THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



51 



tain streams of Switzerland. The preseut case 

 of the Swiss of the Canton of Vatiil, who are 

 cursed with no military tyrant or expensive civil 

 crowned head, will illustrate the position of the 

 veteran farmer of Virginia, that " the move indus- 

 try spends of its own earnings, and tlie less of 

 them is intercepted by governmenls, or taken 

 away by legal projects, the richer, the greater and 

 the happier will be the nation." A peo])le light- 

 ly taxed — a people stimulated to indifstry by the 

 control and enjoyment of all the fruits of iudus- 

 t,-y — a people quick to perceive that tlieir true in- 

 terest lies in immediate reparation of dihipidated 

 buildings and the constant renovation of soil — a 

 people uniting the virtues of industry, temper- 

 ance, truth, generosity and cliastity — shall be for- 

 ever thriving and prosperous. 



Tlie depression of prices of the farmer's pro- 

 ductions is matter of general comidaint. Pork 

 was formerly ten cents a pound — it is now five : 

 beef ten dollars a liundred — now five and six dol- 

 lars: best butter twenty-five cents — now twelve 

 and fifteen : cheese ten and twelve cents — now 

 six and eight cents. Indeed we heard the com- 

 plaint the other day in Boston that the stopping 

 and suspension of the banks in Pennsylvania and 

 the South were placing remittances of money out 

 of the question, and that the States further south 

 were sending jjork and beef, butter and cheese 

 and other produce in such quantities to the New- 

 England ports to pay balances, that much of our 

 produce would sell at no price. This is a state 

 of things tridy discouraging to the farmer who 

 has raised and lias any thing on hand to sell. 

 But this ought by no means to dissuade him from 

 making the due preparation for a new crop: be- 

 fore the time arrives for the sale of that crop, he 

 may rest assured that this matter will regulate it- 

 self As the extreme of cold succeeds the ex- 

 treme of heat, so does scarcity succeed to plen!)'. 



After all, the prospects and prices of the far- 

 mer's products are not so bad as they might be. 

 There are two articles raised for sale to a consid- 

 erable extent in New Hampshire that never paiil 

 better for the labor bestowed upon them than they 

 have done the last year : these articles are Hops 

 and Herdsgrass or Timolh/ seed. The first soil 

 quick in the market at US and 30 cents per lb. 

 presenting a clear profit on the labor of more 

 than two-thirds the price of the article itself; and 

 the latter now sells at three and a half to four 

 dollars the bushel. 



The towns of Colebrook and Stewartslown, N. 

 H. one hundred and fiity miles north of this cap- 

 ital, raise herdsgrass and clover seed in quantilies 

 probably exceeding most other towns of New 

 England. It is evidence of the fertility and ex- 

 cellence of the soil of the noble county of Coos, 

 that, after the first clearing, it turns out henls^gniss 

 and clover in abundance. The sides of the moun- 

 tains as well as the beautifid swells fitlling below 

 them yield spontaneously grass for the catile and 

 herbs for the use of men : it is only the long 

 winter and the shortness of the A\orking season 

 that discourage the farniei'. Perhaps an early 

 frost may sometimes strike down a favorite croji. 

 But the short season and the early frosts are often 

 counterbalanced by other evils in a climate with 

 a longer summer. Changes in the season, a hard 

 frost in wiuter, a long continued season ol wet or 

 drought, the overflow and swelling of rivers, are 

 even more fatal to the hopes of the planters of a 

 more sunny clime, than the changes or severity 

 of the seasons in the States all along the northern 

 boundary ol the United States. 



Why should we abandon our magnificent hills 

 after their virgin fertility has been extracted ? 

 The first fault is, that necessity, or may be a per- 

 verse habit, has taken Irom the soil wiiat lias not 

 Hecn carried back — that men have lilcraliy " gati: 

 ered where they have not strowed," until tlie fni 

 tlier gathering will not repay the labor. A retreat 

 from such lands seems to-be a matter not of 

 choice, but of compulsion. The Ijte census 

 shows the farming population in some of the best 

 agricultural towns of the State as falling off. It 

 is a source of regret that in the county of Cheshire, 

 where the farmers have been better prospered 

 than in any other part of New Hampshire, the 

 population has been reduced in numbers. Is it 

 Ibund by the rising generation of New Hampshire 

 that their prospects are better in speculations 



abroad, than in the piu'suit of their wonted indus- 

 try at home ? Alas ! how many men, young and 

 old, with and without families, have within the 

 last few years encountered the ruin which has re- 

 sulted from a change of habits, or else gone down 

 a earlier grave from diseases contracted un- 

 der a new climate ? While some have succeeded 

 jaining what they most earnestly desire, an 

 accumulated ]jroperty, others have either squan- 

 dered themselves, or passed over to the arts and 

 devices of sharpers hundreds and thousands of 

 dollars earned and furnished them by the indus- 

 try of provident fathers. Looking rounti in our 

 own neighborhoods, some of us can count up 

 hundreds who have left the State with the expec- 

 tation of bettering their condition. Where one 



s realized his expectations, may we not count 

 half a dozen who' are disappointed. Removed 

 fai- from us as they are, it is impossible we should 

 ever see the misery of the dark side, while the 

 isolated case of one successftil speculator stands 

 out to the gaze of all in the light of the most ef- 

 fulgent sunbeams. 



If the farmers of New England could realize 

 the fact that their " lot has been cast in pleasant 

 places" — if they can be made to believe that in- 

 dustry and perseverance will not fail of its re- 

 ward at their own homes and near the graves of 

 their ancestors — they will not abandon the friends 

 and companions of their youth in the by-no- means 

 sure prospect of enjoying greater happiness in a 

 more distant land. 



There is no position that will give a man a bet- 

 ter taste for Agricndture than to be engaged with 

 those enterprising men who furnish the vegeta- 

 ble markets of the cities. The farmers living 

 round about the city of Boston understand and 

 attend to their business as well as the men of any 

 other occupation. If like some of the men who 

 feast on the jiroductions of their labor, they do 

 not become millionaires by speculation and trade, 

 they gain substantial and lasting wealth — they 

 ensure a competency to themselves and families, 

 and they add constantly to the value of their 

 property by making the ground which they cul- 

 tivate more and more productive. 



Many of the enterprising young men, sons of 

 farmers, leave their homes in the interior and go 

 to the towns near the seaboard ; and in the cen- 

 tral and miper parts of this State the course of 

 intercourse and trade is more natural with the 

 seaboard of Massachusetts than with that of oiu- 

 own or any other of the adjacent States. New 

 Hampshire young men embrace no inconsidera- 

 ble portion of the enterprising mei-chants and 

 mechanics and professional classes of the city of 

 Boston. It is common for young men to go from 

 their homes and hire themselves out upon the 

 farms in the lower towns. The editor hns some- 

 times met, wjien visiting those farms, one or 

 more hired men from the Granite State, on whom 

 their employers placed great reliance. Year af- 

 ter year are faithful iiU'U cunliniird in liiis em- 

 ployment with high uages: and as tlieir acquain- 

 tance with the iniprovcil metlioHs of agriculture 

 and horticiillnie pursued by the bc.st farmers who 

 raise crojis fur the market is iiiterested, so are 

 their wages increased. 



These men return into the country, and cairy 

 with them a knowledge that is highly useful to 

 their respective neighborhoods. At the farmers' 

 exhibition in Caledonia comity, Vermont, two 

 hundred miles out of Boston, last fa.ll, ue found 

 the farmer who excelled all others in his produc- 

 tions to be a man who had spent several years on 

 a market farm near Boston, and had there learnt 

 the art of cultivation which enabled him to go a 

 little ahead of all his neighbors, and this in a 

 community of farmeis which is confes.sedly as 

 far advanced as any in the interior country — for 

 Caledonia county must not be ]ilaced behind any 

 other county of the United States of its ago as a 

 farming district. 



A main reiison why the seaboard farmers excel 

 those of the interior is, that the former do not at 

 all stint the expense of manure and labor upon 

 their land. They pay dear and they go a long 

 distance for the means of replenishing their 

 ground. They think nothing of paying six or 

 eight dollars a cord for the manure of the stable. 

 They lay hold of the oftitl and the sweepings of 

 the streets of the cities, paying for it what would 



be considered extravagant prices, and carry it 

 far for the purpose of increasing the fruitfulness 

 of their lands. They ditch and drain their low 

 svyamps and make thrtn highly productive by the 

 stimidant manures which they purchase or man- 

 ufacture. In the abundance of their labor and 

 expense, it is rare indeed that their labor is in 

 vain, or their expense misapplied. They do 

 every thing understanding fully what will be the 

 effect: their practice is perfect, because they 

 possess a knowledge of means and ends. 



Instructed in such a school, we are glad to see 

 our young men return and improve the farms in 

 the State which they have left. They bring with 

 them a knowledge that will be useful to the 

 neighborhoods of their nativity. Some of these 

 young men imderstand that their prospects of 

 business are quite as good for farming upon our 

 own soil as they can be in the reputed Elysian 

 fields of the West. 



Mr. Le-wis F. Merrill, who went from New 

 Hampshire a few yeai-s ago and has pursued a 

 lucrative business in the Boston market, purchas- 

 ed a tract of land in Groton in the mountain re- 

 gion of Grafton county about four years ago, for 

 which he paid about one dollar an acre. A 

 small portion, some twenty or thirty acres, of 

 the land had been cleared, which produced little 

 or nothing. But during the last three years he 

 has cut down the wood and cleared one hundred 

 and twenty acres. Mr. Merrill did not do his 

 business by the halves upon this land: he had 

 earned the money, and he was able to make a 

 generous expenditure. The growth of the wood 

 upon the land was heavy, and he paid ten dol- 

 lars the acre for cutting down and burning the 

 trees and clearing the land ready for a crop. 

 The first crop has been rye or \vheat ; twenty to 

 twenty-five bushels of rye and fifteen to twenty 

 bushels of wheat have been the average product 

 — an amount which as these grains have sold 

 was sufficient to jiay both the price of the land 

 and the piice of clearing. Mr. Merrill raised on 

 his newly cleared land in 1838 more than five 

 hundred bushels of \i'heat. This crop that year 

 was worth about one thousand dollars. The land, 

 after the first croi) was taken off, is worth from 

 ten to twenty dollars the acre. Mr. M. sows iqj- 

 on the new clearing herdsgrass and clover; he 

 obtains the belter crop of hay froiri mixing 

 these seeds. In the year 1840, he cut and cured 

 upon these premises about one hundred tons of 

 the best of hay. That hay would sell at this mo- 

 ment of scarcity almost any where in the State 

 for the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. 



Could j!;-. iMitiHI take np any business where 

 he would (lu >o iiniili I'or the public and so well 

 for hiiiiscll'as lie lias dune by clearing and mak- 

 ing this tanii in the mountain region of New 

 Hampshire ? If a conunon farmer cuts in a 

 year twenty tons of good English hay, we give 

 him credit lor being a good husband: there, are 

 niaiiy thriving farmers in the State who do not 

 go beyond this. Mr. Merrill, with the avails of his 

 own industi-y, has been the creator and maker of 

 a farm that produces what four good fiirms would 

 produce. He has a vested capital which cost him 

 notliing, because it paid tor itself as it went 

 along, yielding him an annual income of at least 

 five hundred dollars a year. He lias only to |)ut 

 on what he lakes off, by consumming his hay 

 upon his own fiirm, to make it perpetuate its own 

 production. In view of what he has accompish- 

 ed, we would only say to other young men of 

 New Hampshire, " Go thou and do likewise." 



Fox Skins.— The Editor of the Blaine Culti- 

 vator says that foxes in great numbers have been 

 taken during the present winter in the counties 

 adjacent^ to the Kennebeck river ; and that |)ur- 

 chases have there been made to the amount of 

 about ten thousand dollars. 



He mentions a fox taken In a field near the 

 State House in Augusta, the skin of which sold 

 to a fur dealer for twenty-five dollars, "and it is 

 said the purchaser made several dollars on the 

 purchase. The fox was a Silver Grey, or a jet, 

 polished black, with occasional hairs of pure 

 white, and very large." 



There is every winter a traffic in fox skins and 

 other fins carried on by liatters in Concord: tht- 

 supply mainly comes fiom the mountainous re- 

 gion of Grahoii and Coos, from the " Pig- 

 wacket comitry," and the county of Oxford in 

 Maine. We saw- not long since a benutiful Sil- 



