THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



A MONTHLY N J.WSl'AI'Ell, IS PUBLISHED BY 



JOHN M. HILL, 



HiWs Brick Block, Concord, JV. H. 



GENERArAGEMTS, 



B. COOKE. Keene. N. H. 



TH. R. HA.Ml'TOX. Wiishhi'^tonCity, l>. C. 



JOH.\ iMAKSH. \V.--:!nn^l,<n Kt. Boston. 



(;H \PJ,KS \V \l:;;i'. \, lliinlii IZow, Worcester, Ma^s. 



A. H. STILLWIU.L,, .\n. I. Market Square, Prov. R. I. 



L. \V. HALL & Co. .-iprinjjield, Mass. 



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THE VISITOR 



Massachusetts Lunatic Asylum. 



Tlie results of this iiistitiitioii Hiiriiig the last 

 nine years have deteniiiiied many interesting 

 particulars respecting insanity. From the re- 

 cently published report of Dr. Woodward, it ap- 

 pears that Winter is the most favorable season, 

 whether as regards attacks, or deaths from insani- 

 ty. Spring affords the greatest number of cases, 

 Autumn the greatest number of recoveries, and 

 Summer the greatest number of deaths. 



The facts that have taken place at the hospital 

 support no theory that has e.xisted among those 

 who believe in the influence of the moon on the 

 insane. 



The average residence of new cases at the in- 

 .stitution is about four months. Comparatively 

 few recover who have been constantly insane two 

 years, and after a few years of insanity a recovery 

 is very rare. 



Intemperance ranks first among the causes of 

 insanity, and within a few years a cause intimate- 

 ly conrieeted with it, which appears to be a par- 

 tial paralysis of brain, of an exceedingly fatal 

 tendency, has brought many to the institution. 



The number of patients during the past year 

 has been three hundred and si.xty-nine, of whom 

 one hundred and sixty-three were admitted, and 

 one hundred and sixty-seven discharged. 



The necessity of the institution is shown by 

 the fact that in nine years of its operation, there 

 have been sent to it, by the various courts, nine 

 hundred and sixty-one patients, judged to be "so 

 furiously mad as to be manifestly dangerous to 

 go at large," besides many who have been com- 

 mitted by the overseers of the poor, who were 

 equally furious and unsafe. 



It is' now fifty years since Pinel made his first 

 experiment of divesting the maniac of his chains 

 and improving the comforts of his dreary abode, 

 at which time he took with him six stout men to 

 protect himself from any attempts at violence. 

 At Worcester there are, says the report, " con- 

 gregated more than two hundred and thirty in- 

 mates, wlio form a qifiet and happy family, enjoy- 

 ing social intercourse, engaging in interesting and 

 profilable employments, in reading, writing and 

 amusements, walkingand riding in suitable weath- 

 er, and assembling in social worship in their own 

 little chapel on the Sabbath — yet all of these per- 

 sons are more or less insane, some with delusions, 

 some with perverted sen.ses, and others with es- 

 tranged moral feelings, but all appearing quite 

 harmless and rational, when undisturbed, each 

 |)ursuing some suitable avocation with apparent 

 ))loasure and delight." — .V. 1'. Com. Adv. 



The Insane Hospital at Worcester, iMassachii- 

 sctt;;, is one of the nobk-st luouumeuts of well- 



directed charity of the present age. Thirty years 

 ago Insanity ajjpeared to us as a greater evil than 

 any other to which poor humanity was subject : 

 there seemed to be no remedy wiihiii the reach 

 of human means, no mitigating circumstance 

 that could give comfort in this life to the maniac, 

 or afford a ray of hope to his friends. Fastened 

 in cages, closed up under the strength of bolts 

 and bars, the miserable being bereft of reason 

 existed only as an object of terror or pity. His 

 acts of violence were often considered as a fit 

 subject for punishment: the insane homicide has 

 sometimes exjiiated his offence U|)on the gallows 

 —at others laid in loathsome filth for years in the 

 cell of some dungeon. A few days since, at the 

 Worcester asylum, we met a sharp and shrewd 

 looking old gentleman who said he had laid in 

 Lenox goal fourteen years, during seven years of 

 which he averred that his blanket was never 

 changed! The old man, still evidently deranged 

 and excited, was at home among some twenty 

 others of different temperament, acting his part 

 to amuse his more taciturn companions, or per- 

 haps checke<l in any frai>ropriety by those more 

 rational than himself 



■\moiig the admirab'e arrangements at the 

 Massachusetts Lunatic Asylum at Worcester, the 

 Agricultural improvements are by no means of 

 the least consequence. The advantages of the 

 agricultural employment at the A.syluin are three- 

 f6ld — they consist in giving occu))ation and grati- 

 fication to that portion of the patients who vol- 

 untarily labor in the field — in the lessening of 

 expenses of food to the large number supported 

 at the establishment — and in the excellent e.vam- 

 ple of reclaiming formerly useless and unproduc- 

 tive grounds which is afforded to the farmers 

 around them. 



The labor of the inmates at the establishment 

 is altogether voluntary : none work who are in- 

 disposed to labor. Some of the most dangerous 

 and difficult patients are found among the most 

 useful upon the farm. On not much over ten 

 acres of land twenty-six tons of hay were i)ro- 

 duced the last year — sufficient to keep the oxen, 

 horses and cows of the establishment with the 

 aid of the feeding on ruta-baga and other root 

 crops. Ur. Woodward informed us that nearly 

 the whole amount of hay was mowed by one 

 man who delighted in this kind of employment. 

 He commenced mowing early in June by select- 

 ing spot.s where the heavy grass lodged, anri did 

 not leave off imtil the second crop was complet- 

 ed in September. 



Many of our readers will remember the horri- 

 ble aff lir of tlic murder and burning of the coop- 

 er's shop near Hill's bridge in Hopkinton, N. H., 

 a few years ago : ever since the perpetrator. Tit- 

 comb, was released on account of insanity, he 

 has been at Worcester, a confirmed maniac: he 

 is one of the most useful, diligent and ingenious 

 farmers in the establishment. Under the lead of 

 the new steward of the Hospital several of the 

 patients were setting out fruit trees in the month 

 of April : first and foremost among them who 

 met our view was the unfortunate Titcoinb. How 

 much more creditable to humanity, how much 

 more gratifying to all friends and acquaintance, is 



pur 



usefulness at the lunatic asvlum, 



than would be incarceration in a cold dungeon 

 for life, or the taking of life for life, as we do not 

 doubt has been often done iu this country under 

 a prevailing notion that the act of the maniac was 

 that of a perverse and vicious mind which was 

 accountable for its deeds ! 



The following was the produce of the farm 

 attached to tiie Worcester Asvlum for the year 

 1841 :— 



26 tons of hay, at §15,00, $390 00 



1,55 bushels of "corn, at .$1,00, ISo 00 



240 bushels of potatoes, at 30 cents, 72 00 



500 do. of carrot.s, at 25 cents, 125 00 



430 do. of beets, at 25 cents, 107 50 



70 do. of par.sMips, at 2.S, 23 33 



23 do. of oats, at 55 cents, 12 G5 

 GO do. of onions, at 50 cents, 30 00 

 70 do. of English turnips, at 25 cents, 15 50 

 15 do. of ruta baga, at 25 cents, 3 75 

 11 loads of pumpkins, at $1,50, 16 50 

 20 cwt. of winter squashes, at 81,50, 30 00 

 540 cabbages, at 5 cents, 27 00 

 1 load of melons, 10 00 

 5 barrels of pickles, 15 00 

 Garden vegetables for a family of 300 per- 

 sons, 160 00 

 Corn fodder and straw, 15 00 

 Pasturing 8 cows 26 weeks, 102 00 

 Pasturing 2 oxen 26 weeks, 33 50 



Milk from the cows— 26,330 quarts, at ih 



cents, 1,184 85 



6,198 lbs. of pork, at 6 cents, 371 88 



Small pigs sold, 37 50 



Beef sold, " 339 50 



250 lbs. of poultry raised, 25 00 



$3,291 46 



Stock on hand, 4 horses, 2 oxen, 8 cows, 44 

 swine. 



The cows are all well kept, and average about 

 9 quarts of milk a day through the year. The 

 cost of kee))ing through the year, is estimated at 

 $75,00 each, which, for the 8 cows, is $600 00; 

 this sum deducted from the milk, as it costs if 

 purchased, $600 00, from $1,184,85, leaves a 

 profit on the cows of $.584 85. 



When the Worcester Asylum was first erected 

 to .accommodate only 120 patients — less than half 

 its present average number — there was only some 

 half a dozen .acres of land presented by the town 

 of Worcester attached to the premises. A por- 

 tion of this was at first converted into a garden. 

 Finding this did not give sufficient employment 

 to the inmates, the cultivated land was extended 

 by hiring for several successive years an adja- 

 cent field of some eight or ten acres. This ground, 

 under the influence of abundant manuring and 

 judicious cultivation, soon became extremejy fer- 

 tile, turning out from 500 to 1000 bushels of gar- 

 den roots of diff'erent kinds and the largest crops 

 of Indian corn, potatoes, and iu some parts two 

 or more crops of hay. This field became so 

 important to the institution that it was purchased 

 a year or two since at the price of $500 the acre; 

 and as land very convenient for the voluntary la- 

 bor of the inmates of the hospital, Dr. Woodward 

 is of opinion that it is a good investment for the 

 State at this high price. 



In addition to this there has been purchased at 

 different times land for the use of the hospital, so 

 that the ])reniises at this time consist of about 

 eighty acres in the whole. A portion of this 

 ground consists of a beautiful grove upon a rocky 

 side hill which has been cleared of the under- 

 growth and laid out into walks. Much of the 

 largest portiou of the land purchased was either 

 a rocky hard hill, or a cold, sunken morass. Be- 

 fore any portion of the ground was taken up for 

 the use' of the Asylum all of it did not probably 

 give one hundred dollars worth of any kind of 

 production in a year: it had remained for inore 

 than a century nearly useless; but, situated near 

 a flourishing village at the heart of the common- 

 wealth, the land could be purchased only by pay- 

 ing for the most useless and forbidding part from 

 eighty to one hundred dollars an .ncre. 



The aggregate produce of few farms in the 

 county is not greater than that of the eighty acres 

 now 'attached lo the Worcester Asylum. We 

 have observed that ten acres of the land produc- 

 ed the last year twenty-six tons of excellent bay. 

 A portion of this hay ground has been made 

 within the last four years from the cold springy 

 land of an extremely rocky side hill terminating 

 in a morass. Drains have been constructed to 

 convey away the spring water, and in these ditch- 

 es many hundred tons of stone taken from the 



