September, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



137 



clean apai-tinents, whose house as the place of 

 coinfoit was tar more eligible than that of'tei) 

 occupied by human beings, showed us the great- 

 er economy of small means and a better person- 

 al attention. 



Going on from this jioint, our next advance 

 and call was upon the home farm of Col. John 



the southern declivity of Cor 



Kilburn 



hill on which stands the congregational church 

 of West Boscawen. IMr. Kilburn, as a member 

 ot oin- committee, showed us his farm, not en- 

 tered for premium, at our request. The home 

 farm consists of about one hundred acres, be- 

 sides which he has several out farms in an(l out 

 of town requiring his personal superintendence 

 and labor. This farm lies over one of those 

 beautiful clear and smooth swells of ground so 

 often to be found in West Boscawen. Mr. Kil- 

 burn's cultivated crops were this year six acres 

 of winter rye, four acres of oats, two and a half 

 acres of tea wheat, and three or four acres of 

 Indian corn : the work of preparing with the 

 plough and hoeing this ground, and of mowing 

 and curing hay for a large stock of cattle, was 

 done without much ado by this gentleman and 

 the helj) of little more than one of liis niiiior 

 sons. It will not be surprising that with the aid 

 of pine timbered lots and teams kept in winter 

 employment, industry and i)erseverance such us 

 he exhibits should enable such a man to pur- 

 chase and own several farms from the gain of 

 one farm. 



Next our c;ill was upon Mr. Frederick Coffin, 

 who this year had chosen a better part from 

 among the accomplished daughters of the inde- 

 pendent farmers of Derry, whose sons and 

 daughters both have had ever since its first set- 

 tlement better opportunities for education than 

 almost any other town of New Hampshire. In 

 the same time he has left his father's house and 

 instead of going to the far west for a more fruit- 

 ful and inviting soil, with his father's aid, at the 

 jirice of $9700 has purchased one of the old 

 fiirms in his own neighborhood. The home lot 

 of this farm consisted of 75 acres — in addition 

 to which at no very great distance was a wood 

 lot of 45 acres, and a 65 acre lot princiijally 

 l)asture. Mr. Coffin's cultivation was 2i acres 

 ot corn, 24 oats, 3? acres of wheat, and 3 

 acres of potatoes. His hay crop sufficient tor 

 twenty head of cattle besides horses and sheep, 

 was the product of some thirty or forty acres. 

 Tl»e land bore evidence of some exhaustion un- 

 der its fortner owners, although its ample stone 

 walls and its tidy bars and gates indicated the 

 neatness and system of its culture. Mr. Cotfin 

 upon this grom'ul exhibited an exceedingly clean 

 and neat field of wheat, half of the kind called 

 tea wheat, and half of the Black sea siiecies, 

 which has now become the common wheat 

 raised in this cuiiiity — his corn field and potato 

 grounds also discovered the work of the diligent 

 hand. Although to appearance of a feeble con- 

 stitution, Mr. Cofiin was doing tiie work iijion 

 this farm with the addition only of a minor at 

 the age of 16 or 18 years. He is determined to 

 put a new face upon it; and if he does no more 

 than has been done iipon the farm of his tallier 

 upon which he was l)rought u[), he will in the 

 space of a very few years inake it twice as pro- 

 ductive as it now is, with the means at hand for 

 its improvement. This farm is higher upon the 

 swell and near to the beautiful village on Corser 

 hill which surrounds the west meeting-house of 

 this town, famous for its improved cattle, for the 

 industry and thrift of its farmers, and the intelli- 

 gence and accomplishments of their well edu- 

 cated daughters. In view of some of the Bos- 

 cawen farmers, we should say that one young 

 man there upon his own faim performs twice 

 the labor and brings about double what is done 

 by some decent hired men upon f urns in other 

 towns. Such a community cannot well help be- 

 coming possessed of abundant means for siip- 

 ]>lying every want of life. The farm of Mr. 

 Coffin was first cleared and owned by Mr. David 

 Corser, who probably gave to this elegant swell 

 of land fronting and looking down upon a pond 

 and meadows to the east of some two miles in 

 extent the name of Corser Hill, and was more 

 recently the estate of the late Deac. James Kil- 

 burn. 



Turning our course, after leaving this farm, at 

 the meeting-house in an eastwardly direction 

 towards Merrimack river, our next entry was 



the crops upon the farm of Col. David Kimball 

 and Son : this farm consists of 180 acres, and 

 corners upon Water street, a road running north 

 and south over an elevation which nearly ui)on 

 a level gradually falls away so as to give it the 

 appearance of a hill. >5ome of this elevation is 

 so flat as to retain too much moisture in the 

 wet season. Much of it might be easily drain- 

 ed : as it is, upon it are several well cultivated 

 and improving farms. Col. Kimball's farm up- 

 on this elevation fares the north and runs down 

 towai-ds the bottom of the hill. Mr. Kimball's 

 cultivated ground has this year suffered from the 

 extreme wet. Like almost every other good 

 farmer in the county, his crop of English bay is 

 this year much diminished by the fiiilure of the 

 grass seed sown in the two last years. On this 

 account he has ploughed and sowed fbr a sec- 

 ond time his ground intended for a crop of hay. 

 He had a fine growth of 2.J acres of wheat and 

 2J acres of oats on land previously laid down 

 where the clover and herdsgrass had failed. 

 He had a very heavy crop of Black sea wheat 

 2 acres and more, sowed on the 25th April ; and 

 2 acres of heavy oats near it. His wheat and 

 oats on the sward land, although not as large, 

 were very good. Two acres of corn on rather 

 dam[) and cold ground declining to the north, 

 had encountered the exterminating hostility of 

 the cut worm : still these Boscawen farmers had 

 contrived to introduce other crops to fill up the 

 vacant spaces. 



Mr. Kimball raised upon this farm some years 

 ago the largest yoke of oxen probably ever pro- 

 duced in the county of Merrimack. Although 

 not so neat in his fields as some of his neigh- 

 bors, he justly claims credit for having been lor 

 many years a good and a successful farmer. 



Almost next neighbor to the Messrs. Kimball's 

 the committee were called to the farm of Laban 

 M. Chadwick, Esq., a young man who is always 

 found diligent at home as he is intelligent and use- 

 ful in his associations abroad. Three years jirevi- 

 011? we had visited a splendid wheat-field of this 

 farm upon which a tornado and hail-storm had 

 done a work of destruction. Mr. Chadwick's 

 farm comprises IJO acres. He showed us 2 

 acres of Black sea wlieat standing very hand- 

 some upon the groimd sown upon the 20tl 

 May : this Black sea wheat, remarkable for its 

 hardiness, being as little liable to rust as oats, 

 on high ground is frequently sown late, when it 

 more completely avoids the ravages of the we- 

 vil. Mr. C. had also two acres of corn flourish- 

 ing and forward in a clean and neat field. As 

 do many of the highland farmers, Mr. Chadwick 

 raises his potatoes without manure in ne«ly- 

 broken up pasture fields. A very fine jiair of 

 oxen and two or three cows were all of the cat- 

 tle kind in his keeping: be bad found a certain 

 income in a pretty extended flock of fine wooled 

 sheep. One hundreil and sixty-five fleeces, too 

 thoroughly cleansed to go along with the fine 

 Smyrna fleeces covered and filled in with dirt to 

 avoid the duties, were carefully deposited in an 

 out-house, awaiting the time, which we hope 

 soon will arrive, whi-n woolen manufactures 

 shall be so encouraged as will enable the factory 

 owners to pay fifty cents a pound fbr the raw 

 material. 



North of Mr. Chadwick's half a mile on Water 

 street upon the southern declivity of the same 

 swell of ground, is the elegant firm of Mr. 

 Enoch Coffin. The father aiid late owner of 

 this fiirm who had recently assisted one son to 

 the purchase of the Corser farm, has settled and 

 given to the charge of another this ancient farn), 

 upon which the iiithei- of the elder Coffin pitch- 

 ed and settled seventy-five years ago. This farm 

 is easier of cultivation and the soil much more 

 friable than the farms upon the level and north- 

 ern declivity of the s:une elevation. The fields 

 are fruitful in the prodiiciion of hay— the crops 

 of wheat and other siii::ll gi-ains were luxuriant, 

 clean and elegant, standing upon the grouiul. 

 Constant enterprise and labor of both father and 

 sons had spread ar ii:nd the premise.'', the large 

 anil well finished house, the ample barns and 

 oirt-houses, the efficient ft'nces and convenient 

 gateways, and over the ahniiilant field crop?, the 

 air of comfort, contenlinent and cotnpctence, 

 such as this world no where furnishes in a man- 

 ner so striking and so welcome as on the spot 

 where there can be no doubt as to the just meth- 

 od of their attainment. 



Mr. Coffin entered for the view of the com- 

 mittee a field of one acre and a half of very 

 heavy and very thrifty corn — about as much up- 

 on the ground as the ground would bear. This 

 corn was planted upon broken-up sward land, 

 on which was first spread and harrowed in thirty 

 five loads of coarse barn-yard manure : after- 

 wards ten loads of fine manure were deposited 

 in hills planted about three and a half feet apart 



Mr. Coffin's garden was very fine for a com- 

 mon farmer's garden: in it were growing various 

 fruit trees — among which were peach and plum 

 trees hanging full. 



Near and adjoining his corn and hay field in 

 lower ground was a wood and timber lot of the 

 original growth, the preservation of whose 

 trees had made it more valuable than the best 

 cultivated grounds. For the use of the bridges 

 constructing over the Merrimack, below this 

 point on the Concord railroad, Mr. Coffin had 

 supplied ten pine trees taken from this lot, for 

 which he was paid, after assisting only to draw 

 them out of the woods, the sum of two hundred 

 dollars, or twenty dollars a tree. 



Our day's work was this day completed by 

 our arrival at the hospitable abode of Col. Na- 

 than P. Ames, of Boscawen, on the ridge of 

 highland overlooking the coimtry both east and 

 west — Red hill. Sandwich, Ossipee and Gunstock 

 appearing on the one hand, and Monadnock, 

 Sunapee and Kearsarge on tlie other. The fa- 

 ther and the two sons, of whom Col. A. nloiie 

 at this time has a wife, reside in the same family 

 and participate in the joint labor and ownership 

 of this farm, which contains 275 acres and ex- 

 tends nearly one mile east and half a mile west 

 of the fourth New Hampshire turnpike in nearly 

 an oblong stpiare. 



Col. Ames' first item of exhibition was a field 

 of four and a half acres of spring wheat — luilf 

 Black sea and half tea wheat. It stood very 

 handsome upon the ground, nearly four feet ii'i A 



height, liee tioni rust and the fly, and prom'sed fK 



a production of twenty-five to thirty bushels to 

 the acie. A portion of this wheat-field, prepar- 

 ed by a previous corn and potato cro|) uith the 



sent year, was more vigorous than the rest ; and 

 this the elder Mr. Ames attributed to ilio cover- 

 ing and ploughing in of potato vines left on the 

 ground the ])revious fiill. 



fllr. Ames the elder has made from a roush 

 and hard smfiice a valuable and productive 

 firm ; and the sons seem fully to have ijidiibed 

 the spirit, and [n-ofited by the instructions and 

 exanqile of the father. We know of no njan 

 who has a better rigljt to look upon his own ef- 

 forts with complacency and even pride llian he? 

 who fifty or sixty years ago pitched down in ilie 

 woods, raisiiig his means, little at first, to conj- •» 



petenci' and independence, and who at the same 

 time rears up a fiunily of sons and djuiglirers a'l 

 capable with their own minds anil iheir own 

 l)hysical energies to fill the places of those who 

 have gone lnMbre them. The elder Mr. Ames, 

 in his own house deprived ol' ili.' >.-,irc of Ms 

 youth, finds the fire-side, diiinf slir injoMiierit 



partner of a son; and the yunnger coiqilc as- 

 sume the responsibilities and the cares which 

 were the life and pride of the elder until one of 

 them left the other solitary. 



The farm, in its smooth fields divested of ma- 

 ny thousand tons of rocks — in its wide jiartition 

 walls — in its drainage of wet morasses — its has- 

 socks exterjiiinated — its highly improved and 

 ingenious sheep pen with stone floor iipon the 

 ground — its fields not now less prodni'tive than 

 they were fifty years ago, during which time 

 they have continued to" produce their annual 

 crofis— is that best estate which in New England 

 never will tail to give support and indeiiendence 

 to every industrious family. Among its other 

 improvements, was a sugar maple orchard which 

 gives several hundred pounds of that article an- 

 nually, the trees of which had sprung up and 

 grown within the recollection of the elder ]iro- 

 prielor. 



Mr. Ames for several years has kept a tavern 

 midway between Boscawen plain and South 

 road village in Salisbury: the stable has fiirnish- 

 ed the means of keeping his hay fields in a 

 higher state of production than those of some of 

 his neighboiF. But he says he loses more hv 



