The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-16
Horace s,seley as Farmer boy In the
Wnds OF Vermont.

n.
When we 6rst set our stakes there, father was
IS and mother was % years old. | was not quite
10 ; my brother and two sisters, s, and T. resDec.
lively. third sister-the yOungng at the flock
was born two years later; and all five of "a child
ren have been spared through the intervening As
years.
We now made the acquaintance of genuine
poverty-not beggary, or dependence but the
manly American sort. Our sum total Of worldly
goods including furniture, bedding and the clothes
we stood in, may have been worth $500: but az
we had sfterward TO pay that amount on old New
Hampshire debts our material possessions NAV b >
fairly represented by O. with a credit for 500
worth OF clothing and household stuff Yet We
never needed nor ran in debt for anything never
were without meal. meat aud wood ani very
rarely without money Father went TO choppinr
at fifty cents per day, without repining or appre.
hension; and we children all went to school till
spring, though there were no school .fands in
those days and rate bills for our children made
quite hole in gross income of s. per week
Hitherto, we had never lived within a mile of a
school-house now we were within fifty rods of
One-in fact of two; for quarrel had split the
district, and two schools were in full blast on our
arTival-one on either side of u.s. The Vermont
schools were rather better than ,he New Hamp-
shire-better, at least, in this their terms we're
longer. never tried them In summer-except
one very rainy day; but had a full Opportunity
in winter; and | deeply regret that such homey
sciences as chemistry geology and botany were
never taught-were not even named therein. Had
our range OF studies included these, | had ample
time 10 learn something of them; and this would
have proved of iuestmabe value to me evermore.
Yet am thankful that algebra had not vet been
thrust INTO our rural common schools 10 knot the
trains and squander tie time OF those WHO shonld
be learning something of positive and practical
utility.
Before the spring of 1921 opened, father had
taken job of clearing fifty acres of Will land a
mile north Of our COT; and here be and his sons
were employ ed, save in winter, for the next two
years.
The work was rugged and grimy, but hesItbful.
The land had been tmbsred with yellow pine A
thousand years before as hundred giant TRUNKS,
long since Frustrated. but not yet wholly mould.
cred back TO dust, attested This was followed
by forest OF white pines, of which hundreds
were still standing, mostly ifeless while a large
number lay prone and dead, though the trunks
were mainly sound. Black ash in abundance
formed later and generally living growth; though
fierce coDaagralion, which swept over this whole
region, during great drought four years before
we saw it, had deyOured much and killed more OF
the forest, but increased the unde growth of
beach, alder, poplar ETC., which We were required
TO dispose Of. When we first attacked it, the
snow was just going, aud the water and slush
were knee-deep. We we're all Indifferent chop.
pers when compared with those who usually
grapple with great forests; and the job looked so
formidable that travellers along the tarnpike
which sklrted our task were accustomed to halt
and comfort us with predictions that we b1ys
would be grown men before saw the end OF it.
But, cutting trees and bushes; chopDing up great
trunks into manageable lengths, drawing them
together, rolling up aud burning great heaps of
logs; saving out here and there log that would
DO saw; digging out rotten pines from the soil
wherein they had imbedded themselves SO that
they might dry sufficiently 10 burn Milling and
burning brush and rotten or worthless sticks and
cartiDg home such wood as served for fuel we
persevered until the job was done; when [ could
have begun another just like it and managed so as
not to require more than two-thirds of the labor
~ Ind
a great tract of land to clear Of trees decaying
logs. and bushes, fancy that might give MIN
hints worth considering. N. B.-I work for paY. |
We had been farmers of the poorer class in
New Hampshire; We took rank with day labor
ers 10 Vermont. We had lived freely th0ugh NOT |
lavishly. much less sumptuously, in our earlier |
home; here, we were compelled to observe A |
Steiner frOgaity. The bread of our class in this
secuon was almost exclusively made of rye-Ia /
uah corn oeing little grown on the clay soil Of /
western FermOnt-and, though there are always |
about Six women alive who know how to make /
OF rye the best bread ever tasted oar mother was /
not one of these, and never learned their admir-. |
anle er'. Then the clay ITSELF alternating with |
the weather from mire TO rock, is not well |
adapted 10 bare feet; while detestable C.nsd.
Lhisues which lniest every road and almost every |
held IN Westhaven, are not conducive to plscidtg |
Of temper or propriety of speech. Having the |
sharp laDces OF these thistles dug out OF nv fes
ered feet with needles was long my daily terror
iDu my nightly torture; the tough hOrnY inteCu.
nent with which their rough experiences rad
covered our naked feet. rendering the dslodge.
ntnt OF the thistle boards more labOrlous ami
painful thsD any sOftfOoted person can realize
have never since been able to aDpraise stiff cav
ols ~ their full value.
pTecptous ledge, eighty rods east of the
turnpike from which We worked westward,
Afforded us good spring water and sup,led ma |
'lsO with raitesuakes whereof we killed some
which might have proved annoying TO u barefo II !
'oys. as we worked among The brush and gged.
lsd they caught the idea. Still clearing land is
pleasant work, especially when Won hayeA han.
lred heaps OF log and brush burning at once az a
lark, windy night while ten or twenty acras OF
allen, leaiy timber on fire at once affords a mag. |
llhctnt spectacle. We we're 20 have had 81 psr
Icre, with the use of q team and half the wood |
uitable for timber and fuel: and though $3.50
wen IN those days was not large pay for two
ears work OF a man and two BOYS we we're
veil satisfied. In the event, hosever. Mr. Mnot
led before we had effected settlement, when his
state was declared insOlvent, and we were ing.
led out Of part Of our pay.
Our thlrd year 10 Vermont was Fpent two miles
arther west, where we inhabited and worked a
title place Known as Flea KUOll while father
IN neighborlng saw mill on shares. As he
swed twelve hours aud twelve OF whith
ar ner, Insisted on being bis helper; ont |
hink once working from noon nj midnight
suated my ambition. and never fully learned
he art and mystery of saving boards by water.
'oweT. My brother though younger was more
and made greater progress. | gave |
bat summer pretty diiguety to farming, with
cry mesger results. First the season was wet
III the first of June and our corn. planted in
lortar, encountered brick-!ike crust when il
Gdertook 70 come up; and unable to pierce or
reak 1t. pushed laterally under it for two inches
7 so, untrue dug of the crust aud Introduced
be pale, imprisoned shoots 10 sunshine. Next
anne long summer Of intense drought, baking
nd cracking our fields, so that the hoe made no
erious impression on their rock like masses.
ausing the corn 70 stand still and turn yellow. |
nile the this,les came up thick, rank add yigor.
Us covering the fields with verdure most de.
euul 10 The eye at a distance. We had failed 10 |
sttempt TO make maple sugar that spring, the
eason pelng bad, The trees distant and our
nowledge of the art very meager our crops
mounted to little while the water we drank here |
as 30 bad that the feverAnd ague struck down
ar parents in the fall and all of ia children neYt
OriDg, when we beat Irecipitate retreat from !
lea Knoll-wbereit was said that no family ever
smaned more than year-and returned to ths |
llnot estate; living in large house Just west u
ur former tenement, cultivating the adjacent |
mo on shares, and cleariag of some twenty acres
more OF young white piue, for which we were
De paid by TWO years crops; whi,h proved. ia
re man, failure: our wheat being DESTROYED by
thus ended nv hovish axro.;o- -. - Ct. |