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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SKETCHES OF TRAVEL. 



Mr. Editor : — I improve my earliest spare mo- 

 ment to give you some account of my travels in 

 New England, New York, Ohio and Canada, since 

 my arrival from the Hawaiian, or Sandwich 

 Islands, in the spring of the present year. Let 

 me begin at once, without apology or introduc- 

 tion, save the above. 



May 12th, 1860, I landed at New York, after 

 an absence from my country of thirty-two years 

 and six months. I am not about to tell you of 

 my emotions when I set foot on shore, after so 

 long a separation from the scenes of my child- 

 hood and youth. This, could I do it, a thing by 

 the way exceedingly difficult, would be of little 

 account to your readers. Some good, however, 

 might accrue to them from a brief account of my 

 journeyings through the countrj^, especially as I 

 had my eyes open to the state of agriculture wher- 

 ever I went. Allow me, then, to give you my 

 impressions of the country, of the farms, houses 

 and barns which I passed, together with such new 

 objects of interest as fell under my observation 

 from May 12th, 1860, to this day. 



After spending a fevvf days in New York and 

 vicinity, I took the cars, and travelled in this, to 

 me, new and wonderful style, to your city, pass- 

 ing through Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Spring- 

 field, Worcester, and other pleasant towns. It 

 was in budding spring time. The trees were cov- 

 ered with beautiful foliage, and many of them 

 with blossoms, giving promise of the abundant 

 fruitfulness with which the Great Husbandman 

 has since crowned the year. The fields were be- 

 ing carpeted v/ith grass and the springing grain, 

 and the cattle on the hills and in the valleys 

 seemed exulting in the liberty which the opening 

 season was giving them from the rigors of win- 

 ter. In the pleasant town of Great Barrington, 

 I spent a little season with delight and profit ; re- 

 newed my acquaintance with robin -red-breast, 

 bobolink and whip-poor-will, one of Mhich, and 

 the only one I have heard since my arrival in the 

 country, gave us some stirring notes one evening; 

 visited the splendid country-seat and farm of Da- 

 vid Leavitt, Esq., spending an hour or two in his 

 picture gallery, and formed a slight, but pleasant 

 acquaintance, with several families in the neigh- 

 borhood. It is an excellent town of intelligent 

 farmers. Why should such men or their sons go 

 to California, or even to Pike's Peak, to se^k for 

 gold, or exchangatheir beautiful farms for lands 

 further west ? "Godliness with contentment" will 

 make any man happy in a town like this, or in 

 multitudes of towns in old Massachusetts. The 

 Lord bless the good old State, I pray. 



From Boston, early in June, I took up my line 

 of march for Western New York. I tarried awhile 

 in Oneida county. Here is much good land. 

 The farmers I found hoeing their corn, beginning 

 ere the sun had appeared, and toiling long after 

 his last ray had faded on the distant mountain's 

 top. It seemed to me a great vrhile to toil in a 

 single day, and, followed up, must wear upon the 

 constitution. I need not say that our days and 

 nights at Hawaii are much nearer of a length 

 than with you in New England. I was glad to 

 find, however, that farmers throughout the coun- 

 try, during the long days, have their evening meal 



at about 5 o'clock, P. M. A great improvement, 

 I think, on the old fashion. It must be an eco- 

 nomical arrangement. 



From Oneida county, I went to Watertown, 

 Jefferson county, v>hich I made my headquarters 

 some ten days. Watertown is a beautiful and 

 wealthy place, the residents intelligent and re- 

 fined. The means of social, intellectual and mor- 

 al improvement are richly enjoyed, and are ex- 

 tended, I believe, to all classes in the neighbor- 

 hood, whether agriculturists or mechanics. From 

 Watertown I rode with friends to Carthage, up 

 the noble Black river, twenty-five miles or more. 

 Riding in an open carriage, I had a fine view of 

 the country through which we passed, the f;\rms 

 at one time highly cultivated, with excellent 

 houses, painted white, with neat outhouses, and 

 flower gardens in front. At another time, our 

 road lay through a country quite new, with now 

 and then an opening made in the wilderness of 

 heavy timbered land, in the midst of which had 

 been erected a small log house, and where corn 

 and potatoes were growing among the stumps. 

 I was glad to see that the residents of these new 

 countries had commonly better barns than dwell- 

 ing-houses, thus securing their crops and pro- 

 tecting their cattle, instead of expending their 

 means at first in adorning their dwellings. Cai'- 

 thage is considerable of a village, having excel- 

 lent water privileges, and is a manufacturing 

 place. The same is true of Watertown, and of 

 Teressa, another village in the same county. I 

 was much pleased with Jefferson county, so far 

 as I saw it. It seems to bs a growing part of the 

 great State of New York. 



We took stage at Watertown, and rode about 

 ten miles to Sackett's Harbor. From my early 

 youth, I have heard of this place, and have de- 

 sired to visit it ; not because I supposed (I had 

 no such thought,) that it was a pleasant village, 

 or that the country around it had any particular 

 attraction — but because it Avas one of the seats 

 of the unhappy war of 1812; the place where 

 government built barracks for soldiers, and ships 

 of war to distress the enemy on Lake Ontario — 

 the place where brother with brother fought and 

 weltered in blood. It was the place, too, of graves, 

 and as I rode along the way near the village, my 

 guide said, "These hillocl<s so near each other, are 

 the places where the soldiers who died in the bar- 

 racks were thrown, and covered so slightly that 

 every now and then the bodies are disinterred, 

 or rooted up by the swine !" Some poor fellows 

 of my own neighborhood were among those 

 wretched men v.ho left their bones on this com- 

 mon. As I walked about the barracks, and through 

 this grave-yard, I felt that a soldier's life is mean 

 and unworthy, by the side of the poor, but indus- 

 trious farmer v.ho earns his bread by daily toil. 

 When will men he wise, and live in accordance 

 with the will of Heaven ? What an expenditure 

 of money, of strength, and of life has been made 

 at this point ! Gladly did I move on to my next 

 stopping-place, Rochester, Monroe county, N. Y. 

 In 1817, I took up my abode in the then small 

 village, now the liourishing city of Rochester. I 

 made this my home during five years, though 

 some part of the time I lived in a neighboring 

 town, and I left in the autumn of 1822. Of course, 

 the place lias changed surprisinglv, l\1 fir?t, I 

 was oev/iidered, but oji walking about, 1 found 



