too 



©lie JTarmcr'e ittontljlti bisitor. 



Juitable ami steady employment (lining his early 

 /ears, when llie mind, ever duotde and pliant, 

 /ields easily to temptation, and imbibes, with 

 ;ager avidity, principles which may give the 

 >ervading line to the woof of life, and render 

 niserahle an existence which might otherwise 

 iave been cloudless and serene. No father 

 ihould ever allow his boys to contract habits of 

 idleness. There is always enough for them to 

 lo, and although we do not advocate a system 

 if tyranny, or unremitted application to labor 

 >eyond their sirength, yet we would rather a fa- 

 her should err in this than in the opposite ex- 

 reme. The fatigue of the physical system, is 

 jasily allayed in youth, and is a mere nothing 

 :ompared with the dissipation of the mind, which 

 is sure to result from association with dissolute 

 companions and constant contact with those 

 whose sense of moral rectitude has become so 

 ar perverted that they experience a pleasure in 

 :orrupting all who come within the influence of 

 heir pernicious power. 



£l)e tlisitor. 



CONCORD, N. H., JULY 31, 1849. 





The Season and the Farmer's prospects. 



It is now the last day of July. Up to this time 

 ticceeding an extremely dry and arid month of 

 une, the drought has been excessive in July. 

 Some few local districts have been blessed now 

 nd then with a limited shower of rain ; but in 

 ome other districts there has been scarcely suf- 

 ficient wet to lay the dust for nearly two months. 

 Since the last days of May no planting or sow- 

 ing has vegetated that has not been brought har- 

 vard by artificial means. The oats in the best 

 tnds will be no more than half a crop; the rye 

 :rop, being earlier, is a little better. The grass 

 in new laid down lands and in swamps and 

 low meadows is good in some instances: the 

 hundreds of acres of low ground reclaimed 

 within the last ten years, pursued and commen- 

 ced in many cases by the recommendation of the 

 Monthly Visitor, will tell well this season for the 

 jiipport of cattle. The best fields of potatoes 

 must fail, if the drought continues many days 

 longer: the corn on much of the good ground 

 is already spoiled. The extensive pasture 

 grounds upon our hills are dried to a crisp. As 

 a sample of the sad prospeet in the beautiful 

 valley of the upper Connecticut, we copy the 

 following from the Coos Democrat, printed at 

 Lancaster, of July 23d : 



"FIRE AND DROUGHT. 



"Never has a gloomier scene been witnessed 

 in this region, than I bat which presented itself 

 oti the afternoon anil early evening of Friday the 

 20th instant. For six long weeks no rain of con- 

 sequence had descended. Day alter day, there 

 bad been an intense heat and a clear burning 

 sky. The earth had parched and hardened under 

 the sun — the grass every where shrivelled by its 

 rays, in the road, in many places literally crack- 

 ed and crumbled under the feet. In many high 

 and dry positions, it was dead. Even the corn, 

 the crop last affected with drought, dwarfed in 

 size, its leaves rolled up in the sun, in many fields 

 was sustaining great injury. In the meantime, 

 fires which had been imprudently kindled in the 

 forests, upon the hill-tops, and on the sides of 

 the mountains which surround our beautiful val- 

 ley, were sweeping unrestrained, through un- 

 derbrush and dry swamps, through evergreen 

 -ods even, and kindling anew in every direc- 



iuii. Buildings in every quarter were consider- 

 ed iu danger. As the shades of evening came 

 on the scene was frightful beyond description. 



On the west, at two points fires were blazing up- 

 on the Vermont hills. In one case a large tree, 

 probably a dead pine, on fire through its whole 

 height, flamed out high up against the dark side 

 of a mountain like a vast torch threatening the 

 valley below. To the eastward, fires were rag- 

 ing through a swampy and broken range of forest 

 some two miles in extent, not far in the rear of 

 the little elevations, which on that side eiie'.oss 

 our village. The dense smoke covered all that 

 region of the sky and reflected in all their chan- 

 ges, the flames below. To the south east and 

 south-west two more fires were raging — the last 

 sending up an immense column of dark smoke, 

 which, expanding as it rolled north covered the 

 whole broad sky above us. The base of that 

 column, as the night set in, assumed a dismal red 

 hue — which as the southern breeze grew stron- 

 ger, became higher and broader, and more like 

 the glaring flames below. Never before has this 

 valley been so engirdled with fire, and suffoca- 

 ted with smoke, as at the moment when there 

 came pattering upon the roofs and all over the 

 glad earth, the first drops of refreshing rain- 

 soon thickening into a generous and somewhat 

 extended shower. 



"The shower, not very abundant, was yet suf- 

 ficient very much to refresh vegetation, and we 

 now live in hope of further rains. The fires al- 

 so, are temporarily checked. It is impossible to 

 calculate the damage sustained by this county 

 from fire and drought the present season. It is 

 safely estimated, we think at $300,000. Many 

 of the finest forests in the county have been 

 overrun by fire, and the amount of its entire ag- 

 ricultural production litis been actually dimin- 

 ished by one-fourth. We hear reports of dam- 

 age done to buildings, lumber, &,c. from various 

 quarters, but wait for definite information." 



A rapid ride rapidly wiiitcii. ---About Maine 

 State and its great Scythe establishment. 



Quite as busy in the month of July have been 

 our personal labors, rising early and retiring late, 

 sleeping generally not over five hours of the 

 twenty-four ; — quite as busy have we been as well 

 in affairs that may not, as in those that may, inter- 

 est farmers in the current month as we had 

 been in May or June previous. Nearly every 

 day of the month has lieen a working day for 

 the farmer in that most interesting portion of 

 his yearly labors, that of haying and harvesting. 



A third letter from a friend in Maine urging 

 us to a visit before haying came off received at 

 nine o'clock, A. M.on the fourth of July changed 

 our expectation of tarrying that day at home 

 with all the active part of our population gone 

 off on the railroads, some north and some south, 

 to spend ihe day in celebrations some twenty, 

 thirty, forty and even seventy and eighty miles 

 distant, at villages and cities now brought as 

 near to each other in point of time as were 

 former neighbors of eight or ten miles in the 

 dull mode of passing on foot, or with horse and 

 carriage. Our friend's letter changed our mind 

 on the instant : at ten o'clock with our carpet 

 bag covering a spare suit of clothes to guard 

 against accident of any kind, we Walked to the 

 depot for the down cars : at half-past eleven our 

 movement had been to Lowell, fifty miles. The 

 tarry there was two hours, when about twenty- 

 five or thirty minutes movement was upon the 

 Lowell and Lawrence new railway, at the termini 

 of which the waiting was some three-fourths 

 of an hour for the last train from Boston to 

 Portland. Swiftly then glided the cars by Nortb 



Andover, Bradford, Haverhill, back again to 

 New Hampshire, passing Exeter and New Mar- 

 ket through the whole width of Rockingham 

 county, and Durham, Dover and Somersworth 

 in the whole south-east line of Strafford. 



Crossing Salmon fills river the State of Maine 

 is touched at South Berwick, beyond which at 

 only a short distance ie £ie junction wiiicii ena- 

 bles the traveller to choose his route to Boston 

 either on the upper line through Dover and by 

 Lawrence or on the lower route through Ports- 

 mouth, Newburvport and Salem. 



The manufacturing population all the way in 

 this roundabout route from Concord, N. H., to 

 Portland, Maine, gives an amazing impetus lo 

 the railroad business. Much of this travel is 

 that of the female operatives employed at the 

 manufacturing places, who are continually pass- 

 ing and re-passing from their homes to the fac- 

 tories and from one manufacturing town to an- 

 other. The fourth of July presented an unusual 

 array of beauty, adorned in rich and gay apparel. 

 Men young and old appeared in their best attire : 

 the seats of the cars were generally' filled in 

 pairs. On no occasion, passing off of one road 

 to another, have we seen so many of the two 

 sexes seated. From appearance the expectants 

 of marriage were much more numerous than 

 those who were actually united in the bonds of 

 wedlock: yet many were the cases where the 

 parties carried along with them the evidences of 

 family relations: all seemed equally eager to 

 make the most of the fourth of July. 



Running down into Massachusetts about sev- 

 enty miles without gaining any great distance in 

 the direct line of Portland, we found ourselves, 

 after two several delays of as many hours, in 

 the commercial capital of the greatest ship- 

 building State at eight o'clock in the evening. 

 The city of Portland, for the first time at the ex- 

 pense of the city, celebrated this anniversary by 

 a display of fire-works. To see these soon after 

 our arrival, in company with the late Senator 

 Moor, the grandson of that Capt. Moor recently 

 of our neighboring town of Pembroke, who was 

 at the head of his company in Stark's regiment 

 at the battle of Bunker hill, our way was on foot 

 from tbe hotel nearly a mile to that height of 

 Portland in the northeasterly section of the town 

 on which stands the observatory. A mass of 

 men and women represented to exceed the en- 

 tire population of the city of Portland were said 

 to have been gathered as spectators for this oc- 

 casion. The devices were ingenious — many of 

 the prismatic figures were splendid, and Ihe 

 whole effect was grand. It was an exhibition in 

 which all who could see might participate in the 

 enjoyment. All conditions of people must have 

 included the vast assembly of spectators; and 

 the orderly quiet demeanor of the crowd spoke 

 highly in favor of the morals of the city and 

 environs, the largest of the Slate of Maine. 



The Bangor boat awaited the breaking up of 

 the great evening assemblage of the fourth ; and 

 at eleven o'clock our friend was under way for 

 his home at Bangor, where after a night's repose 

 upon the steamer he found himself next morn- 

 ing, having conquered the distance of some hun- 

 dred and fifty miles. Gen. Moor has obtained 

 of the Maine legislature the right of exclusive 

 steam navigation far up the Penobscot and some 

 of its tributaries, having hazarded the expense 

 and risque of an enterprise that was deemed to 

 be hut an act of presumption : his boat uow 

 traverses the noble river high up the distance ~ r 



.1 



