FARMS. 91 



And to apply the moral to the case in hand, — let it be once under- 

 stood that a committee of this society propose to visit a certain 

 number of farms in a year till all in the county had received a call, 

 unless the owners should positively refuse to receive them; and is 

 it difficult to conceive of the effects that would naturally follow ? 

 If it is natural for our wives and daughters to scrub,and scour, and 

 clean, and sweep, in anticipation of the call of friends and visitors, — 

 if it is natural for maids to remember their ornaments, and brides 

 their attires, and to put them on and wear them every gala day, 

 then would it not be natural for farmers and farmers' sons to dress 

 and keep the farm which there was reason to believe was to be the 

 object of inspection, but of the day and hour of which they could 

 not know long beforehand ? Is there a man in the county on whose 

 farm the note of preparation would not be heard at once ? Would 

 not compost heaps and stone walls be the order of the day ? and 

 what chance would there be for wormwood and burdocks and thistles 

 to stand as they often do, in the very Goshen of the farm ? 



The undersigned being alone responsible for the Report, would 

 earnestly ask the trustees to consider the measure here proposed, 

 and to act in the premises according to their maturest convictions. 



The farm of William R. Putnam was visited by a majority of the 

 committee, on the 29th of August, on the invitation of Mr. P. It 

 is beautifully situated in Danvers, near to Swan's crossing, so 

 called, upon the Essex Railroad. A variety of circumstances con- 

 tributed to give interest to this visit of the committee, irrespective of 

 the hospitable reception given us by Mr. Putnam and his intelligent 

 family. The house occupied by Mr. P. is that in which his distin- 

 guished ancestor, Gen. Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary memory, 

 was born. We were shown the room where the old hero first 

 breathed the vital air. This part of the house is known to be about 

 two hundred years old. An addition, making now the main body 

 of the mansion, was put up one hundred and eleven years ago. The 

 family chronology informs us that John Putnam and his three sons 

 came to America in 1636. David, one of them, settled in Salem 

 village, now Danvers, and upon the farm which was the object of 

 our visit. The father of Gen. Putnam lived in the interesting days 

 of the Salem withcraft. He seems to have been a non-believer in 

 the flummery of the times, and had no idea of being a personal 



