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THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



The hurdy tiller of the rock bound soil sure 

 of gaining the means of independence. 



The attention paid in various pai'ts of the 

 country as well to the increased production and 

 capacity of the soil, as to improvements in the 

 breeds of animals, is encouraging to the well- 

 wishers of our country's prosperity. Where there 

 is improved agriculture, there will he increase 

 of wealth and improvement in every thing else. 

 Could the men of business, the professional man, 

 the mechanic, .the merchant, understand how in- 

 timately connected his own advancement is 

 with the growth of those who improve the soil, 

 he would not hesitate to enlist heart and soul in 

 the cause of the farmer : he would rejoice with 

 him at the prospect of laige crops and good 

 prices, and he would feel that the reverses of the 

 farmer, the blight and mildew and drought which 

 destroyed the farmer's crops and the want of a 

 market at which lie could obtain fair prices for 

 his surplus, indirectly reached his own interest 

 no less than the interest of those on whom it di- 

 rectly operated. 



AVe will suppose the case of a New England 

 interior town containing exclusively farmers. 

 That town produces precisely as much as it con- 

 suines — it makes both ends of the year meet by 

 raising simply a sufficient surplus to pay for what 

 it purchases fi-om beyond its own limits. The 

 one farmer sells a yoke of fat oxen, and obtains 

 the means for purchasing tea, coffee, sugar, salt, 

 articles of clothing or other necessaries, and for 

 the payment of his taxes : another sells haj', an- 

 other grain, and a fourth wool, or some other 

 produce for a similar object. The town produ- 

 ces just enough and no more than is necessary to 

 make all its inhabitants as well off at the end as 

 at tlie beginning of the year ; and the cultivated 

 grounds pre kept in that exact position as to pro- 

 duce just as much the succeeding year as they 

 did the previous year. The jjeople of such a 

 town, it is manifest, would remain entirely sta- 

 tionary — they would neither advance or recede ; 

 and neither would the trade and commerce de- 

 pending on such a district advance or recede. 



Suppose a more likely case— that a part of 

 the population of a town shall remain sta- 

 tionary ; that the number of advancing individ- 

 uals owning and cultivating farms is small, and 

 that the larger number is actually impoverishing 

 their grounds each and every year and expending 

 beyond their incomes. What remains but the 

 inevitable result, that such a town must run 

 down, and the business men dependent on it 

 must lose their business, if not run down with 

 it ? Nay, so strong will be the preponderating 

 momentum, that even those few who in the face 

 of the examples around them make efforts forini- 

 provement, participate in the common deprecia- 

 tion and deterioration. 



Bnt take the case of the town where an indus- 

 trious and indefatigable race of farmers live, all 

 or nearly all of whom are thriving — where near- 

 ly every man, after dischai-ging all expenses, has 

 a sur))lus of cash left, or else has created a capi- 

 tal in new improvements upon his land — has 

 made a single acre of fourfold value by increas- 

 ing its capacity so that it will double the crop of 

 the next year, or has furnished the means for re- 

 pairing old or erecting new buildings ; or has in- 

 creased the numbers and value of his live stock, 

 erected new and permanent fences, or efiected 

 any other object adding to his means or his com- 

 forts. In such a community, not only farmers 

 but men of all professions, will prosper. The 

 surplus and the improved capacity will be a cap- 

 ital not to the immediate holders alone, but to all 

 around them. 



The constant and steady demand for the sur- 

 plus productions of the soil which has been ex- 

 tending from the seaboard to the interior has had 

 the effect in many places of turning the attention 

 of farmers to the improvements w hich all will 

 be glad to realize. Now is the time to arouse 

 the men of New England from, the stupor which 

 in some instances has seized upon them — now is 

 the time to impress the conviction that there is 

 no necessity that any, even the poorest farm 

 should be run down and abandoned— now is 

 the time to carry home the truth of the position 

 that every man who has his health, who knows 

 how to work and knows how to calculate, may 

 just as well as not, each and every year, make the 

 land which he cultivates produceVnore, instead of 

 producing less. 



Among the hard hills and inountains of New 

 England, where the seasons are later and colder 

 from their greater elevation, after the virgin fertil- 

 ity of the soil has been extracted — where the 

 first fences are rotted down and the land seems 

 to be returning to its original wildness from the 

 new growth springing up — there are discour- 

 agements which it requires considerable forti- 

 tude to meet — discouragements which those who 

 consult their ease by following sedentary me- 

 chanical pursuits or studies, and who earn and 

 find money flowing into their coffers while pur- 

 suing an easy life, know not how to appreciate. 

 But after all it is exceedingly questionable wheth- 

 er the hardy tiller of the rock- hound soil has not 

 the more sure means of independence within his 

 grasp. It is true he does not live in the region of 

 rapid money circulation, and therefore cannot al- 

 ways have money or its immediate representative 

 within his reach : yet if he cannot every day take 

 considerable sums of money, he does not every 

 day want it — he lias the means of living without 

 it His farm produces almost every thing desira- 

 ble for food or clothing, and his necessities and 

 luxuries are either raised or procured in advance, 

 so that he has the means for his own family com- 

 fort, or to treat and accommodate his friends, 

 without making a present expenditure and with- 

 out running to some market or grocery as the 

 first thing in the morning to procure the suste- 

 nance of the ensuing day. He has none of the 

 anxieties and miseries of men in trade and busi- 

 ness who daily are obliged to meet pecuniary 

 obligations at the very day and hour they become 

 due. 



Altliough the mountain farmer, sometimes fail- 

 ing of his accustomed crops of grain — his land 

 too cold to produce Indian corn or else his crops 

 cut down by early frost — is scarcely able to as- 

 sure himself that lie will annually raise the bread 

 necessary for the consumption of his family; yet 

 prudent calculations will make him quite as sure of 

 obtaining a livelihood as those living in portions of 

 the country enjoying a milder climate and an ea- 

 sier soil. If the mountain fanner sometimes is 

 disap])ointed of a cio]>, so often is the farmer up- 

 on fine plains and river intervales: the drouglit 

 and the mildew and even the frost often destroy 

 the crops of the latter while the former is un- 

 touched. 



As land eligible for grazing — for raising cattle, 

 sheep, horses and swine — as land producing 

 beef, pork, mutton and wool, and butter and 

 cheese — the farmer whose flocks range upon the 

 mountains and hills has a decided advantage. 

 His animals enjoy better health and are kept 

 with less trouble and anxiety; and in all seasons 

 they come off in better condition with the same 

 expense incurred. 



The hill towns of New England are perhaps 

 better adapted to grazing than to ahnost any 

 thing else ; and one advanuige of the grazing 

 farmer is, that on good land laid into pasture the 

 fertility is retained many years without applica- 

 tion of the plough or manure with no very sen- 

 sible diminution. But the hill farmer, even 

 though his ground be rocky and rough, has 

 strong inducements to put his land under culti- 

 vation with the plough, if he can do it on the im- 

 proving plan, with the prospect of making it 

 more and more productive. His acre of rye, 

 wheat, oats, potatoes or Indian corn may be made 

 quite as sure as the best acre of more easy 

 ground ; and when his land has once gained the 

 benefits of manure and better cultivation, he will 

 be sure of longer retaining the benefils of his 

 added expense and labor on the harder than uji- 

 on the easier soil. 



The counties of Grafton and Coos in New 

 Hampshire off of the vallies upon the rivers and 

 streams, are generally rocky and rough. The 

 farms of these counties over since their fust set- 

 tlement have turned off abundance of cattle. 

 When first cleared these lands yield great crops 

 of grain, and for the few first ycarsTproduce largo 

 crops of liay and grass feed. It is matter of re- 

 gret to see these fine producing lands, after a few 

 years, suffered to run down so that it becomes a 

 matter of necessity to abandon them. Lands 

 growing annually less and less productive must 

 sooner or later become useless. There is no 

 cultivated land so poor tliat it may not be improv- 

 ed ; and the man who keeps in view constantly 

 the plan to make his lands better will be sure to 

 meet with his reward in the end. 



Bethlehem, a town situated on the north line 

 of Gialton county, since our recollection, had not 

 more than fifteen or twenty families : it now con- 

 tains perhaps over a hundred farms, ranging 

 from fifty to a hundred and sometimes two hun- 

 dred acres. Mr. Artemas Knight of that town 

 has a fiirm of 110 to 120 acres, from which, as 

 one item, he this year produced from 3000 to 

 3500 pounds of hops, which sold for cash in the 

 mai-kef, giving him over eleven hundred dollars. 

 On being asked the price of the farm upon which 

 he raised the hops, he answered that he consider- 

 ed it to be worth one thousand dollars ; that he 

 was perfectly satisfied with his lot, always having 

 jnoney on hand sufiicient to supply him with 

 whatever he and his family required. He was 

 more fortunate than usual in his crop of the pres- 

 ent year, the article of liojis being thirty-tliree 

 cents a pound, which are commonly fiom eight 

 to twelve cents and seldom over twenty cents the 

 pound. Two years ago when at the Hop In- 

 spector's office at Charlestown, Mass. he over- 

 heard a conversation between a Massachusetts 

 hop raiser and the inspector, in which the latter 

 advised the former that inasmuch as many of the 

 hop growers were ploughing up their fields in 

 consequence of the reduced prices, the next 

 year would be the best time to set out a new field. 

 Without participating in the conversation, Mr. 

 Knight went home and prepared a new field of 

 2800 hills; and from this he this year obtained 

 the crop which sold at the hop market in Boston 

 for over one thousand dollars, an amount nearly 

 equal to the estimated value of his fiirm ! 

 As a consequence of such success as this,it would 

 be quite natural that hundreds should turn their 

 attention to the planting of hop fields ; and by 

 the time these fields shall yield a crop in the 

 year 1843 there may be raised so great an abun- 

 dance of the article that hops will hardly bear a 

 ])rice equal to most other articles raised upon 

 the farm. 



Judicious farmers in some places who have 

 steadily pursued the business of hop-growing 

 have done well; but those who have commenced 

 planting fields w hen high prices encouraged, and 

 dug up their fields when low prices and a full 

 market discouraged, have generally made hop 

 growing a losing business. 



We have in tliis i>lace introduced the grand 

 success attending Mr. Knight's enterprise to en- 

 courage producers in every |>art of the country 

 that more can he derived from the soil than is 

 generally conceived. That farmers do not get 

 suddenly rich as sometimes does one of a hun- 

 dred of men engaged in speculation and trade, 

 lias operated as an inducement for many a far- 

 mer to be discontented with his Jot. He sees 

 others around him who gain fortunes without la- 

 bor, and why should he not gather a fortune too 

 from the earnings of others rather than endure 

 the fatigue of earning it himself? Mistaken is 

 every man who does not consider that the neces- 

 sity for labor and exertion is among the greatest 

 blessings of a beneficent Providence. 



A man who lias made great gains in trade is 

 but too apt to consider the process by which the 

 farmer arrives at competence and independence 

 to be much too slow and uncertain. A gentle- 

 man who has made and lost half a million of 

 dollars lately asked a gentleman of his acquain- 

 tance, a farmer, if he could show him that the 

 farmer's occupation was not more laborious and 

 uniirofitable than any other. 



'I'lic farmer answered that he lived in a small 

 town composed principally of farmers, but with 

 a few mechanics. One of these mechanics was 

 an industrious shoemaker who worked himself 

 twelve or more hours each day: his neighbors, 

 the farmers, commonly labored only eight hours. 

 They were in the habit of meeting in the fall and 

 winter evenings at the workshop of the shoeiiia- 

 ker, who had the faculty of talking and working 

 at the same time. At the end of the evening's 

 sitting the shoemaker had done his part of the 

 talking and made beside bis pair of shoes worth 

 two shillings: the eight neighboring farmers had 

 made no shoes and only talked. These men 

 were able with only eight hours labor to do as 

 well upon their farms as the shoemaker could 

 do u])on his bench with the work of twelve 

 hours. 



The farmer mentioned another very common 

 case. An easy owner of a farm with a family of 

 lusty boys brought up to the same business, rises 



