&l)e .farmer's iHontljhj bisitor. 



tions at the heart of the commonwealth. Tlie 

 president of the Worcester society with numbers 

 from that county was present at Dedbam. There 

 were great fruits of the field— monster potatoes, 

 parsnips and pumpkins; hut tl )e exhibition of 

 men, trained statesmen and politicians, was 

 greater than had been common. Seven hundred 

 people sat down to the entertainment— ladies as 

 well as gentlemen— farmers' wives and farmers' 

 daughters in their best attire. The speaking o( 

 Gov. Briggs, of .M,-. Webster, Mr. Edward Ever- 

 ett, Mr. Speaker Winthrop, .Mr. Horace Mann 

 and others presentee; a rare Opportunity for both 

 sexes personally to hear on the same occasion 



133 



■ng so long spoken against, when brought to the 

 lest ol labor, is after all more conducive to peace 



; ""' ' "'dependence, to health and long life 



to all the comforts of the heart, than any other 

 occupation whirl, can he named. 



A Welcome Visit. 



We had an unexpected hue visit from an old 

 friend and former resident of this town. Rev 

 John L. Blake, DD. Mr. Blake was some twen- 

 ty -five years ago rector of a cociety of episcopa- 

 lians in this village, the most of whom with the 

 exception of a single family had passed away 

 , with the worship in that f orm , until revived in 



iZLHl °™\ rega, ' de - " s a _ mo "« >> ««t of| 'he year 1835, aince which a small church com- 



Massachusetts great men. Hon. Marshall P. 

 Wilder, to whose efforts the farmers of Norfolk 

 are much indebted, is president of the Norfolk 

 society: like almost half of the gentlemen who 

 most distinguish themselves about ihe capital of 

 Massachusetts in enterprises of utility as well as 

 in positions of public eminence, Mr. Wilder is a 

 native of the Granite State. 



The following day we followed both Mr 

 Wilder and Gov. Briggs to the very gratifying 

 farmers' show of Essex at Salem. A better ex- 

 hibition of the capacity of cattle and the excel- 

 lence of improved ploughs we never saw than in 

 a match upon a field some half a mile from the 

 common near the Beverly bridge. There were 

 double yokes and single jokes of oxen an,! pairs I 

 of horses all doing their best. These teams dis- 1 

 played in a most striking view the aptitude for 

 work of the generous animals in best effiselinn 

 the objects of labor: the drivers and ploughmen 

 proved also the best of training; and even the 

 '"animate ploughs proved that much is due to 

 science in the construction of this most impor- 

 tant of all agricultural instruments. A well filled 

 room attending an excellent farmers' dinner at 

 the Salem city hall listened here again to the 

 speech of the Governor of Massachusetts on 

 well chosen topics; and at three in the afternoon 

 the society retired to the Tabernacle church, 

 w here after prayers had been offered by the Rev.' 

 Dr. Worcester, an address filled with all the rich 

 experience of an aged farmer, Hun. Asa T. New- 

 hall of Lynnfield, delighted and edified the "real 

 audience attending. Mi. Newhall opened his 

 address by a well-merited eulogy upon the life 

 an.l character of Rev. Henry Colman who had 

 been appointed orator for this occasion, but had 

 suddenly been cut pffhy death in England when 

 just about to return to this country. Air. Colman 

 was sometime a clergyman in Salem— a farmer 

 afterwards of excellent taste and fondness for 

 improvement both in Essex and in Franklin 

 counties — and subsequently agricultural com- 

 missioner for the -State of Massachusetts while 

 the office lasted. More recently he has travelled 

 and spent a. year and more in Europe, devoting 

 himsell almost entirely to this great and inter- 

 esting subject. The result of his research and 

 observation there Ba8 a | re „dy been committed to 

 the public press; audit is gratifying to know 

 that although resting from his labors, his merits 

 I live after him as one of the most fascina 



tnensurate to the state of the society hself 

 "Inch by no means can compete with its neigh- 

 bors in the work of proselytism to any particular 

 form and doctrine, has been erected. But Dr 

 Blake while with us was more particularly dis- 

 f'^nshed as filling acceptably ,|, e position of 

 teacher of youth : he here in exceedingly good 

 taste compiled and edited several school hooks 

 among them the Historical Reader, which has' 

 been extensively used in schools. Leaving this 

 Place, he became a resident of Boston, and was 

 the first officiating clergyman of an episcopal 

 church at South Boston: afterwards he removed 

 to the city of New York, where with bis son he 

 was mterested in publishing many works of 

 merit In the midst of other avocations his pen 

 has been that of a ready writer in forty different 

 compiled volumes. He is now engaged in a 

 compilation and arrangement, original and se- 

 lected ol an extensive work on interesting topics 

 to he published in Philadelphia. As an author 

 and compiler, Dr. Blake has the happy faculty of 

 seizmg with avidity upon apposite illustrations 

 and elucidations, and seldom fails to present a 

 great variety of subjects in their most attractive 

 form. 



Dr. Blake graduated at the Rhode Island col- 

 lege : he is a native of Northwood in this State 

 and is allied to families in that town which have' 

 been much in our esteem. He was the early 

 I'atron of a native lady of New Hampshire who 

 has since become distinguished in the literary 

 would as a writer of both prose and poetry-th"e 

 conductor of periodical works of merit, Airs 

 •Sarah J. Hale: her acquaintance with him 

 probably suggested the title of Northwood a 

 popular novel which was one of the first of her 

 productions. 



Dr. Blake broke upon us a few weeks since 

 while on a visit to his friends and his native 

 State to which he had not returned for about 

 twenty years. He /bund himself in this town 

 almost an utter stranger: all or nearly all his 

 time while here, was spent with the editor of 

 ■heVisnor He had added to his other avoca- knovvle, 

 I that of rural improvement upon lands in 



anticipation he baa sent lie the following commu- 

 nication. And to it we may add, if our printer 

 «•■•'" "'d room, an article which he has since sent 

 '" the New England Farmer, which we copy, 

 Propjwtng that the reader will find it necessary 

 to make some abatement from whatever be ma v 



I'ave said in our praise as he may from the quan- 

 tity ol tins year's growth of our potatoes : 



For the Karmir's Monlhly Visitor. 

 Local Attachments in the Country. 

 ■lnrdr„ctfiom lluch.pln- on that subject in the 

 Age* Every Da, Book-a u^in nuanZ 



The fact is well known to every careful ob- 

 server, that, all other things being equal, local 

 attachments are in proportion to their duration 

 Let this rule be applied. A family living in ." 

 house a year becomes attached to it more than 

 living in it .month; living in it five years more 

 than living in it a single year; and for life pro- 

 port.onably more than for five years. And es- 

 pecially, if the same place be tenanted by suc- 

 cessive generations of the same family, how 

 wonderfully developed becomes the tendency of 

 our nature of which we are speaking ! If there 

 IS any thing that imparts a philosophical dignity 

 to human life; if there is any thing that rational- 

 ly binds one's affections to the world, it is livins 

 through life, or for a succession of years in 

 competence and without solicitude, sharing with 

 the same dear family circle the mansion of a past 

 generation. What varied associations cluster 

 around the fireside and the household altar' 

 1 1 he hours of morning twilight, the pensive and 

 the mellowed shades of evening, and no less the 

 dark watches of midnight, arealike flooded with 

 soothing recollections. 



In the country upon the tidy and well cultiva- 

 ted farm, such associations and such recollec- 

 tions canvert the whole of surrounding nature 

 into a fairy scene, on which the eye and the 

 imagination never become weary. If „ )e 8ta 

 and the moonlight heavens any where impart to 

 human sensibilities a delightful emotion, it is 

 here If a landscape of hill, a „d dale, and way. 

 ing shadow, any where captivate the eye it is 

 here! If the murmuring rill, and the falling 

 cascade, and the distant echo of some disturber 

 ol midnight silence, any where send a thrilling 

 pathos to the soul, verily it is here ! Where else 

 do such inspirations spontaneously kindle and 

 swell the human bosom ? Where else, do such 

 chastened beautitudes bring up in vision the clo- 

 nes of ancient Eden ?-Here the children w^re 

 born. Here, amidst pure breezes and serene 

 skies, they are nurtured in body and mind ' 

 Here, ,,, God's first temple, they are taught , 

 bsp his praise! Here, away from the loathings 

 of vice, they receive the elements of useful 



Here, in rustic simplicity, their 



manners are formed I Here al 



always at home, 



New Jersey: his lilS te fod him to think n 



"taking the earth yield abundance where Zle . j££? ^ " ** ' M * 



and ingenious authors and w 

 ture. 



liters upon agricul- 



V\e much rejoice that in Massachusetts the 



spirit and taste for agricultural improvement are 

 on the increase: in that State men engaged in 

 calling* .hat have treated the farmer's occupation 

 as one ol too much labor with too little honor 

 are even becoming wont to believe that this call- 



nothing had before been produced-that I 

 was much in sympathy with our own. We took 

 '""' to a hasty view of our fields-we talked as 

 Well ol the events occurring a quarter of a cen- 

 to ry ago as of what was growing around us, 

 Fad, sounded his own trumpet-each was as 

 garrulous as any two men advanced beyond the 

 ""'I'll'' Period of life, while alone, had a right to 

 be. Both of us thought we might become farm- 

 ers, setting examples to be followed by others 

 Mr. Blake left us too soon ; but, returned to New 

 Jersey, he did not forget his visit. As a speci- 

 men of the original part of the work he has in 



It is difficult to imagine what there is in a 

 large city analagous to all this, to operate on the 

 social affections. Persons of sufficient means, 

 '" Hie cty, may, and do occupy good bouses; 

 sometimes it may be princely mansions, provid- 

 ed also with expensive furniture; but is there 

 any thing in such establishments to produce this 

 strong focal attachment? It appears to us, that 

 such establishments produce about the same ef- 

 fect on the mind of the occupants, so far as our 

 present subject is involved, as the gilded scenery 

 of the playhouse. A sensation of delight is felt 

 at the moment ; but with the occasion it is all 



