152 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



fiire, where Lis neighbor runs 

 the eunie time Irom |il(>nj:l/ing 

 amount ot'lialfu ton ollia.v lo 

 ter in some 



is hest groniid in 

 lown to the low 

 le acre — the hit- 

 sight begins slily 

 to adi>|it tlie ini|irovenient ; by decrees lie grows 

 bolder in the ini. ovation till soon every farmer of 

 the neighhorlioodlbllows tlie example of the first 

 improvement. 



Forty-five years ago — as long ns I can well re- 

 member — my liitlier occupied a little (arm seven 

 miles ont ot Boston, being the paternal preniises 

 of the first Hills settled in that part ol Cainbri<lge 

 long known as the parish of iMcni)toiny. I pas- 

 sed the place a few wei lis ago — it is now beauti- 

 ful as are all the garden farms around Boston. 

 The abundant crops taken from much of this 

 ground— the productive apple and peach or- 

 chards—every species of tree, plant and vegetable 

 growing on a magnificent scale, and two, three 

 and sometimes four crops produced in the same 

 year upon the same ground. My (ijtlier belbre I 

 was ten years old left this rround and moved 

 ed further into the coimtry. The lot adjacent to 

 the house which he occupied embraced only 

 eight acres : — saving a pasture i\\mn the rocky 

 hill a mile ilistant in which was a broken up field, 

 nud an acre or two of salt marsh on Charles riv- 

 er, these eijibt acres were all the land he cidliva- 

 ted. Not over three acres were annually under 

 the plough, and the five remaining acres in grass 

 filled well a forty foot barn so that oftentimes the 

 salt hay and corn-stuflf remained to be stacked in 

 the open air. It was then a new thing to make 

 use of rock and sea weed as manure. The exper- 

 iment in that neighborhood was first made - 



i grc 



I out. 



ing been led many 

 years tiil nearly every vestige of healthy grass 

 was ol>literaie<'l. 1 had not seen that spot, over 

 which I was wont to travel when an urchin in 

 pursuit of nuts in what was termed the " Water- 

 town woods," for al»out forty years: since tliat 

 time the great improvement of a tiu'npike run- 

 ning directly over the gromid and up the steep 

 hill, had been nmdehOMi Boston into the interi- 

 or of Middlesex, which lioni the circumstance of 

 taking a dill ct course over the hills had hien 

 abandoned and the gates thrown open, beci.iise 

 thn travel could i ever be inviied lo the nearer 

 stiTiight road. That part of the original liirm 

 composed of this rocky, and apparently worthless 

 pasture had been given by the father (the late 

 Col. Jeduthan Wellington) to his eldest son. 

 With great labor discovered ih the nuineroiis 

 double walls and the iiniiieiise piles of rocks laid 

 in the corners of the fields and upon ledges of 

 rocK on which it was impossible to make any 

 thing grow, this dry arid pasture had been clear- 

 ed ; and upon it to the extent of many acres 

 within the several wall fenced lots was a beaut" 

 ful flourishing orchard of appletrees. Tlie groiin 

 on which this orchard stands is now as teas 

 ble and on many accdimls more certain ofa cin 

 than the fine alluvioii gronud at the foot of tl 

 hill which used foriiierly lo he cultivated almost 

 exclusively: the trees of' the orchard are not gen 

 erally more than twenty years from the seed. Al- 

 though this ground which has accumulated a 

 greater depth of vegetable mould at each year's 

 ideeper ploughing has been cnltivateil and ma- 

 these eight acres as many as forty-eight years | nured principally with a view to the prosperity 

 ago, to which my recollection just reaches. The | of the orchard, still the orchard alone has not 



rock weed was brought from the islands in the 

 Bostoti bay, gathered upon their rocky shores, 

 conveyed to Medlbrd in a fishermati's lighter — 

 carted thence about two iifdes, and spread so as 

 to cover the surtiice of tlie grass ground. A 

 neighboring gentleman of an older generation 

 had a lot of nearly the same size along side of 

 those eight acKes: he condemned decidedly the 

 experiment of his younger neighbor: the rock- 

 weed had certainly destroyed the crop, he said, 

 for one year, and probablylhe land would siiflfer 

 for many years: this was said at the time of old 

 election in Massachusetts, the hist Wednesday in 

 May, when the whole neighborhood liad a lioli- 

 day in hunting crows black-birds and bobolink- 

 horns, and when the grass in neither field had 

 started much ahead. In the course of the next 

 month the difference was seen— a dark, deep 

 green covering of clover, herds grass ;.nd red top, 

 springing up where the rockweed was spread, 

 fit to mow on the fourth of July ; while on the 

 other side of the fence the yellow dew grass with 

 scarce a head of the cultivated grasses stood as 

 different in stature as if the one lot belonged to 

 the kingdom of Brobdignag and the other was 

 in the territory of His Majesty of Lilliput. "Cap- 

 tain Stephen," as the man in a multitude of the 

 same naine was called by his Christian name- 

 Captain Stephen who gained reputation enough 

 in the war of the Revolution to become a "train- 

 band captain" ofa company of militia dressed in 

 uniform and called the ".tenotomy Fiisileers," 

 and who marched at their head to quell the Shays 

 rebellion about the year 178G, might be a good 

 soldier and was ackriowiedged to be but an iu- 

 different officer— but was probably a still more in- 

 different farmer. The land described as with the 

 poor crop of hay remains in the possession of the 

 same family line as does nearly the whole neig'h- 

 borhood; but such has been the improvement on 

 that ground since, that it would be impossible a 

 really poor and slovenly farmer should be per- 

 mitted to remain in the" Flob end village. The 

 people at that place now are not afraid of injur- 

 ing their land by the application of manure, which 

 if it is not produced at hand on their own pretn 

 ises or brought from the sea, is purchased in the 

 adjacent city of Boston and carted seven to - 

 miles. One hundred dollars worth of inanure to 

 an acre, repeated at intervals of every two oi 

 three years, is not in that neighborhood consid 

 ered extravagant ; and the money expended re 

 turns to them increased fourfold after defraying 

 the expense of laboi from the city where the ma 

 nure is derived. 



In that immediate tieighborhood is a spot of 

 ground which was at the length of my memory 

 stony, rough, mossy pasture, with stunted trees 



been the entire source of profit; Iim it has annu- 

 ally produced very good crops, being alternately 

 ghed, plantetl and sowed, and l.iid dow ii to 

 grass in a due rotation. The orchard is grafted 

 almost entirely to a single kind of fruit called the 

 Baldwin apple. One thousand barrela of select- 

 ed fruit was the growth of the year 18.39 upon 

 this farm: the net annual sale from the orchard 



two thousand dollars. Situated upon high 

 ground overlooking the city of Boston in the 

 view of elegant villages and the beaiitilid retreat 

 for the dead, the pride of the Bay State and its 

 capital, Motinl .lubiini, the neat white mansion, 

 its accom|i.iM\iii^' liuildiiigs with the orchard and 

 the evidences of iiidusiiy about it, is one of those 

 lieantiful spots where the man of eminence, of 

 wealth ami of ease might delight to dwell. The 

 orchard alone gives rin annual income sufficient 

 for the independent support of most farmers. 



I call your attention lo it for the purpose of in- 

 troducing to the farmers ot this productive region 

 of country a single subject which may come to 

 the aid of the yeomenry of the valley of the Ken- 

 nebeck. Less broken than the valley of the Con- 

 necticut, your soil has to appearance no less fer- 

 tility ihaii that tiiir rejjion whose delightful scen- 

 ery and many elesant villages present attractions 

 to'the stranger. Not less accessible to the sea 

 than if you iived alona its shore, you have tl 

 woi Id for a mi rket (or every production. To the 

 vast quantities of production shipped south and 

 west, to your sure oal and potatoe crops, might 

 be added in a few years the orchard crops ae 

 more profit-ihle than almost any other. Fioni 

 the hasty glance in passing the towns on the mail 

 stage road between this and Penobscot county, 

 for which I may bo excused for designating the 

 splendid townof Vas.sal borough to the north 

 east, and from the same view on the best ground 

 between this place and Brunswick, I perceive 

 that without much effort your land adapts itself 

 to the growth of the apple. A little altenlion 

 without gredt expense might make an orchard of 



grafted fruit on every farm within ten or twenty 

 miles of navigable water. In fifteen years from 

 the seed, and in some six to ten years from tli 

 nursery, the trees would begin to produce tli 

 fruit ill quantity. Let us suppose that every 

 farmer with thirty acres of ground and upwards 

 would add to his present cultivation an orchard 

 of an huudicd trees that should average the an 

 nual production of one hundred barrels of apples. 

 Could there be any danger that this vyould be la- 

 bor ill vain ? The demand for winter ajiples 

 from New England will always be equal to the 

 supply. I am not sure that our own growing ci- 

 ties, villages and towns will not always call forall 

 the apples that can be raised by our "farmers: if 



no), the southern cities of the United States the 

 West India Islands, and even Europe may be 

 made a market lur them to which they may he 

 wafted in a lew days by the aid of fleam. There 

 can be no danger, if we now |ircpare orchards, 

 thai the new enterprise will produce so much as 

 to make them of no value. A hundred barrels of 

 pples in the market or on ship hoard would al- 

 ways be worth, accurdiiig to tlie present value of 

 money, one liiiii<lied and liri\ dolliirs. In the vi- 

 cinityorKo^tnii apples are mhiuIiI by the venders 

 in alniosl every scr.soii, and piircliased upon the 

 trees before they are picked at a price »x high as 

 two dollars and often at three dollars the barrel. 

 If the small liirmer by care and attention in rearing 

 a hundred appletrees can without essentially di- 

 minishing any other product add to the cash 

 gains finni his land one hundred and fifty dollars 

 a year, how can he make a belter investment? 

 Say the gain, after paying every expense, is one 

 hundred dollars a year only — it the orchard of 

 one hundred trees "covers two acres of ground, 

 we have a profit from that ground equal to the 

 value of six hundred dollars to the acre. What 

 an addition to the agricultural capital of this 

 county might be made, if each farmer were to 

 set out at once and pursue the nearest and most 

 sure course for rearing ami growing an apple 

 orchard? And how much would a thrifty or- 

 chard to every liuin adorn and bcautily li.e coun- 

 try ? 



The surplus produce of Maine fr<uii the field 

 of the farmer ni.-iy not appear like that of the 

 wheat-growing States of the West. But not- 

 wiilisl.iiiding the iiusiirpassable fe.tility of that 

 reiiioii, 1 am convinced lliat even tliere, in the 

 present mode of ciiltivalioii, the land must soon- 

 er or later become exhausted. When land once 

 runs out, as it has already done in Virginia and 

 Maryland, and even at some of the best points 

 of western New York, it is much harder reno- 

 vating it there than in New England. The 

 southern planters go over so many acres, that 

 with them manuring for a croj) is out of the 

 question ; and when their ground fails, the more 

 ground cultivated, the greater will become the 

 poverty ot the improvident fiirmer. Plantations 

 on the Atlantic seaboard, in Virginia and the 

 Carolinas, have been abandoned by their owners, 

 because the production will not cover the ex- 

 pense of carrying them on. The agricultural 

 products of Maine are less per head than those 

 of either the State of New Hampshire, of Ver- 

 mont, or of Connecticut, as shown by the last 

 census. Maine gives $69, Connecticut 74, New 

 Hampshire tlO, and V'ermont -$148 of annual ag- 

 ricultural priKliieiiiiu for each person ; but Rhode 

 Island L'ives only .'<;i4, and Mas.sachusetts $38 

 per head. The (lifForence is due in a great de- 

 gree to the fact of more persons being engaged 

 in other occupations in some th.-in in others of 

 the States : Rhode Island and Massachusetts 

 have more persons occupied upon the sea and in 

 manufacturing establishments; and the greater 

 number of sailors and In tiberers that belong to 

 Maine would alone nearly a;:couni for the differ- 

 ence. But Maine Ijas it in her power within the 

 next five years to cxirry her agricultural produc- 

 tions, counting persons engaged in the fisheries, 

 in commerce, in the manufacture of lumber, and 

 in all other occupations, as high as Vermont now 

 stands — in other words to increase the produc- 

 tions of the cultivated soil more than two lor one 

 for every person employed in it. So grand an 

 advance would indeed be a growth in wealth 

 more rapid than any but an entirely new country 

 ever saw. It is not, however, too much to be 

 realized from human efforts; and the Slate of 

 Maine is now in that position when the energies 

 of her working men may be put forth to the best 

 advantage. Her vast tracts of unsettled country, 

 much of which is equal in point of fertility to 

 any of her lauds vet settled, open a field fiir en- 

 teri>risc and industry as am[>lo as any that has 



ever yet been explored ; and in that field she 

 destined to witness a great and decided increase. 

 But our anticipations of itnprovement might not 

 be greatest fioit) this source. Take the most 

 valuable town of this most valuable agricultural 

 county of the State, and may not its production, 

 the valiip of its cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, 

 l)e easily doubled in five years with the right use 

 of no more capital than the farmers of that town 

 possess ? Still greater may and ought to be the 



