HE FAiSMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



THE FARMEU'S MO.VTIILY VISITOU. 



JOHN M. il'lLL, 



HiWs Brick Block, Concord, .Y. H. 



GENERAL~AGE.\TS, 



B. COOi;i:. Keene, .V. //. 



TH. H. eiAMi'TON, ll\uhuiitnnCUi,. U. C. 



JO;l.\ .MAiiSH, ira-v/u.u'uii .*'• lioilon. 



CH VULF-S >VARKE-N, U.iiihy lloio, Worasler, Afais. 



A. 11. S n LLWKLL, No. 1, MurM Square, Prov. R.l. 



L. W. HALL Si Co. iiprin:;}iM, jUass. 



The Visitor will be issued on the last dny ofeacli month. 



TE JliUS.—To sinylp subscribers, Sevtnly-five cents: 

 Three copies for l\oo l).j::urs:—Ten copies for Six Dol- 

 lars: — rweiity-rive copic;s for Fi/leen Dollars. 



The three li'rst volumes. e;nbr,icin- the years 1839. '■M), 

 and '41, ol' tlje Visitor, arc olicrcd as a preiii.ura lor everj 

 ten new subscribers fur the year lii4- obtained and paid 

 for by one person. 



Subscrioers m ly comatence at their election, either with 

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

 Title i'a^e will accompany each year. 



lO^CoMiinunications by mail will be directed to the 

 Pubhslier in Concord, A. H. 



THE VISITOR. 



Wool..— Tnia may be considered the Hrst season in 

 whicii wool of Illinois growth lias been brought lo this 

 market. A triflinj quantity was exported from Chicago 

 last ye-ir. In this season, up to the present time, some 

 four or five thousand pounds have been received, and we 

 perceive that tne quantity brought in by our farmers 

 is gradu illy incte.ising. We are satisfied we hasard 

 nothing in s.iyin^', that Illinois will be one of the greatest 



telligeiit merchants are of opinion that it will be thegreat- 

 est. The larger portion of the farmers of Mothern Illi- 

 nois, and ni.iny south of the Illinois river, are turning 



few sheep — some large flocks. They will soon whiten 

 our priiries in every direction. A woollen factory has 

 been recently erected at the flourishing village of St. 

 Charles, on t'ox river. The cost of transportation to Buf- 

 falo of a di>llar's worth of wool is but one quarter the 

 cost of a dollar's worth of wheat. The prices paid for 

 wool are as lollows: native to -I blood Merino 18 to 20 

 cents— .\ to ij blood do. 23 lo 2a cents— full blood Merino 

 30 to 3j'cenis— J to full blooded Saxony 33 to 38 cents. 

 Chicago Am. 

 We rnu hill-lily doiiht that northern Illinois, 

 and fspecially the more eluvutetl ranges of laiitl 



einbn 



the ten 



ml west iiu 



in;; Wisconsin and |u!iliii|)S Iowa, are deslicied 

 to become a greiit wool-produciiif: coimlry : per- 

 liiips iiiaiiuliictm-es niav he e.xtciisively iiitiodiic- 

 of our 



Inn the next hltv vwiis 

 i at PlaiiiHeld, N". H. i 



liest laniieis 

 (arm of .5(30 tu-res of tine (Jmiiiectiiiit river hijih- 

 lands and who generally keeps his thonsaiiil 

 sheep, returned from a visit to Wisconsin last 

 summer ill raptures with that country: he thinks 

 it the most desirable place in llie world for the 

 residence of an iiidepundcnt farmer — he would 

 readily leave his present (irond position of inde- 

 pendence and excellent iieighliorliood, and go 

 there ! Yet we must believe, after he luid cbaiig-. 

 cd positions at the age of nearly sixty years, iie 

 would not be as well contented in that new 

 comilry as he will be to spend his remaining 

 days near the graves of his fitliers in one of the 

 mo.st delii-htlid towns of the Granite State. 



The western world, with its deep and easy 

 soil, priiiluces all the a^riculliirul productions in 

 abundance — nay, so great is this ahnndaiiee that 

 the (piaiiiiiy palls upon the sense. Wheal at fif- 

 ty cents the bushel costs as n;nch labor for its 

 value as the uncertain crops of grain cost in 

 New Hampshire: corn at V2i or even 20 cents 

 B bushel cannot even be gathered and secured 

 at so good a profit as our crops can b& raiseti 

 and gathered at 75 cents and a dollar a bushel. 

 Pork at 1 and lA cents the pound cannot pay as 

 well as our jiork at tlie lowest price of 5 cents. 

 But coming lo the raising of sheep and growing 

 of wool, tiiat country prescuis strong iudiice- 

 tiieiits to go into the business. Wool may be 

 tr.iijsported to the eealwitrd from WiiCousiu 



nearly as cheap as it can be wagoned over the 

 hills from Vermont to the nianufjictiners at Low- 

 ell or to J5oston. If so, and the vast prairies ol 

 the western country, more especially the midii- 

 lating country iiori'h-vvesterly of Like .Michig.-ui, 

 shall be found a healthy coiintry for sheep,' the 

 whole of the United States and all the open 

 markets of the world may be snpplii'd with 

 wool from that region : it will be made, (when a 

 prosperous business shall rel.nn, as it most as- 

 suredly will return) an employment of more cer- 

 tain aiid ea.-y gain to the western farmers than 

 any other that can perhaps he pursued. 



The new world of prodm-tion opened from 

 the We.-t within the lust twenty-five jears ought 

 not lo discourage the farmers of New England 

 who work in a colder climate and in .-i harder 

 and less productive soil. The profits of farming 

 here, in the fiice of all the compelilioii whicli 

 has come fioin the opening of tie fc^rie canal 

 and other cheapened uveiiiies ot tr; iisport, have 

 been greater at no time since the first settlement 

 of the country than they have been since wheat 

 and fioiir was brought to us with the Genesee 

 brand. We remember back to a lime of great 

 plenty when, on the opening of the Erie canal, 

 the price of pork came down one and one and a 

 half cent upon the pound. It was then thought 

 bv some of our shrewd farmers that the region 

 of New Hampshire and Vermont which had 

 carrieil their pork in winter lumber-boxes to 

 Boston would never aflerwaids' have that privi- 

 h'ge — that no farmer coiilil after that afford to 

 raise pork to sell. What has been the fact? 

 More money has since ihalbeen made from pork 

 than had been made beliire. The price for sev- 

 er.il vears, since that competition and even since 

 thousands of barrels of pork are aimnally sliip- 

 " from Ohio to the New England poi t.-;, has 

 ranged from 7 lo 12 cents. And now that our 

 best falli'd hog again come down to six and five 

 cents, we are alarmed anew wiili the noiion Ihi.t 

 none here can expect to raise pork liereader at a 

 living profit. 



The wool-growers of New Ilampshiie and 

 Vi'rmont may have more reason to apprehend 

 competition from the West than the grain-grow- 

 ers and pork-raisers. Y^et after all, the better 

 alciilators among our New Eiigl.iiid farmers 

 lill not .soon abandon the raising of sheep. The 

 resent lime is an exception to .•iluiosi all others : 

 very thing bus lieeii presseil upon us from 

 bro.id at a cln-ap rate by the nocessilifs of those 



This evil will correct itself; since no comilry 

 can long have ihe means of buying where its 

 real prodiiclioii shall not give an e(|iiiv.ileiit. 

 The nation that sells nothing to iro abroad caii- 

 l.ot purchase any thing from abroad after its 

 present means and its credit fail. It has been 

 not less our mislijrtmie that our credit bus been 

 ) good in Europe llian it is that it is not now 

 od enough. The piirel)a.''e of our Slate and 

 ler .stoc-ks — now more worthless than they 

 gilt to be — has flooded the country with im- 

 portations that we might and ought to have pro- 

 'd at home. The foreigners who have sold 

 less than we who have purchased the.se im- 

 portations, have been the loser.s. They will not 

 iniie to flood us so long as there is no pros- 

 pect of selling to obtain paym*-iit — so we need 

 not leaf a greater influx than we have already 

 It. 



Our own productions must come in play at 

 last: so that our wool-growers who, in the dull 

 present prospect of manulacttires, may .safely 

 Icniate that ihey will hereafter sell the clij) of 

 lol now on hand anil what they may raise 

 at some fair price that shall give them u full 

 equivalent in other articles. 



(ir lit ighhors at Hopkiiiton, Messrs. Siblev 

 and Uarnakd, who move on in their even and 

 way of producing aiDuuully the bent lot of 



wool sheared in New England, have been this 

 year incst foiiuimte in finding their usual market 

 at Lowell at a price which they arc not permit- 

 led to make public. Mr. Lawrence, who has 

 purchased their fine wool for several years past, 

 lias done well lo encourage the raising and keep- 

 ing of Saxony slnep by payiiis these genilemen 

 at all limes such a price as had induced them to 

 perseverance. One of the gentlemen has just 

 intijrmed us that they have not only been able 

 satis.'iii-torily to sell tiieir own lot of fine wool, 

 but that they have dispo.-ed of lots of fine and 

 ordinary v\ool liir some of their neighbors from 

 25 up to 40 cents per pound ; and this loo when 

 a present depre>sioii of manuliictures has closed 

 several eslahlishmenls, and rendered Ihe sale of 

 wool merely nominal in all the markets. 



The p.isliires whicli fiirnisli the healthy suste- 

 nance to Me.<srs. Sibley and Barnard's Saxony 

 flocks are situated high upon Kearsargc : it is 

 here, in extended ranges of fresh grounds inter- 

 spersed with rocky ledges, some thousand feet 

 above the surrounding vallies, that the Saxon 

 flocks inhale the air of mountain freedom, above 

 the region of untimely sunmier frost and the 

 sidtry liejit ol severe summer sun. There is no 

 land in Wisconsin or perhaps in the world so 

 well fitted lor sheep as the summer pastures up- 

 on the rocky, high hills of New England. On 

 these hills our farmers need fear no discourage- 

 ment from competition in continuing to raise 

 sheep. 



'J he Potato. 



It is now pretty generally imdprstood that the 

 potato is indigenous to Chili and Peru, in which 

 country it grows wild. The plant is very com- 

 mon about Valparaiso, and Mr. Cruikshaiik says, 

 that he has noticed it along the coast for fifteen 

 leagues lo the northward of that port. There is 

 one peculiarity ascribed lo the wild plant, by this 

 gentleman, viz : that the flowers are pure lohUe, 

 from the purple lint so common in the cultivated 

 varieties. Amidst conflicting testimony and t pin- 

 ions on the subject, we must give to Walter 

 Raleigh the credit of introducing the potato. — 

 Itsintro.lucli.in by him into Ireland, in 1010,13 

 well aiiiheiilicated by corroborative testimony. 

 Among the anecdntes told of this enterprising 

 voyager, it is said that when his gardener at 

 Young llall, in the county of Cork, had reared 

 to the tiill maturity of "ap|)les," the potatoes 

 which he had received from the knight, as a fine 

 fruit from America, the man brought to his mas- 

 liT one of the apples, ami asked if that were the 

 fine fruit. Sir Walter having examined it, was 

 or feigned lo he, so dis.sutisfied, that he ordered 

 the "weed" to be rooled out. The gardener obey- 

 ed and in rooting out the weeds found a bushel 

 of potatoes. 



The discrepancy of opinion respecting the 

 date of the introduclion of the potato in Enro|ie, 

 •eems lo have arisen from confounding the coni- 

 iiou with Ihe sweet potato. The latter was intro- 

 duced into Europe long before the former, and it 

 seems most probable that it was the species 

 brought from New Granada by Hawkins. 



Potatoes were first looked upon as a great del- 

 icacy, and cultivated by n very few. The Royal 

 Society, in 1663, encoiiragcd a more extensive 

 ciiltivalion of them, as a means of preventing 

 fiiminr. Previously, however, to 1684, they were 

 rai.<ed only in the gardens of the nobility and 

 gentry; but in that year they were planted, tor 

 the first lime, in the open fields in Lancashire — 

 a county in which they have ever since been very 

 extensively cultivated." Their growth was inoro 

 ra|)idly extended in Ireland than in England, and 

 they liave long furnished from Hvo-thirds to (bur 

 fifths of entire fiiod (in* the people of Ireland.— 

 Potatoes were not raised in Scotland, except in 

 gar.len.s, till 1728, when they were planted in ihe 



leii field by a person by the name of Prentice, 



day laborer at Kilsytb. 



