May, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



77 



tilings to the other, tlie Major is just as familiar 

 as he is with his garter. The description of va- 

 rious breeds of fowls which he gives, and his 

 opinions of the relative merits of each variety, 

 is as inslructive as pleasing. We have said that 

 liis poidtry house is elegant and tasteful — and so 

 it is; and we only regret tliat we have not the 

 cuts, or we would show our readers what a pretty 

 affair a man of genius can create. There aie 

 otlier essays — one on raising Swine, by B. P. 

 Johnson, one on the culture of the Grape, by L. 

 B. Langu-orthy, and one on the Manufacturing 

 and Wool-growing interests, by S. Lawrence. 



This bird's-eye sketch of contents, will give 

 the reader a faint idea of the vast fund of valua- 

 ble information which the book conUiins — suffi- 

 cient, however, to excite their curiosity — and as 

 we deem it to be our duty, we shall transfer such 

 of those essays as are of most interest to our 

 columns — and we shall do so with the more 

 pleasure, because we know that the matter con- 

 tained in a single leading one, is worth more than 

 a year's subscription to oin- paper. 



Amencan Farmer. 



A Jaunt to Connecticnt. 



A journey of a single day from our home in 

 the first week of April, with a nooning of four 

 hours in Boston, carried us on the first Monday 

 of April to Norwich in Connecticut. How 

 strange, that we may leave one point not yet 

 emerged from the icy fetters of winter, and on 

 the same day find ourselves in a region where 

 the early fruits are in blossom, and vegetation is 

 springing from the ground! This single day's 

 journey made the difterence of four weeks, at 

 least, in the season. 



We had beencalleil to Norwich in the perfoini- 

 ance of a service for which we had few qualifi- 

 calinns, and had been unable to take but little 

 time in jireparation : somebody who heard our 

 lecture on the "Mountains of New England and 

 their Agriculture," at the city of New York, took 

 it into their heads that we might deliver another 

 lecture before the Norwich and New J^oudon 

 Lyceums; and we chose the subject of the Mu- 

 tual Dependence of the Liberal and Mechanical 

 Professions of Trade, Commerce and Agricul- 

 ture. Two lectures, being the last of the season, 

 were to be delivered before the satne Lyceums 

 in one week; and at the moment of our arrival, 

 Professor Silliman of New Haven was delivering 

 his very best ideas and acquisitions on the subject 

 of Geology, which had been to him the study of 

 years, when we came limping after him on a 

 plain, every day a jbject which had been the re- 

 sult of the thoughts of not more than a single 

 week, and the steady work of not much more 

 than a single day. The contrast presented us, 

 following in the tracks of one of the most learn- 

 ed men and philosophers of the age, in that liu- 

 rtiiiiating.plight which would gladly have crowd- 

 ed us into a ()lace of small dimensions. We did 

 not, in this performance, satisfy ourselves, if we 

 w ere so fortcmate as to satisfy any body else. 



And when we came to look upon the Agricul- 

 tural and Horticultural beauties of Norwich in 

 those parts of the town where the traveller sel- 

 dom visits — to see how much in advance the farm- 

 ers and gardeners of that part of Connecticut 

 were of the best farmers and gardeners of New 

 Hampshire— we, as one of the least among the 

 inferior, thought it great folly in us to travel to 

 Connecticut to give instruction on a subject Jiot 

 so well understood by ourselves as by many of 

 om- auditors. 



The city of Norwich is situated at the head of 

 navigation of Thames river, at the point of land 

 formed by the junction of the Shetucket and 

 Yantic rivers, whose uifited waters constitute the 

 Thames, which runs into the ocean at New Lon- 

 don. The main part of the city is bifilt on the 

 southern declivity of a high and rocky hill : the 

 houses are built in tiers risingone above another. 

 Higher than the rest is the court-house for New 

 London comity. The city, as it is approached 

 from the south", presents one of the most beauti- 

 ful, interesting and romantic jirospects in New 

 England. The buildings, which are mostly paint- 

 ed white, appear in fidl view for a considerable 

 distance dow-n the -river: these, contrasted with 

 the deep green foliage covering the rocky and el- 

 evated banks of the river, give a picturesque va- 

 riety to the scene, forming on the water u de- 

 lightful avenue to the city. 



The Norwich railroad, now a principal ave- 

 nue for tiavel from Boston to New York, sixty 

 miles in extent, on its route from Worcester, soon 

 finds a valley and one of the head branches of 

 the Shetuckei; river, down which it travels by va- 

 rious manufacturing villages to the navigable 

 water of the Thames. The building of this road, 

 although injurious and even disastrous to some of 

 the enterprising citizens of Norwich, has been of 

 essential benefit to the projierty and business of 

 the city : it is said to connect with the city and its 

 trade between eighty and a hundred nianufacttn-- 

 ing villages in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 

 that fnrniorly went to more distant and inconve- 

 luent points for the purchase and sale, shipment 

 and transshipuient of various merchandize. 



The capital of the citizens of Norwich has in 

 times past suffered much from the vicissitudes 

 and changes in its extensive manufactures: much 

 money in these establishments has there been 

 sunk by the wealthy, not however without con- 

 tribiuing to the prosperity and welfare of the 

 coimtry surrounding it. At this time it was not 

 the least of our unpleasant sensations to find sev- 

 eral large and beautiful manufacturing establish- 

 ments of cotton and wool standing still iVom the 

 little jirospect of profitable sale of domestic 

 goods existing in the redundancy of manufactur- 

 ed goods forced on us from foreign countries. 



Our first engagement for a lecture at Norwich 

 was for the first Wednesday in March : it was 

 made when we had supposed that no new test 

 question, in our connection with a political news- 

 paper, could draw us into any controversy, in the 

 then coining election; but the arts of our per- 

 sonal enemies to create a new issue were not un- 

 availing, and we found ourselves, jio/en« votens, in 

 the midst of a controversy such as no man would 

 engage in, but from obstinacy of principle — a 

 controversy in which we could personally gain 

 nothing except the consciousness of doing the 

 State some service iioni breaking groimd against 

 the fetters of an intolerance as despotic as it was 

 wicked. Within a few days of the time appoint- 

 ed for this lectiu-e, we were obliged to notify the 

 Norwich and New London Lyceums that we 

 must disappoint them for the first Tuesday and 

 Wednesday of March. 



With the notice of that appointment we re- 

 ceived a verbal invitation from Elisha Tracy, 

 Esq. a gentleman of talents and popularity in 

 Norwich who had done mucii for its institutio is 

 and prosperity, whom we had seen at Washing- 

 ton, to make liis hos|jitable residence our place 

 of stay while we remained there. Within the 

 sliort interval of one month that eminent citizen 

 and philanthropist closed his mortal career at the 

 age of about seventy years, precluding the antic- 

 ipated enjoyment of his hospitality and renewed 

 acquaintance as one of the most pleasant antici- 

 pations of om- visit. 



With the exception of one gentleman whom 

 we had only seen several years bel<)re, all the 

 people of Norwich were to us strangers: making 

 our journey so rapid, we found we had two lidl 

 days to spare in viewing the place before the 

 evening of the lecture. General Cleavelaiid, 

 the new Governor of that State, who resides for 

 the most part upon a beautiful farm in Hamjiton, 

 a country town twenty miles distant, has a law 

 otlice and partner in the city of Norwich. Find- 

 ing an actpiaintance with this young gentleman, 

 he invited us to the court house, high up on the 

 steep acclivity, to witness the proceedings of the 

 Supreme Court then in session. Just as we 

 came together upon the ste|is, turning to look 

 back n[)on the steep up which we had climbed, 

 an aged gentleman was stepping up. "There is 

 a iiiaii," said our new acquaintance, ''of whom I 

 think you nuist have heard, to whom I should be 

 pleased to introduce you : it is Judge Goddard 

 who in old times was a member of the Hartford 

 Convention." The words were no sooner spok- 

 en than the introduction was made: all of us 

 passing up the stairs, we entered the court-room, 

 where the aged and venerable man, himself hav- 

 ing been Chief Justice of the same Court, now 

 no longer a Judge but a member of the bar, in- 

 sisted upon OTU- taking a seat within the bar. The 

 trial of a land case was going on ; but the sud- 

 den introduction at once brought forth so loud a 

 conversation between us — we thought the Judge 

 himself to be the loudest talker — that a rap from 

 the sheriff w:;rued ns we w^ere interrupting the 

 judicial proceedings. After a few moments 



whispered the Judge — "I am nearly through my 

 j)ractice at this court: I have but a single ques- 

 tion in the court in which I am interested, aiul 

 that is a case of eleemosynary gift, in which I 

 w.-is a trustee. I can leave that— will you walk 

 with me abroad, and I will show you some of the 

 rural beauties of our city ?" The day was quite 

 unpleasant, there being a cold easterly wind with 

 a spitting of rain. 



Judge Goddard said he had encountered n se- 

 vere sickness of several months in which his life 

 had been despaired of: but that he was now re- 

 covered so far as to be able to walk as far as we 

 could w ithout tiring. We mounted the steep hill 

 still fiirthtjr ; and the first object that attracted 

 our attention was a steepled observatory, over- 

 looking the country to a great distance, erected 

 by Julius Rockwell, Esq. to whose munificence 

 and i.ublic spirit the Norwich railroad is indebt- 

 ed tor much of the means which sustained it 

 when the stock was depressed to less than half 

 of its value. This gentleman had retmned to 

 his native country with a fortune of some hun- 

 dred thousands, which he had gained in England 

 in the employment and under the partnership of 

 some of the most wealthy merchants of London. 



His splendid mansion, his ample gardens, and 

 improved grounds, with all the varieties of fruits, 

 flowers and vegetable productions — his artificial 

 watering spouts and jet (Peavs, will vie in ele- 

 gance, if not in expense, with those of Mr. Gush- 

 ing at Watertown. Near the beautiful seat of 

 Mr. Rockwell, were the premises of our deceas- 

 ed friend. Col. Tracy, a newly erected mansion 

 house with those imuroveinents about it indica- 

 ting abundance of means to procure the elegan- 

 cies and the comforts of life. 



Turning the point of the hill the country part 

 of Norwich, the ancient comity seat three miles 

 from the Landing, appears to the view. 'J'hat 

 part of the town which was the residence of 

 Judge Goddard, was comparatively new : it is 

 called the Plains, and embraces some hundred 

 acres, a part of which was reserved by Uncas, 

 the Indian sachem, when he and his two sons 

 ceded the territory to the first white inhabitants, 

 " nine miles square of land lyeing and being at 

 Mohegan, and the parts thereunto adjoining, 

 with all ponds, rivers, woods, quarries, mines, 

 with all royalties, privileges and appurtenances 

 thereunto belonging," for" the full and jnst sum 

 of seventy pounds:" this deed, a copy of which 

 is before us, was subscribed with the peculiar 

 marks of the chiefs Onkos, Owaiieco, and Attaw- 

 ardiood, and was recorded in the county book, 

 August 20, lt)f)3. 



" Tlie Plains" are a high, soft and coarse allu- 

 vion, resting as the base of a lake previous to the 

 breaking through of the waters of the Yantic be- 

 low, of which the first barrier was the rocky 

 steep and ridge upon the side of which stands 

 the city of Norwich at the landing below. This 

 plain is full otje hundred feet above the bed of 

 the river below the falls which rush down a nar- 

 row channel above, compressed in a ledge of 

 rocks, near the foot of wliich are situated the ex- 

 tensive factories, and near which, upon the plain 

 above as well as in the valley, have grown up 

 considerable settlements and numerous dwell- 

 ings. A beautiful church erected here for llio 

 accommodation of the operatives at the factories 

 has been shut up, as have several stores doing 

 formerly an extensive business. 



But the flight of prosperity from the manufac- 

 turing business seems in part at least to be made 

 up in the beauty and fertility of the plains above. 

 The alluvial ground of which the Plains are 

 composed is very fertile under such care and cul- 

 tivation as are here bestowed upon it. It rises in 

 an abrupt steep from near the bed of the river, 

 so direct as to be difficult of ascent to a person 

 on foot: the level of the plain above, and the 

 regularity of the slope upon the side, give the 

 banks from the river the appearance of a fort. — 

 The houses upon the streets are dis|iosed of at 

 convenient distances and the lots are laid oft' into 

 beautiful fields and gardens with all the varieties 

 of fruits and ornamental trees tastefully arranged. 

 Near the residence of Judge Goddard are the 

 graves of the Indian Chiefs, Lfncas and his suc- 

 cessors, celebrated in the history of that part of 

 the country: several of these have monuments 

 of stone on which the name and age of the Indi- 

 an are inscribed. Uncas was the head chief of 

 the Mohegan tribe, .^t war with the Narragaii- 



