September, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



139 



iiidepeiulent on bis own ground in the course of a 

 woll-diiecled life of industry. Next we came to 

 Joseph Genisli, lil<c his Boscawen nuniesukes 

 living at no very great distance, a man of wealth 

 and of a thousand acres, with a family of young 

 Gerrishes perhaps more numerous than either — 

 a great and a successful farmer, and like most 

 large farmers upon the river an extensive liiin- 

 herman. To those succeeded on the travelled 

 i-oad every one of whom has within liis own 

 grasp the means of competence and indepen- 

 dence, the hill farms of Messrs. Israel Cochran, 

 Israel Hodgdon, Thomas Lyford, Obadiah Hall, 

 William and John Forrest: these are all located 

 west of the stage road usually travelled from 

 Concoid on the east side of the Merrimack to 

 Sandbornton bridge which crosses the Winnipis- 

 seogee five miles above its mouth. 



East of the centre road to the distance of 

 about two miles on the north side of the Bean 

 hills winch divide Nortbfield and Canterbury, is 

 the farm of Col. James Cofran. This farm con- 

 sists cf 350 acres, 150 of which is wood and 

 timber land. High as are the dwelling-house 

 and other buildings upon the farm, it is surround- 

 ed by lands still higher. The farm was opened 

 from the forest by the tatlier of the present own- 

 er fifty-five years ago, and extends to the top and 

 over the south side of Bean's hill, one of those 

 prominences running at right angles from the 

 Merrimack river east and west, seen for a long 

 distance either up or down its valley. The high- 

 er cleared lands of Col. C's farm are so elevated 

 that it is hardly possible to cart manure to them, 

 althongli the crops come from them easily down 

 hill. These high swells in some cases are very 

 handsome, being less stony and more easily 

 ploughed than the ground below. One advan- 

 tage of their elevation is, that the frost will not 

 so soon touch them sometimes by a whole month 

 in the fall of the year. On a bea'utiful swell, half 

 a mile distant and several hundred feet above 

 the common cultivated parts of the farm. Col. C. 

 has a field which is sometimes used as a pasture, 

 from which lie procures successive crops of rye, 

 corn and potatoes without manure. Potatoes 

 raised upon this field never fail to be excellent — 

 they were never known to be affected by rust. 

 In the year 181G, when the corn crops were gen- 

 erally cut off by early frost throughout New 

 England, this ground presented a fine crop of 

 sound corn : it has yielded as high as sixty bush- 

 els of shelled corn to the acre. Good crops of 

 spring wheat, after corn or potato cultivation, 

 grow upon this land. A capital advantage which 

 the farm of Col. Cofran possesses is the numer- 

 ous living springs of water which gush out from 

 the hill sides, presenting an ojiportunity to over- 

 flow in the season when it may be most useful 

 many acres of natural mowing grounds. Of this 

 privilege the owuer of the farm has partially 

 availed himself: he might do it to a much great- 

 er extent and to good advantage. The most 

 forbidding aspect to the lands composing Col. 

 Cofran's farm and the neighborhood is the enor- 

 mous quantity of rocks found upon thetn : tins 

 inconvenience is perhaps more than repaid in 

 the great productiveness and din-ability of the 

 soil when the land is once cleared. The hill to 

 which no manure has been carried, alternating 

 into pasture and tillage, is still as fertile jterhaps 

 as it was fifty years ago. 



The cultivated crops upon Col. Cofran's farm 

 the present season were three acres of the Black 

 sea wheat, five acres of oats on the field « hicb 

 produces without manure, three acres of jiola- 

 toes, two and a half acres of Indian corn and 

 one half acre of beans. Two acres of wheat 

 first sown was fit for the sickle and was very 

 fine — one acre later sown was in full vigor, anil 

 would be good if it shoidd escape the rust. The 

 cut worm had very seriously injiu-ed the crop of 

 corn hero as it had done in many other places. 

 The first planting of beans on the lower point of 

 the farm, cut down by frost on the 6ih June, was 

 replaced, and promised a good crop. The hay 

 upon the farm was materially lessened the pres- 

 ent year by the failure of the grass seed sown 

 upon new ground the two previous seasons, and 

 by the destructive worms which on many thou- 

 sand acres, in this State have taken from one 

 "fourth to one third the crop. 



From his house Col. Cofran pointed us to his 

 neighbor Knowles' farm on a swell some mile 

 and a half distant who raises the greatest amount 



of wheat and other grain of any farmer in North- 

 field. From the residence of Col. Cofran, al- 

 though lower than the Bean hills at the south 

 which shut out the view of the state house and 

 village at Concord, may be overlooked on the 

 north a great portion of the extended town of 

 Sanbornton with its steeple spires and white 

 dwellings at the Square, and in clear weather is 

 distinctly seen Mount Washington, approaching 



nearest to the view when 



iper region is cov- 



ered with snow in the fall and spring while the 

 country below is bare ground. A pleasure which 

 cannot be realized in the immense extent of the 

 plains and prairies of the western country is de- 

 rived from our broken country of hills and moun- 

 tains : we view the points of land at the distance 

 of twenty, fifty and sometimes a hundred miles, 

 near which we lived in early youlh, or where 

 our friends and kindred reside, or where some 

 interesting event has occurred or is about to 

 take place ; and the association brings every 

 thing near to us : from one point to another we 

 can speak by telegraphic signals. We can see 

 the cloud, surcharged with lightning and uttering 

 forth its thunders, bursting over the habitations 

 of our friends from the distant mountain tops, 

 while a clear sky is over our heads and a placid 

 atmosphere surrounds us. 



The Committee at once found themselves at 

 home in the residence of Col. C. who, although 

 at an early hour, insisted on the preparations tor 

 a sumptuous dinner, invited by the welcome and 

 personal attentions of the lady of the house and 

 her daughter-in-law which were more gratifying 

 than the food itselt! 



From the farm of Col. Cofran the committee 

 proceeded in due form around the eastern ex- 

 tremity of the Bean hills near to the town of 

 Gilnianton which might be overlooked as sloping 

 into and constituting the valleys of the Soucook 

 and Simcook running from the mountains which 

 separate those waters from Lake Winnipisseogee 

 on the north. The first farm in Canterbury vis- 

 ited was that of Mr. Albeit Ames in the south- 

 east part of the town. His farm consists of 300 

 acres, of which 150 is pasture, some of which is 

 so rocky as apparently to leave little green upon 

 the surface. When these rocks do not cover 

 more than one third of the surface, the pastures 

 are said to be all the better, producing sweeter 

 feed and feeding more cattle through the season 

 than ground which has no rocks. Mr. Ames' 

 rocky pasture sustains well forty head of cattle, 

 being less than the rate of one for every four 

 acres. Mr. Daniel Batchelder, deceased, settled 

 upon and cleared this farm forty-five years ago; 

 and his widow, the mother of 3Irs. Ames, still 

 resides upon it. With the aid of one man, Mr. 

 A. performs the entire labor upon the fiiriu. His 

 field of one and a hall' acre of Indian corn was 

 very stout upon the ground, promising as much 

 as double the quantity of land on some other 

 farms. The practice is becoming conuuon of 

 well preparing a small quantity of ground for a 

 corn ciO[)— mixing and ploughing in a larger 

 quanlity of manure, say thirty, forty and some- 

 times fifty loads to the acre— going to the extent 

 after manure has been spread and mixed with 

 the entire surface soil of placing a quick stimu- 

 lant in the corn hill, and applying ashes and 

 plaster after the corn has sprung trom the ground. 

 One acre of land thus prepared and carefully 

 attended will often produce the crop of four or- 

 dinary acres. The entire crop will sometimes 

 Ik; saved from destructive (rosts by the impetus 

 which artificial stimulants lend to tiie more rapid 

 process of vegetati<in. Every subsequent crop 

 for at least half a dozen years feels the salutary 

 effects of the labor and exjiense bestowed ujion 

 it in the year of the corn crop. The first season 

 gives a double and perhaps a treble crop of 

 wheat or other grain ; and the hay crop of suc- 

 ceeding years greatly increased pays over and 

 over for the pains and care and money bestowed 

 upon this land. The intrinsic value of the land, 

 from a .single year of such perlect operation.s, is 

 often increased four-fold. Mr. Ames' corn was 

 planted May 15 : it was a mixture of the Brown 

 and the Dutton corn, and the seed was brought 

 from the Winnijiisseogee island fiirms, in whose 

 seed corn there can be no mistake when pro|ier- 

 ly saved and preserved. Mr. Ames had four 

 acres of Black sea wheat, sowed about the 7lli of 

 May, which promised well. In Noi-thfield, Can- 

 terbury and (.oudnn the crojis of wheat are 



much relied on : they have in many cases proved 

 within the last six years to be the most profitable 

 cultivation. Mr. Ames raises ruta baga and car- 

 rots tor winter feed for his cattle. The best po- 

 tatoes are usually raised on newly broken up 

 pasture without manure : of these he had about 

 two acres. 



From ftlr. Ames' farm our course of travel 

 was directly back about two miles and on the 

 road to Concord by way of the Shakers to the 

 farm of the Hon. Amos Cogswell, who entered 

 his crops for premium. Without disparagement 

 to any other man, we give this gentleman credit 

 of e.xceeding every other (armer of the county 

 for the neatness and cleanliness of his fields. 

 This gentleman, like his neighbor Cofran on the 

 opposite side of Bean's hill, has proved himself 

 to be both a good legislator and farmer — the lat- 

 ter by no means less important than the former. 

 Mr. Cogswell's farm is situated on the high 

 ground in Canterbury about one mile north of 

 the Shakers, in whose good example we dare be 

 bound he may find the spur to much of his im- 

 provement. It consists of one hundred aiires, 

 and was settled during the war of the revolution 

 by his father Moses Cogswell, one of a highly 

 distinguished fiimily in New Hampshire of fif- 

 teen sons and four daughters from one mother, 

 of whom the late Hon. Thomas Cogswell of 

 Gilmanton and Amos Cogswell of Dover, Dr. 

 William Cogswell of Atkinson, and John Cogs- 

 well, Esq. of Landaff, were brothers, and the 

 mother of the Hon. VVitliam Badger was we be- 

 lieve a sister. Moses Cogswell left his farm to 

 fight the battles of the revolution: he was taken 

 by the British and kept as a prisoner from the 

 month of February to the month of August. In 

 that time his crop of winter grain sowed the pre- 

 vious fall was rea))ed and preserved by his friend 

 Deac. Foster, the fiither of the late Hon. Abiel 

 Foster who w,as among the first representatives 

 ill Congress from this State under the iiresent 

 constitution. 



To slovenly and careless farmers we would 

 recommend the viewing of this farm of Mr. 

 Cogswell, who has performed for years a large 

 part of the labor with his own hands. When 

 the hill farms were first cleared, a portion of the 

 immense growth of wood cut down was com- 

 monly converted into log fence. This log fence 

 was thrown along generally in no direct line 

 where it could be most easi'l^ made. In a few 

 years as the logs decayed briers and bushes 

 would spring up and the fence would become an 

 almost impervious hedge into which stumps and 

 rocks would be thrown. If .vtone walls were 

 erected to supply the place of other fences, ihev 

 were generally made with little rcgiud to direct- 

 ness, or economy of land, or coincliness of ap- 

 pearance. Mr. Cogswell has found the means of 

 disposing of the surplus rocks, by straightening 

 and strengthening his walls, and"ha» converted 

 tiseless liedges into liie best part of his cultivated 

 fields. Not a bush or a biior is left uilliin his 

 enclosures: his clean ciillivuiioii extends to the 

 very edge of the enclosure. All is enclosed in 

 permanent stone fence laid in the ground lievond 

 the lieaving of frost. No piled 'rocks are" left 

 tilioii the ground— all is smooth and eaisy of cul- 

 tivation. Large rocks which came up to the 

 surface and could not be extracted were covered 

 with a surface of soil ; and upon tiieni, where 

 the soil was hardly a foot deep, a crop of wheat 

 had grown and was nearly ripe. The culti- 

 vated part of Mr. Cogswe'll'a ground exhibit- 

 ing this neatness and care, consisted of only 

 about twenty- five acres: independent of this was 

 a swamp meadow, such as this vear has had its 

 hay crop injured by too great abundance of rain 

 and water. Occasionally he clears a spot and 

 rai.ses rye in a distant riasture and woodlot upon 

 the side of the Bean hill. In all re.-pccls his 

 farm bespeaks the good husband, extending im- 

 provement each year. 'J'he main improvement 

 of the present year was the employment of rainy 

 weather in constructing a sloned cellar under the 

 cattle stalls of his barii with the view of saving 

 and preserving the whole .■strength of the manure 

 which fails from his cattle. 



(To be coiUiw.ieJ.) 



i 



lie who has done the world no good, may feel 

 assured that he has done '» harrn ■ li?it ihnt Im lif>u 



done it h , ... 



done it no good 



...... V,.....; it harm ; but that he has 



not always a (iroof that he has 



