1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEI^IER. 



457 



once be punctured with a sbarp knife. If the 

 the abscess be a large one, or there be several 

 of them, apply the same poultice as recom- 

 mended above, and the same general treat- 

 ment, modified by the mildness or the severity 

 of the disease. 



Hoping that your "Subscriber" will find here, 

 at least, the evidence of an eflfort to produce 

 something to meet his case, I am, gentlemen, 

 truly yours. Shepherd. 



For the New England Farmer, 



FASMS AND SCENERY IN NEW HAMP- 

 SHIRE. 



In the hilly town of Guilford, beneath the 

 shadow of Belknap mountains, and ovei'look- 

 ing sweet Winnipiseogee, I have pitched my 

 summer tent, or ratbcr domesticated myself 

 for a time within the household of one of the 

 "oldest settlers." On his farm is the founda- 

 tion of the first log hut built in this locality, 

 and he relates a story of the time when, the 

 fire on the hearth going out, the housewife 

 footed three miles in the wilderness, to the 

 next neighbor, for living brands to rekindle 

 it. Out in the orchard is a small graveyard, 

 containing the remains of grandparents an.d 

 other relatives. Many of these rough farms 

 have their burial corner, which was established 

 when neighbors were few and far between. 

 Where strangers po'ssess the old homestead 

 or where the young people have deserted it, 

 these burial places sugg-i-st painful rtflections. 



Deserted farms are frequent in this part of 

 the State. The old folks obey the decree of 

 inexorable Time, and the young folks finding 

 farming among the rocks unremunerative 

 drudgery, adopt other employments, or leave 

 for the West or California. These ruggeil 

 hills have reared a race of men of clear heads 

 and warm hearts and stalwart forms. They 

 go forth realizing the responsibilities of life ; 

 examples of endurance, uprightness and in- 

 dependence. They have learrned from these 

 eloquent hills the precepts of patience, con- 

 tent and charity — that nothing lives in or for 

 itself— and these teachings follow them through- 

 out life. 



To Adolphus Don Carlos and Arabella 

 Daffodowndilly, with romantic and extravaga- 

 gant ideas regarding "love in a cottage," and 

 ."summer residences," the cheapness of farms 

 are a constant surprise. The land only is 

 really sold, — the house and out-buildings are 

 thrown in. This farm of 150 acres of pasture, 

 woodland, orchard, and cultivated fields is 

 worth three thousand dollars. That farm 

 near by of eight acres, with a good two-story 

 bouse and barn was sold last autumn for 

 $\}50. Another farm a mile away, containing 

 lUOO acres of which the middle Belknap moun- 

 tain forms a part, is worth between $3U00 and 

 $4000. It has a roomy cottage, well kept 

 and painted, convenient barns and shed, sur- 

 rounded by meadows, maple groves, waving 



fields of wheat, corn, &c. But still there are 

 valuable farms tn this vicinity. Mr. G. W. 

 Sanders in Guilford, bought mne years ago his 

 farm of 150 wooded acres, bordering on the 

 Lake, for $18,000. The first year he cut 

 lumber enough to pay for it, and the next 

 year as much more. That was, and is sti!l, a 

 p-i'ofitable farm. The land is t'he best I bave 

 seen in this vicinity. Mr. Sanders evidently 

 understands farming and makes it something 

 more than a drudgery. 



I wish there could be a law concerning 

 fences. In no other State can there be worje 

 fences than one finds in this part of New 

 England. Such promiscuous outlines of stone 

 walls — such bartered and infirm boards, nailed 

 as if affected by lunacy, to ancient, crumbling 

 supports ! — and this in a country where stones 

 grow all the year round. In numerous fields, 

 Httle heaps of stones are piled a few fett 

 apart, and year in and year out the farmers 

 plough around them and mow about them, 

 when an ox-team with a leisure afternoon 

 could clean every stone into a corner and 

 make the fields more valuable and beautiful. 

 Farmer John could erect h'-s own monument, 

 as some farmers of Princeton, Mass., have 

 done, in walls from five to fifteen feet broad, 

 and level and true. Another unpleasant fea- 

 ture are the old orchards, filled with gnarled 

 and dead-limbed apple trees, a protest against 

 good fruit, cumberers of the soA, blotches on 

 the landscape,, and a bad example of farming. 

 The youDg farmers do not care so much for 

 posterity as did their fathers. 



From Belknap mounta^in, the view of the 

 lake and mountains is more attractive than 

 f:em Red Hill, where the finest survey of the 

 country is obtained. Standing midway in the 

 curve of Winnipiseogee, from the summit, the 

 enraptured eye sweeps over a landscape hun- 

 dreds of miles. Northeast we look straight 

 ahead 150 miles. On a clear day, shipping 

 can be discerned in Portsmoalb harbor. All 

 the mountains of New H^mp-bire are com- 

 prised in the view, many of them fl ittened at 

 the altitude of hills from which we observe 

 them. Every one of the Wnite and Franconia 

 mountains can be distinctly counted, — Mt. 

 Washington being ever an isolated feature 

 from every point of observation. 



Lake Winnipiseogee is about thirty miles 

 long, one to seven in breadth, and lifts itself 

 500 feet above the sea. It contains 3G5 

 islands, 272 having been surveyed. Some of 

 these are thoroughly subdued by cultivation. 

 Davis' island — where we spent a day with a 

 m-erry picnic party — contains over eleven L-un- 

 dred acres, which compose two farms. Over 

 sixty years ago, a Mr. Davis gave his reckless 

 scapegrace of a son this island with conditions 

 that he should live on it. It was then heavily 

 timbered and worth a hundred or two. It has 

 been sold several times for $12,000 although 

 most of the timber is gone. This son ctcd in 

 1843, aged 79, and is buried in a little lot on 



