660 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Dec. 



it and rub in all I can, holding fheboots to the fire 

 the same as I would do while greasing them. Try 

 this and >ou will not be troubled witti wet ft^et or 

 with hard or stiff uppers; it ali-o preserves the 

 leather and the thread, and I am sure that all 

 who are much exposed to slops and saows will be 

 greatly bcntfited by trying the experiment on a 

 einele pair of boots. Old Subsckiber. 



Heath, Mass., Oct., 1870. 



TO SWEETEN FROWY BUTTER FIRKINS. 



To a cnrrespondent who asks how to extract the 

 taste of the wood from butter firkins, I w(iuld say 

 that sweet or sour milk will do the work much 

 better than salt or saltpetre. There is nothing 

 which absorbs smell or taste so quickly as milk, 

 cream or butter; and there is ro agent so desir- 

 abie to use in extracting the wooden taste (rom all 

 new utensils. A churn can have the taste of wood 

 wholly taken out by it. s. o. J. 



A TBIP IN HUTIiAND COUNTT, VT. 

 Eutland Village. 



"While waiting at the railroad depot in Rutland, 

 Vt., for a train to Fair Haven, we had an oppor- 

 tunity, a few wetks since, of contrasting that place 

 as we had previously seen it, and as it now is. In 

 1831 we fptnt a few weeks in the vi lase; and our 

 impression on « subsequent visit in 1845 was that 

 population and business had decreased during the 

 intervening period, and that it was then one of the 

 dullest and least stirring towns in the Stite,— 

 everj thing indicating a standstill or retrograde. 



Ever since that time our recollection of Rutland 

 has been asiociated with that of Irvicg's Sleepy 

 Hollow. But this association is now broken. 

 While the bugla blast of the brave Antony Van 

 Corlear was unheeded alike in Petticoat Lane and 

 Sleepy Hollow, the first locomotive whistle that 

 stirred the air of Rutland must have brought 

 every man to his feet. For, now, in place of the 

 quiet, rural town of perhaps 2700 inhabitant?, we 

 fiud a commercial city often thousand wide awake 

 people, wiih new streets stretching out, and new 

 buildings lising up, in all directions. 



"West Eutland Marble ■Works. 



In many places in Rutland as well as in Middle- 

 bury, Brandon and other towns through which 

 we had j ist passed, the ground is white with 

 blocks, slabs, and chips of marble, showing that 

 the Grten Mountains were not made for the sole 

 purpo.'e of h'jlding the world together. 



At AVeat R,utland we visited several "marble 

 works," at one of which we understood that some 

 200 men were employed in mining and fitting the 

 product for market. Here, at a depth of some 150 

 feet, steam ci gincs were aiding the workmen in 

 cutting lilotks from the solid mass of geological 

 loaf sHgar that was deposited there, for ought we 

 know, '!in the beginning." Other steam engines 

 were pulling away at huge metallic ropes which 

 raised the blocks from their beds below to the 

 bright tunshine above, where once more steam 

 "shaketb the saw" that shapes the marble to the 

 various forms rtqurircd for use and ornament. 



There is a marked difference in the tiers or layers 

 of which these beds are composed — as many as 

 eighteen being counted in some mines, — which are 

 characterized as white, gray, taottkd, striped, 

 saccharoidal, laminated, friable, compact, &c. The 

 market demand, at piesent, is mainly for the 

 white. 



Fair Haven Slats "Works. 



Passing on to Fair Haven we found slate works 

 instead of maible. Near the station is a mill or 

 factory where slate is planed to desired thickness 

 and then by narrow, or "key-hole" saws, cut rnto 

 elegant forms for mantel- pieces, jambs, and other 

 interior decorations, as well as s^jlit thin for roof- 

 ing. 



This is the centre of the slate region, and we 

 understood that Vermont slate was rapidly be- 

 coming popular, not only in tlie cities and vil- 

 lages of our own county, but that bailders in 

 Ergland, to whom specimens had been sent some 

 years ago, were so well pleased wiih it that sev- 

 eral large orders have been received from there, 

 and a thousand "sqaares" have already been 

 shipped to London, and fifty to Bangor, Wales, 

 the centre of the Welsh Slate region. 



Farm of John Balis and Son, Benson. 

 From Fair Haven we passed over a good farm- 

 ing country, with a clay soil, toB.nson, a distance 

 of some ten miles, by stage. Benson lies on Lake 

 Champlain and is consequently one of the West- 

 ern towns of the county. We spent several days 

 iu the eastern part of the town, with John Balis, 

 Esq., and Son, who own and carry on a farm of 

 1400 acres, a large portion of which is in view 

 from the elevation on which the homestead build- 

 ings stand. We noticed that the elevations in this 

 township trend generally north and south, conse- 

 quently the east and west roads are more hilly 

 than those which run nor;h and south. Mr. Bilis 

 has faith not only in farming, but in farming in 

 Vermont; and as his neighbors have successively 

 caught the Western, or other migratory fevers, 

 and offered their farms for sale, he has bought 

 them out, one after another, until his present farm 

 embraces territory on whith ten families formerly 

 had independent homes. He has been led into 

 this territorial expansion by the good trades that 

 have thus been offered ; but now, wishing to live 

 easier, he would dispose of a part of the estate, 

 and has offered to sell to the directors of the Ver- 

 mont Horse Stock Company 1003 acres, with sev- 

 eral buildings thereon, at $30 per acre, which, 

 on account of its distance from railroad facilities, 

 may not be purch.'sed by them. An offer of 

 land in Shelburne, without buildings, at ^70 per 

 acre, has also been made to the company. With 

 a railroad through Benson, of which there is con- 

 siderable talk, Mr. B. believes that the difference 

 in price between Benson and Shelburne land would 

 at once be greatly equalized. The real value 

 of the land for ordinary farm purposes, however, 

 would not be materiaMy affected by the proposed 



