THE FAIMEH'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



■ Those who labor in the earth are the chosenpeople of God, whose breasts he has made hispeculiar deposite for iubstantial and genvine virtve." — Jeffkpson. 



VOLUME IV. 



CONCORD, N. H. DECEMBER 31, 1842. 



NUMBER 12. 



TiIE FARME?.'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



JO II N m'.'h' I l"/]';""''" *" 



Hiirs Brick Block, Concord, .V. H. 



GENERA Ta GENTS, 



B. COOKE. Keene, N. H. 



TH- R. ii\\r;"r<i\-. w, htn-jm, '-,1,1. u. c. 



Visitor will l)f! issued on the list day of each mimtli 

 i'.l.'>IS.~Tii single subscribers, Seventy-five cents. 

 ■ .■ >;>»s lur -I'a-a D.il!ar.< :—Tr.u copies for Six Vol- 



-■'^' ■ -!■. ■ ■; ^ iM. r; V ,,, n.:Uars. 



' ■ ■ I ^ 1 . : vrars 1839, '40, 



II ■ 

 Publis 



An index and 

 irected to the 



THFviSrTOR. 



Farmins in Slaryland and Viririnia. 



Tlieie are wliole ilirJirii-t.s <>/ irounli'v in the 

 lower parts of JM aryland and Virginia, wlio.se .soil 

 has heen rnii o'lt and exhansn.'d iMiicli of the 

 I'OUDtry within thirty miles of the city of Wash- 

 ington is land of this desi-ri|)tion. The District 

 of CohiMihia and the l.-n-jje tj-jict ahoiit Mount Ver- 

 non whieh eonstituted the farm of Wasliiiii'toii, 



1 he dd i|iida(i<)n and exhaustion of lands in 

 this middle section of the Olil Thirteen States 

 has been jfreaier and more extensive I'rom the 

 cii'cnmstance tlKit slave l.ihorhas thei'e been eni- 

 ])loyed eviM- since the liist settlement of the comi- 

 try. The while popniation has not there been 

 employed in the mannal labor of the farm. Un- 

 til the e.xtensioii of settlements anil tlie opeinng 

 of fertile l.inds westward, this section of eoimtrv 

 fm-nished the lari^er portion of a^nicnltm-al pro- 

 duce liii- exportation. \ j;reater part (if the sup- 



Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington Cilv, nearly 

 2.5 years. After the first ereciion of the Cap- 

 imrthere was a -I'eat hole! creeled npon Capilol 

 11,11: hiir ill ihecnnrseofa lew years ihis pan of 

 the city was ahaiidn, led In nearly every family 

 who had Ihu means of removln;., on acconnt of 



hotel and many expensive biick dwellings near 

 and ahont the ";;reat Capitol of the Union stood 

 lor years nntenanted : some of them were suf- 

 fered to decay anri fall down, the wooden parts 

 being cut qntaiidciirried away a>5 fuel for vagrant 

 neirriies and more miserable wliite.^ who .soiiaht 

 shelter in the buildings abandoned by their for- 

 tner owners. 



Foi- suveral jfeais after ii>e doniiciliai-iy visit of 



ibe British at the se.at of the -leat American Re- 

 public a mile and a half somliei l,\ iVom the Cap- 

 ilol, at the conflnence of the Ivisiern Inaiich with 

 the ^neat I'olomac, stood ranifes or blocks of 

 brick biiildmirs, which, if" they ever were inhab- 

 iteil. We're successively al)andoned to "the moles 

 anil the hais." Tliis paitof the great city, called 

 Greenleal's I'.iiiit in honor of its projector, was 

 inteiidiil 10 1.' a ^'i-eat p')int for the lading 

 and imladiiiL' of ships, and the mart of evtended 



out— labor and expense ihi'uun away. IMany 

 bnndi-ed llionsmd dollars of llie pnhlic money 



exiiended for the i -ovi -nl of llie 1\ der.d 



City have been ol' no more i,>e llcin li.e ini.nes 



if's i 



tending bom norih-west to snmh-easl on liolh 

 sides of the navi;;al>le waters of the !,Mcat Poto- 

 mac nearly the whole leiiiith of the D.>trict. 



Some lue:ity \ears auo, fllr. Brown, nnable to 

 furnish bis table' Willi llie snitable garden veireta- 

 bles, fenced onl a portion of the vacant public 

 L'roniids on the soiiih-we.sl side of Pennsylvania 

 en. This ijaiden soon became 

 •:i'is M^iiiiiu the seat of gov 



Avemie fur a :; 



.'rnment, it h 

 gi-oniid ronnd i 



that the 

 I Washington einild never be 

 (dnce. Mr. Biowii not only soon fur- 

 nished bis own table, being then the hotel where 

 nearly all the transient company lodged in the 

 city when Congiess was not in session, but sold 

 nnually some ihonsand or two dollars worth of 

 vegetables in the market. His celery was at that 

 ■ "e almost the exclusive article of the Kind then 

 found in that market. IMore than twenty years 

 iVlr. Brown's 

 garden. He tlieii had a pnmp near it worked by 

 lorse powcir. From this pnmp, water was car- 

 ■ied in wooden ti'ouglis to all jiarts of the gar- 

 len ; and to the virtue of this irrigation was at- 

 tributed the wonders of vegetation which hisgar- 

 n produced. We ai'e now inclined to think 

 ; frnilfulne.ss of Air. Brown's garden resulted 

 ,re from what came out of llie abundance of 

 1 stables at wliicli all the hoi'scs in the stages 

 mini: out of the city weie kept, than from the 

 liply'of water taken" tiom bis well. 

 The proiiiess of A^ricnltine and Ilorlicnilure 

 the barren region about Washington has been 

 w ; but an entire new tiice has been put upon 

 ngs there within the last twenty year.-. No 



at Wa~li 



lett 



teiiceol man and beast may 

 ; prices as reasonable as they 



The soil in that vicmitv is natural to more ol 

 he grains, veL'etables and fruits than much of the 

 New England .soil. Peaches, apricot.s, cherries 

 •plums, are there in all their varieties — the 

 field berri.'s grow spontaneously. Watermelons, 

 skmelon.s, Canteloiies, the egg plant, the Caro- 

 t potatoe, tomatoes, almost every species of 

 den vegetable, are here produced in great pro- 

 fusion. 



Duiing a few days spent at Wasbioplon last 

 ptemhei-, on the market day, we several times 

 'lit before snmise with the' sole view of grati- 

 fying our eves at the abmidance there afforded. 

 Sooii after niidniglit the carts, wagons and other 

 vehicles were heard (lassing over every consider- 

 able avenue to the city with articles for the mar- 



We believe the city of Washington, after the 

 snceessfid experiment of Mr. Je.sse Brown, owes 

 its improved market to the industry and enter- 

 prise of northern farmers who came there some 

 fifteen years ago, and have carried on bnsin.^ss 

 without the aid of slave labor. An mhabitaiii of 

 the city pointed us to a man with a foreign dia- 

 lect who came to Vije diiiricJ: leu years iigo,— 



Findiiii; no other einploynient be purchased a 

 tract of the waste land a little distance out of the 

 ciiy — planted upon it a peach and fruit orchard, 

 to whicb be bad annually been making additions. 

 He assisted personally in all this work, and al;- 

 tended the market himself. In this business be 

 bad alreiulv accmiiulated a inoperty worth from 

 ten to twelve tbousaiid dollars. 



In a liiriner number of the Visitor we publish- 

 ed a statement of the siiccesstid liirmingand im- 

 provements of Commodore Jones of the Navy. 

 This vrentlemaii is a Virginian by birtli,aiid broth- 

 er 10 A.ljnlani General Jones of the War De- 

 partment : both genllemeii, and especially the lat- 

 ter, ilistiiii;iiislied tlicmsL'lves fiir iiilrepedity and 



till III h oi'a ceiiiiir\ a'.:o. Com. Jones bad a share in 

 ;i Iraet of worn-. ait lands in Fairfiix county, Vir- 

 ginia, situated some six or eigln miles from the 

 city of Washingion. He was ultogelh r a sailor, 

 and had little knowledge of the business of .Ag- 

 riculture. In a time of peace, "vvbile not fully 

 employed at sea, be bethought himself that he 

 ought to do something with bis land which was 

 merely worthless as it stood when coming to his 

 possession. He commenced ou a small scale — 



. first 



with such 



sending up to the i 

 small quantities of hay and vegetables as he 

 could spare, and loading back with manure from 

 the stables when be could obtain it, and when he 

 could not get that, gathering w,} and carrying 

 home oyster-shells and other waste articles such 

 as he found deposited in vacant spots about the 

 city. Very soon was his labor and expense re- 

 paid in the additional product of his lands. Ev- 

 ery year some new ground was reclaimed : new 

 fields were partitioned off. The value of every 

 cultivated acre was increased. In the whole pro- 

 cess of some ten or fifteen years, this geiitlenmn 

 has obtained a profit from bis laud, and made hia 

 farm really worth ten times as much as it was 

 when he first began what was then to him en- 

 tirely a i>evv business. 



Men of the first talents and eminence in Mary- 

 land and Virginia are of late turning their aiteii- 

 tioii to the subject of Agricniiure. In the Rich- 

 mond Enquirer a lt!W weeks since we ])eriised 

 an address on Agriculture, by Thomas Jefferson 

 Randolph, the urancLson of' the author of the 

 Declaration of lndc|M nden.e, in which be at- 

 tempts to arouse bis fellow citizens to the ini- 

 poiiaiice of this great subject. Hon. W. C. Rives, 

 a distingni.shed scholar and statesman, now a 

 incmlier of the Unilid Slates Senate, is the own- 

 er of extensive tracts of land in Albemarle coun- 

 ty, Viiinnia. This centlenian al.<o lately deliver- 

 ed an address Ix-H.re the At'iicnltural Society of 

 his county. Of this address the Baltimore Amer- 

 ican Farmer says— 



" In this era of emigration to the far west from 

 the old State.s, we were relieshed to learn from 

 Mr. Rives, that fifty-six families comprising 200 

 individuals, fiom Dulcbess county. New Vork, 

 have purchased lands in Fairliix county, Virginia, 

 the greater part of whom have already settled 

 01! their lands, and the remainder making ar- 

 rangements to remove. They have [lurchased in 

 all I5,i>-i2 acres of land, and preferred small sized 

 farms' from 150 to 200 acres, but were compelled 

 to purchase large tracts, which they are dividing 

 into small farms The system of these emigrants 

 is in fiivor of the cultivation of grass over that of 

 ..■rain, and they have thus far made rapid improve- 

 ments ill llie appearance of their farms. They 

 remark that if clover will grow well.they are 

 satisfied they can make the land rich. The pros- 

 pect seems to be, that the stream of emigration 

 to Vir^dnia will be continuous; those who have 

 come ,ire delighted wiili the climate, and are gen- 

 erally pleased with the people among whom they 

 have settled : so mncii so, indeed, that there is a 

 strong disposition amongst the wealthy faruieis of 

 Dutchess county, New York, to purchase 'ai'ds lU 

 Fuufui coui)t;',"Vu., and reinove thitberv Whiw 



