&l)c jTcirmcv's ittontljln btsttor. 



135 



Ei md: wherever l ich, they bring llie 



forms lu u near market lor every species ol pro- 

 duction and growth of the soil. Where there is 

 a ready market, where there are means cheap 

 and easy to carry every thing to market, there 

 every blow of the laborer's arm may lie made 

 available ; nay, nature, in the growth of its wild- 

 est productions as well as in whatever comes 

 under the direction of the " skilful culturisl's fos- 

 tering hand," is adding to the farmer's wealth 

 while he reposes and rests from his labors. 



But if the farmer who cannot himself labor 

 may look to agriculture, to a farm rightly man- 

 aged, with assurance of success ill that occupa- 

 tion ; bow much more certain of a livelihood, of 

 all the means of independence, must that man 

 be who under the personal toil of the farm has 

 earned the prospect of a healthy long life, and 

 who has raised sons that have been instructed 

 as the best part of an education leading to vir- 

 tuous habits, every one of whom before leaving 

 bis parents for the business of life has more than 

 paid for all the sacrifices they have made in 

 bringing him up. If there be any happiness on 

 earth to be envied, it is that of fathers, fathers of 

 families who have been early trained in the 

 " way they should go": how often has the virtu- 

 ous poor man found his great wealth in the 

 most numerous offspring taught to be diligent, 

 industrious, enterprising and virtuous: success 

 in life follows none with so much certainty as 

 those whom necessity has obliged to labor. 



Blessed above all other parts of the country is 

 New England from the industry of her females: 

 the picture by the wise man of Scripture drawn 

 of the virtuous woman is that of our own coun- 

 try fair and fascinating poition, man's better and 

 chosen part. If there be any thing of virtue, of 

 purity, of integrity and honor in the present 

 generation, has it not come through the careful 

 instruction and the good example of our mo- 

 thers? Of the industry, of the diligent hands 

 which maketh rich, numerous have been the ex- 

 amples in the ride of a hundred miles takeu 

 since I left my home on my way here. Of the 

 warm fair summer days as the horse jogged me 

 along, nearly every house presented either at 

 the windows or doors busy female fingers plying 

 the sewing or knitting needle, straw braiding, or 

 some kindred occupation. Mothers and daugh- 

 ters, in this country of farmers, often supply the 

 means o( comfort which improvident or helpless 

 husbands omit to procure. So also it is found 

 oftener than otherwise that the widow left with 

 a numerous family and limited means, with 

 the aid of sons and daughters she has rearedi 

 improves the condition of the estate left while 

 she brings them up the belter for her own pru- 

 dent management and industry. 



I come here to-day, having travelled diagonal- 

 ly through your county from soulb-east near the 

 confines of the Winnipissiogee lake to its north- 

 west border upon the Connecticut river. Never 

 did I look upon it as so rich as at this moment. 

 Carrigain's map has indicated a large portion of 

 Grafton county as ot "ungranled lands," which 

 1 had been in the habit of considering for nearly 

 forty years as placed there for no other purpose 

 than separating the country all around it. The 

 map does not measure the whole of this extent 

 — it is much larger than it appears upon its face. 

 I now regard it as fortunate that this extensive 

 mountain region has never been opened un- 

 til recently, because if opened as fur as the 

 land had been cleared, the timber and wood 

 would have been little better than wasted : stand- 



ing as the fori sis now 



which, until within the last three years, have 

 been nearly shut out from human observation, 

 will become of the value of millions of dollars 

 at no distant period. 



Having seen in the two last seasons the Mer- 

 rimack river covered with pine and spruce logs 

 coming down over every obstruction, under the 

 magical potency of the Lumber King — having 

 witnessed his well-marshalled corps of red-shirt 

 uniforms handling the logs four feet through up- 

 on the rocky falls far down where no common 

 Merrimack lumberer dared venture; and these 

 logs brought from far up near die very sources 

 of our river; I felt an anxiety, which I feared 

 never to realize, of viewing the ground wbece 

 this immensity of timber-logs was taken. Yes- 

 terday I found means to gratify my curiosity. 

 Tarrying over night with my friend Tultle who 

 for many years was almost the only man left of 

 Lincoln alter its more settled part was added to 

 Landaff, and who has proved himself not only a 

 practical .good farmer, but good legislator— bis 

 second son accompanied me eight miles into the 

 woods to the grounds where most of the logs 

 were cut. The course was up the middle or 

 larger branch of the Merrimack river nearest its 

 sources, coming within a very short distance of 

 that part of the bead waters of the Saco river 

 which passes through the Notch of the White 

 Mountains. 1 found there, not only timber trees, 

 the pine, the spruce and the hemlock running 

 straight without a limb filiy and seventy-five feet, 

 the sugar maples innumerable, the birch, the 

 ash and the beech almost as tall and alt excel- 

 lent for timber, but I found a soil generally so 

 generous as to assure the best success of agri- 

 culture when it comes to be cleared. More than 

 all was 1 surprised that there was so little of moun- 

 tain in the openings down which comes some 

 stream as between every mountain : fifteen miles 

 up the main stream presents a country all the way 

 very nearly level. Plenty of level land extends 

 along the river and its numerous steins; and the 

 mountain sides themselves, not generally steep, 

 nor generally too rocky, are destined to furnish 

 that excellent pasturage which is not to be ex- 

 celled in any part of the United States. 



The mountain timber land will all be settled 

 and made into some of the most valuable farm- 

 ing territory of your county within the next 

 twenty years, if not the next ten. It should re- 

 main with its present timber standing until that 

 can be profitably used : when the timber and 

 wood are taken away, ihe valuable lands will 

 become farms of course. A railroad made up 

 ihe Pemigewassett branch of the Merrimack 

 from Plymouth would add to the value of the 

 timber more than the whole cost of the road. 

 The demand for timber has become so great for 

 building below, especially at Manchester, Low- 

 ell and Lawrence, as to draw on Boston for east- 

 ern lumber as a supply ; so that while lumber is 

 now at other points a drug in the market, on this 

 river it is of quick demand. The supply in the 

 upper region among the mountains of your 

 county is great beyond the calculation of those 

 who have not seen as I have the wonders per- 

 formed by Mr. Norcross in devising the means 

 for floating it down. Far in the recesses of the 

 forest he has constructed dams half way across 

 the stream throwing back the water so as to 

 float by the accumulated logs large and small : 

 aiding in this work, he has blown away massive 

 rocks in the stream standing as an obstruction. 

 What is not a little remarkable is, that so great 



his confidence of success, mat the logs-were 



cut and collected in large numbers up the stream 

 before he began the work of preparing the 

 stream to float them down. 



It is the destiny of New Hampshire to extend 

 and improve her cultivated acres so as to be- 

 come one of the richest States of her size for 

 agriculture: and it is the destiny of the old 

 Grafton county, the northern half of the State 

 more peculiarly the Switzerland of America 

 than any other part of the western world, to 

 have her mountains and valleys yield ten times 

 their present production. 



Wine Making.— The vintage of our bill-sides 

 is made, and the wine-press has been busy for 

 several days both above and below the city. In 

 spite of wet weather, mildew, and the large 

 quantities of grapes sold daily in market, and 

 constantly from fruit stores, since" the vine began 

 to ripen its clusters, there will he no inconside- 

 rable amount of wine made here this season. 

 The business is now fairly commenced; and 

 wine may hereafter be set down os one of the 

 staple commodities and regular exports of Cin- 

 cinnati. — Cin. Gaz. Sept. 21. 



A merchant of Cincinnati doing exteii3ivo 

 business informed the editor of the Visitor in 

 the month of May, that he bad ordered from 

 France thirty thousand ChajBnpaigne bottles, 

 which were to be used at the vintage of the pre- 

 sent year from vineyards in the vicinity of the 

 Queen City of the West, The amount of wines 

 produced in that neighborhood is increasing an- 

 nually: there can be no doubt that the quality 

 of these wines will be equal to the best imported 

 from the eastern world: with the French bottles 

 the American champaigne will be equal to that 

 brought from that country of France which gives 

 it the name, 



The taw of Manures. 



We notice that the question — " Do Manures 

 Ascend or Descend?" has lately been considerably 

 discussed. For our own part, we should no 

 more think of asking or discussing such a ques- 

 tion, than we ibould whether moisture ascends or 

 descends? It obviously doth both ; and so it is 

 with manures, unless the term manures is to be 

 restricted to mineral substances only. 



But though we believe that the valuable parts 

 of manures may be carried into the air and 

 washed into the earth, we do not admit the pro- 

 priety of some positions, by which the fact is 

 attempted to be illustrated. For instance, it is 

 said — " the gases of manure ascend, but the salts 

 descend." The fact is here lost sight of, that the 

 same substances are capable, under different cir- 

 cumstances, of assuming both a gaseous and 

 solid form. Such is the case with carbon — 

 which constitutes the greatest part of ordinary 

 manures, as well as vegetable substances; and 

 also with nitrogen — which has formerly been 

 held by chemists, (and is, indeed, still held by 

 many chemists,) as the most valuable and im- 

 portant element in manures. 



If a heap of manure is left to ferment on the 

 surface of the earth, or without being covered 

 by some absorbing substance, its bulk and weight 

 are greatly reduced. What has become of the 

 lost portion ? It has, of course, gone into the 

 air, as it would have done if the manure had 

 been acted on by fire. The manure, or a certain 

 portion of it, has been resolved into its original 

 elements, and the carbon and nitrogen it con- 

 tained have again become parts of the atmos- 

 phere. 



The nitrogen in manure is in form of ammo- 

 nia, and that it escapes during fermentation, has 

 been proved ; it is perceptible by the smell, and 

 has, als.), by means of acids, been detected in its 

 ascent. Most people are familiar with ammonia 

 in the form of a salt, and know that in this form 

 it is extremely volatile, and readily passes into 

 an aeriform state. It is also easily soluble in 

 water; and is, therefore, readily washed into the 

 earth by rains. Thus the very substance which 



