36 NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE. 



The latter particularly abound, and build their houses on 

 the edge of Horse Shoe pond, where the land and water meet. 1 

 These are of graceful outlines and modelled after the dwellings 

 of their unctuous cousins, the Esquimaux, who live to the north 

 of us and owe allegiance to Queen Victoria. I must modestly 

 leave to your better judgment than mine, the value of this 

 great peltry interest, if fully developed. 



3. But still another resource, rare and as yet undeveloped, 

 is the farm's important pearl fishery. From Cleopatra's time 

 and long before, the pearl has been esteemed one of the fairest 

 adornments of our fairest sex. While oftenest brought by 

 breathless divers from the black depths of oriental seas, it is 

 sometimes found in shallow, New England brooks; concealed 

 within the shells of the dark bivalves, known to science as the 

 "Unioidas," but to an ordinary farmer, like your speaker, as 

 the common, black, fresh water clams. 



While it was known to the present proprietor that pearls of 

 considerable value had been found in New Hampshire 

 streams, the fact had awakened but slight interest in his plod- 

 ding mind, until he was aroused from his indifference by the 

 captivating suggestion that a proper development of this neg- 

 lected bonanza, through the aid of enterprising " promoters " 

 and the facilities of modern financiering, might exalt his farm 

 to fame and its owner to fortune. 



For reasons which your own good sense will supply, these 

 three important resources are little likely to find development 

 under the farm's present ownership. 



The small boy must not be deprived of the privilege of 

 catching, now and then, his string of pouts and perch, which he 

 has asserted and constantly maintained for more than one hun- 

 dred and fifty years. 



Neither can the mighty hunter, descendant of Nimrod, booted 

 and armed, be kept from striding along the margin of the mead- 

 ow, in search of snipes and ducks; while his empty game bag 

 affords disagreeable evidence that his realizations have not 

 equalled his expectations. 



And, too, international courtesy requires that the Italian gen- 



1 Nine such houses may now (November, 1895) be counted on the north shore 

 of this pond, either finished or partly so. 



