148 



&l)e jTarmer's ittontljly fatsitor. 



Cellars should be made as clean as possible, 

 particularly as they communicate directly with 

 the dwelling above, and any foul air produced in 

 them is very liable to pass into the house. All 

 vegetables in the cellar that are tending to de- 

 cay should be removed immediately. It is best 

 to ventilate cellars thoroughly by opening doors 

 and windows, and to keep the door open as little 

 as possible that communicates with the rooms. 



Ground plaster, and freshly burnt charcoal, set 

 in vessels or strewed around in cellars, or other 

 places where foul air exists, or is liable to be 

 produced, has a very healthful effect, by absorb- 

 ing gases. 



Necessaries often produce a foul atmosphere 

 around them; and as the dwelling is near, the 

 offensive air is often wafted to it, and even when 

 not perceptible, it is often operating injuriously. 

 Some prepare these conveniences and cover 

 with loam or other substance all night soil, so as 

 to do away entirely with all unpleasant and un- 

 wholesome effects. When this is not the case, 

 charcoal, plaster, chloride of lime, or other dis- 

 infectants, should be thrown into the vault, to 

 absorb all noxious odors. 



Water from the sink should be absorbed in 

 loam, &c, for manure, instead of rising in foul 

 gases, and being blown into the house. There 

 are some cases of malignant and fatal disorders 

 going through a family, while all the rest of the 

 neighborhood are in good health. This is often 

 owing to some local cause, some foul puddle, 

 pool, or stagnant pond near the dwelling, or a 

 general negligence as to keeping the premises 

 clean. 



Decaying weeds, grass, potatoes affected with 

 the rot, potato tops, pumpkin and other vines, 

 and various productions, are undergoing decom- 

 position in the fall ; and in the aggregate the 

 amount is large, and filling the air with pestilen- 

 tial gases. Farmers may do much good to them- 

 selves and the community by burying all such 

 substances, and converting them into manure. 

 Make them into a compost heap, well covered 

 with loam, to absorb the gases.— A". E. Farmer. 



®l)e bisitor. 



CONCORD, N. H., OCTOBER 31, 1849. 



Shall the Farmers' Monthly Visitor be discon- 

 tinued 1 

 If there is any value in the opinion of a man 

 who in this State has been, more than almost 

 any other, a vigilant and constant observer of 

 men and things, our unpretending monthly sheet 

 will deserve a better fate than to be discontin- 

 ued AT THE CLOSE OF THIS TEAR. It must be 



sustained at a pecuniary loss at the present price, if 

 advance paying subscribers shall not volunteer for 

 its continuance. We have not the time personal- 

 ly to solicit subscribers. Taking the venerable 

 Dudley Leavitt's commendation to be true, can 

 any friend of the cause do less who has leisure 

 in his own district and neighborhood than solicit 

 the men in interest, the farmers to be benefited, 

 to subscribe, advance payment, take and read the 

 Monthly Visitor for the year ensuing ? 



From Leavitt's Almanack, No. 34, for 1850. 

 Q~r" The Farmer's Monthly Visitor is one of 

 the best, if not the very best of Agricultural 

 Journals published in the United Slates. It is 

 conducted by Ex-Gov. Hill. This veteran editor 

 and able statesman, always a pattern of industry, 

 and whom Count Rumford himself never excel- 

 led in encouraging and promoting domestic 

 economy, and the means of increasing the com- 

 forts of life — after filling the highest offices in 

 the gift of the people of his State, and of their 

 Representatives, does not consider it as descend- 

 ing below the dignity of a gentleman, to lend a 

 helping hand to the cause of agriculture. May 

 his useful labors long be encouraged and contin- 

 ued. 



The Cattle Show and Fair for Merrimack 

 County in October was not all it had been in 

 some former years. We were present on both 

 days, not long enough however to see and hear 

 every thing said and done. There was a grand 

 collection of people ; but the animals and arti- 

 cles in exhibition were not what might have 

 been expected. One of the best agricultural ad- 

 dresses we ever heard was delivered on the first 

 day of the fair by Hon. Asa P. Cate of North- 

 field, who although a professional man pursuing 

 the law as his main business, is, as we think, one 

 of the best, if not the best farmer and horticul- 

 turist within the limits of the county. Mr. Cate 

 cultivates but little land; but he succeeds every 

 year in raising great crops of grain and vegeta- 

 bles ; and no garden goes before his in the thrift- 

 iness of fruit trees, grapes, &c. Hamilton Per- 

 kins, Esq. of Contoocookville, did good service 

 in the cause as chairman of the committee on 

 farms: his report was interesting. The society 

 did well in its estimate of the two gentlemen by 

 electing Mr. Perkins President and Mr. Cate 

 Vice President for the ensuing year. Messrs. 

 Little and others made interesting reports on 

 various animals and articles of premium, all of 

 which will in due time be published. Dr. Wil- 

 liam Prescott of this town discoursed the second 

 day on Geology as connected with Agriculture. 



The greater matters of attraction were the 

 ploughs of Mr. Doe and Mr. Robinson : strictly 

 impartial, we give the gentlemen alphabetically. 

 Two of their excellent ploughs weie dressed in 

 a style more for show than use. Embossed with 

 silver, which shone on a brilliant sky-blue, Mr. 

 Doe's plough was a beautiful model of that 

 great agricultural instrument which in its orna- 

 mental character reflected credit on the mechan- 

 ical talent and taste which adorned it. Mr.Rob- 

 inson's plough, although not so much of the 

 color to be spoiled in the using, was probably 

 not a whit behind in merit that of his competitor. 

 At the ploughing match which had been gone 

 through with nearly before our arrival on the 

 second day, the ploughs of differeut s ; zes made 

 by both of the Concord plough-makers were 

 tried by various teams: the sward of Col. Per- 

 kins' intervale was very hard for the single yoke 

 of oxen. The reports of the committee will tell 

 the merits of the ploughs as well as of the teams 

 and their drivers. 



There is nothing which so much conduces to 

 large collections of people at an agricultural fair 

 as cheapened travel upon the railroads on such 

 occasions. Into the heart and almost to the 

 western range of Merrimack county within one 

 year the Concord and Claremont and the Con- 

 toocook valley railroads have been projected and 

 built. Over the Claremont road the cars in less 

 than one half hour each way carried hundreds 

 to the show : the distance from the capital is 

 eleven miles: it was a cheap diversion for the 

 people to ride, paying a trifle to the almost clear 

 accumulation of the funds which supported the 

 road. The Claremont road, now extended sev- 

 enteen miles to Warner, is already doing busi- 

 ness sufficient to pay a dividend of over six per 

 cent, upon the whole expenditure thus far. The 

 Contoocook Valley road, branching from the 

 Claremont road at Contoocookville near where 

 the streams part, had its rails laid seven miles up 

 the stream to Henniker and is ready to receive 

 them seven miles further to Hillsborough. This 

 road is remarkable for the cheapness of its con 

 struction, being only thirty-five thousand dollars 



for fourteen miles including the bridges and cul- 

 verts. Carried up this valley to near the south- 

 west line of the State on the east side of the 

 Monadnock, this road can scarcely fail to swing 

 into it on its way to the seaboard not only the 

 business of the manufacturing establishments 

 which are built and to be built at each distance 

 of a few miles, but will increase the already rich 

 products from the soil of the wealthy towns all 

 along that beautiful valley in a width of some 

 twenty miles of which the river is the centre. 

 The cheap railroad, with the stock in the hands 

 of the owners of the soil, will forever assure a 

 cheap and rapid transit to and from a seaboard 

 market. Railroads, as common roads have been 

 proved at a longer distance on a level in the val- 

 leys, will be found in effect shorter in the long 

 run than across the country over the hills. A 

 stranger who went over a portion of the two 

 roads which have been projected and built with- 

 in the last year, interested in the Massachusetts 

 roads, said he did not believe a case could be 

 presented in the history of railroads where the 

 construction had been so quick and at so little 

 cost as that of the Concord and Claremont and 

 Contoocook valley railroads. 



Should the editor of the Visitor attempt to 

 enumerate all the complimentary gifts and atten- 

 tions paid to him in the course of the passing 

 year, he might fill many columns of this journal. 

 The Visitor is quite as popular as might be ex- 

 pected in a State where it is fashionable to con- 

 demn new experiments to the farmer in a print- 

 ed form, and where practical men have often 

 suffered from too ready a reliance upon imprac- 

 ticable recommendations. The opinions of the 

 Visitor have not been without their effect. We 

 claim some credit for the improvements which 

 have been made within the last ten years in the 

 product and value of many acres that before 

 laid in useless waste ; and we would say, if those 

 who have profited by our opinions and the opin- 

 ions of others circulated through this journal 

 shall voluntarily abandon it for lack of support 

 from the indifference they feel towards any fu- 

 ture good it may do, we shall feel just as well 

 satisfied with what we have done as if an end 

 were put to our labors from some other cause. 

 In too bad health to be encouraged for any 

 steady employment — obliged a part of the time 

 to abandon home and its concerns for the privi- 

 lege of living and breathing in any tolerable 

 comfort — we have nevertheless pursued the call- 

 ing of improving a cultivated soil for the last 

 dozen years with a perseverance and steadiness 

 of which we have had no example around us 

 under similar discouragements. The Visitor has 

 been continued all that time ; and nearly every 

 number has received of our contributions. In 

 the more than one hundred months of its publi- 

 cation we know of no opinion expressed in it 

 that has made us an enemy ; and we are free to 

 express the belief that our writings in that time 

 have introduced to us many friends of both sex- 

 es. Men and women who were not merely politi- 

 cians while we published a political paper had 

 been our acquaintance and friends. None have 

 been mere constant than the Shakers especially 

 of the three Canterbury families. In all the 

 comforts and blessings of true economy and 

 neatness — in all the better productions from the 

 highest improvements of the soil — no portion of 

 the people have exceeded that community. Nor 

 less in the interior arrangements and naliage- 

 ment of their houses and places for mechanical 



