36 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



it of philantlii-opy and love on excrj i)agc, it also 

 utters that Puritan sternness for right that never 

 compromises with wrong. 



In its ap]H'0])riate branch of learning, the school- 

 book should not only teach the child how to de- 

 claim, but at the same time something of the na- 

 ture of the laws and government under which he 

 lives, — of agriculture, of the sciences and arts, — 

 and especiall)-, of those principles which impel 

 and make prosperous a free and virtuous people ! 

 A mercenary thought underlies the i)ublication of 

 too many of our books : the question being, how 

 will it sell, and tvhere Avill it sell, so that the larg- 

 er half of our population, who are right, have no 

 book yet that speaks for them. 



The Free S])eaker has two or three features of 

 importance. One is, that the pieces are all new, 

 and not the hackneyed ones that have been worn 

 threadbare for the last half century. This is a 

 matter of consequence to those who speak in our 

 schools. The other peculiarity of the book is, that 

 about one-quarter of the pieces are original. The 

 pieces are all single. We hope the "Free Speak- 

 er" will have a widely-extended use ; and if so, 

 good men and good women will be greatly multi- 

 plied in the land. 



LETTER FHOM -WESTEBOT VIRGINIA. 



Farmers aud Faniiinj;- — Great Products of Corn, Pota- 

 toes, &C-. — Tlie "iiiatitution" lading away — Yankee In- 

 fluence — Soil and Climate — Progress in Ceredo. 



Ccredo, Va., Oct 24, 18u9. 



Since I have been here, two years and above, 

 and taken some pains to jnake observations on the 

 subject, 1 am able to offer some testimony as to 

 the productiveness of the soil in this section. I 

 find the efi'ects of the "institution" here, where 

 there is no slavery comparatively. The most in- 

 telligent residents themselves will tell us, that 

 they do nothing at farming, because they do not 

 try— they are too lazy, and have l^een taught from 

 childhood that only slaves should labor industri- 

 ously and constantly ; so if they wish to produce 

 any crops, they hii-e some one to cultivate the land 

 for them, or rent it out to some one poorer than 

 themselves, and neither of them make a living. 

 Tliis is the case with a majority of landholders in 

 this county. So that when a stranger rides along 

 the highways, he will see only a few attractive 

 farming operations, and would not be favorably 

 Im])ressed with the quality of the soil. 



The neglect to cultivate the soil, and in fact the 

 neglect to do anything in season, or as well as it 

 should be done, is so generally the practice, that 

 farming makes a poor show. However, there is 

 here and there a farmer who does the best that 

 can be done for profit and for his land. A farmer, 

 two miles from this, who this year cultivated about 

 one hundred and fifty acres of land, shows what 

 cait be done in the M-ay of large products. 



On a ]ncce of hill lan.d where his predecessor 

 could not get a living, he raised corn at the rate 

 of eighty-five bushels to the acre. I saw some of 

 it before jt was cut. 1 could not reach the ears on 

 the stallis, and many of the ears ai-e more than 



one foot in length, I heard of stocks seventeen 

 feet high, and ears of corn sixteen inches long, 

 but did not see them. The same farmer, however, 

 has one piece of corn of fifty-six acres, on which 

 he has raised fifty-six huncb^ed bushels of corn. 

 He is a systematic, energetic farmer, and goes in 

 for improved machinery, and all the best farming 

 tools, and so he makes four times as much as his 

 neighbors, who attribute his success to the use of 

 capital ! 



I was going to tell what I had seen of the pro- 

 ducts of the soil. I saw an acre ])atch of melons, 

 from which the proprietor had sold $200 worth of 

 melons, and there were three to five hundred yet 

 on the ground. The ground was scratched up once, 

 and the seed put in — that's all. In sjnte of such 

 bad treatment, the ground produced enormously. 

 The same man had sAveet potatoes groAving on an 

 adjoining jiiece of land, and they turned out at the 

 rate of more than 2.30 bushels to the acre — or if 

 you Avish to have me exact, the ground Avhich I 

 measured Avas five feet long, and tAvo feet Avide, 

 and the ]n'oduct Avas more than a bushel and a 

 half. Some of them Avere very large, and all very 

 good — the best I have ever eaten. 



Apples and peaches groAV Avithout care or culti- 

 vation, of the best quality, and very large. ^lany 

 orchards bear the Rome Beauties, as they are 

 called, year after year, the trees yielding from five 

 to eleven barrels each. These apples are very fine 

 flavored, mature about Christmas time, and are a 

 general favorite in the Ohio Valley. Thousands of 

 barrels go doAvn the river every year. Another very 

 excellent apple, ripe noAv, and not good to keep, 

 is Avhat is called the "Blue Pearmain." The spec- 

 imens I saAV — a lot of thii'ty bushels — Avould more 

 than half of them measure tAvelve inches in cir- 

 cumference. They are very rich flavored. But lit- 

 tle fancy fruit, cultivated Avith the greatest care, 

 could be better. There is a peach orchard on the 

 mountain side, thirteen miles from here, Avhere the 

 trees have borne every year Avithout fail for tAven- 

 ty-four years. They have had little care, and have 

 never been trimmed out. 



It Avould not be Avorth Avhile, perhaps, to partic- 

 ularize the mammoth turnips, beets, SAveet pota- 

 toes, Hzc, for you have such things at your agri- 

 cultural fairs ; but they are so common as not to 

 excite admiration, and they groAv Avitbout the ex- 

 pense of cultivation required in a different climate. 



Wherever a Yankee has cultivated the ground, 

 he has got such returns as excited his special Avon- 

 der, and fixed him here for good. One Avho pur- 

 chased a farm six miles from here tAvo years ago, 

 for foiu" dollars and fifty cents per acre, was 

 laughed at for ])aying so much for tlie "Avorn out" 

 fiirm. I could see that he kncAv Avhat he Avas about 

 he kncAv a farm Avhich Avas never cultivated could 

 not be Avorn out ; and now, the men Avho laughed 

 at liim begin to think he knoAvs something ; and 

 that same Yankee has noAv as much influence, and 

 his advice is sought as often as that of any other 

 man in the neighborhood. He had only been at 

 Avork eighteen months, Avhen his nearest neighbor, 

 an old man and a slaveholder, made up his mind 

 to sell his best "cash niggers." So five t)f them 

 Avere at once disposed of, and he has only little 

 nigs, and feeble, or females, for hel]) in the house. 

 He "reckons" lie can cultivate his farm as cheap 

 by free labor, and has not anything to say against 

 Yankees, as he did at fu-st, sui)posing they Avere 



