246 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



machines for cutting hay or straw. With one of 

 these, in good order, having a properly adjusted 

 balance wheel, a man may cut six to ten times as 

 much in a day as he could with one where the cut- 

 ting knife is raised perpendicularly at every blow 

 — and the work with the rotary motion would be 

 greatly less laborious. I think the mowing ma- 

 chine may yet be constructed upon a rotary prin- 

 ciple, and at the same time require less power to 

 move it, while it will accomplish an equal amount 

 of good work. We have hand cultivators now, 

 resting upon a leading wheel, that enable a man 

 to do more, and better work, among certain crops, 

 in a day, than four men can do with a common 

 hoe ! This has been fairly tested by candid men, 

 who could have no motive to misrepresent. 



I have also visited the works where the Tyler 

 Water Wheds are constructed, and saw them ready 

 to be set in place, but had no opportunity to see 

 one in motion. Every part of the wheel is of iron, 

 and the sizes range from two feet to eight or ten 

 feet in diameter. The wheel runs in a close curb, 

 not unlike a wash-tub, if the top were close as is 

 the bottom, with the exception of tm opening for 

 the shaft. It is claimed that it will give more 

 power than any other wheel yet invented, under 

 the same head of water. The Rotary Spader, the 

 Eevolving Ilarroio and the Tyler Water Wheel are 

 owned, and the latter manufactured by J. P. Up- 

 HAM & Co., of Claremont. 



Having attended to the business which called 

 me here, in company with Mr. Upham, I looked at 

 some of the farms in his neighborhood. His own 

 farm of 215 acres lies upon a high and beautifully 

 sweeping hill, and extending from the highway 

 one mile to the bank of the Connecticut River. 

 The land is of granite formation, with a portion of 

 clay, and with but few stones. In front of his new 

 and elegant mansion, there are upwards of thirty 

 acres in lawn and orcharding — the orchard occupy- 

 ing a slope of the northerly corner. Fine rock 

 maples, elms, spruce and balsams are standing 

 singly or in groups about the house, with well 

 considered vistas at every point through which to 

 see the charming prospects beyond. West of the 

 house is an open field of sixty acres — upon which 

 I did not see a stone — blooming with red clover, 

 or covered with other grasses, acres of corn, oats 

 or winter and spring wheat. Above this was 

 another orchard of some hundreds of trees, and 

 beyond these, toward Ihe river, the grazing land, 

 and then the forest to the rive*- banks — the whole 

 forming a perfect parallelogram. 



I have visited many of the places of New Eng- 

 land, celebrated for the boldness and grandewr, 

 or for the varied softness and beauty of their 

 scenery, but have rarely seen any that combines 

 the whole so admirably as the views presented 

 from Mr. Upham's house. In front, looking to 



the north-east, if I am right as to the points, is a 

 broad and deep valley, undulating with hills, part" 

 ly used as pasturage, or covered with rock maples, 

 or other hard wood, and beyond, still higher ele- 

 vations, dignified with the title of mountains. In 

 this valley, the cool and pellucid Sugar river, fresh 

 from the deep fountains of Lake Suuapee, flowed 

 busily over its pebbly bottom, and sent its sweet 

 music to the skies. Turning a little to the west 

 of north, my eye caught the Greef)i Monntain 

 Range, and still farther west, old Ascidney sat in 

 sublime grandeur among the lesser hills. Before 

 me, as I turned, in the green, sunny valley, dotted 

 with white farm-houses and grazing herds of cat- 

 tle and sheep, was the Connecticut River, moving 

 on in its quiet summer manner, now along green 

 banks, sandy beach, or through the dark forest. 

 It was perfect, — and has daguerreotyped itself 

 upon ray memory so that it will never be efiaced. 

 What was the Vale of Tempe, with its Ossa and 

 Olympus, compared with this ! Some poet will 

 yet sing of it in immortal verse. Let me quote 

 what a traveller says of the Vale of Tempe, with 

 slight change, and see if our New England Vale 

 is not worthy of the description : "The scenery 

 of this beautiful Valley fully gratified my expec- 

 tations. In some places it is sylvan, calm and 

 harmonious, and the sound of the water of Sugar 

 River accords with the grace of the surrounding 

 landscape ; in others, it is savage, terrific and ab- 

 rupt ; and, especially in the spring, when the 

 streams are swollen by melting snows, the river 

 runs with violence, darkened by the frowns of 

 stupendous precipices." The truth is, we have 

 mountains and valleys, precipices and water-falls 

 as good as any people can boast of — they only 

 need the pen and pencil of a master's hand to 

 make them known. Bierstadt, of Rocky Moun- 

 tain notoriety, recently passed a month in this re- 

 gion, sketched and painted the scenery which I 

 have just been looking at, and it now graces the 

 parlor or gallery of one of your city merchants. 

 I almost covet the canvas that commemorates so 

 charming a portion of our beautiful world. 



The other side of the river is Vermont, — but 

 Sheep husbandry commences on this side, and 

 through a range of river towns, Walpole, Clare- 

 mont, Lebanon, Charlestown, Hanover, Haverhill, 

 Bath, and others, it receives much attention. 

 Mr. Upham has a flock of nearly 300, and his 

 near neighbor Russell Jarvis, Esq., a large flock 

 on his splendid estate of 700 or 800 acres. In 

 his absence, his accomplished wife received me 

 with the aff'ability and grace which always distin- 

 guishes a true lady, and which impressed me with 

 a desire to remain longer, or to "call again." My 

 stay on the farm was too short to learn anything 

 of its productive powers, or of the mode of its 

 management. The mansion is surrounded by 



