138 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY \^ISITOR 



September, 1842 



the close fall-feediiifr of liis mowing grounds 

 which drovers forced on him, than he gained by 

 the additional manure wiiich the tavern custom 

 afforded from his stables— so that he was glad 

 to dispense with the tavern for the benefit of the 

 farm. 



Our first remove from Col. Ames' after the 

 gratuitous entertainment with the best that his 

 house afforded including supper and breakfast 

 and the care of the animals on whose strength 

 we depended for locomotion, was from the high- 

 er turnpike to the road upon the river, up which 

 bv the two Gerrish farms and the large iulervale 

 ijirm of Capt. Henry Burleish and the seat late 

 of the Hon. Thomas W. Thompson, now the 

 residence of P.uker Noyes, Esq. in Franklin, to 

 the old tavern stand long kept upon the river 

 road in Salisbury by the late Judge Webster, 

 father of Ezekiel and Daniel W'ebster, both of 

 whom and especially the latter as having longest 

 survived are well known to fame as lawyers and 

 statesmen who hailed originally from tlie Gran- 

 ite State. 



The Webster farm comprises nearly all the 

 land which was originally the farm of Judge 

 Webster. It has never passed from the family. 

 Ezekiel Webster owned it at first : it was after- 

 wards purchased by his brother Daniel, who 

 continues to be its proprietor. Mr. John Taylor, 

 jun. who cultivates this fiu-m on shares, desired 

 the committee to examine a field of two acres 

 of potatoes which up to that titne had been cul- 

 tivated without the aid of a hoc, being planted 

 and covercil by the iiiseiiicms IVnnsylvaiiia ma- 

 chine of which iMr. Ihilc of I'^raiiklia is the pro- 

 prietor in this state, anil llir placi' of two hoe- 

 inga having been supplu-d by iheiisoofthe same 

 implement. The machine bad not done all the 

 work of the hand and the hoe — for there were 

 weeds there, but not more than were to be dis- 

 covered in some lioed fields. iMr. Hale's ma- 

 chine bad saved on this ground many days' 

 work. 



Mr. Taylor, in the spirit of true Yankee econ- 

 omy, was cultivating this extensive farm with 

 very little help. In one body was nearly one 

 hundred acres of the best intervale upon the 

 Merrimack. On this there were twenty acres 

 of oats, fifteen acres of Indian corn and from 

 fifty to seventy acres of mowing, giving general- 

 ly about one hundred tons of li;iy. Of the hay 

 ground fifteen acres was originally a pond or 

 morass, which was made productive some twen- 

 ty years ago while owned by the late Ezekiel 

 Webster, by filling into the water and black 

 mud several thousand loads of pine sand which 

 was found in a bank at no very gi oat distance: 

 this land, with no great additional labor, has year 

 after year since the filling, given from two to 

 three tons of excellent hay to the acre. 



Mr. Webster, the |)resent owner, has caused a 

 capacious barn, 80 feet by ."SO on the ground with 

 18 feet posts, to be erected on these premises: 

 this barn, which shows lis a beniuifiil building 

 of the kind on tlio exterior, is loo heavily tim- 

 bered in the interior for conveiiiiMice, and to ap- 

 pearance much more than could be necessary 

 for strength. The limber of two or three forty 

 foot barns might be taken from if, and leave it 

 perhaps b;*lter adapted to all the purposes of 

 such a building than it now is. It is due to Mr. 

 Webster tn suy tliat this barn was not of his own 

 lil.inniii-. The tinilier was taken from his pre- 

 mises where it was found in abundance; and it 

 was perhaps thought to be more in character of 

 the absent statesman and politician to build him 

 a barn that should cost S1.500 or §2000 than one 

 that might have answered a purpose equally val- 

 uable which should not cost over §500. 



Mr. Webster has added to the original farm 

 within a few years a valuable hill pasture of 

 about three hundred arrns. The size or the style 

 of the house, which is an uiui-ht .-quare roof of 

 two story, about 30 by -10 feet on the ground, has 

 not been changed since it was owned by its pre- 

 sent disiiiiguished proprietor: ]>erhaps the an- 

 cient windows may have been changed, the six 

 by seven, (nr Uie eight by ten glass, "and a coat 

 of new paint keeps the old outside in preserva- 

 tion. The tenant of the farm resides in a part 

 of this house: two rooms are occupied by a li- 

 brary, bedding and furniture for the convenience 

 of the owner, whenever he should visit the 

 scene of his earlier years, which he has not 

 found occasion to do during the Uist two years. 



Although this farm is better used than it might 

 be in the hands of some tenants, it is not as well 

 used as it would be if its owner were present 

 and consulted that taste for improvement in ag- 

 riculture which he is known to entertain. When 

 absent in Europe about three years since, Mr. 

 Webster, on his own expense, introduced a great 

 variety of seeds, especially the different kinds of 

 grains, grasses, and garden vegetables common 

 there, into thi.s country. Some of these have 

 been valuable. Among the animals he introduc- 

 ed was a noble buck of the Leicester breed, 

 which he sent up to tliis farm, and which has 

 been freely ofteied for the use of the sheep 

 growers of the neighborhood. From three to 

 five hundred sheep and from twenty to forty 

 horned cattle have usually been kept upon this 

 farm : to the latter Mr. W. has often sent breed- 

 ers of the Durham and other English stock, 

 which have essentially contributed to improve 

 the native cattle of that neighborhood. 



The Secretary of State has a farm at Marsh- 

 field on the south or Cape Cod shore of Massa- 

 chusetts comprising over one thousand acres. 

 Of this farm he seems to be more fond than of 

 that which he has retained for the name of his 

 venerated ancestor and the place of his nativity. 

 Possibly he enjoys better his dog and his gun 

 and his fishing 'tackle in a region where the 

 ocean furnishes game in abundance than in this 

 settled country of the interior where the fish and 

 the fowl find the means only of a scanty sub- 

 sistence. The Webster farm, however, contin- 

 ues to be what it has been for nearly a century, 

 one of the most interesting spots in New Eng- 

 land. 



From this point- the coinmiuefi proceeded 

 something like one mile up the river to the tav- 

 ern of Mr. Joshua L. Wcare, of Franklin. Mr. 

 W. has no farm ; but being bred on the .south 

 side of Ragged mountain among the farmers of 

 Andover, some of the best in the county, it was 

 not possible he should conceal the purposes of 

 his early education so long as he bad a spot on 

 his premises large enough for a garden. His 

 onion bed was sixteen feet by eighty ; and de- 

 spite of worms and a dry arid bed of sand on 

 which his garden was made, he had at that time 

 a little the best onions the committee had yet 

 seen. The cut worms so prevalent the past sea- 

 son bad begun the work of destruction at one 

 end of the onion bed ; but the chickens of a 

 bustling hen lastened in her crib having free ac- 

 cess to the bed speedily put a slop to the work 

 of the incendiaries. Mr. Wcare, by an ingenious 

 contrivance, at pleasure turned the water from 

 bis well with very little labor to every part of his 

 garden which fell its effects in the giant growth 

 of vegetation, cabbages, cucumbers, beet.s, peas, 

 &,c. 



Generally, the land upon the Merrimack rising 

 above the lower intervale bottom is of a light 

 silicioiis soil: until of late years cultivation upon 

 these light lands has hardly been attempted. It 

 is however found that much of these light plain 

 lands may be cultivated to advantage. The 

 growth of the white pine indicates a clay sub- 

 soil; and this ground becomes more and more 

 productive as it is deeper ploughed and oftener 

 cultivated. Plaster and clover have a grand ef- 

 feet upon this land : so do ashes — leached ashes, 

 for a lasting clfect of rendering the sandy soil more 

 retentive both in holding manure and moisture, 

 are almost as valuable as ashes unleached. The 

 latter will undoubtedly be more felt the same 

 year tlioy are applied. Lime in comjiost has a 

 grand effect upon this sandy land, changing the 

 color and making harder the blowing sand. 



Two miles above the Webster liirm is the 

 principal village of Franklin, at the confluence 

 of the Peinigewasset and the Winnipisseogee 

 branches v.hich united constitute the Merrimack 

 river below this point : over the Pemigewasset 

 just above the meeting of the rivers has lately 

 been thrown one of the neatest and most dura- 

 ble bridges in the whole distance of the river. 

 At the point of land on the east side of this 

 bridge round which comes in the clear and [lel- 

 lu?id waters flowing from the Winnipisseogee 

 lake and bays above, on an abrupt bluff is the 

 little farm consisting of about seventeen acres 

 on which is a very neat brick house, barn and 

 other out-houses, the residence of George W. 

 Nesmitli, Esq. This plat of seventeou acres is 

 the second or higher plain level above the lower 



river alluvion which ranges at the same relative 

 height up and down the river for miles, and is 

 of the lighter pine plain soil. In a very few 

 years, by the setting out of trees and shrubbery, 

 by the la\ ing out of yards and garden grounds, 

 and above all by a generous and attentive culti- 

 vation of the greater part in the common farm 

 crops, Mr. Nesmith has contrived not only to 

 make this a most inviting sjiot to the eye, but 

 gets from it as much value in the crop as is 

 sometimes obtained from farms four times as 

 large. 



Mr. Nesmitli had upon tins ground about four 

 acres of wheat whicli tliis year gave between 

 seventy and eighty liiisli.ls— three and a half 

 acres of corn, one acre of which was very heavy, 

 and one acre of oats. Although this land, natu- 

 rally of the lightest sandy soil, v\ as not natural 

 to hay — yet some portion of it recently laid down 

 [iroduced good herdsgrass and clover. The 

 ground sowed to wheat and oats was sending 

 out green clover sown the present year, which 

 without doubt in a few weeks of moist weather 

 following our visit will cover the ground in the 

 place of unsightly sorrel, bitter root and other 

 weeds. 



The garden of Mr. Nesmith was a standing 

 proof that the poorest soil is as good under sci- 

 entific management and due attention and jierse- 

 verauce, as the very best There can be no dan- 

 ger of leaching this sandy soil when the proper 

 ajiplication shall be made to the surface impart- 

 ing strength and tenacity to the porous earth — for 

 it will be found that clear sand may be convert- 

 ed into productive vegetable mould with a change 

 of Isss than ten per cent, and that the strength 

 of manure afterwards applied will never leach 

 below this mould, be the under soil ever so open 

 and porous. Mr. Nesmith had very large and 

 green beets, carrots, ruta baga and common tur- 

 nips in his garden. The ornamental part of the 

 gardens and yards, said to be the work of the 

 fair hand left to guard the castle in the absence 

 of the husband, so mingled the beautiful with 

 the useful as to present a most gratifying coup iT 

 ail. 



Mr. N. has expended something, although no 

 very great sum, for manure upon this spot. Of 

 this manure a few casks of lime have been used. 

 His young son informed us that some manure 

 was brought lust year from the tavern stable at 

 the village, but that this year no manure had 

 been bought. There was a inamifactory of ma- 

 nure by the hogs in the yard ; and the premises 

 were already producing in hay, straw, corn, 

 beets and other vegetable productions what, if 

 consumed on the place, would, with the aid of 

 compost manure making in the yards, forever 

 keep the sairie land in an improving condition. 



Mr. Nesmith's place is in that part of Franklin 

 which was taken from the peninsula of Sand- 

 br)rnton. This town, formerly of greater extent 

 than almost any other town of the State, is on 

 three sides hemmed in by waters — by the bays 

 on the <'a.st, the Winnipisseogee river on. the 

 south, and the Pemigewasset river on the west. 

 Near its northern boundary extending from west 

 to east are mountains of higher elevation than 

 any other on the river below, so that the town 

 beibre its south-west corner was set off to Frank- 

 lin was nearly isolated. Just above Mr. Nes- 

 initli's position upon the Winnipisseogee are 

 luanufactnres and mills of various kind, for 

 whose use the waters of the river are admirably 

 adapted. Peabody and Daniell's paper mill with 

 its grand machine here grinds the rags and turns 

 out three-fourths of a ton of finished paper, such 

 as that of our Visitor and Patriot, in every twen- 

 ty-four hours. To this mill rags have been 

 brought from Concord, a distance of twenty 

 miles, manufactured into paper, and returned to 

 he printed in the space of twenty-four hours. 



Uur course did not carry us off the river in 

 Franklin on the peninsula side, else we might 

 have the opportunity of describing the farms on 

 higher ground in that direction. Sandhornton, 

 besides its excellent farms, upon its hundred 

 hills and mountains aftbrds summer feed for 

 many hundreds of cattle and thousands of sheep 

 which do not belong to her own citizens. 



Crossing the Winnipisseogee at the mill village 

 nearest its mouth, our course was diagonally 

 over the town of Norlhfield from the nortli-nest 

 to the south-east. First was the residence of Mr. 

 Simon Oilman, a man who has made himself 



