THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC MILL. 



Those who labor in the earth are the chosenpeople of God, whose breasts he has made his peculiar depositefor substantial and genuine »ir/«e."— Jefferson. 



VOLUME III. 



CONCORD, N. H. DEC. 31, 1841. 



NUMBER 12. 



THE FARMEH'S JIONTHLY VISITOR. 



A MONTHLY N EWSPAPER, IS PUBLISHKD BV 



JOHN M. HILL. 

 Hill's Brick Block, Concord, X. H. 



G E N E R A Ta G E JJ T S , 



B. COOKE. A-cpnp, A'. H. 



TH. K. HAAIPTOY. W,i:!un-:^tonCitii. D. C. 



JOH\ .MUi'^II. \V.,<hin-^lun Si. Boston. 



CH M'.I.I'.S \V Vlll'j; \, llrl il :/ /*y!n. W'urcesler, Muss. 



L. W. HALL .^ C„. .<i,r:n;J,. Id, Mas/. 



The Visitor will be issued on the last day oreach month. 



TER JIS.-To .sin...ln subscribers, Seventy-five cents: 

 Three copies for Two Dollars :— Ten copies lor Six Dol- 

 lars: — Tvventy-Kve copies lor Fi/iSccn Dollars. 



The twelve numb.irs einbracinu the year 1839, or the 

 first volume of the Visitor, are oifored as a premium for 

 every ten new subscribers obtained and paid for by 

 person. 



Subscribers may commence at their election, either with 

 the January or July number, in each year. An Index and 

 Title Page will accompany each year. 



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The vmtoi: 



Correspondence of the Kariner's Montiily Visitor. 

 flashington CUy, jVov. 25, 1841. 

 Dear Sir: — This being Tliaiiksgiving day in 

 your good State, my tliouf^hts naturally revert to 

 tlie merry-meetings in which I have so often 

 there taUen a part in times gone by, and to tho.se 

 kind friends whom no la|)se of time or length of 

 space can efface from my memory. While thus 

 cogitating, it occurred to me that I could not 

 better devote the time than in giving you some 

 observations which I made in a recent visit into 

 tlie Slate of Virginia, and if worth it, as I have 

 '• taken the notes," you can " prent 'em." 



A COMPLIMENT TO THE VISITOR. 



I am a subscriber, and have been a constant 

 render of the Visitor from its commencement; 

 and although long out of the practice of agricid- 

 ture, I await the coming of its successive num 

 bers with more impatience than I have ever felt 

 for the " next nmnber" of the Pickwick Papers, 

 Charley O'Alalley, or any of the ephemera of the 

 day, however attracting the title. When you 

 first embarked in this undertaking, and even after 

 I saw you fairly at sea, 1 had many (ears that the 

 voyage would not prove a profitable one. 1 

 thought that |)orlion of the community whom 

 such a publi.-.ation would more immediately ben- 

 efit, entertained too much seli'-confidence, and 

 were too. willing to imitate the man who carried 

 a stone to mill in one end of his bag, and his corn 

 in the other, instead of dividing his corn to main- 

 tain an equilibrium : that is, 1 thought them 

 so clcsely wedded to old customs, as to part with 

 them and adopt new with great reluctance. But 

 in your abundant success my error of opinion is 

 corrected. Your third voyage is now nearly 

 ended, as a few more propitious gales will waft 

 yoii safely to the shores of 1842. What a rich 

 and valuable return you have laid before your 

 readers! Enough, if practised upon, to increase 

 the productions four-fold of all those who have 

 not heretofore availed themselves of the facts 

 and various information set forth in its ample 

 pages. 



Men are too apt to believe themselves always 

 »t)eH ^ita/j^d for that particular kind of business 

 in which they have either from choice or com- 

 pelling circumstances, engaged. They forget 

 that all minds are not cast in the same mould, 

 and that signal benefits, which one mind may 

 overlook for a- series' of years, may at once be 

 elicited by another, occupied by the same em- 

 ployment ; allhough it may be much less vigor- 

 ous and observing in general. This struck me 

 as a grand difficulty in your undertaking. But 

 now that such ample stores of experiment and 

 experience, together with a mass of valuable 



suggestions, are spread before the community 

 men can no longer doubt that the dissemination 

 ol' their difterent operations, and their results, is 

 of the highest possible consequence to the prof- 

 itable ptnsuit of agricultme. 



IMPROVEMENT OF AGBICnLTURAI, IMPLEMENTS. 



Since the commencement of the present cen- 

 tury, both the theory and the practice of agricul- 

 ture have assumed various new shapes. The 

 natural tendencies to improvement, iu a new and 

 flourishing country like ours, have undoubtedly 

 been accelerated by some national events. The 

 last war did more lor us, perhaps, in the way of 

 agricultural improvement, than we should other- 

 wise have done for ourselves in three or fom- 

 times as many years as the war continued. Com- 

 merce and manufactm-es being checked, the at- 

 tention of thousands was turned to primitive 

 employments. Among this multitude were many 

 individuals of learning, science, and great theo- 

 retical knowledge. Unaccustomed to hard labor, 

 such as the larmer's i.s, their energies were con- 

 stantly exerted to seek out new modes of saving 

 labor. All around them caught the stimulus. 

 Their efforts awakened a new impulse in the 

 practical farmers, and hence there grew up a 

 general and lasting interest on the subject, which 

 has elicited many of the improvements which 

 we now enjoy. 



Another cause of improvement has been, that, 

 for many years, the price of all agricultural pro- 

 ducts has given a sufficient assurance that the 

 soil, when properly cultivated, will not only re- 

 pay the labor bestowed upon it, but will afford a 

 sure and handsome profit. The chaiige in th 

 style, finish, and convenience of agriciiltural ini 

 plements has been tridy wonderful. The ini 

 provemenis in the plough, for instance, hav 

 been almost as great within the last twenty-five 

 years, as between the plough of this time and 

 the original idea of one, viz: the crotched limb 

 of some ancient tree ! The saving to the farmer 

 the improvement of implements alene, I think 

 equal to one sixth of the whole amount of labor 

 one day out of six saved ! 



DIGNITY OF THE FARMER. 



But the fact most cheering to the farmer must 

 be in the great change which has been wrought 

 in the public mind with regard to the dignity of 

 the employment. None now look upon it as 

 secondary. Still, the erroneous sentiment which 

 so long prevailed, has some portion of its old 

 leaven left. The farmtr, with his clear judg- 

 meiu, and morals uncorrupted by the hot-bed 

 vices of populous towns, should be found in 

 greater numbers in our national councils and 

 legislative halls— oftener the arbiter of litigated 

 suits, and the framer of our laws. But as it is, 

 a healthful re-action is going on. Men of learn- 

 ing, genius — of extensive and varied acquire- 

 ments — men of wealth and great public useful- 

 ness, are now constantly turning their attention, 

 and the exercise of their best powers, to the 

 more private, but not less dignified and honora- 

 ble employment of cultivating the soil. Tiieir 

 theoretical knowledge incites th<;m to experi- 

 ments, many of which result, not only in benefits 

 to the liu-mer, but in the positive good of' man- 

 kind. 



But I did not sit down to indite a homily, and 

 will tJierefore invite you to jaunt along with me 



THE JOURNEY. 



Having received an invitation to pass a few 

 days in Northumberland county, in the state of 

 Virginia, 1 left this city on the 23d of September 

 last, and went down tiie Potomac nearly to Point 

 Look Out, which is at the mouth of the river, (it 

 being about six miles wide here,) and landed on 

 the western shore. Passing two or three days 

 near this place, and strolling more or less each 

 day in search of game, 1 was surprised to find 

 great quantities of excellent timber. I have trav- 

 elled over large portions of some of the most 



valuable timber lands in the state of Maine, in 

 many instances counting the best trees within a 

 particular space, but from the observations made 

 in these rambles, I am inclined to the opinion 

 that quite as many thousand feet may be found 

 to the acre on the Potomac, as on the Maine 

 lands ; though the forests in the latter are much 

 more extensive. The yellow pines, I think, ex- 

 ceeded in size, straigbtness, and length, any that 

 1 ever saw. There were many white oaks of 

 great size and beauty, but the timber is very dif- 

 ferent from that of the white oak at the north, 

 the pores being larger, the grain coarser, and not 

 near as tough. The black gum abounds, and is 

 tmquestiouably the best wood known for the 

 hubs of wheels. A very large pair which had 

 been used several years for hauling heavy timber, 

 and which had never been housed, were then 

 standing in the forest. The hubs were made of 

 the black gum, and upon examination I found 

 that no bands had ever been upon them, and yet 

 they were perfectly sound, and with fewer cracks 

 than the best banded elm hubs usually have. A 

 gentleman present informed me that this wood 

 now frequently ordered in blocks in large 

 quantities, to be made into hubs for nil kinds of 

 iage wheels. In addition to the excellent 

 " hoe-cake" and sweet potatoe, the planter in this 

 section plentifiilly supplies his table with wild 

 fowl, rock fisii, and the finest oysters. 



VIRGINIA FARMING. 



Leaving the river, and travelling nearly south, 

 I pas.sed through extensive timber forests on bot- 

 tom lands, which, when cleared, prove of the 

 best quality. On my way lay a plantation be- 

 longing to a nephew of Col. Taliaferro, the pres- 

 ent member of Congress, but now occupied by a 

 Mr. Brown. On this plantation seven thousand 

 bushels of corn and fifteen hundred bushels of 

 wheat have been raised this season. A few miles 

 larther south I tarried two or three days on one 

 of the plantations of Dr. Murphy, a gentle- 

 man of much agricultural as well as medicinal 

 skill, possessing vast landed estates, and who has 

 set an example which is already working a revo- 

 lution in the modes of husbandry in the section 

 of country in which he resides. As the land is 

 generally flat, and consequently wet, he is ditch- 

 ing round lai'ge tracts of " old fields," fencing, 

 manuring and ploughing, and endeavoring to 

 bring them back to vegetable life, and is deter- 

 mined no longer to act upon the principle which 

 always taA-es but never gives. What is uncom- 

 mon, he has a fine barn and granary, a garden 

 handsomely laid out and well tended, and a thrifty 

 orchard. The house, a neat cottage, overshad- 

 owed by lofty locusts, and standing nearly in the 

 centre of a field of corn containing one hundred 

 and fifty acres, has a most quiet and inviting ap- 

 pearance. From this pohit, fields beyond fields 

 rise to the sight, 



Every planter I conversed with in this region 

 stated to me his conviction that their system of 

 farming is wrong ; that they attempt to cultivate 

 too much — that their lands are rapidly becoming, 



have already become, im|)Overished, and that 

 they do not understand the method of renovating 

 them, and that each succeeding year brings less 

 nd less under their present practice. Melan- 

 choly as is this |>icture, the whole aspect of 

 things, as you travel through much of Virginia, 

 Maryland, and probably all the Southern States, 



)ves it to be true. Thousands upon thousands 



acres lie in " old fields," lands which have 

 been worn out by successive crops of corn and 

 tobacco, with scarcely the appearance of verdure 

 upon them, not affording even a pasturage for 

 sheep worthy of the name. My host informed 

 me that if his field brought him fifteen bushels 

 to the acre he should consider it a good crop! 

 The land is a light, sandy loam, and is as capable 

 of producing fifty or sixty bushels to the itcre as 



