180 



THEFARMER'SMONTHLY VISITOR. 



December, 1842. 



as a witness against , for keeping a 



gambling house. Unless it is alisoliitely neces- 

 sary," said he, as his agitation increased, ''I wish, 

 sir, you would not urge my attendance." 



'•J don't know," said the Counsel, "that the 

 conviction will depend upon your testimony, hut 

 as you are an important witness, it may be neces- 

 sary to bring you upon the stand." 



" My reasons for asking this Ikvor are urgent," 

 said lie, "and the consequence of a refusal may 

 be fatal to my prosperity, and the hapfiiness ol 

 others." He became more agitated, uud at the 

 request of the gentleman, he riMilinued. "In a 

 few days, I am to be married to iMi. 's daugh- 

 ter, residing on Chestnut sliect 'I'he prepara- 

 tions are made and tho day is (i.xed. If I am 

 called upon as a witness in this case, I shall 

 criminate myself, and be exposed to tlie eyes of 

 my friends and the public gaze as a gandilor. 

 My character will be lost, my prospects in lite 

 bifghted, and of course, my liemeslic happiness 

 destroyed." 



"You shall not be called, young man," said the 

 counsel, "unless it is absolutely necessary," and 

 with this assurance, they separated — not without 

 some painful misgivings on the part of the legal 

 gentleman, that he was about to be accessary to 

 a wrong, which iriigbt result in the utter ruin of 

 a confiding yet unsuspecting girl. The trial came 

 on, but conviction was obtained without sum- 

 moning the young man, and he went on in his 

 coinse of duplicity and crime unexposed. In a 

 few days, he was married ! 



Two years passed, and a young but heart 

 broken wife appears befoie the legal tribunal, 

 seeking a divorce! Her counsel was startled, 

 when the husband came forward, at discovering, 

 confronting the wife, the identical young man 

 who plead not to be exposeil as a gambler! The 

 interview with the witness instantly occurred to 

 the coiMisel's mind. 'l"he painful incidents of a 

 deserted house, neglected wili', and the cruelties 

 which had followed bis gambling habits, then 

 came up in fearful array before the individual 

 who saved him from his merited exposiu'e. 



The trial proceeded, and a gradual succession 

 of acts of injustice, neglect, coldness, alienation, 

 domestic discord and cruelties, on the part of 

 the linsband against a confiding and affectionate 

 young wife, were di.sclosed, which melted the 

 heart of the oldest spectator. His tlefence was 

 feeble, and her cause triumphed. Jfappily she 

 was liberated from the monster who had woinid- 

 ed her heart, destroyed her peace, and deprived 

 her of that happiness which beamed upon her 

 so joyously during the morning of her bridal 

 day. 



His fate hardly need even briefly be told. He 

 soon lost the esteem of his frieinis, if the gam- 

 bler has friends, and his credit followed with his 

 reputation. His iiishionahle and elegant estab- 

 lishment on Chestnut street, was closed by the 

 sheriff a few weeks since, and more recently, be 

 has been arrested for forgery! What a brief; but 

 melancholy detail of the fruits reaped from the 

 pursuits of the gamester! 



S^J^^I cnpital recommendation, and all the better Jor 

 coming from the best judge in matters of mere 

 taste {as top believe,) and/rom an old and constant 

 political opponent ! 



From Buckingham's Boston Daily Courier. 

 "The Farmer's Monthly Visitor, coinhicted 

 by Isaac Hill, and published by him and bis sons, 

 at Concord, N. H., is approaching the termina- 

 tion of the fourth year of its age. It is a monthly 

 periodical, of sixteen large ipnuto page,*, and has 

 been published at the jn-ice of seventy-five cents 

 a year. Low as this price is, we see by the last 

 nundjer that the |.roprietors propose to continue 

 it at a still lower rate, viz. fifty cents a year, paid 

 in advance. Mr. Hill during his whole course as 

 eilitor of this paper, has shown himself to be a 

 real benefactor to the iiublic. The Visitor con- 

 tains a large quantity of reading matter, but its 

 greatest recommendation is the qualiti/ of thai 

 matter, which consists in a ronsiderable degree 

 of original articles by Mr. Hill, embracing the 

 results of bis own personal observations, matle in 

 the course of journeys- in different stales,and visits. 

 apparently made for the sole purpose of inspec 

 tion and observation, in the states of Maine,New 

 Hampshire aiul Vermont. We hope the paper 

 may long continue to be an acceptable Visitor in 

 ibe family of tb« Netr Eimlautl Farmers. T« 



them we know it must be i)rofitable, and 

 hope it will be equally so to the proprietors." 



Ten days in the State of Maine— Continued. 



SCARBOROUGH MARSHES. 

 JJetvveen Saco ami I'ortland the land is so 

 level that the new railroad has all the way been 

 consliucted without .-my considerable embank- 

 ment or excavation. In Scarboroniih there ale 

 many hnndieds of acres of salt inaish. The 

 hay iipnri the marsh is cut all along in Aui;ijsi, 

 r^e'plemher.aiul even into October, at'the ounei's 

 li isiM-e. It is at first deposited in convenieiil 

 .-talks of one or two tons each: these slacks 

 stand upon npri.uhl slakes or sharpened blocks 

 of wood driven into the maivh so as to lay the 

 bottom of the hay above the level of the highest 

 tidirs covering the marsh. The hay is taken 

 away in winter when the marsh is frozen .so tiiat 

 teams can pass over it. An extensive flat, in 

 .some |)laees miles over, between the upland and 

 the ocean, presents thousands of these hay stacks 

 in apjiearauce in the distance as diminutive as 

 the cocks of hay in a new mown field. 



A LARGE FARM. 



Seth Storer, Esq. late President of the Cum- 

 berland county Agricultural Society, has a farm 

 in Scarborough — perhaps too large for profitable 

 cultivation — consisting of about twelve hundred 

 acres. This farm he has carried on about tweniy 

 years: it formerly consisted of several firin.<, all 

 of which contiguous to each other were pur- 

 cha^ed by a getilleman who designed to make it 

 a flmcy liirni. The man left it lor some reason, 

 and Mr. Storer was enabled to make the pur- 

 ch.-iso cheap, and to add to it some two bun<lied 

 acres of young growing woodland, which is be- 

 coming \"ery valuable lor its timber, being at the 

 distance of about seven miles either way eipii- 

 <listant from Portland on the. one band and Saco 

 on the other. 



A great portion of this farm bordering on an 

 extensive tract of salt inarsli lies at a handsome 

 ami nearly dead level about twenty-five feet 

 above the ocean. This level at some former 

 time seems to have borne the same relation to 

 the ocean that the lower salt marsh preserves at 

 present. The soil is of a rather heavy consist- 

 ence, such as we might suppose the mud of salt 

 marsh to become, to the depth of about twenty 

 feet, where it rests upon a hard bed of blue clay. 

 Between this high ground and the marsh, and 

 sometimes in excavations in the higher land, the 

 lailroail has its way through this farm. Two 

 streams of water or creeks pass over the liinii 

 and fidi down several feet to the level of the 

 marsh from fresh swamps above. These swamps 

 have been reclaimed from time to time, and 

 tliim them have been taken large quantities of 

 lofis which had long laiil there, but were never- 

 theless valuulile for fuel after they became dry. 

 The runs or hollows, through which run these 

 two streams, were the most valuable part of Mr. 

 Storer's farm. 



The crops on which he most relies are hay 

 and potatoes. Some one hnndred and filty to 

 two hundred tons of h:iy, and some fifteen him- 

 <lre<I to two thousand bushels of potatoes are the 

 usual product of the fiirm. There are none or 

 very few rocks upon this land, and the fencing 

 is an item of considerable expense. This fence 

 is usually constructed with posts and boards 

 which from long standing often hecoines weak, 

 for the crop o ' 



ter attraction to the agricnltiirist than some other 

 towns upon the seaboard of Maine: its soil was 

 more li'asible, and from appi'aivuices was oiiai- 



louhl 



The hay and 



other crops have long been produced without the 

 use of the plough and without the usual rotation 

 of the most productive land. Mr. S. says the 

 use of the bor.se rake has saved him, in twenty 

 years, more than two thousand ilollars. This is 

 an insti'uirient well calculated to save labor on 

 his smooth and extended fields. 



Mr. S. chose to exchange a lucrative profession 

 which he had followed for ten years at Stico and 

 remove to this farm, which is large enough for 

 five, and might make ten good fjirms. The em- 

 |iloynieiit constantly of some half a dozen men 

 iiiiLrbt he substituted for that of one half the 

 ninnber upon a farm of one hundred acres of no 

 i)etter soil and advantages than this great farm. 

 The change would make it more easy for the 

 uoprietor, and a greater prodnciion, in propor- 

 ion to the help, might he realized. 



8EA MANURES, diC. 



Sc;ui>oroiJ:4h in aiwwat tiiiwa |fi«««W<»d a bet- 



Th,: 



the recurrence of every .^t(,rni— ilic iii.xhanslihle 

 muscle beds to he found upon llie flats laid hare 

 by every recedin- tide— the beds of yreen .-^and 

 marl which are deposited nndei the shores from 

 which the sea has receded— are ,ill materials of 

 richness which will give the whole seaboard 

 hereafter a production such as the increasing 

 seaboard cities will require lor their con.-,uiup- 

 tion. 



The simple salt marsh mud, it seems~to us, 

 must possess properties of fertilization when 

 comp(>.sted an<l laid over npland.s. Salt of itself 

 is an excellent tl'i tilizcr, and the vegetable mate- 

 rials of uliiij] iir.ii-li mild is composed must 

 likeuise possi>s Irinhzini; qualities. Hemlock 

 tan in its crude slate is deemed [loisonoiis lo 

 land ; but hemlock tan which has laid long emiugli 

 to bec<nne decomposed is not less valuable than 

 any other vegetable manure. The marsh mud, 

 we diiiik, may. he compared to that. The village 

 of Cambridgepnrt, near Boston, was principally |- 



built upon the s.ilt marsh. At the time of con- \ 



striicting West J}osion Uridge, some forty-eight 

 years ago, the marsh was ditcheil, and tjie salt 

 W!iter shut out. On portions of this marsh land 

 there are beautiful garilens and frnii trees. Pond's 

 celebrated nursery stands upon uhai was fi)i- 

 merly salt marsh land. 1'liis has been friiiiid 

 exiretnely well adapted to the piddiiction of liiiil 

 trees. In seasons when the bdicr and the worm 

 bad destroyed Ihc! plums cvpry where else, ftlr. 



were l:iir and perleci uliilc none good were else- 

 where produced ; and it was believed that their 

 preservation was due to the savour of the salt 

 earth on which his garden was constrttcted. 



WESTBROOK. 



Nearer to Portland than .Scarborough are the 

 towns of Cape Elizabeth without, and West- 

 brook within. Portland is nearly or quite sur- 

 rounded by water: you pass out of it over a 

 bridge in whatever direction you take. The 

 road to the interior, north, passes through West- 

 brook, which has some elegant farms with beau- 

 tiful orchards around the firm buildings. The 

 tanners here understand their true interi'st; for 

 with the manures taken from the stables and 

 streets of Pojll.ind at no very jrreat distance, 

 many liclds weri' furnished with the ocean nia- 

 iiiiic-. ill tlicii- ciiiile state. The.se manures, at 

 Ihe plarcs ulicr.- they are most valued — and to 

 be valued they need only to be ni.-ed — are brought 

 upon the ground at all seasons of the year when 

 it is vacant of a crop. The Rye, N. H. farmers 

 who compete for the fresh sea weed at the con- 

 clusion of every storm, wind or tide throwing it ! 

 upon the beach, spread it upon the meadow ] 

 •riomids as soon as the grass is mowed, or at 

 any other time when it is not grown loo much 

 to be covered : they carry and drop out the piles [ 

 at once on their arable lands at any time before 

 ploughing. On heavy lands they lay the ma- 

 nures fi-om the sea, muscles and mud as well as 

 rock and sea weed, and gravel from the hard 

 bed.-, in alternate heaps. The effect of the ini.v- 

 liire in the end is the same as if the several 

 heaps were mixed at first and composted. It is 

 not all fi^lt at once. The .sea and rock weed can- J 

 not be too soon u.sed, iis their ammonia passes I 

 rapidly away ; but the niiid and the muscles, i 

 aided by the warmer gravel or sand lightening a 

 heavier soil, are fidt upon the ground for a series 

 of years. 



That part of Westbrook nearest to Portland . 



presents much of the beauty of the improved j 



cultivation about Boston. The Westbrook lands, ' 



in view from the main road leading into ihe .1 



country are of that kind, which, requiring much j 



lubar to bring tbem into a uigk sSuM of Milliva- J 



