156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



meadows on either side of the Connecticut River, from ihe 

 State line of Massachusetts on the north to the same bound- 

 ary on the .soutli, in the month of September, lie would see 

 almost cue continuous field of broom-corn. Every farmer 

 raised broom-corn. It was their special crop, — the money 

 crop. The river formers being destitute of pasturing could 

 not make stock-raising profitable ; therefore they, follow- 

 ing a mixed husbandry, grew corn, rye, oats, grass, and 

 fattened some pork and beef; but broom-corn was their 

 money crop, the avails of which would furnish the means to 

 buy the necessaries of the household which could not be 

 bartered for with other farm produce. 



From the broom-corn brush considerable seed was gath- 

 ered, which, when ground with the other grains, made good 

 provender for swine and neat stock. In the winter the 

 broom-corn brush was tied into brooms. Our neighboring 

 town of Hadley became celebrated for her broom manu- 

 factures, while many other towns were more or less engaged 

 in the traffic. There was also a necessary accompani- 

 ment, the "Yankee broom-peddler," who, with his one- 

 horse team, traversed the country as far as Canada on the 

 north, Boston on the east (there were no railroads then), 

 Albany on the west, which was then almost the extreme 

 limit of western trade (though we did sometimes hear 

 of some venturesome one who had been out as far as 

 Schenectady), and Providence, R. I., or Hartford, Conn., on 

 the south. Illinois with her fertile prairies was then 

 unknown. Upon the settlement of our western country, and 

 the opening up of her cheap and fertile lands to the cultiva- 

 tion of broom-corn, as well as other crops, the profit of 

 broom-corn raising in New England was destroyed. 



It was about this time that the cultivation of tobacco was 

 introduced into the valley ; but it was with a mental vision of 

 the thousands of acres of broom-corn waving in the wind 

 like an inland sea, which led the poet of the Bi-Centennial 

 Gathering, at the anniversary of the settlement of Old Had- 

 ley (held in 1859), to break out in the chorus : — 



" For the tall broom-cora is a warrior born, 



In stern battalions growing, 

 And its green leaves wave like a banner brave, 



When the battle winds are blowing." 



