May, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



75 



propneiors ol pews', 

 converted into rooms 

 two lurge scliools, ;ii] 

 lectiiieii, in wliicli is 

 securiiiijthe town rvr 

 story is made a ;ilat 

 with slips construrtei 

 the bottom snflicient 



brick wall constructed in this manner effertiially 

 phiits llie frost from a cellar even if the larger 

 portion of it shall l)e above the surface of tlie 

 ground. 



We have mentioned the three new nieeling- 

 liouses in the villii<;e: tlie old town nieeling- 

 lioiise, erected in 1788, stands there too, far more 

 neat and trim— for it had not llien been painted 

 — than it appeared when we first saw it thirty- 

 (Nree years ago. And what use, do you suppose, 

 can be made of this ancient house, whose tim- 

 bers are of lieavy white oak, standing with posts 

 more than twenty feet from the sills, fitted on all 

 sides with numerous windows? It has been 

 made a bnililirjg of two stories, and by expend- 

 ing on it twelve hundred dollars, including three 

 hundred <lollars p;iid by the school district of 

 that part of the village i'or the [)roperty of the 

 the lower story has been 

 for the Hccomriifidatioii of 

 (I into an office for t\n- se- 

 conslrucK'd a brick sale, 

 ords from fire. The upper 

 •I! for III.; town meetings, 

 1 fiom the original peusat 

 to seat at le:ist lour hun- 

 dred people. This building is very convenient : 

 it has been improved at a small expense con- 

 sidering its great additional value. There are 

 many old meeting-houses of giant frames that 

 would long endure with but slight labor for 

 their preservation standing in our country towns 

 that ought to be treated like the old meeting- 

 liouse of PlttsfieUl. New shiufilod sometimes, 

 new clapboarded and painted, they will endure 

 as long as the best morlern buildings; and :liey 

 may be made to llujiisli ami-le rooms for varf- 

 ons public purposes. 



A SPLENDID IMPROVEMFNT. 



But the most important improvement to fiu-m- 

 ers remains to be inenlioned : it is that made in 

 a swamp or .■<uuken meadow almost within a 

 stone's throw of the old meetiug-liouse and main 

 ."^treet. Allusion was made to this improvement 

 in a letter from John Hi'rry, Esq., published in a 

 former nundier of the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The swamp contains about six acres ; and tive 

 years ago when it was purchased by Mr. Berry 

 it was an almost impervious impassable morass, 

 with a growth of water maple, swamp .asli, dog- 

 wood, &c. so wet and shaky that cattle would 

 inire upon it, and even dangcious to the tread 

 of any human being. From lliiss\vam|) thci'e is 

 an outlet running towards f-'um-ook river, and 

 the water instead of hcing sliii:;:ish on its pas- 

 sage fulls awav direi-ilv, so that a few open 

 ditches take off lli.- waier at once. A part of 



ter, inasmuch as it shakes to a considrrable dis- 

 tance uniler tlie treail of the feet. The whole 

 mass of matter in this bog is of the richest 

 black soil, at some jjoints to the depth of many 

 feet, but cortung down to about eighteen inches 

 at the shore near the outlet, where it rests upon 

 a iiure white jiravel and hard rocks worn smooth 

 in the water. The uhole of this swamp has 

 been cleared liv Mr. IJeiry within the last live 



.y dra 



Th. 



inclined to the belief that there is a great and 

 essential difference In the tliaracter of swamp 

 lands— that .some of then) require a different 

 treatment from others. Where the water does 

 not rapidly run off, and cold springs come in at 

 iho surrounding edges, little can be expected 

 from the swamp that has not an outside drain 

 imder ground comUHiuicatiug with the stream 

 that carries away the wjiter. Portions of Mr. 

 IJerry's swam]) produce three Ions of hay to the 

 acre ; and all he finds necessary to do to it after 

 tRki'ng away the moss that lay over the suriiice 

 to the depth of three or four inches, and taking 

 away the roots and other obstructions, is to carl 

 on gravel, pebbles, imd even rocks of considera- 

 ble weight. Mr. Berry lias ibund these rocks, 

 carried on in the winter, sink entirely out of the 

 way of the grass before mowing time. Upon 

 r.lxiut an acre of the m-west parthe had carried 



on gravel and rocks taken fioju the hard surliu^e 

 where an excavation was made to a considerable 

 depth for the erection of a building while the 

 ground was frozen during the winter: upon Iliis 

 part herdsgrass sowed in early spring was shoot- 

 ing Uj) as thick as could be "desired. Last year 

 this field at the haying season was like a flowing 

 field of rye, and produced abundantly. Froiii 

 the appearance of the soil, it can scarcely be 

 exhausted for ages — it is black and rich as "ma- 

 nure taken from the hog-pen, and will oidy 



was about fifty dollars an acre: tiie land in llial 

 position we should think u.iith two hundrci! 

 dollars the acre. The simple value of the land 

 is not the whole value of the iui|irovenKHt : the 

 benefit done to all the peo|ile of the village in 

 changing an unsightly, uuheallhy sunken li-og 

 pond into a beautiful green meadow Is worlli 

 luore than the cost of the improvement. Be- 

 sides who can help brushing up his own land 

 and clearing off every thing" useless, where the 

 great value of such an im|irovenient as this 

 suues a neighbor in the (iice ? 



Thirty-three years ago, in a company of young 

 ladies and gentlemen, some of whom repose 

 under the clods of the grave-yard, we made a 

 first visit to Pittsfield : it was, we believe, betbie 

 Joy's extensive scythe faclory, which supplied 

 the surrounding country, had an exislence. There 

 might be a saw and giist mill near where the 

 factory now stands. Little business was then 

 done there. Tiie road from Concord was in 

 some places steeper than it now is. The tui-u- 

 pike through Chichester had been opened and 

 was better than at this time. Two miles this 

 side of Pittsfield there was a prodigious rise of 

 a long hill — this rise has been since avoided bv 

 cutting a new road at the foot of the hill, shori- 

 eniiig the distance. The road a considerable 

 porlion of the way fiom Concoid to Pittsfield is 

 indirect and jiasses over bill.-; that might be 

 avoided. It has been fbi- a iiumher of ye,-ii-s a 

 stage road. When the railro.iil shall teruiinalc 

 at Concord, the couununicaiiou nuist be moic 

 frequent, and the road must be straightened anil 

 improved. It is said that a comparatively levil 

 route shortening the distance from fifteen to 

 twelve miles may be easily constructed. It will 

 not be possible long to prevent such a road from 

 being made. 



Wi 



rrv to find that in con 



seqii 



the depressed prospects of manufactures 

 time llie Pillsfiehl factorv was stopped a few 

 weeks ago, and that the" oprrativrs, male and 

 lemal-Mo the nniiili.T of about tno himihrd, 

 had mosllv reltnned to the houses of their pa- 

 rents in the adjacent towns. As this fictory i;s- 

 lablishmeut has conlribiKed essentially to the 



and value ot' the liiniis round about, so we hope 

 its luopiic'tiMS may be iiuluced to give future 

 employineiil to the spindles and shuttles which 

 have Jixrii lii;- ami animation to the village and 



A SKETCH OF FARlMl.^G UKALITIF.S. 



We never pass tliiMugh any new section of our 

 State withoul gratification : in our own town bcau- 

 titid prospects and fine silnalious have been some- 

 times opened where wo liave never belbie visit- 

 ed. Il is a tiict that the most pleasant and in- 

 viling portions of the Graniie .State, the richest 

 and most independent larniers, live out of sighl 

 of the roads usually travelled by stranger.s. We 

 liave seldom regretted the straying off of some 

 road that we have often travelleii and going round 

 a few miles — wo are always paid for the addition- 

 al travel in the new and gratifying objects pre- 

 sented. 



When at Pittsfield a k\v days since we wanted 

 to go to Epsom : it brought us in a round about 

 course to Concord, finiher only about two miles. 

 From Piltsfielilto the tiiiupike in Epsom is seven 

 iriiles. and our travel was over the side more than 

 half the distance to the top of Catamount — we 

 would it had been over the main toj), for then we 

 could in a clear sky have looked from the white 

 Mountains on the Norlh, to ^VachuscIt and Blue 

 Hill ill the South, and tVom tlie Ascntney on the 

 West in Vermont, to the A^'aeienticns easterly 

 in Maine. All the way on tiie strange road met 

 us decent farms in succession. The soil [ilongli- 

 ed up and planting was always more or less 

 rocky, tinged with a yellow redness lighter than 



is common upon the swells ol' land to the west 

 of the Merrimack; we thought it suan^c that 

 the prevailing growth upon these rocky )ii!;li 

 grounds with strong soil should be the" While 

 pine. There are several roads runniu<r in a di- 

 rection from Pittsfield to Epsom as well on the 

 east, as on the west side of Catamount. Two 

 miles south of the top of the mountain, two up- 

 right houses with corresponding barns stand up- 

 on one of those beautifid and extended swells 

 which are so common in the interior of the New- 

 England Stales. They were grand fiirms as thev 

 appeared at a distance — the fields, walled in, just 

 springing into vegetation from the grass "and 

 early sowing, antl the smfiice smooth and beaii- 

 lilid. When we came where we were acquaint- 

 ed, we determined to inquire out the owners of 

 the t»vo hill (iirm.s. 



We arrived at Gen. Locke's tavern on the Ports- 

 mouth turnpike while himself and his family 

 were at dinner; and just before sitting down to 

 a better repast than is generally to be found in 

 the cities— a fiirmer's fine, rich and well cooked 

 — a short old gentleman of over seventy years was 

 introduced by Gen. Locke as his father. '•! want- 

 ed to see yon (he said) for 1 have read your pa- 

 per more than twenty years ; and although some 

 of them say that you have changed your politics, 

 I do not yet see any change." Tlie most of our 

 people have heard of the Ihmily of Lockes in Uye. 

 Three brothers of this (aniily removed to Epsom 

 many years ago : and tco of them cleared and 

 occupied the cultivated firms about which we 

 intended to make inijuiries. This old gentleman, 

 Mr. Levi Locke, the tiilber of Gen. Locke, owned 

 and occupied one of them. HaviiiL' done his 

 own spring's work, he was helping his son with 

 a breaking up team, ploui^ha lot near tin; turnpike 

 which had never before filt the plou-li. Levi,Siui- 

 eon and David Locke.-^etiled in lOpsom when young 

 men. Simeon, who was the oiMier otone of the iwo 

 farms, sold Ih.it, and buimiitan intervale funi in 

 Concord some twenty years aL'o, wlmli lie found 

 easier of cnliivatioii," lim by no means a belter 

 tiirm. William Locke, a.ioiher brother, .setlle.l 

 at Iiasburgh,Vt. where he was a first rate fiirmer, 

 and wrote ns a letter which was published a few 

 years ago. Both William and Simeon Locke, 

 our townsman, dieil within the last two \ears. 

 The fiitherofthis liimily, David Locke of" Pvyc, 

 fitted out his two eldest sons on the expedition 

 to take Burgoyne in the year 1777: lie died at 

 the age of 7-2 years, leaving alive thirteen children 

 and seventy-live grand children. 



There are no people in the world so stire of 

 success and the means ol living as our laboring 

 farmers. Temperate and indiistrioDs, they sel- 

 dom lad ill any cnterpiise. .V.r. Levi Locke in- 

 formed us that he raised two hniHiied bushels of 

 wheat u|)on six acres of sowingoii hishill l!iriii,iu 

 the year 1840. He mentioned a method o( harvesi- 

 ing wheat of which we had not before heard. He 

 mowed his wheat like common grass, and with- 

 out raking, at first fiitclied it diircily upon the 

 cart, gleaning the remnant willi the "rake after- 

 wards. In this way he thought he lost less than 

 he would by the slielling 'out tioin handling 

 sheaves, and he gained much in the saving of la- 

 bor. At the age of seventy-three, Mr. Locke 

 seems to have the eiiter|!ri.sc and aciiviiy of a 

 young mail of fiirtv : his hand is that of llie hard 

 working tiinner— the palms so well ::la.-vd that 

 he did not apprehend any hard work woi.ld blis- 

 ter them. Ho says he can at this ago mow six 

 acres of wheat in a day that stands up fiiir, giv- 

 ing employment to the rest of his men while 

 housing it. 



We found this experienced and successfid far- 

 mer impressed with the idea so common to the 

 farmers of New England, that the new lands 

 easy of cultivation in the western country are 

 more inviting hecnvsc Ihci/ tvill nrvi^r need manure. 

 This opinion, founded csseiilially in a mistake, 

 has caused the eiiiigralion of thousands from 

 New England — some, it is conceded, have done 

 well by the change, but more oftlirm have lit- 

 erally g-o«e//-om Aom?. Mr. Simeon l,ocke, sev- 

 eral "years a.;o. sold llie fin<« hill f.rm in Epsom 

 which hiso\Mi liaiuN li- 1 eleirerl, i;nil purchas- 

 ed one of the Couconl ml- rvale lar-es. Although 

 this was iioi a b.id eh iii-e. ail ih. -e .acquainted 

 with him, while he Incd, know full well that ho 

 worked as liard while on his intcrvide farm in 

 Concord as he ever did at E[isoiii. Mr. Levi 

 Locke has remained on his fiirin, the clearing of 



