274 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MABCH R, 1g39. 



tliirtyfonrtiinusand, though capable of improvement, ; perate, industrious and virtuous, no part of the 

 arc unimproved ; and upwards of one hundred world presents a fairer chance for the continuance 

 thousand acres ore in wood or pasturaije. Now , of the physical and inlollectual powers, 

 parts of this county have produced in repeated in- 1 Of her social and political condition, I will 

 stances more than one hundred bushels of corn to speak only of the great and essential elements, 

 the acre, more than thirty of wheat, more than eight ' What can wo ask more, then, than that all labor 

 hundred of carrots, more than nine hundred of should he voluntary ; that the fruits of honest indust- 

 Swedish turnip, more tlian five hundred of potatoe.=, | ry should belong to those, who have produced them ; 

 and more than four tons of hay. Tliese facts rest that religious liberty should bo enjoyed in its wid- 

 upon un<iue>tionablc testimony. The redemption e.st latitude ; that justice should be carefully and 

 of waste lands, in the county to which I refer, has promptly administered, and accessible to the most 

 in several instances of extensive improvements, in- j humble and the least protected ; that the dominion 

 creased its products twenty times in quantity and | of the law sliould be unquestioned ; that the bur- 



value ; and has raised the value of the lands in 

 many cases from five dollars to one hundred dollars 

 per acre. 



" 'I'he bounds of Massachusetts are irregular ;" 

 strange that nature should not have conformed more 

 exactly to the ru'es of ait and confined herself to 

 right lines. Tiie indentation of her shores how- 

 ever forms many valuable inlets and harbors, where 

 her enterprising mariners find shelter and anchor- 

 age. Even her sandy shores and plains are not 

 tvithout their fertile spots. There is many an oasis 

 in the ileserts ; and with the animal and vegetable 

 deposits thrown up by the moving sea, even her 

 sterile fields are made in many cases highly pro- 

 ductive. 'I he mountains, which form her western 



dens of society should press with a weight too 

 light even to be perceived, by the honest citizen 

 any more than the beautiful element, which con- 

 stantly surrounds him ; that property should be 

 very equally divided, and the various avenues to 

 business be open to ail ; that a true equality should 

 reign every where ; that education, simple and lib- 

 eral, should freely proffer its advantages to all ; 

 that property and distinction should be alike ac- 

 cessible to all ; that the rights of one should op- 

 crate no prejudice to the lawful success of another ; 

 and lastly, that the people should be sovereign, and 

 every man, be he high or low, rich or poor, should 

 be directly responsible to the public judgment. In 

 all these substantial elements of social order and 



boundary, are not without their advantages. They good, wjiat community has ever surpassed oar 

 constitute our dairy and grazing districts. They | own .' 



furnish the richest pasturage, and few of them are 

 incapable of the cultivation of the most valuable 

 grasses, esculent vegetables, oats, harley and Indian 

 corn. Some of these hill-towns are advancing 

 more rapidly in wealth than many of the towns em- 

 bracing the richest alluvions of our valleys. Their 

 inhabitants breathe an air, which gives strength 

 and elasticity to their muscles, and spreads the 

 vermilion hues of health over their countenances. 

 They drink of the gushing spring, which pours its 

 crystal streams from the sides of their mountains, 

 for a draught of which many a settler on the ver- 

 dant and beautiful prairies of the west would glad- 

 ly give bushels of his wheat ; and oftentimes, when 

 I have followed the flight of an adventurous set- 

 tler to his eagle's nest on some of our loftiest sum- 

 mits, I have been sure to find the abode of plenty 

 and independence. Of the soils of Massachusetts, 

 though we have our thin and hungry portions, we 

 have little land, capable of it which will not amply 

 repay the labor and expense of cultivation. Our 

 morasses and peat meadows, when subjected to the 

 operations of a .skilful husbandry, become eminent- 

 ly productive. Our sandy plains are yet to under- 

 go the quickening process, of no doubtful efficacy, 

 of plaster and clover; and in many cases even our 

 roughest granite pastures, wl:ich seem almost to 

 defy cultivation, have been brought under the scythe, 

 sometimes at an enormous expense, and yet in the 

 end a profitable outlay. I have yet to discover the 

 instance of a single agricultural improvement in 

 the State, mana;;ed with judgment, skill and econ- 

 omy, which has not afforded an ample remunera- 

 tion for the expense incurred, and always much 

 more than double its value. In soirie cases this 

 value has been enlianccd a hundred-fold. In this 

 matter it would be easy to give facts upon facts, 

 but time does not admit of it. 



Of the climate of Massachusetts it is enough to 

 say that* epidemic diseases are scarcely known 

 among us ; that we have no unhealthy districts of 

 country ; that a higher standard of health has not 

 been reached in the known world. To the tem- 



Of the picturesque beauty of the scenery of 

 Massachusetts, few even of her own children are 

 fully conscious. In the general neatness and com- 

 fort of her dwellings ; in the beauty and thrift of 

 her numerous villages ; in the improved taste, and 

 every where the increasing attention paid to rural 

 embellishments ; in the neat cottage exhibiting its 

 i^hite front and its Venetian blinds on the side of 

 some beautiful hill, or nn the margin of some 

 peaceful lake, its door yard crowded with ornamen 

 lal trees, its piazzas trcUissed with vines, and its 

 avenues decorated with flowers ; in the school 

 house which meets you so often at the division of 

 the roads, crowded with its courteous, happy, and i 

 buoyant congregation ; in the lyceurns, academies, 

 and colleges for the higher departments of learn- 

 ing, which present themselves in such frequent vi- | 

 cinity ; in the village church, which lifts its glitter- j 

 ing spire from tlie midst of some umbrageous val- I 

 ley, perhaps by the banks of some flowing stream, 

 the traveller who sympatliises in what is beautiful 

 in itself, and delicious and refreshing from its as- 

 sociations, will be constantly charmed and gratified 

 as he passes over our blessed territory. Or is ho 

 in search of the picturesque and the romantic, let 

 him follow round our indented sea-shore and trav- 

 erse its hard-trodden beaches, where the ocean is 

 continually pouring out its phosphorescent jewels 

 at his feet ; let him ascend some of the beautiful 

 prominences in the vicinity of the capital ; let him 

 follow the course of the Merrimack and mark its 

 deep and broken current, the many portions which 

 occasionally open their glistening surface to the 

 eye as he traverses its rich and cultivated shores ; 

 let him come into your own county and observe 

 its in}proved summits, covered in the season of veg- 

 etable luxuriance with their rich herbage, their 

 bending crops, and their numerous herds ; let him 

 visit some of your charming lakes and remark them, 

 when, on their thickly fringed sides, the gorgeous- 

 ncss of their autumnal foliage is reflected in all its 

 variegated brilliancy from their mirrored surface ; 

 let him pass over to tlie valley of the Connecticut, 



and from its mounts Holyoke or Sugar Loaf, Po- 

 cumtuck or Round Hill, let him cast his eye over 

 these extended valleys of exuberant fertility, of 

 high cultivation, and of indescribable magnificence 

 and splendor ; let him follow up the Ueerfield in 

 ts winding course through the beautiful valley of 

 Charlornont, and among the gathering and deep 

 clad mountains of Zoar ; and as he ascends the 

 Hoosic mountain from the east, let him trace the 

 romantic passage of this wayward stream by the 

 silver radiance of its waters as they find their pas- 

 sage through the deep and dense and frowning 

 mountains which at every step seem determined to 

 resist their progress ; let him pursue .his journey 

 until he reaches the western descent of the Iloosic 

 range ; and let him stop at this striking spot and 

 mark the unrivalled beauty and sublimity of the 

 valley and mountain scenery as it first bursts upon 

 the view ; let him take his stand where the Hoosic 

 and the Housatonic rise in the close vicinity of 

 each other, and follow down their winding currents 

 until they pass beyond the boundaries of the state ; 

 let him from whatever point he may choose, look 

 down upon the exquisitely beautiful valleys of 

 Williamstown, of Lanesboro', of Pittsfield, of Lee, 

 of Hop-brook, of Stoclrbridge, of Leno.x, of Great 

 Barrington, of Shefiield, of Richmond, and of Eg- 

 remont; and if his eye is not enchanted, his affec- 

 tions warmed, his taste improved, his imagination 

 illumined and lifted up, it is because he has not 

 the common attributes of humanity. 



Such, fellow citizens, is the territory, in which 

 divine providence has in its beneficence cast your I 

 lot. I will not disturb the grateful and honest 

 pleasure with which you contemplate your own 

 goods, by any invidious comparison with the condi- 

 tion of others less favored. It is enough for us to 

 know our own blessings ; to acknowledge, to secure, 

 and to extend them. This is to be done by labor ; 

 labor of the heart, of the head, and of the hands. 

 Man was formed for labor. Physical exertion is 

 indispensable to physical energy and activity ; and 

 physical energy and activity are the essential con- 

 ditions of intellectual greatness and power. 

 CTo be continued.) 



Irish Character. — In the midst of those most law- 

 less burnings and destruction of property, the genu- 

 ine Irish peasantis scrupulously honest in his inter- 

 course with hisneighbors, faitliful to death in his 

 attachments, an incorruptible follower, with a heart 

 that heats with rude but impulsive sympathy for the 

 sufferings of others, and glows with a genuine but 

 understood ill love of country. Yet these characters 

 are sometimes murderers, outlaws, ready for every 

 violence — his hand armed against civilization when 

 civilization becomes armed against him — and the 



whole tenor of Ins life at variance with the best inter- 

 ests of society. The world may make its convention- 

 al virtues and vices, and civil associations may dic- 

 tate forms, but the source of good is in the feelings 

 and affections of the animal. Even when bad gov- 

 ernment titrns them aside from their natural career 

 and enforces disordered reaction,the Irish make them- 

 sel ves a code of morality which fits them for the un- 

 to'ward difliculties of their position. — Lady Morgan. 



The Northampton Courier saya that a farmer in 

 Hadley, last year raised upon two acres of meadow 

 land, 57 1-2 bushels of sound wheat. \\ hen re-meas- 

 ured this spring, it was less in amount from waste 

 and shrinkage, but what he had was sold for seed at 

 $2 50 per bushel, and produced him the handsome 

 sum of one hundred and twentyfive dollars ! 



