November, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



171 



deep with the |)Iough for the action of tlie frost 

 — tlie (fisposing of manure in convenient piles, 

 secnring its wastage from the rains and exposure 

 previous to covering it in the ground — and the 

 replacing in the harn-yards the muck and peat 

 am! other materials for adding to the quantity 

 and qiiiility of manure for another year. 



'I'he example of Judge Hayes and otlier ama- 

 teur farmers is hecoming extensively felt through 

 the lower or seaboard region of the county of 

 York. The upper or Os.-:ipee towns upon either 

 Iiand of that hranch and the Saco river itself 

 have for several years been improving their ag- 

 riculture. Lumbering was for many years the 

 business of the county of York : millions of pine 

 lumber have been taken from it ; but out of it 

 brought little benefit to the county. Individuals 

 abroad profited by it. The Lj^iian family gain- 

 ed their first wealth from the eajly traffic in 

 lumber. Individuals at Saco for a space of time 

 held the greater part of the laboring population 

 tributary to them ; but miserable were the effects 

 of the lumber trade upon that population. The 

 "sin which most easily beset them" was the 

 Bp|)etite for that greatest enemy to the first set- 

 tlers of this country, which has not only made 

 thousands mi.«erable in lite, but carried liiem to 

 a [iremature grave. The preparation of lumber 

 — the logging to the river baid<— the rafting upon 

 the ponds and rivers — e.\|)osure to the cold and 

 wet — coidd not be encountered without the ha- 

 bitual use of ardent spirits: this habit, followed 

 by all, was by few considered disgraceful. A 

 youth disguised in liquor was looked upon as no 

 less promising than he who never put poison to 

 his lips: the most enterprising frequently first 

 became the habitual drunkard. The consequen- 

 ces of this state ot things, which was not pe- 

 culiar to York county but existed in all places 

 of early lumbering as well a.9 in many of the 

 new settlements, were the prostration of the t)ub- 

 lic morals — much time was spent in worse than 

 idleness in grog-shops: intemperance soon allied 

 itself to poverty ; and the excessive drinking of 

 one half the year brought poverty and starvation 

 as the inheritance of the other half. Near the 

 coast the fisheries were pursued with similar 

 inducements to irregular life and intemperance, 

 so that independence and the means of comfort- 

 able subsistence were not realized by the larger 

 share of the population. 



For many years it was considered that the 

 land of the Slate of Maine, judging of the rest 

 by that upon the seaboard, could never be valu- 

 able but for timber and wood. The lower part 

 of York county, consisting of extensive pine 

 ])lains with only a slight surface of vegetable 

 mould, favored the general opinion. Up to the 

 year 1825 it was believed that Indian corn could 

 not be relied on as a crop in Saco. In Kittery, 

 York and all along the seaboard to the bound; 

 of ('umberland, the coast is rock bound, and 

 most of the land is of a hard and forbiddin;^ 

 surface with a face of apparent adamant. Of 

 late, on much of this hard land cidtivatic 

 been commenced ; and when the soil has been 

 once penetrated it is found to be as valuable as 

 the best alluvion. To the fertilily of this ground 

 abundance of the materials from the ocean are 

 made to contribute. In York and Wells the 

 work has been begun in the most favored spots. 

 We were gratified to see fields broken up ti-om 

 the sward with the ground completely inverted 

 and shut down to a perfect level. Piles of rock 

 and seaweed and muscle shells are laid out for 

 the benefit of the next year. A general practice 

 of spreading compost and marine njanures upon 

 grass lands has been adopted in some neighbor- 

 hoods. 



The work of renovation begun in some parts 

 of York county — the success which has attended 

 the efforts of the juarket farmers in Elliot and 

 the great amateur at South Berwick, is extending 

 the work of improvement farther eastward in 

 this county. We have little doubt that in the 

 vicinity of the plains of York rich materials 

 under "ground aboimd which are exactly adapted 

 to the wants of the soil : the excavations for the 

 rail road will in all probability ex|)ose portions 

 of clay-marl and ether agricultural riches just 

 such as are requisite to the highest production of 

 that soil. 



Near the villages improvement has already 

 commenced at various points. Drainage and the 

 mixture of sands with deep ploughing and ex- 



posure to the winter frost in the heavy clay soils 

 — mixing of clay and black mould with deep 

 ploughing in sandy soils — will accomplish the 

 desired purpo.se. Both heavy and light lauds 

 thus prepared with moderate and uniform appli- 

 cations of manure may be made all that the 

 farmer shall desire them to be. 



Ill Kennebunk two years ago Barnabas Palm- 

 er, Esq., had comtnenced upon a farm near the 

 village which had been neglected and worn out; 

 he had then done much in a short space of time. 

 His hedge row of nearly a tiiile in length, being 

 the first experiment of the kind to any extent, up 

 to that time had well succeeded. It was of the 

 common buck-thorn, of which he presented some 

 account in the first volume of the Monthly Vis- 

 itor. We ho])e he may have persevered in this 

 experiment and found that complete success 

 which will prove that farmers u\>oi\ plain lands 

 destitute of rocks may find it to be a good in- 

 vestment to plant hedges around their fields as 

 the cheapest method of keeping up permanent 

 and safe fences. 



The Saco river, whose somxes in the Ossipee 

 branch are in the Sandwich mountains and in 

 the main stream in the White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire, extends quite across the county of 

 York from its north-west to its south-east ex- 

 tremity bordering on the sea. The water pow- 

 er near its mouth at Saco is such as no other 

 considerable river in New England so near the 

 sea ])resents. The river at this point diviiles the 

 towns of Saco and Biddeford : on the side of the 

 former are extensive beds of pure clay and fine 

 sand of the best kind for the manufacture of brick 

 — on the Biddeford side is pure granite suitable 

 for building to any extent. The fall in the river 

 is here forty-five feet. Near the mouth of the 

 river are three considerable islands. The upper 

 is Spring's island, over which the main road 

 above the fidls with the connecting bridges once 

 passed. This passage has been abandoned, and 

 the main bridge connecting with the east side 

 has become impassable. Gooch island is next 

 below Spring's island: over this the road now 

 passes connecting this with Indian or Cutis' 

 island below, which is the property of the Saco 

 mannfactm'iug Company. This establishment, 

 which has been managed with great skill I 

 several years by Samuel Batchelder, Esq., 

 native of New Ipswich, N. H., consists of five 

 brick buildings of the largest class capable of 

 running 24,000 spindles. Mr. Batchelder has 

 here introduced a system of performing more 

 labor with a less ninnber of operatives. In his 

 employ is an intelligent Scotchman by the 

 of Montgomery who has long been conversant 

 with the cotton establishments of Great Britain, 

 and who has demonstrated upon [)aper that all 

 the manufactures of coarse cotton goods may be 

 carried on in this country without fear of com 

 petition from abroad. Mr. Batchelder declared 

 ids conviction that the only fear the great manu 

 factiners of the common cotton cloths in this 

 country might entertain from a low duty was 

 that when the British manufacturer could not 

 find a market at home he would send the 

 gooils here to be sold at a sacrifice for the pur 

 pose of prostrating for the time being our steadi 

 establishments. 



The water power at Saco is immense: besides 

 the cluster on the island it already supplies one 

 large factory on the Biddeford side. The com- 

 pany owning the unemployed power, separatt 

 from the large coni|mny which owns the facto 

 rics erected, are prepared to extend the use of 

 this water power to other establishments as soon 

 as they may find it expedient to i;ike it up. T 

 channels between the islands, and lietwccu those 

 and the main land, are filled with nulls and ma- 

 chinery, the most of which have been employed 

 in the manufacture of lundier, and some of which 

 seeiri to be nearly worn out and falling down 

 from long use. Above Spring's iiiland at the dis- 

 tance of half a mile is the eudiaukment and 

 bridge over which the Eastern rail road passes 

 the Saco river: the bridge is upheld by four 

 splendid granite piers. Higher up the river four 

 miles are otlier fills in tlie river well adapted to 

 mills and machinery Still higher up eight miles, 

 where the river divides the towns of Hollis and 

 Buxton, the Saco f]ills eighty feet, producing an- 

 other great hydraulic jiower which is already 

 partially improved. 

 For manufacturing purposes no position iu 



New England presents greater natural ailvaiilagis 

 no such power so near the sea and iiavignble 

 waters elsewhere exists in either of the six New 

 England Slates. 



Of the eldest residents at this point is S:imnol 

 Peirson, Esq. a native of Boston, now rii;lity- 

 three years of age. This geuilniiaii, the coii- 

 teinporary and friend of the late .h\i]iir rii.uclier, 

 the first and then the only representative iu Con- 

 gress from the district of Maine, was for twenty- 

 five years cashier of the Saco bank, and still acts 

 as Secretary lo a Savings bank at that place. 

 From his own month we derived the liict that 

 hen a boy seventeen years of age be was (or u 

 few weeks employed to write in Washington's 

 fainil}' while the troops were encaiiipiil at Cam- 

 bridge. At that age while in Boston his attach- 

 ment to the American cause was so strong as to 

 attract the attention of the British officers who 

 brought him liefore Gov. Gage, who threatened 

 him with punishment. He left his mother, then 



widow — escaped out of Boston, and found 

 temporary employtnent at the camj) in Cam- 

 bridge. 



Greatly has the cultivation been improved of 

 late years near the village of Saco. The profes- 

 sion of the farmer is there deemed honorable by 

 some gentlemen of the learned professions. Mr. 

 Emery, a member of the York county bar, came 

 to Saco in the year 1825, and there first proved 

 t^at Indian corn might be raised on that ground 

 at the rate of sixty to one hundred bushels to the 

 acre. Gov. Fairfield resides at this place, and 

 since be has been called away from his law busi- 

 ness into various other public duties dividing bis 

 time, pursues the business and amusement of the 

 farm on a place recently purchased about one 

 mile ont of the village. 



Saco and Biddeford are almost as old as any 

 other settlement of New England. Winter Har- 

 bor, at the mouth of Saco river, two hundred 

 years ago was " a noted place for fishers." p'ish- 

 ing was thus early the common occupation of 

 the few settlers here ; and it was found easy and 

 profitable at that early day to barter these for 

 corn and other stores liom Virginia. Furs brought 

 down by the Indians from the interior were ex- 

 changed at that early day for both French and 

 English goods. 



From the mouth of the Saco river a beautiful 

 beach extends on the seashore about five miles 

 east, called Old Orchard beach, from the circum- 

 stance that ap|ile trees were growing near it at 

 the point of time back from which the memory 

 of this settlement can be first traced. Another 

 beach of less extent farther west connects a pe- 

 ninsula running into the sea called Fletcher'* 

 Neck with the main land. An immense bog in 

 the interior of the town, called the Heath, is the 

 origin of streams running both to the river and 

 the sea: a fine waterfall on one of these with a 

 descent of about sixty feet, is surrounded by 

 scenery of a wild and striking character. 

 To be continued. 



The State of Maine. 



Conclusion of Mr. Hill's Address at Furmington. 

 The State of Maine possesses natural advan- 

 tages over many other States of the Union which 

 must ultimately introduce within her borders 

 greater prosperity and wealth. Her more severe 

 climate will only tend to make her enter|irise 

 more sure. No State of the Union has so ready 

 access to the ocean and so great advantages for 

 commerce. Her long seac.oast is indented with 

 rivers and bays increasing the extent of her 

 shores and extending her navigable waters into 

 the very heart of her territory. The lumber 

 trade and the fisheries have been her great busi- 

 ness ; and to these her agriculture has been but 

 too much sacrificed. Thirty to forly years ago it 

 was not calculated that Maine could ever become 

 an agricultural State. Her poorest land lay all 

 along the sea-board : the value of her interior 

 lands was hardly known ; and in the lumbering 

 business it was common to carry hay and grain 

 and other articles for the sustenance of man and 

 bea.st from the seaboard to the interior. 



The true condition of Maine, not yet fully dis- 

 closed to the world, will appear in the (ijct that 

 the soil is more valuable the further yon reesde 

 from the coast until you arrive not many miles 

 from its northern line. As tlis country oipeiis by 

 extended settlements, the laud not yet entejed 

 upon will be found even belter than the great 



