136 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



September, 1842. 



are carried off the ground ; wl)en they are con- 

 sumed on it, the soil iscon.-^tantly inproviiig with- 

 out the addition of manure. 



''8. It is in some instances a speci^c food of 

 vegetables, by this means greatly increasing the 

 quantity of some plants, as clover, sainfoin, and 

 other of the broad leaf grasses ; peas, corn, roots, 

 &c.; while some of the narrow leaf grasses, and 

 wheat, barley, oats, &c., are scarcely benefitted 

 by it. 



" 9. In opposition to the suggestion of our cor- 

 respondent, we have well attested experiments 

 of its immediate beneticial effect on crops suffer- 

 ing from drought, before any rains had come to 

 its aid ; it having been in some slight degree dis- 

 solved by copious dews. 



" 10. Its a[iplication in the neigliborhood of 

 salt water, has seldom been attended with bene- 

 fit, owing undoubtedly to its combining with 

 the saline vapor, wafted to it by the sea breezes. 



"11. Frequent benefit is derived from its use, 

 on vines and otlier plants infested with insects, 

 for though the diluted acid constituting a portion 

 of it, may be highly beneficial to the vegetable, it 

 is poison to the insect. 



" 12. Wet lands are not improved by it. 



" 13. Many soils are already so highly charged 

 with gypsum in their natural condition, as to de- 

 rive no benefit from an additional quantity. 

 There is scarcely any saline substance more gen- 

 erally diffused, it constituting a portion of almost 

 every soil, and is contained to a greater or less 

 extent, in all river and spring water ; and giving 

 to the latter especially, when in considerable 

 quantity, the character of hnidness." 



Five days ramble amoug the Farmers of Mer- 

 rimack. 



(Continued.) 



The Gerrisli family in Boscavven and the vi- 

 cinity is famous as being farmuis of e.\tensive 

 enterprise and wealth. Three miles above the 

 Roscawen academy on the river road are two 

 more farms of the Gerri?h connexion, the heads 

 of which are known to have gained competency 

 and wealth from their occupation, whose well 

 cultivated grounds and well filled barns at this 

 season of the year always present evidence of 

 good husbandry. Two other upland Gerrish 

 farms on the turnpike towards Salisbury are in- 

 ferior to few farms in the State : a barn erected 

 on one of them at tiie foot of the long hill two 

 years ago is believed not to have its fellow for 

 convenience, for size and thorough finish in any 

 town of the county. Such a barn well filled as 

 the product of a rough soil well tilled, indicating 

 the abundant means of its proprietor all gained 

 upon the same spot, will reflect more lustre on 

 its owner than the palace of a lordly proprietor 

 inherited under the laws of primogeniture which 

 forbid its alienation in the line of an elder son. 

 In the extreme westerly end of the same town 

 upon the Little hill is another farm of the Ger- 

 rish family from which in years past butter and 

 cheese sufliciciit to purchase several farms have 

 been made and sold. All of these are and have 

 been farmers upon a larger scale than is common 

 to New Hampshire. We have here no planta- 

 tions of thousands of acres ; and our larger 

 farms are not always best anil most profitably 

 managed. There are tln-ifty and independent 

 men of wealth whose acres do not number one 

 hundred — some of the very best cultivators of 

 the ground constantly making and laying up 

 money, who never owned over fifty acres. 



Leaving Johnson's after dinner on the 2d of 

 August, the committee on farms took their course 

 by the Borough which lies along the south side 

 of Contoocook to the bridge leading to that part 

 of Concord called Horse-Hill, on the north-west 

 of the river, embracing a corner of the town of 

 several thousand acres, the nearest point of 

 which is more than six miles from the State 

 house, and the most distant at least ten miles. 

 In this range we pass up the valley of the Black- 

 water, a iiortheily branch of the Contoocook, 

 and the westerly end of Boscawen in nearly its 

 whole length. 



Until turnpikes were granted about forty years 

 ago, the imiJi-ovement was never made in our 

 public highways of a rounded pathway for car- 

 riages : the track of the road was sunken instead 

 of oval, so that upon the side hills the wash of 

 rains instead of running off usually 

 and along the course of the highway, 



upon 



the level plat of the road water stood in deei)er 

 puddles than upon the sides of the highway. 

 With the exception of more travelled roads in 

 the vicinity of large towns, the tracks of roads 

 in rocky lands were not divested of rocks, so 

 that it was with difficulty light carriages could 

 be passed over them faster than the walk of 

 horses, and loaded teams required an immense 

 proportionate power of horses and oxen to drag 

 them Ibrward. The most of the travel for plea- 

 sure was on horseback : there were then in the 

 interior towns few pleasure carriages — no gig 

 wagons were known until about the year 1810; 

 and in numerous of the rough hill towns there 

 was no such luxury known as the common 

 chaise or gig as a means of transport. 



The name of improved roads was derivep 

 from the name brought into use from the con- 

 struction of turnpike roads under chartered 

 grants. These new roads were built by throw- 

 ing the ground to the centre, making that a point 

 from which the water running into a ditch on 

 either side is carried from the track, leaving the 

 pathway for the carriage and animals drawing 

 it high and dry. The people in the different 

 towns soon imitated this fashion of making 

 roads, and from that day the throwing up of a 

 road is called turnpiking. So great has been 

 the improvement, that in many cases of new 

 roads those recently constructed at the expense 

 of the towns and the people as free roads are 

 far superior to the most expensive turnpikes 

 made when the ambition and enterprise 

 wealthy men led them to that kind of improved 

 roads. We now find public roads instead of 

 taxed turnpike gates for the benefit of the tr... 

 eller far and near and especially for the benefit 

 of heavy loaded teams constructed to avoid the 



hills instead of crossing them directly we see 



hard gravel or pounded rocks used' to giv. 

 greater firmness and stability to the path— we 

 see inclined planes extended to le.«sen the ab- 

 ruptness of hills — hills dug away to avoid the 

 rise and fall — and turnpiking greatly iiiiprovei 

 in many places by a widened track. All these 

 improvements have been going on, by which 

 the expense and labor of U'ansport has been 

 lessened one half on many travelled roads. 



In passing to Horse-Hill in the north-westerly 

 extremity of Concord, we were struck with the 



fact that if not on our main street and n 



travelled road from north to south, the road 

 makers in the outskirts were already imitating 

 the process in some respects which has so much 

 lessened the power necessary for carrying wei"ht 

 from place to place by means of the level of rail 

 roads. In passing up the valley of Contoocook 

 which opens an avenue to a considerable exleii 

 of country at the west into the valley of the 

 Merrimack north of the Rattlesnake or Granite 

 ridge in Concord, Horse-Hill comes down m 

 to tiie river on the north side in an abrupt hill 

 which the travelled road cannot well avoid. We 

 pass a well constructed free bridge erected by 

 the town a few years ago: directly beyond the 

 bridge commences the hill. As the means of 

 continuing a nearly level road for many miles ' 

 the direction up the valleys of the Contoocook, 

 of Amesbury and Blackwater rivers, we found 

 our citizens at work on a deep excavation after 

 tlie fashion of the railroads to aid the travellers 

 and teams that may pass— not only the teams of 

 our own State but the heavy eight and ten ton 

 teams of Vermont — in the transport of their im- 

 mense loads, and to lend to lighter carriages the 

 pleasure of keeping up a continued rapid pace. 

 These increased facilities and improvements in 

 the means of travelling are among the evidences 

 of the public spirit which actuates the people of 

 this section of this country, and which has turn- 

 ed hard labor into a means of contributing to 

 social no less than to individual comfort and 

 convenience. 



The Contoocook river, bein^' the north line of 

 the town for some half a mile distance above its 

 mouth, leaving the Horse-Hill district of Con- 

 cord on its north side from the point above where 

 the line leaves the river, breaks through a ridge 

 of land of which Horse-Hill is a point on its 

 north shore, and falls betvveen that point and the 

 Merrimack about one hundred feet. Above 

 Horse-Hill is ail e.\tend3d valley in which the 

 waters of Contoocook, Amesbury or Warner and 

 the Blackwater streams all concentrate. The 

 main hrnncli of Contoocook has its sources on 



the Monadnock and within the limits of Massa- 

 cliusetts : the Warner river takes its rise within 

 lort distance of Sunajiec lake on the side of 

 the mountain of that name, and the Blackwater 

 es from all sides of the Kearsarge and the 

 south side of Ragged mountain a little north of 

 it. In this valley during the last fifty years im- 

 mense quantities of timber have been cut down, 

 manufactured in mills or rounded and hewed, 

 and taken down the Merrimack river. Since 

 the establishment of manufactures at Lowell the 

 amount of lumber floated down from this valley 

 has seemed to increase annually : niiich of it has 

 been manufactured into boards and planks at 

 the numerous mills upon the falls of all these 

 rivers. Some of the lall pines have been carried 

 down in masts of extended length: other rafts 

 have floated by us in the round logs, and the 

 manufactured lumber has included not only 

 boards, plank and joists, but vast quantities of 

 shingles and clapboards. The tall white and 

 Norway pines formerly grew upon this district, 

 and are still springing up in the forests wherever 

 they have a chance. Twenty-five years ago ic 

 used to be thought our valuable timber was 

 nearly exhausted, and that the remaining part 

 was worth little or nothing. Although the own- 

 ers have been since that time cutting and clear- 

 ing off every year, yet we are almost inclined 

 to venture the declaration that there is nearly as 

 much good pine timber standing on the ground 

 in the Merrimack river valley and the valleys of 

 its tributaries alone as there was at that time ; 

 and the intrinsic value of the standing trees is nt 

 least four for one. 



The white pine stands long in the ground 

 without decaying; antl when we look on the im- 

 mense stumps of trees which have been cut 

 down and carried off or burnt, and the logs, por- 

 tions of which have been left after they have 

 fallen to moulder and rot on the ground — when 

 we reflect of how little account this best and 

 most beautiful timber has been to its owners, 

 and how great would be its value if it had stood 

 to this time— we can scarcely avoid the unpleas- 

 ant sensation which accompanies unnecessary 

 destruction and waste. 



Our first call after leaving the Horse-Hill dis- 

 trict in Concord was upon a new farm recently 

 purchased by Col. Enoch Pillsbury, of Boscawon. 

 This farm a few years since was a forest of 

 white pines from which immense quantities of 

 timber had been taken. The white pine which 

 makes boards fit for the most perfect finish some- 

 times grows upon the rocky, side hills; but its 

 more frequent position is on the light yellow 

 ground of undulating surface, sometimes com- 

 posed of pebbles and coarse gravel, but tnore 

 frequently entirely free of both. The white pine 

 gro\vs always on a better and stronger soil than 

 the hard or yellow pine. (Jidy a few years ago 

 it was considered that manure and cultivation 

 would be thrown away upon cither while or 

 hard pine land. It will be found in the end that 

 much of this land is the most valuable we have 

 for constant cultivation. The new farm of Col. 

 Pillsbury is composed of this land. Upon it he 

 obtained at a former trial a jiremium for the best 

 crop of potatoes, and this crop on a different 

 field was now entered for our examination. If 

 on other farms larger and more luxuriant fields 

 of ]iotatoes shall have been discovered by the 

 committee, it will be on account of the opportu- 

 nity of better preparation. The crop of tea 

 wheat growing on this farm was good, showing 

 that on this land as well as upon tlie more ele- 

 vated hard wood land, that crop will be pro- 

 duced in great perfection in years like the pres- 

 ent. 



From tlie farm of Mr. Pillsbury we proceeded 

 to the neat little garden spot in the same town 

 of Mr. John C. Simpson, who shows in a very 

 small space what labor may do on very forbid- 

 ding ground. The contrast of land nearly in a 

 state of nature after exhaustion and of that whose 

 latent powers are brought into action by stimu- 

 lants which may be easily applied, is among 

 those incentives to exertion needed to raise the 

 occupation of farmers in New England. Mr. 

 Simpson had three small beds of onions, on 

 which he had suffered no depredators to effect 

 injuries that the same crop had felt in many in- 

 stances upon far better land ; and he had the 

 largest turnips which up to that time had been 

 exhibited for our view. His one rotund hog in 



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