THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



149 



My attention was, tlieiefore, called to the condi- 

 tion of agriculture witli the Shakers, and 1 had 

 the satisliiction of proving useful to them, hv call- 

 ing their attentiou to the value of a huge tract of 

 peat land which they possess, but had not then 

 rendered valuable by improving it. 



The bog is ai)out half a mile from their dwell- 

 ings, and comprises about 50 aires. It is more 

 than thirty feet deep, and may be easily drained 

 and cultivated. By cutting ditches around the 

 margin of the bog, the lateral springs may be 

 intercepted, and drawn oft' into a general drain. 

 Thejieat dug from the ditches will furnish an 

 abundance of vegetable matter for making com- 

 post mamn-e, and when Ihe bog is once drained, 

 its surface may be turned with a plough, and 

 then rolled down, manured and planted. In 

 short, I should recommend precisely that meth- 

 od of treatment which is employed by Elias Phin- 

 ney, Esq., of Lexington, an account of which I 

 have formerly published in my Reports on the 

 Geology and Agriculture of Maine and Rhode 

 Island. 



From Concord I explored the Geology of the 

 country to Hillsborough, and from thence to 

 Amherst, from whence I measured a sectional 

 line over the country to the westward, passing 

 through Peterborough and over Monadnock 

 Mountain, in Dublin, to Keene, and from thence 

 to the Comiecticut River, at Brattleborough, Vt. 



A brief oudine of this section is all that can 

 at present l)e attempted. 



In Hillsborough occur a few minerals of in- 

 terest, which will be mentioned more particularly 

 liereafler. 



Graphite or pimnbago is found in a state of 

 great purity, hut the veins are narrow, rarely be- 

 ing more than 8 or 10 inches wide. It is inclu- 

 ded in mica slate, which is cut through by a vein 

 of granite. 



The locality is of value to those residing in the 

 neighborhood, since mining for plumbago may 

 occupy their leisure time, and wHl repay tliem 

 well for their labor, since it is worth $60 per ton 

 for the manufacture of crucibles, and is now in 

 constant demand. 



In Goshen a plumbago vein is wrought, by Mr. 

 Pierce of Hillsborough, who employs a number 

 of men advantageously part of the year in the 

 business, and supplies a large quantity of plum- 

 bago to the manufactures of crucibles in Taun- 

 ton, Mass. Mica slate, gneiss, and granite, com- 

 prise all ilie varieties of rocks on this route, un- 

 til we reach Francestown, where a very valuable 

 bed of soft talcose rock or soapstone occurs, im- 

 bedded in the mica slate. 



Descriptio.n of the Soapstone quarrt at 

 Francestown. 



Soapstone of excellent quality exists in Fran- 

 cestown on the estate of Daniel Fuller, Esq. It 

 was discovered by him accidentally in 1794, while 

 engaged in ploughing his field. He remarked 

 that the plough and harrow did not tnake any 

 gritting noise in passing over this ledge, while 

 it did on the others, and on examining the rock, 

 found it to be a soft variety of soapstone. It was 

 first wrought in 1802, and was transported to 

 Boston for sale in 1812. Since that lime the val- 

 ue of the stone has been steadily increasing, and 

 is now in greater demand than ever. 



I visited the quarry, examined this rock with 

 care, a'nd obtained through the politeness of Mr. 

 Fuller a full statistical account of the business. 

 The quarry is situated one mile eastward of the 

 Francestown meeting-house. 



The .soapstone is a very soft variety of crystal- 

 line talcose rock, composed entirely of the inter- 

 laced crystals or lamina of Talc. It is a reg- 

 ular bed included between walls of mica slate, 

 and runs parallel with the course of the strata 

 N. E. and S. W. and dips to the N. W. 60 deg. 

 In its widest jmrt the bed measures 40 feet in 

 thickness, and it narrows to the south westward 

 to 20 feet. In the middle it measures from 2,5 

 to 30 feet. It has been (piarried to the depth of 

 40 feet, but the natural drainage keeps the quar- 

 ry free from \vater oidy to the depth of 36 feet. 

 The length of the bed so far as it is exposed to 

 view is 400 feet. 



A small part of the south western extremity of 

 this bed is owned by Mr. Daniel Clarke who also 

 quarries the stone. ' It is not improbable that the 

 soapstone will be found to extend beyond its pres- 

 ent ascertained limits, and it will be worth while 

 for those who are interested to examine the coun- 



try to the north-eastward and south-westward 

 of the openings where the stone is now wrought. 



The mode of quari7ing soapstone which is 

 here employed is to saw out the blocks by means 

 of large crosscut saws so as to obtain sound 

 blocks and to waste as little as possible. 



Mr. Fuller proposes to ei-eet a small steam en- 

 gine to pimip out the water from the quarry, and 

 the same engine will diive saws lor manuftictur- 

 ing the stone into slabs. 



This will allow the quarry to be wrought to a 

 much greater depth. The usual sized blocks now 

 obtained, measure 6 feet by 3, and 7 feet by 5. 

 Snwiler blocks and slabs are also wrought. 

 Twelve cubic feet of the rock are estimated to 

 weigh a ton. Cost of quarrying is from seven to 

 ten dollars per ton. About 250 tons have been 

 quarried and sold in a year in the most favorable 

 times. It is transported by teams to Nashua and 

 sent from thence to Charlestown, or is carried di- 

 rectly to Boston in wagons. The distance to 

 Boston is 60 miles, and the expense of transpor- 

 tation is $7 20 per ton. The slone sells in Bos- 

 ton for $3 00 or 3 50 per cubic foot. It is exten- 

 sively employed for making fire places, grates, 

 boiler tops, stoves, sinks, funnel pipes, and for 

 rollers used in dressing cotton warp in factories. 



Tiie rollers are made 4 1-2 feel long and from 

 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Soapstone is prefer- 

 red to all other materials for the above mention- 

 It will be seen from the above statements, that 

 soapstone is a very valuable material, and brings 

 a considerable revenue to citizens employed in 

 the business. 



From Francestown to Mont Vernon the rocks 

 are mica slate and granite. In the latter town just 

 before descending into the valley of Amherst 

 there is an abrupt mass of a coarse variety of 

 granite contaitnng white felspar. A sudden de- 

 scent conducts to the plain where the pretty vil- 

 Isge of Amherst is spread out in a valley of an- 

 cient alluvial origin, which appears as if it once 

 formed the basin of a lake but was subsequent- 

 ly filled in part with soil. 



Only a short time was devoted to the examina- 

 tion of this town since the i-ocks are generally con- 

 cealed from view, and but little real information 

 could be obtained from inspection of them. 



Leaving Amherst, after obtaining nuich useful 

 agricultural information, through the politeness 

 of Mr. Peabody, we continued our route to Pe- 

 terborough, observing that the rocks in Milford, 

 Wilton, and Temple, consisted of gneiss and 

 phorphyrite granite. The gneiss in Peterborough 

 contains iron pyrites, and by its decomposition the 

 rock is strongly stained with the j>er oxide of iron. 

 Numerous blocks of porphyritic granite, out of 

 place, rest on the surface of the soil. 



We next visited JafTrey near the base of Mo- 

 nadnock Moimtain, and having made some as- 

 tronomical observations to fix the latitude of the 

 place, we ascended to the sunnnit of Monadnock, 

 carrying with us a sextant, artificial horizon, one 

 of the barometers, and a compass. Mr. Cutter 

 of JafTrey kindly volunteered to guide us by the 

 easiest route to the summit of the mountain. 



Setting out on foot from the house of Elias 

 Mann we began the ascent, remarking that the 

 rocks for the first part of the way are gneissand 

 miea slate, the strata of which dip to the north- 

 ward. The mica slate contains an abundance of 

 fibrolite, which gives it a porphyritic appearance. 

 Higher up we noted the occurrence of diluvial 

 scratches on the surface of the rock. They run 

 N. 35 deg. W., S. 35 deg. E. 



Above this we came to narrow beds of plum- 

 bago which is not pure enough to prove valua- 

 ble. Pyrope garnets also abound in the granite 

 veins. 



At 11 A. M. we reached the summit of the 

 mountain, and after making due preparations, 

 took the requisite observations for determining 

 the height and place of the mountain. 



The rocks on the summit of Monadnock con- 

 sist of a hard variety of gneiss filled with small 

 crystals of garnets. The plants are generally of 

 an Alpine character; only a few dwarfish spruce 

 trees grow in the crevices of the rocks with an 

 abundance of moimtain saxifragas aad carices. 

 The declivity of the mountain is celebrated for 

 the abundance and fine quality of its blueberries 

 which tempt the people resident in the vicinity 

 to ascend the mountain for the purpose of gath- 

 ering them. 



The surrounding coimtry seen from this eleva- 

 ted peak appears to be an extended plain, the sur- 

 face of which is studded with villages. Keene 

 bears N. 30 deg. W. ; JafIrey,S. E.; Fitzwilliam 

 S. 30 deg. W. and Wachusett Mountain, S. 15 

 deg. E. 



Descending we continued our journey to Keene 

 where several days were spent in examining the 

 various locahlies of minerals. 



The granite and mica slate of this town con- 

 tarn large veins and beds of milk quartz which is 

 used at the New Hampshire glass works for the 

 manufacture of cylinder window glass which is 

 of superior quality. 



In the town of Swanzey near Keene, Dr. 

 Smith guided me to a locality where magnetic 

 iron ore occurs in large crystalline masses dis- 

 seminated in a granite vein. 



The ore occurs on a low hill and is contained 

 in veins of granite which traverse the gneiss rock 

 in a direction N. 5 deg. W., S. 5 deg. E. The 

 veins are 3 or 4 feet wide and extend for the dis- 

 tance of 20 rods. 



The masses of iron ore are imperfectly octa- 

 hedral and split into plates or folia. The local- 

 ity furnishes interesting specimens, but it will not 

 prove valuable as an iron mine for it would cost 

 too much to pick the ore preparatory to smel- 

 ting it. 



West hill in Keene is the locality where the 

 milk quartz at present used for making glass is 

 obtained. The quartz occurs in veins which run 

 north and south and dip to the westward. They 

 vary in width from 18 to 75 feet and are favora- 

 ably situated for quarrying, since the hill is ele- 

 vated about 150 feet above the plain, and the 

 slope is gentle. Beyond the summit of the hill 

 are many other beds and veins of quartz which 

 have not yet been wrought. 



A few narrow beds of plumbago are found as- 

 sociated with the quartz rock and mica slate, and 

 considerable quantities have been obtained for 

 comniercial use, but the work lias lately been 

 abandoned. 



Last year 20 or 30 tons of black lead were ob- 

 tained from this mine, but it is exti-einely difficult 

 now to extract it from the rocks. 



A bed of dark colored soapstone occurs near 

 this place and will prove useful for coarse work, 

 but it is rather too hard to compete with that 

 which is found in Francestown. 



The bed is 21 feet wide, and runs N. 30 deg. 

 W., S. 30 deg. E. and dips to the S. E. 70 deg. 

 A quarry has been opened for the extent of 50 

 feet in length and some tolerably good stone has 

 been obtained. 



A very handsome light colored granite is ex- 

 tensively employed for building in Keens, and 

 is quarried in the towns of Roxbury and Marl- 

 borough. 



From Keene to Gilsnm the granite abounds, 

 and forms beds and veins in tl>e gneiss and mi- 

 ca slate. The latter rock occasionally passes, by 

 imperceptible shades, into hornblende slate con- 

 taining garnets. On the hill, the strata dip to the 

 S. S. E. Beyond this rock we come to a variety 

 of mica slate stained strongly with the per oxide 

 of iron. 



Near the house of Mr. Samuel Bingham, in 

 Gilsum, there is a huge block of coarse granite 

 resting upon the crushed edges of strata of mica 

 slate. This remarkable block of granite has re- 

 ceived the name of the Vessel Rock, and it ap- 

 pears to have been stranded upon the mica slate 

 ledge, where it was deposited by the diluvial 

 current which passed over the country in ancient 

 times. 



This huge block of granite was split asunder 

 in the winter of 1817 when an immense mass of 

 it was sejiarated probably by the action of frost. 

 Some of the people resident in the vicinity im- 

 pute this fracture to the agency of an iearthquake, 

 which is said to have taken place at the time 

 mentioned. 



The principal block measures 46 feet in length, 

 24 feet in width, and it is 26 feet high. The por- 

 tion which was split oft" in 1817, measures 33 

 feet in length and 10 feet in width. The princi- 

 pal block contains 28,704 cubic feet, and the les- 

 ser .3300 cubic feet, the whole mass including 

 32,004 cubic feet of stone, which, allowing 14 

 cubic feet to the ton, will weigh 2286 tons. 



Some suppose this huge rock was transported 

 from its parent ledge in Alstead, but since we 

 found n large bed of similar rock 1.35 feet to the 



