182 



THE FARMER'S MONTH LY VJ^srrOR. 



December, 1842. 



lie Smidy ri(ei- valley ahove. \\ uU iimdi ul tl,r 

 soil HM jioiul HS that in old Caledonia in Veriiioiit, 

 this nurt of the !?uleol Maine has had the ad- 

 vantage of iiii|)n.vf<l hreeds hitroduced Iroi.i 

 England several years ago by the Messrs. Vaugh- 

 uns and perhaps other wealthy gentlemen ot 

 Hallowell and the vicinity. The celebration at 

 Fariiiington brought together teams of cattle 

 which vvoiild do honor to the most wealthy towns 

 of Massaehiisetts. The team from Chesterville, 

 the town below Farmington at the south-east 

 point of the county, excelled that of any other 

 town. A yoke of "steers (not cattle which bad 

 been petted, but real working oxen I'eeditig in 

 the Slimmer solely on grass) of Mi-. Charles 

 Walton of Chesterville, only four years old, 

 measured seven and a half feet ill the girth: 

 they were of a deep red, to all appearance main- 

 ly of the DevoNslme hn-eii, of elegant propor- 

 tions, kind as old oxen in the yoke, and ready to 

 move almost any weight at the motion ot the 

 driver. 



The ngricultnral products ot Franklin county 

 exhibited on this occasion were all we might ex- 

 pect from the belter part of New England one 

 and two hundred miles further south. In this 

 valley of Sandy river there seems to be a qua 

 in the soil which stimulates rapid and early vef:c- 

 tation. Indian corn grown here was of the size 

 anil ripening of the best corn on groniid iu New 

 Hampshiie upon ihe Connecticut or Merrimack 

 rivers. Among the great variety of maniitactures 

 exhibited by the ladies was beaiitilVil sewing silk: 

 a more fioiirishing orchard of mulheriies we 

 have no where seen than otie passed in the town 

 of Wilton. The productions of fln.\, diapers 

 and other line linens, were here common. 



The inechanioal ingenuity of the county was 

 brought to the aid of the growth of the soil for 

 the occasion. Mr. Fveyler Hall of Farmington, 

 exiilhitsd an Orrery "of bi.s own construction 

 and invention: a turning Lathe, an improvement 

 on all others yet used in that vicinity, came in 

 from Wilton; and a Mr. Haskell of Chesterville, 

 exhibited the plan on the most simple principle 

 of the perfect draught to n ctiimney in which the 

 smoke will never take a wrong direction. 



While remaining at Farmington our whole 

 time, not consumed in the hours of rest, was 

 employed. Hon Nathan Cutler, one of the old- 

 est lawyers of that part of the country and for- 

 merly President of ihe Senate and acting Gov- 

 ernor of Maine, at once made us at home under 

 his hospitable and welcome roof. This gentle- 

 man now retiring from the profession, shows tin 

 excellent tuste in the management of the farm, to 

 which pursuit the fine lands of the neighborhood 

 invite bis attention. Robert Goodenough, Esq. 

 who with a family of brothers distinguished in 

 Maine hails from Henniker in this county as lii.s 

 native town is also a practising lawyer of this 

 town. At his invitation, precisely at the time to 

 be spared in a ride of an hour and a half, we 

 had a view of the hill country of Farmington on 

 the easterly side of the Sandy river. This town 

 is of larger extent than the common six mile 

 townships— it is nearly ten miles square. Five 

 miles below the site of the county court-hoi 

 which is very conveniently and cheaply made 

 from a meeting-bouse erected in the old style 

 with high posts and separated into a court and 

 jury rootns above with a hall below, is the lower 

 falls village ; but above the upper village the 

 town extends on the river some five miles. A 

 greater portion of t!ie way for ten miles there is 

 an oxfended and wide intervale of the highest 

 fertility ; but on the higher grounds the laud is 

 likewise very fine for cultivation. Stephen Tit- 

 comb, Esq. aged 90 years, the first settler of 

 Farmington, is still living: iiis first pitch was on 

 the intervale one or two miles below the i\\i\i 

 village. His son, Mr. Joseph Titcomb, has an 

 upland farm on the high ground east of the riv- 

 er about one mile northerly from the upper vi 

 lage. The land is here all good : there is none 

 too rocky for onltivation. Of course only 

 much as is necessary for each farm is continued 

 in wood. Mr. Titcomb has nn elegant maple 

 orchard in view of the road we |)assed, which he 

 has been careful to preserve in clearing away 

 where a former owner had carelessly suffered 

 the ground to grow up to bushes. Although the 

 trees of this orchard are not over ten to fitleen 

 years old, it already produces aniiually some two 

 thousand pounds of sugar. Where the siignr 



be 



b,'>t kn 



Mr 



gh road to the i 



II a most deligldliil vi-la, north and south 

 through the valley of the Sandy rjver, is present- 

 d. 



LAND BEIOND THE MOUNTAINS. 



Our curiosity would have been much gratified 

 could we, according to previous expectations, 

 have extended our ji>iirney into the north and 

 iinsetlled portions ol the county of Franklin be- 

 yond the high range of moumains in a direction 

 about fiUv miles to the norih-east of the White 

 Humps 



Ml. 



.f Nev 



l.i-li 



latte 



In this 



not iiM 



IV.. I '.\ l.Lislielii and I'eed lur ilii; j<'un'cv, 



[im^ \i / . ti. til i"rk(;t3 c.iuip oui, and cottk (lur tnvii 



\vi-c'l<s. '-'Iruiy you have a Iiard row lu hoe,'' y<-u 

 siiy ; " why <loii'l yoa sell your wheat nearer home V 

 w me to iL-il you. that you could not cash u hut.liei ol" 

 at in \'ermil"lion county for twenty live cents; bo 

 that, to raise two dollars, it would reiiuire eight hushels 

 of wheat— the product of half an acre, and a week's la- 

 hundred pounds." 



[[/== At the prices of Wheat and corn in Illi- 

 nois, our farmers in New England would take it 

 as a hardship to gather the standin;; crop if it 

 was given to then,. We {in Concord, N. i I.) sohl 



;he 



ltd! 



ite.l than the Munadnock.or Kcar- 

 sarge, or perhaps some other mouniains ol oiir 

 State whose names are scarcely given upon any 

 map. To the north of the Maine uiouiiinins just 

 named is an extended valley bounded at the north 

 by the highlands which have recently been mark- 

 ed as the boundary between the States of Maine 

 and New Ham|>sli"ire and the British province of 

 Lower Canada. Some settlements to the iiortl 

 of Mount Abraham have been begun : one o 

 these seltlements is called llie Lake township 

 The great valley stretching of!" east and west hai 

 as yet not been fully explored. Wiih no veil 

 yre"at elevation betw"eeii, the waters of Dead riv 

 , a branch of the Keniieheck and the easterly 

 iiicesof the Andioscoggiu are divided in th' 

 lley. On Dead river there are large quantitii 

 pine lumber. To the west of Dead river are 

 series of lalfes whose waters flow westerly into 

 Lmhagog lake and through a p.ut of New Hamp- 

 shire into the Androscoggin. The lands in this 

 •xtensive valley are said to he liitle inferior to 

 he much celebrated new lands which are open- 

 na farther east upon the Aroostook, llerealter, 

 lands in this northern region may lie opened 

 lii(di will bevaluid>le for selllement. The dif- 

 •iilty in the cultivation of much of this north- 

 ern laud is from the premature and untimely frost 

 sometimes siriking iu midMuiimer. 'Ihe same 

 ditficiiltv has been often felt much further to the 

 soiit^i. "it has been remedied there by the gener- 

 al Dpeningaiid clearing of the country: it prob- 

 ably will be remedied by the same course here. 



MISSOLONSCUT. 



Fanuingtnn and the region about it is not more 

 frosty than the lands on other rivers much forlher 

 south. The intervale upon this river is deep and 

 rich— it is light, but not sandy as might he sup- 

 posed from the tiame which has been given by 

 usage to the river. The ludi-in name for this riv- 

 er i.s Mhsolunscui, which is said to tiican Clay 

 alomy the bunks. At the lower village, near the 

 south cafterly limit of Farmington, there are 

 faIN in the river, and a corresponding set-off iu 

 the level or plane of intervale. Directly over the 

 bridge on the .\ugiista road we )ias3 into Ches- 

 terville. The Sandy river here takes a northerly 

 turn and unites with the Kennebeck several 

 miles above the cou;t-housc in Norridgewock, 

 the shire town of Somerset county. Near the 

 Farmington lower fails are evidences of recent 

 Indian occupation. Many years gub.sequent to 

 the residence of a French colony of Norridge- 

 wock at a point near the mouth of Sandy river, 

 the Indians were located near the site of the 

 lower village iu Farmington. The Indian hills 

 where they raised their corn near the river bank 

 are still prominent : forty years ago the woodeil 

 structures of the Indian wigwams remained: the 

 red men of the forest did not leave this point im 

 til the tread of the white man was upon them. 

 (To he eoMnueJ.) 



I hit 



fereiit hay Irir §15 per ton. Some of our .--hrewd 

 neighbors ex[iect $'^0 of Mr. Gass the first bad 

 travelling! We sold several hundred bushels of 

 potatoes in the field at 25 cents per bushel. We 

 met a man in the street with a load of oat straw 

 — he asked $8 per ton ! Good hard wood is 

 selling in the street at $3 per cord — (line wood 

 at $-2;i5. liulian corn and rye are 75 cents the 

 bushel. Western flour has risen here within ihe 

 last ten days one dollar in the barrel. Now iu 

 this country, although the soil he cold and ste- 

 lile, farming is a far better business at our prices 

 than it is in the finest country of the west ; and 

 farmers will get betler pay i'or improyiiig their 

 land here than tiiey can lor the most successful 

 cultivation there. 



VVUBAT IS Il.LIJIOIS— The 



It. says a largo c|ua:jlity of ' 



Herald of the 3; 

 ts recently been 

 brou^'htto that'city'by tli'e farmers in the vicinity and 

 stored, to wait for a rise in the river. The price at that 

 date v/as 28 cents per bushel. The Chieajo Democrat of 

 the 2d ult. says the wheat market in that city is complete 

 ly glutted. The cash price of wheat there is 38 cents. 



A correspondent of the W'ashington Globe at 

 Vermillion, Illinois, writing to the editors tuider 

 date of Nov. 14, says— 



" Allow me to tell you what lahcr it will cost me to 

 . „ ^ . ■ ^,^, , . ..- Our 



jarry 

 llee to Chicapfo, and 



Bilkrica, Dec. 10, 1842. 



Mr. John M. Hili. : Dear Sir— With the last 

 nnmlier of the Visitor I received your Prospec- 

 tus for '43. 



It appears to me that the character of your pa- 

 per must be somewhat changed by the removal 

 " ts conductor so fiir from the place of publica- 

 tion.* The editor's "pencillings by the way" dur- 

 ing his Bgricnhur.d ixciirsioii.x, have liilherto im- 

 parted a lively interest to Ihecolmnnsof llio Vis- 

 itor. As the"(;oat l>laiid cane-m.iker discovers 

 in every bush the raw mateiial liir an elegant 

 walking stick, so the ex-Governor in hissojouru- 

 ings always finds soinethiug worthy of notice, 

 which had been overlooked by more superficial 

 observers. 



Your father's paper has always been a welcoine 

 Visitor to ine : hut there is a reason for this which 

 does not apply with equal force to my iieighbor.s. 

 The Visitor frequently contains descripiions of 

 places with which I was once familiarly acquaint- 

 ed. Concord was once my home ; and even to 

 this day, when parting with an acipiaintaiice in a 

 neighboring town, I eonietimes give him him a 

 careless iuVitalion to call upon me when he 

 comes to Concord — forgetting at the moment tliat 

 1 am not still an inhabitant of ancient Penacook. 

 Even the old Indian names of those beautiful 

 mill stream.s, Coiiloocook and Bowcook,Suncook 

 and Soucook, all of which enter the Merriu.ack 

 iu the immediate vicinity of Concord, have still 

 a charm for me. These remain unchanged, save 

 the name of Boweook, which with a lamentahle 

 falling oflf; has dwindled into Turkey River! The 

 true definition of what we |)ionounco cook in 

 these names, is prolmbly lost tbrcver. 



I have made but little effort to obtain subscri- 

 bers for your paper; but have been more than 

 compensated for my labor by the remarks elici- 

 ted in conversations with our agriculturalists. 



I find among the older farmers a deep rooted 

 prejudice against what they call Book Farming. 

 One tells me, that the good old way is the best : 

 that premium farms and i»remium crops always 

 cost more than they come to. Another says, ho 

 trimmed his apple trees five years ago, exactly ac- 

 cording to the book, and a sore trimming it was ; 

 his orchard had never recovered from that trim- 

 ming to this day. Another, speaking of cast iron 

 ploughs. Bays, they may turn a furrow siiiooih 

 enough in the sand, but in rough ground like his, 

 they were not worth a cent. Ttiey would break ; 

 he had tried it out and out. Hammered iron and 

 hardened slesl would make a plough good enough 

 for him — there was no two ways to that. And so 



"There has not vet been, and it is not very likely there 



