1U8 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Reminiscencesi 



In the Visitor of last montli, Col. Carriffain re- 

 minded us of ilia "'deceased friend, Richard 

 BartletT, Esq." Secretary of State for New 

 Hampshire at the time of Lafayette's visit at the 

 Capitol in 1825. We are carried back still failh- 

 er to the time of our first starting in the business 

 of life at the age of twenty one years, in 1809: 

 Col. Carrigain was himself then Secretary of 

 State.siiice appropriately named by him the Gran- 

 ite State, and the two boys, Charles G. Haines 

 and Richard Bartlett, from sixteen to seven- 

 teen years of age, were members of his bachelor 

 family, then residing at the three story house 

 at the North cud which has long been known as 

 the Carrigain liouse having been erected by him 

 on the lot originally belonging to his father : with 

 that gentleman, and at tliat liouse the editor made 

 his first halt when he cauie to this town, and the 

 flour dumpling of our first day's dinner, with the 

 two boys coming in from the oifice at the after 

 table, is well recollected. Col. C. treated his vis- 

 itor according to the fashion of the time, pimy and 

 almost beardless as was the originator of the 

 New Hanipshiie Patriot, as if he had been some 

 distinguished stranger, deserving better than the 

 every day table. The same week he gave us the 

 first job of ]irimiug: and he well deserves to be 

 considered i.niliist p.-itron. Haines and Bart- 

 lett were IJkr c-liililnu in his family,each oflhem 

 instructed gLatuitniisl\ m tlie rudiments of that 

 collegiate education which iiotli of them after- 

 wards received, and in that beautiful cliirography 

 for which the teacher and pupils were afterwards 

 distinguished. Young Haines, after graduating 

 at Middlebury college, went to the city of New 

 York, where he became celebrated as \he pet and 

 favorite of Gov. Clinton — was one of his nulita- 

 ry aids, and afterwards Adjutant General of the 

 Stale, and became distinguished likewise as a 

 lawyer and advocate. He was one of the most 

 popular writers and orators of his time — full of 

 life and spirit to the last days of his life, even 

 near to (Ik- day and hour of his death. He died 

 we believe in \&24, a few weeks after returning 

 fiom the island of Cuba, to which he had sailed 

 in the hope of benefitting his health. Rii-liard 

 Bartlett was Secretary of State up to the year 18"29, 

 and survived his school-boy companion some 

 ten years, linving encountered a disease of the 

 gi-a(iu:d cNiiansKiu and growing up of the pass- 

 age liniii ilir lai-irils to the tnroat, in an almost 

 iiidi'sci ihahli' :rj.nny of many months. 



Uol. Carrigain who in 18011 was a stud, nt of Dart- 

 mouth College, and with whoai it was oui- privil- 

 ege to bed and hoard tor several months iu that 

 and the sidiseijuent year while lie taught the high 

 school in this liis native town; we mean Ihelate 

 Nathaniel H. Carter. Our first actpiaintance 

 wiih him was the rece[)tion of the fir.st original po- 

 etical communication ever printed in the New 

 Hampshire Patriot, to wlilch he was afterwards 

 a frequent ooMtrihutor. This gentleman contin- 

 ued the businrss of teacher for several years — 

 was (i.r a ii>ii>iil< rable time preceptor of an ac- 

 caileiuy in Portland, and subse(]uenlly a profess- 

 or at Dartniouili College. About the year 1817, 

 introduced by his school boy associate Col. 

 Haines to Gov. Clinton and the leading politi- 

 cians of his party, he became what he never was 

 designed to be, tlic editor of a leading political 

 paper. Allliniiijh never at home in the shar)) 

 controvcrsic's ciIXl-w York politics, he neverthe- 

 less ciiiitiiiiii^d t.i oi.-cupy that post the greater 

 part of the time liir nearly ten years. His was 

 the genius and the plaintive spirit of the poet: 

 he shuimed the popidar glare — his voice and his 

 resohitioii failed him when before any public as- 

 semlily: his m -r\c was strung with chords loo sen- 

 sitive anri tc'iiil •]■ tci endiu'e the continued din of 

 sliarp political etmlroversy. At length his con- 

 stitution gave way under the fiiigiies of his news- 

 paper labors. The late Henry Fckford, wliose 

 enterprise and generosity are well known, al- 

 tliough a political opponent, invited Mr. Carter 

 to travel at his expense as the eoniiianioii of his 

 son on a tour Ihrou-h Europe. Iter,; w.-s a fine 

 opportunity for the graliliration of that thirst for 

 a knowledge of men and places of which he had 

 lead— for personal inspection of those classical 

 grounds, as well iu Engl.uid, Scoll.-uid and Ire- 

 land and Germany as under the milder climes of 

 France and ltaly,"\vhich w.-re the daily scenes of 

 tlie most distinguished scholars, ilivines, civil- 



ians and warriors oftlie world. Mr. Carter en- 

 countered this journey with all the enthusiasm o; 

 a man in vigorous health. He returned— a de- 

 raving consiiliiiion. wliioli terminated in a seated 

 coiisnuinticin, iihiia-ed liim to seek the milder cli 

 mate ofihe ishuid of Cuba in the winter ol' ]8'.i8. 

 On his return he visited for the last time thi; 

 native town and the spot of hisnativity, upon a 

 small stream which discharges itself into the 

 Merrimack just within the limits of the town of 

 Bow, two miles south of onr jirincipal village 

 his paternal farm is situated about the same dis 

 tance from the village in that part of the town 

 called the " Iron works," and has become one of 

 the best in the town, having had as its owner and 

 occupant for the fast thirty years one who knows 

 how to cultivate land to the best advantage, who 

 keeps decidedly the best team of oxen in th( 

 town, whose wife makes the best butter, and 

 whose sons and daughters are trained in that 

 usefiilncss which every prudent farmer 

 by bringing up his children to his own habits of 

 industry. 



The lamented Carter, soon after retnrning from 

 his visit in this town, as a last step for the bem 

 fit of his declining health, took ship again for 

 Europe in the year 1829: his destination was for 

 the port of Marseilles in the south of France. 

 His last published effusion was a few poctici 

 stanzas in view of the closing scenes of life in 

 which he anticipates the committing of his own 

 body to the ocean should he breathe his last while 

 on the voyage: he however barely lived to arrive 

 at the port of his destination where his body lies 

 in a land of strangers. A wealthy citizen of New 

 York, a native also of New Hampshire, (Augustus 

 Greele, Esq.,) has since erected at an expense of 

 several hundred dollarsa neat monument as a tri 

 bute to the virtues and the talents of oin- deiiart- 

 ed townsman in that far-ofl" land w here his body 

 reposes. 



Selected Tor the Christian Panoply. 

 The following beiiutiful '* tribute to my native stream." 

 " by the late Nathaniel H. Carter, Esq. 



and was oritjinally published in the iSew York Statesmi 

 in 1828— Mr. Carter then being editor of that paper. T 

 " stream" alluded to, is Turkey river, which empties into 

 the Merrimack a few miles south of the Slate House. 

 M. W. K 

 TRIBUTE TO MY NATIVE STREAM. 



Hail — Hail again my native stream, 



Scene of my boyhood's earliest drcavjl 



With solitary step once more 



I tread thy wild and sylvan shore, 



.\nd pause at ev'ry turn and gaze 



Upon thy dark meand'ring irinze. 



What tiiou^fh oliscurt' t!iy wciody source. 



What thru I, » ,~n , 1',; Iiuinble course; 



Wlult if .:■ ' ■■■ ' - ,,,„lo 



Since last with thee I parted, tiaie 

 H.as borne me on throujh many a cli 

 I-'ar from iny native roof that stood 

 Secluded by thy murm'ring flood ; 

 And I in distant lands have ruamd, 

 Where roll'd new streams, new ocea 

 Along the Shnnnnn, Doon, and Tay, 



.'. I'm (■,,„ und'Tha 



And ! 



Sweet Am... vM.-a-ici in suninier flowers. 

 Linger amidst Etrunan bowers; 

 And the Tiber's yellow tide 

 Roll to the sea in sulien pride. 



In rlinies bencnti, the burning zone, 

 ■Mu\ tangle, 1 fcrr-ts, deep and lone. 

 Where fervul .-kios forever glow, 

 Aii.l liic ...I'l tiilcwiads whispering blo'v. 



Yet not the less, my native stream. 

 Art thou to mo a grateful theme. 

 Than vvlipn in In-... lies-; i.'.vti.iod's prime 



.My litllR b.jit hnth borne mf ( 

 Or np Canimar's silent floods, 

 Strown with the blossoms of i 



»This 



117(071. 



tThe 



word is pronounced in Spanish 



author ol these lines, in rowing up tl 

 r Matanzas, in January, I8-C ftum 

 with the blossoms of forest trees grr 



The Season. 



VVe waited patiently from Saturday to Monday 

 morning expecting that the parched "earth would 

 be relieved by rain ; and we cut down several 

 acres of grass on Fiid.iy and Saturday especially 

 for the purpose of inviting the Hxt: but none of 

 it has come here -the dust has not even been 

 laid, while around ns in various directions for the 

 last lour dajs there have been sliowcis. On 

 Friday and Saturday they had rain in Northfield 

 and Canterbury and' at the eastward : on Sunday 

 there was u rain wetting into the ground four 

 inches at Franklin sixteen miles north, and fiom 

 the dis|iosition of the clouds they must have been 

 eipially fortunate in obtaining rain at Dunburtoii, 

 Goffstowii, Amoskeag, &,c. aliuiit the sani'j dis- 

 tance south. The corn in many places has been 

 already much injured; and if there bene rain 

 for a week to come onr potatoes will be nearly 

 ruined. 



Wednesday last is believed to have been the, 

 warmest day that has occurred for a number of 

 years — Fahrenheit's ihermometer in the shade 

 stood at lOl.—Hill's Patriot, Tuesday, My 27. 



Thursday morning, July 29, the thermometer 

 at sunrise was down to 45, making a difference 

 ill one week of 5(1 degrees : not so great as the 

 winter change mentioned by our Stoddard cor- 

 resjiondent in 183!>, when tlie mercury rose G5 

 degrees in 48 hours. It was cold enough at sun- 

 rise on Thursday, to make the fingers tingle ; and 

 a uavy officer, our neighbor, wlio has resided 

 several sea.sons at Port JMalmn in the iMi'diterra- 

 nenn, remarked that thechangi' tiom heat tocold 

 had been as great in one week of the month of 

 July here, as was usual there from mid-summer 

 to mid-winter. 



As the peculiar seasons have much to do with 

 the crops of the farmer, they are a proper sub- 

 ject of note and remark in an agricultural news- 

 paper. At this particular point we have already 

 two extended seasons of drought: the first 

 commenced in IMny, soon alter the usual time of 

 planting. Those who planted their corn and po- 

 tatoes early in the month — and the cold, wet 

 spring coniinueil down to about the 15th, so that 

 ordinary ground was not dry enough to so',v or 

 plant until that lime — saw them spring out of the 

 ground at once, and under the influence oftlie 

 III lliey gri w finely until checked by the 

 . Tli(i.s<. who did not .sow and plant un- 

 Ihe "i.'jth, have generally found their at- 

 tempt to be a iailiue. ".Inch of the seed did not 

 L-ome out of the ground at all, and what did 

 come, made its appearance at different times, and 

 remains of different sizes. The entire planting 

 of beans in some ca.ses fiiiled to come at all : there 

 was wet enough in the ground to swell and 

 sprout the seed, when the earth became so dry 

 and parched that vegetation stopped and the Ker- 

 lel rotted. The same process we presunie took 

 dace with other seeds perislialili; iioni such a 

 ause. Others remained inactive^ as hiukw heat, 

 carrots, &c. We have seen a |)lat of well pre- 

 pared land sown in carrots, where a few scatter- 

 ing plants appeared — the .•jioniid was hoed over 

 and sown a second lime about the first of July : 

 the seed sprang from the ground in about five 

 days ; and fiom that day to this, what was left by 

 the insects has been dried away by the burning 

 sun, until the face of the ground is as bare as 

 when it was first tilled. Ruta haga and I'^nglisli 

 luriiips, in the region of drought and grassliop- 



