10 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



tain every fertilizing eugredient broiiglit into 

 contact with them. With no s'eat labor iu col- 

 lecting these in the fall, a great increase of ma- 

 nure for spring's use may he made every year. 

 Manure may also be greatly increased by carting 

 turf and mud and soil by the road side, after- 

 wards carrying it to the hog and cattle yards as 

 fast as they ai'e cleared. The manure yards like- 

 wise may be replenished by turning the conduits 

 of the ketchen sinks through which all the soap 

 suds, dish water and offal should be made to 

 pass and mix with some suitable matter placed 

 to receive it. The contents of privies also may 

 be used to very great advantage as manure ; 

 mixed with lime or ashes the disagreeable scent 

 will be taken away, and the manure may be 

 moved without inconvenince to any position. 

 There is quite a sufficiency of this article in 

 every considerable town to fertilize hundreds and 

 thousands of acr(^s. In the cities of Europe, in 

 London and Paris, it is extensi\'ely prepared by a 

 chemical i)rocess into a portable manure, and 

 transported to a distance by sea and land with as 

 little inconvenience as any article of merchan- 

 dize. In this way the double purpose is effected 

 of riddance of a nuisceuce and its conversion in- 

 to a profitabls article of commerce. In the city 

 of New York the same material has been exten- 

 sively manufactured into manures called uratt 

 and poudrelle ; a very small quantity of this 

 preparation has a gi-eat effect in for\varding and 

 increasing vegetable production. Two years ago 

 a gentleman at Portsmouth, anxious to obtain 

 the means of improving lands which he had re- 

 cently brought into cultivation, set to work per- 

 sons who could not otherwise find employment 

 to clear all the privies to which convenient ac- 

 cess could be had iu the winter. Until this time 

 the board of health had been obliged to inter- 

 fere for the purpose of taking away the accumula- 

 tion of years to prevent the consequences which 

 are anticipated from want of the due cleanliness. 

 This winter, we are informed, there is almost as 

 much competition among the farmers in the vi- 

 cinity of Portsmouth for the contents of the pri- 

 vies in the compact part of the town, as there 

 has been for several years among fanners of Rye 

 and Hampton, after an easterly .storm, which 

 should obtain the greater quantity of kelp or sea- 

 weed thrown upon the beach. 



The value'of the m:uiures collected on the sea 

 shore and from the cities would be hut jioorly es- 

 timated by many people living in the interior of 

 the country. The cost of five or six dollars a 

 cord for stable manures in tlic cities to he carted 

 eight or ten miles, astonishes tlie country farmer 

 who has been in the habit of considering the 

 manure of his own yard hardly «orll] the cart- 

 ing one mile to be applied to his field?. Whoev- 

 er thinks this manure costs the farmer too much 

 need only look where it is applied to be con- 

 vinced that this part of the labor and expense is 

 the foundation of the farmer's profits ; he carries 

 back to the places where his manure is purchas- 

 ed, hay and other produce of his farm of ten 

 times the cost of his manure ! 



It is mentioned as a fact indicating the extent 

 of the agriculture of the island of Great Britain 

 that the estimated value of the manure collected 

 and used in that island much exceeds the value 

 of the whole amount of the foreign commerce 

 of the counti-y including the imports and exports. 



Portsmouth, N. H. 



This ancient town, with one of the safest har- 

 bors iJi the woild, has remained nearly stationary 

 as to population and business during tlie last 

 thirty years. Within the last forty years it has 

 had two desolating fires. In Decciiihor, ISO'J, 

 nearly half of the merchants were burnt out; and 

 in December 1613, eleven years afterwards, an- 

 other fire swept off 397 buildings. Portsmouth, 

 as long ago as the revolutionary war. enjoyed 

 considerable trado with the country ; and for se- 

 veral year? iiftt-ruaids the ninrchants of that 

 town iinported not only from Europe, but much 

 goods from the West Indies and other parts of 

 the world. Ship buililing has always been carri 

 ed on there to some extent; and the men of 

 wealth have generally been ship-owners. Money 

 was formerly made by merchants engaged iu for- 

 eign trade ; but of late years the freighting for 

 others has been the great pursuit of the ship- 

 owners. During the last war with Great Britain 

 privateering tiecame a favorite pvirsuit ; au(\ tbe 



owners, olKcci s ;iiid aailois niaJi; several ylurlous 

 captures from the proud " mistress of the seas." 

 Paul Jones, the bold seaman who blockaded the 

 ports of Great Biitain iu llie time of the revolu- 

 tion, and who even invaded her territory, filling 

 the British population exposed to the sea, with 

 terror, first fitted out the frigate Drake from Ports- 

 mouth : his first Lieutenant was the late Elijah 

 Hall, known to many of the generation now liv- 

 ing as an amiable and excellent man, a gentleman 

 of the old school, cotemporary with John Lang- 

 don and Thomas Manning, all of whom were 

 sailors as well as patriots of the revolution. 



Portsmouth has occasion to be proud of the 

 men she has nurtured, of the enterprise she has 

 maintained, and of the wealth she has gauied. 

 Although she has not kept (lace with otlier towns 

 in the growth of her popidation and wealth, she 

 presents one of the most inviting positions in the 

 coimtry to the men of leisure who would live 

 prudently on their estates: there is no city of the 

 Union where every thing is so comfortable, and 

 where living is so cheap — there are few places 

 where friendly social intercourse is better enjoy- 

 ed: it combines the advantages of city and town. 



The coimtry trade and intercourse has been di- 

 verted from Portsmouth from various causes. 

 Several manufactming villages have sprung up a 

 few miles in the interior, which have taken away 

 the country trade — business has moved from this 

 and other secondary seaport towns, to Boston, at 

 which point the jirincipal commercial business of 

 New England concentrates. The rapid and ready 

 communication by rail roads will not probably 

 tend to restore trade from the larger to the small- 

 er towns. Within a few weeks past the Eastern 

 rail road from Boston has been extended to 

 Portsmouth : we now pass tl;e whole distance, 

 making the necessary stops at the intarvening 

 towns, in less than throe hours. We take our 

 seats wheu the tljcrmometer stands below zero in 

 cars with apartments as comfortable as our own 

 firesides; and, engaged in conversation or read- 

 ing, we are set down almost before we think of 

 it, at the point of di'slinalioM. One may take the 

 seven o'clock cars at Portsmouth in the morning, 

 arrive at Boston and attend to business several 

 hours, returning to Portsmouth, a distance of 

 sixty miles each way, before dark in the eve- 

 ning. 



In the business of Agriculture there is no part 

 of the State, at this time, so nuich engaged as the 

 farmers of Portsmouth and the vicinity. The 

 successful example of one is followed by many 

 others. The best farming of the State has for 

 many years been in tjie lower ])crt of Rocking- 

 ham. The farmers living near the sea have 

 stronger inducements and liettcro[iportunities for 

 improvement tlian the farmers of the inlerior — 

 they can forever repl<Miish and imi)rove their lands 

 from the veget;ibli3 and animal jirodiicts of the 

 sea ; and they will always find a market for their 

 surplus products, which will eaahle them to rea- 

 lize a high coui])ensation for their expense and 

 labor. 



Fanii'Mc Mcnr the scalioaid in New Hampshire 

 anil M;'iiii', ronliiiinsr tlicinsplvrs to tw.) articles, 

 will liiid lis cofiil, if lidt better encourageiiient, 

 than liu'mi-rs in any other part of the coimtry: 

 these articles arc hay and potatoi-s. They cannot 

 be produced along the seaboard south of Con- 

 necticut in the same perfection as in the two 

 northern States: the middle Slates prod-iice more 

 easily than the north, Indian corn and wheat ; and 

 for tiiesp, at a trifling expense for transport each 

 way, hay and ])olatoes may be exchanged. On 

 the best" cultivated lands at" Port.'imoiith and the 

 adjacent towns from two to three hundred bush- 

 els of potatoes, and from two to. three tons of hay 

 to the acre are produced: the potatoes bear a 

 price generally at the wharf from 40 to 50 cents 

 the bushel, and tlie hay from twelve to fifteen and 

 sometimes twenty dollars the ton. Three tons of 

 hay at forty dollnrs, and three hundred bushels of 

 potatoes at one hundred and twenty dollars, pre- 

 sent a strong temptation to the ambilion of the 

 farmer. Corn and the produce of a milder cli- 

 mate miy be returned for the better produce of 

 the nirth. The cases have sometimes occurred 

 where the fiu'naer has been able to obtain for his 

 hushe! of Irish potatoes a bushel of Indian corn 

 in return. The potatoes raised in the cooler rc- 

 , gions upon the seaboard are decidedly of better 

 I quality than those raised further south. Gentle- 

 I men who purchase their potatoes in the market 



a dollar a bushel than tli.- |i.m,iI(.. - i..i-l(1 on the 

 warm grounds of Massacliii.~ri!~ ai hall the price. 

 E.xtraordinary as it may seem, tho business of 

 the town of Portsmouth has more to anticipate 

 from the agricultural improvement now going 

 on, and which is likely to take place within a 

 dozen miles of the compact part of that town, 

 than from all other sources. A rich commuuity 

 of farmers in the vicinity of any town will most 

 assuredly cause such town or village to flourish. 

 And what is the trade worth of hosts of farmers 

 who raise no more produce than they consume 

 upon their own premises ? The men who have 

 volunteered to make agricultural improvements 

 in and about Portsmouth, as well as those who 

 always engaged in that business, have found the 

 greatest profit in the most thorough cultivation, 

 are hardly aware of how much value not only lo 

 the country, but to the town itselt; will he tlieir 

 eflbrts. As the one rises in value and increases 

 in production, so the profit and business of the 

 other will be extended. Portsmouth may yet 

 have a more lucrative trade with the towns in her 

 immediate vicinity, than she ever had before her 

 by , 

 drs 

 the country trade to Boston. The farmers gen- 

 erally have only to do as .some have already done 

 to effect a grand change in favor of that |)ortion 

 of the Granite State. And let the farmers fur- 

 ther in the interior " <ro and do likewise." 



interior intercourse was interrupted by the villa- 

 ges further up the country or by the drawing off 



Bachelder's (';■.;'■ at 



ilins; Ufachine. 



This Machine is i-oiisirnctcd on principles, al- 

 together ditfercnt Ijoui all utliers for similar pur- 

 po.-e. It performs the operation of planting, 

 without opening a furrow,thcrehy dispensing with 

 coverers, that are contimially liable to clog, and 

 get out of order. It simply raises the soil a little, 

 and i.t the same time drops the seed at any dis- 

 tance desired, when the soil falls hack to its ori- 

 ginal jilace. and is immediately ibllowcd by a 

 moveable guage, that loaves it to any depth over 

 the seed that the operator chooses ; it also re- 

 moves all small .stones and sods from the place 

 where the seed is deposited. 



The editor of the Western Farmer published 

 at Cincinnati, Ohio, says: — 



"Though we are not in fayor of noticing im- 

 plements of ar.y kind, which we have not seen in 

 operation, and do their work not only well, but iu 

 a superior manner to those already in the hands 

 of the farmer, wc must step aside (rom our rule 

 in this instance. Baclielder's Planting Machine, 

 we consider so far ahead of the many implements 

 intended for this use, now before the public, that 

 we canupt but recommend it. We arc certain, 

 from our knowledge of such matters, that this 

 machine will perform its work in a style as near 

 jjpi-fection as it is pos.'lhle to attain. All the ob- 

 jections made to those we have hitherto seen, 

 seem to lis to be here done away with. 



The following letter of commendation is from 

 aome of the largest and most skilful farmers in 

 t;he State of New Voik : — 



"TO THE PUBIJC— We whose names are 

 hereunto annexed, cevtifv that we have examined 

 Baclielder's Patent Wanting Machine, and seen it 

 operate on several of our farms in Deerfield, 

 Oneida county ; the seed planted thereby, seems 

 well planted, wherever the ground is in proper 

 order, and is now comina; up ; and w« believe the 



