558 



NEW ENGLAND FAE^SIER. 



Dec. 



was described as identical with the Marsh Hawk 

 of Europe, Circus cyaneus. It is found dispersed 

 throughout New England, but most abounds 

 where there are extensive meadows, and is said by 

 Wilson to be very serviceable to the planters of 

 the Southern States by the havoc it makes among 

 tiio immense flocks of Rice Birds or Bobolinks, 

 that at times are so destructive to the rice and 

 grain fields. They possess a voracious appetite, 

 and destroy multitudes of mice. An individual 

 that I recently dissected contained the greater 

 part of a young rabbit, and several meadow mice. 

 The Marsh Hawk breeds upon the ground, lay- 

 ing four roundish, bluish white eggs. Length 

 tvv-enty-one inches, breadth of Aving, three feet ten 

 inches ; color above, glossy chocolate brown, 

 slightly skirted with ferruginous ; beneath, very 

 pale ferruginous, marked with brown. J. A. A. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ■WASHINGTON AS AN AGKICULTUKIST. 



Dear Farmer : — Perhaps a short account o 

 Washington as an agriculturist, may be new and 

 interesting to some of your readers. His views 

 upon the raising of tobacco might well be pon- 

 dered by our Connecticut valley producers of the 

 weed. I copy from "Washington's Political Leg- 

 acies," to which is annexed an appendix, contain- 

 ing an account of his illness, death, &c. &c. Bos- 

 ton, 1800. 



"Colonel Washington was one of the greatest 

 landholders in North America; his estate at 

 Mount Vernon was computed in 1787, to consist 

 of nine thousand acres, under his own manage- 

 ment and cultivation : he had, likewise, various 

 other large tracts of land in other parts of the 

 State ; his annual receipt from his estates, amount- 

 ing in 1776, to four thousand pounds sterling, 

 and it was then believed would have sold for up- 

 wards of one hundred and sixty thousand ])ounds 

 sterling, which is equal to more than $606,000. 

 AVhat his revenue was recently, we do not know, 

 but there can be little presumption in supposnig 

 it was much increased under his prudential guid- 

 ance, and practical economy. 



"He allotted apart of the Saturday in each week 

 to receive the reports of his overseers, which were 

 registered progressively, to enable him to com- 

 pare the labor with the produce of each particular 

 part, and it is affirmed that this weekly retrospect 

 was duly considered by this great man during the 

 stormy movements of the revolutionary war, and 

 his presidency of the United States. He has 

 raised in one year, seven thousand bushels of 

 wheat, and ten thousand bushels of Indian corn, 

 on his Mount Vernon estates ; in a succeeding 

 year he raised two hundred lambs, sowed twenty- 

 seven bushels of flax seed, and planted seven hun- 

 dred bushels of potatoes : at the same time his 

 domestics manufactured linen and woolen cloth 

 enough for his numerous household, which 

 amounted to nearly a thousand persons. With 

 him, regularity and industry were the order of each 

 day, and the consequent reflection made them all 

 happy. Though agriculture was pursued by him 

 M-ith such undeviating attention, he used it rather 

 as the means of his pleasure, than the end of his 

 wishes, which concentrated in the labor to im- 

 prove the well being of his fellow-citizens ; and to 



effect this, he desisted fron. planting tobacco, to 

 employ himself in the introduction and fostering 

 such articles of vegetation as might ultimately 

 tend to a national advantage." F. 



Amherst, Mass., Oct. 17, 1860. 



GOV. FAIKBANKS' ADDSESS. 

 The address of Gov. Fairbanks to the General 

 Assembly of Vermont, now in session, is an ex- 

 cellent one. A portion of what he says of the ag- 

 ricultural affairs of the State wo give below. 



"From an abstract of the seventh United States 

 Census, it appears that in 1850 there were in this 

 State two million six hundred thousand four hun- 

 dred and nine acres of improved land, — a quanti- 

 ty exceeding that of any other New England 

 State; and that our agricultural products for that 

 year exceeded in quantity those of any of the same 

 States, in the articles of live stock, butter, cheese, 

 wool, wheat, oats, potatoes, hay, and a variety of 

 other crops. The value of live stock, as shown by 

 that census, was twelve million six hundred forty- 

 three thousand two hundred twenty-eight dollars, 

 and the aggregate of farming productions for 

 that year, shows a valuation, including live stock, 

 of about twenty-five millions of dollars, being 

 nearly equal to eighty dollars for each individual 

 of our population. 



The well-known industry of our citizens, en- 

 gaged in agricultural pursuits, and the capabili- 

 ties of our soil, have been made available for in- 

 creasing the amount of these products, under the 

 stimulus of augmented prices, consequent upon 

 the opening of railway communication with the 

 markets. It may therefore be assumed that this 

 department of industry has not only maintained 

 its relative importance, but that it has, during 

 the intervening years since the above date, ex- 

 perienced a constant and healthful growth and in- 

 crease ; still it is conceived that it is capable of 

 far greater development, and a much more abun- 

 dant increase. 



Vermont is essentially an agricultural State. 

 The great body of its citizens are engaged in ag- 

 ricultural pursuits. The salubriousness of its soil, 

 and the variety of its physical structui-e, adapt it 

 to the cultivation of the most essential and profi- 

 table crops, and to the successful prosecution of 

 cattle and sheep husbandry. Other important 

 interests exist, and are successfully prosecuted ; 

 but it is to this, essentially, that we are to look 

 for the most marked and healthy growth of the 

 State in wealth and prosperity." 



He says the evidence of thrift and prosperity ia 

 observable among all classes of the citizens of the 

 State, but the remark is especially applicable to 

 the department of agriculture. He recommends 

 the establishing a State Board of Agriculture for 

 the collection of statistical and other information 

 relating to agriculture, to be embraced in annual 

 reports for distribution tlu"oughout the State. 



Poets make a book of nature, wherein they 

 read lessons unknown to other minds, even as 

 astronomers make a book of the heavens, and read 

 therein the movements of the planets. 



