1S60. 



NEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



535 



play the piano while the men are eating, and can 

 teach beside. 



Look at our male musicians throughout the 

 country ; all are farmers,mechanics, artists, clerks, 

 all engaged in some daily occupation. The "lot" 

 of which Miss Spinster speaks, people will not be 

 contented with in those days ; machinery and im- 

 proved implements of every description have les- 

 sened our labors. The tired farmer is not obliged 

 to labor late in the evening, paring apples, husk- 

 ing corn, &c ; machines help him do this, giving 

 him most of his evenings in which to enjoy his 

 books, papers, violin, the society of his family, 

 neighbors and friends. If our parents and grand- 

 parents were contented with their lot, we have 

 reason to be much more contented with ours, and 

 if we are not, we are a thankless and thoughtless 

 generation. Old Bach. 



ON THE HILLS. 



Princeton, October 16, 1860. 



Gentlemen : — Why do not more of your nov- 

 elty-seeking citizens come out here and get up 

 higher in the world than they evtr stood before ? 

 Even the denizens of Beacon Street might do 

 this and find pleasure and profit in it, if pure air 

 and a good deal of it, and renewed health are val- 

 uable. Here I am, up, up, I cannot tell how high, 

 and yet old Wachuset looms up nineteen hundred 

 feet higher than I am. Sixty feet below the apex 

 are the white tents of the United States Survey- 

 ing Party, having a good time when they can. 

 Sunday night was a "buster" up there, and made 

 lively work with every thing that was not tied 

 down to peg or rock. The "rains descended and 

 the floods came," and along with them snow and 

 hail, and a breeze that would have started a Cali- 

 fornia clipper through the water at twenty knots 

 an hour. One of the party up there said to me : 

 "The wind blew fearfully that night." They are 

 encamped sixty feet below the top, so that they 

 lead a living spring, which they found half-way 

 between them and the highest point, into the midst 

 of their canvas village. 



I came here last evening to have an agricultural 

 talk with the people, which toolc place very pleas- 

 antly to myself, at least, at the Tov/n Hall. I 

 found many of them appreciating the blessings 

 which their occupation confers, and with large 

 views of its dignity and importance. They have es- 

 tablished a Farmers' Club, and are entering vigo- 

 rously upon some of the leading topics of im- 

 provement. Some of the young men were ear- 

 nest in their inquiries as to the best modes of 

 draining lands, as that is to be the subject of dis- 

 cussion next week. Hon. John Brooks, a mem- 

 ber of the State Board of Agriculture, and one of 

 the intelligent and progressive men of the age, 

 has not only the disposition but the means to set 

 many good examples, and he has done so in a 

 highly commendable manner. If he is willing to 

 risk the expenditure of $25 to §50 per acre in an 



experiment of underdraining, and the experiment 

 proves a successful one, and increases the profits 

 of crops ten to twenty per cent., that example set- 

 tles the question for all his towns-people who pos- 

 sess similar lands. They need no longer to labor 

 in doubt, but with the certainty of success. It is 

 in this light that men of progress make themselves 

 especially serviceable to the world. There are 

 many excellent farms in the town, but my arrival 

 there was too late to aff'ord me any opportunity 

 of looking at their stock, or at the crops they had 

 just secured. The surface of the town is much 

 broken by abrupt hills which are swept by fierce 

 winds during several months in the year, and the 

 roads in winter are often considerably obstructed 

 with snow ; but this admirably adapts the land to 

 grazing purposes, so that fine steers, oxen and 

 milch cows are produced abundantly. 



With such pasturage the dairy becomes a 

 prominent feature in their agricultural industry, 

 and they produce butter of the most excellent 

 quality, considerable of which, 1 was informed, is 

 contracted for at thirty cents per pound in Bos- 

 ton market. Large quantities, also, of excellent 

 quality, go to Worcester, where it is always in 

 demand, the good people of that city being well 

 acquainted with the butter-making skill of their 

 neat mountain neighbors. The people of the tov/n 

 are intelligent, industrious and frugal, and look 

 down upon the rest of the world with a wonder- 

 ful degree of complacency, considering how ele- 

 vated they are themselves ! 



Returning from the exercises at the Hall, I 

 had an hour's pleasant chat with my kind host 

 and his wife before a glowing wood fire in an 

 open Franklin stove. The frost was sharp and 

 the wind was up when I went to my chamber, and 

 v/hen fairly "under the cappers," I could not af- 

 ford to lose at once in forgetfulness the delight- 

 ful music it made as it swept from the snow-clad 

 mountain behind me down to the vvorld below. So 

 in a dreamy state I laid and heard it sing its wild 

 mountain song, sometimes fancying the sea before 

 me, with its restless and never-ceasing waves try- 

 ing to Avash out the base of old Wachuset, but 

 waking a little, missed the regular cadences of 

 coming and retreating waves, and became sensi- 

 ble that I was in the region of old Boreas and his 

 attendant train. The snow now lies in little drifts 

 under the north side of fences and buildings, the 

 remnant of Sunday night's storm. 



My visit has been a pleasant one, for which I 

 am greatly indebted to the attentions of Major S. 

 S. Hastings and his kind lady, who took me in 

 when cold and hungry, and set me down to a boun- 

 tiful table before a good wood fire ! Think of 

 that, gentlemen, and believe me, 



Very truly yours, SiMON Brown. 



Messrs. Nourse, Eaton & Toljian. 



