THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



VOLUME III. 



CONCORD, N. H. i\OV. 30, 1841. 



NUMBER 11. 



THE PAR5IER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



JOHN IM. HILL, 



HlWs Brick Block, Concord, JV. H. 



lurs ■ — Twenty-ttve copies for Fifteen Dollars. 



The twelve numhers embraciiii the v-ir IS39, or the 

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First Annnal Report on the Geology of the 

 Slate of New Hampshire. 



Bir Charles T. Jackso.n, State Geologist. 



ECO.NOMICAI, GEOLOGY. 



Under this head, I shall consider the nature and 

 uses of some of the most important minerals of 

 the State, and their a|)[ilication to the ordinary 

 puqioses of life, ahso tiie nature of soils .and 

 wliatever may be considered us among the gi 

 oloj,ical resources of the country. 



It becomes every State to examine minute 

 into its natural caiiahililies, in order to know 

 what reliance may he ('laced upon them lor 

 wealth .md sniipoit, both in times of peace, and 

 wlieii the commerce of the country is obstructed 

 by war. Although it is the desireof every good 

 man that the diltictdties of nations should be 

 umicably adjusted, still we know that so long as 

 the had j)as.sions exist in the human'heart, th 

 the last resort of nations will occasionally take 

 place, and it is an acknowledged and wise max- 

 im, founded on experience, that in times of peace 

 we should prepare for war. 



France and England, when compelled by for- 

 eign policy, turned their attention more immedi- 

 ately to their natural resources. Their agricul- 

 ture was invigorated, and their arts improved. 

 Geology and Chemisfiy taught them to discover 

 and use their own minerals. Iron, lead, copper, 

 sulphur and tiitre, seemed to burst forth from 

 their own soil and supplied those articles which 

 they could no longer obtain from foreign coud- 

 tries. By the discovery and free use of lime, 

 Scotland, before comparatively barren, was ren- 

 dered a wheat growing country. Chemistry gave 

 a quit claim to the verdant fields formerly over- 

 spread by thousands of acres of cotton fabrics, 

 and performed the bleaching operations by the 

 aid of Chlorine, within the doors of the liictory. 

 New arts have been created by the aid of science, 

 which calls upon the rocks for a supjily of the 

 raw materials which she employs. By chemical 

 analysis of excrementitious matters formerly ein- 

 ployed in the dye-house, we learn what those 

 peculiar principles and substances contain, which 

 render them capable of effecting certain results, 

 and their salts were discovered and manufactur- 

 ed from inorganic matter, thus rendering the arts 

 an essential service by effecting the operations in 

 a neat and certain manner, while agriculture, no 

 longer deprived of any portion of those substan- 

 ces which it recpiires for the fertilization of the 

 soil, receives a share of the benefit. Thus by 

 the study of the phosphates and arseniates, and 

 the action of afntnoniacal salts, several important 

 oris have been permanently improved. Indigo, 

 a costly vegetable product, was replaced by 

 chemical skill, by another rich blue coloring mat- 

 ter obtained by the action of potash upon ref- 

 use animal matter, and by the precipitation there- 



by of a salt of iron tipon the fabric, the coloring 

 is effected. 



No longer need wo wholly depetid upon a sup- 

 ply of the costly wares frotii China, for our own 

 felspars will produce them, and our metallic ox- 

 ides will give them their beautiful colors. Ve- 

 nice has long ceased to be the glass-house of 

 the world, for wherever silex, potash, lime and 

 lead are found, we can manufacture every variety 

 of that indispensahle material. We need not 

 send to Damascus, or Toledo, or to Sweden for 

 the finest steel, for we can make it ourselves 

 from our own iron ores. The flanks of Mount 

 Etna may still supply us with sulphur, for 

 nature can produce it at a cheaper rate than 

 it can be manufactured by art from our own 

 snlphurets : but in case we should ever be thrown 

 upon our own resources, it would then be obtain- 

 ed fiom the iron and copper pyrites which occur 

 in the rocks of New Hampshire and Vermont, 

 and it may be useful to keep in view all available 

 localities where such sul)Stances abound. India 

 now supplies us with nitre at a lower price than 

 we can- make it from our own soils; but in any 

 emergency millions of tons of that substance, so 

 essential in the art of war, may be produced from 

 the soil of each State. 



Many veins of galena, now thought to be too 

 limited in extent for the profitable manufacture 

 of lead, woidd, in time of need, be deemed of 

 incalculable value. Experience has clearly pro- 

 ved that when iron is in great demand, many com- 

 paritively limited deposits of bog iron ore have 

 proved to be of great value to the country. 



At present we must found all our estimates of 

 the value of minerals, on the presumption that 

 peace will be maintained, and that the prices of 

 manufactured articles will remain nearly as 

 they are at present, regulated by the natural and 

 steady demands of the country, and without the 

 aid of any higher duties on the imported articles 

 than at present exist. 



LIME. 



Among the most useful substances I shotdd 

 consider lime, which may be regarded as one 

 of the inost valuable minerals, since immense 

 quantities of it are required for our daily wants 

 in agriculture and the arts. Living at an epoch 

 when this valuable substance is so universally 

 known, we do not fully appreciate its immense 

 importance to mankind, and it is necessary for 

 us to go back into the wilderness, and there to 

 contemplate the log-huts and rude mud-cabins, 

 in order to place a due estimate on the value of 

 lime, to which we owe our stately and perma- 

 nent edifices, and the luxury of tight, warm, and 

 comfortable dwellings. Agricultm-e and thecliem- 

 ical arts, as before suggested, owe many of their 

 permanent improvements to the discovery of this 

 invaluable substance. IMany persons now living 

 can reiiiemlier «hen stone Ihiie was almost un- 

 known in this coimtry, and will recollect that we 

 formerly dejiended upon the limited supply which 

 was obtained by the burning of oyster shells, and 

 at that time the article was so expensive, that it 

 was with difnculty obtained by the poorer classes 

 of society. A virgin soil required but little skill 

 for its cultivation, and the modern system of com- 

 posting and top-dressing was unknown. Now 



e make extensive use of calcareous matter in 



der to improve certain soils, both directly and 

 indirectly, and the chemical infJuence of lime is 

 more fully understood, and will be_ hereafter 

 nroperly applied. 



Hydraulic cement was originally imported 

 from Europe, but by chemical means we are at 

 present enabled to manufacture it at pleasure 

 from our common lime and fine alluvial clays, 

 leaching powder, formerly imported exclu- 

 ly from the manufactories of Europe, is novi' 

 made from our own lime, manganese, and salt, 

 by simple chemical means, and our cotton and 

 paper-mills are enabled to compete with trans- 

 atlantic mauufactoripff. 



To trace in succession the various links by 

 which the arts are connected, and to show their 

 mutual dependence, and how the advance of one 

 effects the others, would form a voluminous 

 #ork, which would extend beyond our present 

 limits. Enough has been already set forth to 

 excite any reflecting mind to pursue the subject 

 in its various ramifications, so as to discover oth- 

 er apposite illustrations. 



LIMESTONES. 



Among the inexhaustible limestone beds of 

 New Hampshire, we may rank those of Haver- 

 hill and Lisbdn. The former is situated, as de- 

 scribed in a former section, near the base of 

 Black Mountain, in the town of Haverhill, about 

 six miles north-east from the village. 



This bed of limestone is of incalculable im- 

 portance to the people of New-Hampshire, and 

 will save an immense sum for foreign lime. The 

 present known limits of the bed are evidently far 

 short of its real extent, but enough is already 

 exposed to furnish a constant supply of lime for 

 ages. The whole width cannot be less than 400 

 feet, and its length, as at present seen, is 800 feet; 

 but it reaches in a linear direction to an unknown 

 extent, such wide beds rarely narrowing, when 

 traced even for the distance of miles. The nat- 

 ural drainage is such that it is easy to excavate 

 the rock to the depth of 25 oi' 30 feet without 

 any aid from pumjis or syphoi>s, so that the sit- 

 uation in this respect is favorable for working. 



The country aroimd is thickly wooded, so that 

 an unlimited supply of fuel is readily commanded. 

 Mr. Gannett, the present proprietor of the lime- 

 stone, owns 900 acres of woodland on the hill-side 

 adjacent to the quarries, and he estimates the 

 cost of wood fuel only at 50 cts. per cord. His 

 kilns were badly constructed, and then required 

 from 18 to 30 cords of wood to burn a kiln of 

 fiO tierces of lime ; but when he builds new kilns, 

 after the plan described to him, he will require 

 but 8 or 10 cords of wood to produce the same ■ 

 result. He makes two different kinds of lime, 

 the first quality selling at SI 50 per tierce, the 

 d at $1 25. Each tierce rontains 6 bush- 

 els of lime. 



When it is considered that the ))rincipal ex- 

 pense of making lime consists in the price of fu- 

 and that wood costs $3 per cord in Thomas- 

 . in Maine, and f5 per coid in Smithfield, 

 Rhode Island, it will be perceived that the busi- 

 ness of making lime at Haverhill, even at the low 

 price above stated, cannot fail to be profitable, 

 and that great advantages will accrue to the pur- 

 chaser in the cheapness of the article. Hereto- 

 fore the lime used upon the borders of the Con- 

 necticut river, in New Hainpshire, was brought 

 exclusively from Vermont, and immense sums of 

 money must have been ex^jended in its purchase. 

 So long as lime could be obtained at a lower 

 price from the Vermont kilns, it was natural to 

 depend upon them ; but now Haverhill lime is 

 destined to supply that region. 

 Chemical analysis of the first quality'df 

 Haverhill Limestone. 

 This limestone is granular, crystaline, and 

 white, having no visible foreign matter mixed 

 with it. 



100 grains submitted to chemical analysis 

 yielded 



Carbonate of Lime, 99.3 



Mica and Quartz, 0.5 



Carbonate of Manganese, 0.2 



1 00.0 

 or it contains 55.729 per cent, pure lime, by 

 weight. 



The 2d quality limestone contains bluish col- 

 ored streaks, like that from Thomaston in Maine, 

 and is gi-anularor crystaline, but more solid than 

 the 1st quality rock. 



100 grains analyzed yielded 

 Carbonate of Lime, 00.66 



Mica and Silex, ZSO 



