76 



THE FARM^:R'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



Ma y, 1842. 



wliicli he comtnenced liliy years nso; yet the old 

 gentleman seemed to be impressed With the idea 

 that he might better his condition at this time- 

 when his family of children have all been pro 

 vided for in comfort awny from liome— by 



movmg to soini 



of thoso cheap,easy western lands 



where no rocks were in the way, and which would 

 never reqnire manure. Those who have labor- 

 ed hard to clear away immense trees in an almost 

 impervious forest, and wlio find in their cultiva- 

 tion obstructions from rocks in a hard soil, think 

 it would lie delightful to get nyion the rich prairie 

 lands where there are neither trees nor rocks in 

 the way. They do not fully comprehend the evils 

 of an entire destitution, on rich prairie lands, of 

 both rocks and trees. For all the purposes of a 

 comfortable subsistence, the farmer with his fam- 

 ily might as well be located in the deserts of 

 Arabia as upon the rich lands destitute of rocks 

 and trees : indeed there are districts of prairie 

 lands extending many miles where the inconve- 

 nient rocks and trees do not exist that are consid- 

 ered of little value on that account. The farmer 

 is much more likely to succeed on the rocky hard 

 land, than upon the easy soil : if he continues on 

 this land twenty years, he will find a greater ad- 

 vantage in his permanent stone fences than is to 

 he found in the easier cultivation. This striking 

 fact appeared to us in less than one hour after 

 parting with our veteran friend. 



Through the town of Epsom, running east and 

 west, is a brancii of the river originating on the 

 high ridge of the Saddleback mountain easterly 

 in Northwood, iiassintr through a succession of 

 meadows ;in(l liiiJR lakes called the Suncook 

 ponds. l''rom tin- lii;;li ground in Morthwood, 

 easterly of Epsom, tlie waters rim the other way 

 tov.ariis the oi-oan. « hii li may he distinctly seen 

 at some points wilh the naked eye at the dis- 

 t.ince of nearly tliiity miles. This branch of the 

 Sinicook unites wilii Uk; main branch coming 

 down through Pittsfield from the north in the 

 westerly part of Ep.-Jom : at the point of meeting 

 of the two streams is a large turn of intervale, 

 composing the farm of Cul. Daniel Cilley, the 

 only surviving child of the gallant Gen. Joseph 

 Cilley of the revolution, and the uncle of that 

 Joseph Cilley who led the forlorn hope under 

 Col. Miller vvhen he captured the British artil- 

 lery at Bridgewater, and of that Jonathan Cilley 

 who ingloriously fell at Washington in an unne- 

 cessary contest into wliit-h he was drawn by 

 that false notion of honor which treats the moral 

 courage of withstanding the taunts of the mere 

 duellist as cowardice. 



The farm of C.)l. Cilley 

 land, easy of cultivation ; 

 where it is well cultivated 

 at the meeting of the two 



of fencing on each of two roads : on one side of 

 it rocks are readily obtained for making a wall — 

 but on the other side reliance is had exclusively 

 on the wooden fence. The cheapest fence is 

 one of posts and boards which will decay and 

 rot away in the course of ten or fifteen years. 

 The intervale ground will in time lose its fer- 

 tility — the best land in the world will run out 

 afier a succession of crops. Our alluvial soils 

 lliat are not oficn overllowcil rerpiire as much 

 or more manure than our rocky hill lands to 

 keep them in heart. The facilities for building 

 ihe best permanent fence and for stoning walks 

 a?id cellars and underpinning houses and barns 

 which the multitudes of our granite rocks af- 

 liird, make tliem oiiinnst (arms much more use- 

 ful than iiijmious: when a system of suhsoiling 

 and undcrdrainiMg shall he intnniuced in New 

 Enu'laud on rocky moist lands that grow mine 

 heav'v fiom ciiiuiMual cullivalion, we think the 

 myriads of small stones will he useful in the 

 construction of those cmored drains which in 

 clayey retentive soils will give a new character 

 and value to hmidreds of our lields frojn the 

 great aid which a lightened sm-face will impart 

 to the ordinary mniiiufs which arc laiil upon it. 



Col. ("iljpv l::is arri\r,l at the a^e when the 

 elder pan of' liis iainilv (ifsons— one a respected 

 clergyman of ihp iirr\iill baptist order in Pitts- 

 field — one a araiul r:;iiii rat Nottingham on pre- 

 mises picspnlcl l.v I, is liiicle, the late Bi 

 Cilluv, l..n!.'knou„ f,, 

 the ofli.'os which he 

 ing his own name — 

 'farm in Epson: — witl 



s a beautiful piece of 

 111 highly productive 

 His inrn of intervale 

 leqifires a mile 



his two youngest sons who are twins married to 

 two sisters. These young men, carrying on the 

 farm mainly with their own hands, are im|)rov- 

 ing and putting a new face upon it. They find 

 at this time a drawback on the amin.il iticome 

 in the necessity of constructing a mile of new 

 fence, protecting their extensive iiUcrvale from 

 the road running directly through it, which was 

 formerly the second New Hampshire turnpike. 



Col. Cilley has himself always been a hard 

 laboring ntan: at the age of seventy-three, un- 

 der a severe sickness of the last vviiucr, it was 

 feared he would not survive again to go abroad. 

 We were happy to meet him abroad, just started 

 on his way to visit his son and "salt his young 

 cattle" which had been early tin-ned upon the 

 pasture of ;m out firm. Too feeble to be abroad 

 in the field with his sons, he had quite recently 

 employed his time in the farmer's workshop, and 

 com[)leted from old anfl new materials more 

 than twenty hand-rakes to he used next haying 

 time. 



Among the improvements and cmiosities 

 w hich we have lately seen worthy of notice is 

 the corn and grain barn lately erected by Mr. 

 William P. Cilley, one of the twin brothers. 

 This granary is so constructed as to give the 

 corn in the green season the advantages of air 

 usual in corn houses with open slats, and at the 

 same time by the simple process of shutting an 

 open door afterwards securing the grain bin 

 fiom the effects of the storm without and from 

 the egress and ingress of rats and _ mice. The 

 bull, ling for the granary is about" twenty by 

 twenty-four feet standing upon posts and raised 

 from the gromul. In the roof upon the south 

 end Mr. Cilley has constructed a room six feet 

 by seven as a residence for the industrious 

 workers who are an example worthy of infita- 

 lion by those claiming a greater intelligence. 

 The idea of this bee-house Mr. Cilley took from 

 the Monthly Visitor; he believes it to be an im- 

 provement upon Mr. Searle's p!an. It is how- 

 ever such a hee-hive as may be conveniently 

 constructed entirely out of the way in the gable 

 ends of many farm houses. The hive in so laid 

 as to lead to on almost indefinite extent of a 

 lodgement of the comb containing the honey, 

 which may be taken away in just such quantity as 

 shall be desired, without the necessity of de- 



oyiug the bees. The hive of bees have no 

 occasion to swarm, since they always have am- 

 ple room for extension. Slats are laid so that 

 the drones and other vermin and filth cleared off 

 from the bees fall upon the floor of the hive lo 

 which a door opens, enabling any one to sweep 

 and cleanse it at pleasure. 



Of our ride home in a gig waggon ten miles 

 •ar night fall we might tell a tale of woe and 

 distress in a destitute, deserted, sick fiunily that 

 should teach the child of plenty and affluence 

 that it is a sin to waste his substance while ob- 

 jects of real charily, native horn children of our 

 own State, exist, demanding not only the appli- 



■"in of our spare substance, but all om- 

 sympathies; but while this accidental event 

 might be interesting to those who have hearts 

 to feel for snflfering poverty, others tnight attri- 

 bute the relation to a worse motive than that of 

 mere benevolence. 



lis neighborhood 



liury 

 personal wealth and 

 u this State, for bear- 

 1 third upon another 

 inly d mghter married 

 left home excepting 



Transactions of the Jfew-York State Agricul- 

 tural Society. 



We are indebted to the politeness ofi^. Tucker, 

 Esq., the Secretary of the N. Y. State Agricultu- 

 ral Society, for a copy of their tran.sactions for 

 the year 18-11, which comprises a large octavo 

 ilmne of -lia pages. This work is neatly print- 

 I ON heaniiful pa|ier, emhi-liishrd with ninuer- 

 is engravings of fine animals, as also of a pnul- 

 y house, feeding crib and fountain. WV' have 

 ■ail the hook through with no less attention than 

 iterest, and .are tiee to confess, that we have 

 scarcely ever )>erused a volume, of the same ex- 

 tent, so full of ufeliil matter to the agriculturist. 

 Besides contribmions from the citizens of the 

 Slair' of New-York, the work contains many ex- 

 cellent papers from gentlemen of oilier States, as 

 well as one of great power by John Hanncim, of 

 North Leighton, Wetherby, Yorkshire, England, 

 entitled, " Em;lish Agriculture — n glance nl Us pro- 

 gress and Us prospects." The writer of this essay 

 wields a masterly pen, is evidently a gentleman 

 of education, extensive reading, profound thought, 

 discriminating mind, and withal, a practical far- 



mer. He traces the history of British agriculture 

 from the period of the Roman invasion up to 

 Dec. 1841. Covering so much ground, through 

 such an extended period, the author has neces- 

 sarily been compelled to be brief in his details, 

 hut so thoroughly master is he of his subject, 

 that brief as are those detail.s, he has traced them 

 with a pencil of light, and made so jierfect a pic- 

 ture, that one is forced to acknowledge the just- 

 ness and accuracy of the likeness. The entire 

 paper comprises but 28 pages, but such is the 

 graphic power of its author, that we hazard 

 nothing in saying he has, by his peculiar tact of 

 analysis and comparison, imparled to it more 

 matter than is often met with in a volume, and 

 we promise our readers a rich treat by its re-pub- 

 lication in our columns. 



To give our readers an idea of the truly valu- 

 able contents of this volume of transactions, we 

 will state, that it contains papers by difTerent 

 gentlemen, givinjj descriptions of the agriculture 

 of many of the counties of the Empire State ; 

 one from Joel R. Poinsett, upon the agriculture of 

 South Carolina ; one from if. Penn Kizer on that 

 of Pennsylvania; one by James M. Garnett, on the 

 progress of agriculture in Virginia— which, by 

 the bye, is not one of the most prepossessing 

 lineaments ; an essay on tillage, as also on Geol- 

 ogy, as connected with agriculture, by WiWis 

 Gaylord ; one on the Fruit Garden, by David 

 Thomas, which we look upon as truly valuable, 

 comprising as it does, a complete treatise in it- 

 self, not only upon the culture, hut upon the di- 

 .seases and curative treatment, of nearly all the 

 maladies to which the cultivated fruits are sub- 

 ject — a paper on the increase and prospects of 

 the Silk culture in the U. S. by G. B. Smith— om 

 on the Mulberry culture, by D. Stebbins— a treat- 

 ise on Neat Cattle, by Heivy S. Rnudall—llm 

 contains notices of the native stock of the U. S., 

 Devons, Herefords, New Leicesters, Ayrshires, 

 Alderneys, Holderness, Teeswaters, Dnrhams, 

 Holsteins, Sec. In this pajier the writer has taken 

 a very candid and free view of the several breeds 

 cnunieraled, and gives his opinion as candidly of 

 what he considers the most profitable breed. He 

 writes evidently with a thorough knowledge of 

 his subject, and with the evident desire of ar- 

 riving at the truth ; there is another paper of 

 kindred import, by Herman Chapin — one on (bat- 

 tle. Sheep and Root Culture, by D. 5. Ciirtis ; 

 one on the efficacy of Charcoal as a manure, by 

 J. H. Hepburn, of Pa. Mr. H. is strong in the 

 charcoal fiiith, and backs his opinion by many 

 striking fiicts — his paper is highly interesting ; 

 there is a paper on wintering horses by JErm 

 Meech, which, li-om Ihe economy and simplicity of 

 his plan, we fear will find too many advocates. — 

 IMr. M. does the thing as folka took the small 

 pox a hundred years ago— in the natural way ; 

 on th«! most profitable breed of Horses, there is a 

 very excellent paper by JV. B. Ludlow ; from the 

 pen of H. S. Randall, we have the " History and 

 characteristics of the several breeds of Shecii," a 

 most notable paper, fiill of research and thought; 

 one upon Merino and Saxony Sheep, by William 

 Jajtis, a gentleman well known as one of the 

 largest wool growers in the country, who was for 

 a long time one of our Consuls in Ein-ope — a pa- 

 per on Saxony Sheep, by H. D. Grove, in which 

 he exposes various frauds in injportations of grade 

 sheep for genuine — this |>aper will put folks on 

 their guard, and is therefore truly valutdile ; — 

 there is also a third paper on the Merino Sheep, 

 by -S. fV. Jfwett ; a most excellent treatise on the 

 management of Sheep, by L. .t. Morrell — this 

 paper is distinguished for its good sense, thorough 

 knowledge, and humanity; one on Fences, by 

 H. S. Moore; one on the ciillure of Hemp, by 

 Joseph Saioyer ; one on Italian Wheat — its intro- 

 duction and culture by J. Hathaway ; an essay of 

 passing interest by our good friend, C. JV. Bement, 

 on Poultry. In this essay the Major enters into 

 the subject with the zeal of an enthusiastic atna- 

 teur, and the skill of an enlightened connoisseur. 

 From the adjustment of the rooster to the nnm- 

 her of hens to be attached lo his harem ; from 

 the pre|)aration of the feed to the arrangement 

 lor its consumption ; from making of the nests, 

 to the laying and setting of the eggs anil raising 

 of the young; from the arrangement of the poid- 

 try-yard to the erection of the house — elegant 

 aiid" tasteful enough by the way for a nobleman's 

 cottage, with its saloon or promenade in damp 

 weather — we sav, from each and all of these 



