sheep upon it by those who do not cultivate 

 their own land to produce either grass or hay, 

 and sustain their animals, after the roads are 

 gnawed down, by encroaching on their neigh- 

 bors : the young rye in a field out of sight was 

 a tid-bit tempting enough to seek out broken 

 spaceways in the fences for ingress and egress: 

 the men, busied in another direction with plant- 

 ing about the first of June, found the whole rye- 

 field spoiled by flocks of sheep turned into the 

 plains by their owners. About fifty of these 

 were taken in the act of injury and driven to the 

 pound of the town four miles off". The nominal 

 pound-keeper took them into custody ; hut their 

 owners, advertised of the injury, wary to find 

 means of escape where a forfeiture of their bo- 

 dies would have hardly paid the damage done, 

 sagely discovered that the pound-keeper had not 

 gone through the ceremony of swearing to the 

 faithful discharge of his duty, and obtained their 

 aniuials back without expense by sheer inaction, 

 the pound-keeper letting them go! We suppose 

 some lawyer now for the fee of filiy dollars 

 might undertake to recover for us fifty dollars of 

 the town for the neglect by which our interest 

 has suffered : had we belter go to law about this 

 matter ? 



A Story that will do for the Marines ! 



By invitation on that remarkably cold day, the 

 first of June, we visited the cultivated grounds 

 of the veteran head of the U. S. Marine corps at 

 his residence near the navy yard at Washington. 

 The marine barracks consist of brick buildings 

 encircling an oblong square outside of the navy- 

 yard, at the north end of w bich is the mansion he- 

 longing to the United States in which the com- 

 mander resides. Within the yard is another 

 mansion for the resident commander of the yard, 

 a captain of the navy. The taste and inclination 

 of Gen. Handerson have led him lo bring into 

 use, by cultivation, several fields and plats upon 

 the sterile waste lands east of the Capitol in 

 Washington, which have long been neglected. 



For the. last few years, Gen. Handerson has 

 practised the collection of all the materials he 

 could conveniently gather for the making of 

 compost manure: fortius object he has made 

 every thing cleanly about the barracks, paying 

 the marines a premium for ashes, night soil, sink 

 drainings, &c. To this he has added oyster- 



shell lime and other mineral and vegetable mat- 

 ters, which after decomposition have been plen- 

 tifully deposited upon his fields. Three years 

 ago, we visited an enclosure near his premises 

 which under his culture was then producing full 

 four tons of timothy hay to the acre : this piece 

 of land the present year, excepting a small patch 

 of potatoes, was sown to oats to be laid down lo 

 grass after ploughing and heavy manuring the 

 last year. The oats were rich and thrifty as 

 might be expected, fully a mouth in advance of 

 the earliest oats in this part of New Hampshire. 

 The potatoes of four rows in drills were then in 

 the blow, in advance as might be of our earliest 

 planted potatoes from the first of June to the 

 first of July. They must be nearly ripe at this 

 time. The vines of these potatoes iu this rich 

 ground were curling, in partial indication of the 

 disease which seems to pervade that crop all 

 over the country. Gen. H. had commenced the 

 experiment oil one of the lour rows of topping 

 oft" the buds of these potatoes, agreeably to a 

 suggestion in a former number of the Visitor, as 

 a means of increasing the healthy growth of the 

 root and preventing ihe lot: the suggestion, it 

 will he remembered, comes from a scientific 

 gentleman in Europe. We hope hereafter to be 

 able to obtain practical results which may better 

 lest its utility. 



Gen. H. took us to an enclosed field of corn of 

 five acres, planted in rows of five feet by two, 

 nearly doubly as thick as was usual in that section 

 of the country, where the corn blades grow 

 much larger than in New England : this field, 

 fenced off" of the waste extending plat between 

 the Congress burial ground ami the capitol, he 

 had hired five years at thirty dollars per year. — 

 The blades of corn stood very e»en, knee high 

 without stretching the leaves: the field had been 

 dressed with the cultivator three times — not a 

 weed appeared in it. The manuring of this 

 ground with the compost had been very heavy; 

 but for want of the deep subsoil plough in a red 

 clay soil liable to harden and crack in a continued 

 hot sun, the crop of corn might be a failure un- 

 der a severe drought. 



Further on Gen. H. had another five acre lot 

 enclosed — the soil lighter and more sandy, but 

 partaking of a red clay formation. Half of this 

 was in corn, which, highly manured, was earlier 

 and more advanced than the first piece. The 

 oilier half had been laid down to grass two years 

 before: for lack of deep stirring, as we think, 

 the timothy in this part was quite light. As evi- 

 dence of what it might produce, the ground 

 thrown along iu a ridge of subsoil dug out 

 straight near the centre through the field had 

 growing grass in probably four limes the quanti- 

 ty of the rest of the field. We recommended 

 on the spot the subsoiling of this grass plat in 

 the manner of the successful experiment in Pe- 

 terborough, made at the instance of Gov. Steele 

 — that is, the striking of the plough without 

 turning over the turf at the distance of about 

 eighteen inches apart through the piece. This 

 method our military friend at once assented to 

 with his intention to carry it forward for the 

 next season. 



Still further on the General took us to his lux- 

 uriant crop of five acres of grass, supposed to 

 mow by the 10th of June from three to four tons 

 of excellent hay to the acre. This land had 

 been brought to its present production by the 

 use of the rich compost manures to which we 

 have alluded. The only improvement we could 

 suggest in the management of this ob in the 



