USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont; with descriptions, physical and topographical > Part 4
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est freaks. Here you see a gradual mounting up into the atmosphere at an angle of 45°, and as regular as the roof of a building. Then again you behold ragged, conical mounds running up into the upper regions, sepa- rated from one another by deep ravines, and dark gulfs. On the one hand, hills are covered with evergreens, intermingled with beech and maple; on the other, the bold cliffs of granite and limestone glisten in the sun. These prominences shoot up before and around each other without the least regard to courtesy or deference ; for the more lofty and bulky ones obtrude their bodies athwart the smaller, raising their menacing heads above them, intercepting the rays of the sun, and casting them into the shade. But this uncourtliness of nature affords not the less enjoyment to the spectator, for it gives him a pleasing interchange of light and shade, as far as the eye can reach, and constantly varying as the sun appears to move from east to west. Now and then your eye lights upon a vast, deep, circular concavity ; one half of it bright with the sun's rays, and the other dark by the shade of the interposing trees and rocks.
The traveler moves leisurely forward on a compara- tively smooth and level road, running alternately both sides of the Battenkill, the scenery on either hand beguiling his fatigue, and the heat of the summer sun.
The prospects around are enchanting, but somewhat delusive like those of human life to the inexperienced youth. He sees before him a representation of the difference between anticipation and reality ; between viewing objects in the distance, and actually approaching
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them. For should the traveler undertake to ascend these eminences, which skirt his way, and seem so gently rising and so uniform, he would find how deceitful is the appearance. Steep and arduous will he find the ascent, which seems so gradual and easy of access ; rug- ged and broken too, instead of smooth and continuous. His way will be often unexpectedly entangled by under- brush and briars ; obstructed by ravines and fallen trees, and projecting rocks. The circular cavities, which appear to exclude the burning rays of the sun, inviting him to the cool, shady retreat to rest his limbs, he may find the lurking places of wild beasts, and the venomous reptiles. Such is the difference between human life in the prospect and in the sober reality ; and many a youth has experienced it in his contact with scenes and events of meridian and declining life.
But such reflections improved, enable the civic trav- eler to hold on his way rejoicing ; and looking forward to the end of his pilgrimage when he shall see no more as through a glass darkly, but as face to face.
He is grateful for a sight now and then of the beauty and grandeur of the world which God has made; and waits with patience for the prospects and landscapes of that better country ; that heavenly inheritance, which is, incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away.
As you proceed through Dorsett and Paulett, simi- lar high ridges and deep broad vallies attract your atten- tion. Your eye is riveted ; and your mind can ascend, in gratitude and reverence to the Maker of this world with all its varied beauty and magnificence. Indeed
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the west side of the mountain is more bold and striking than the eastern, especially in Bennington county and the south part of Rutland.
Leaving this interesting region, as you go north, you approach the head of Champlain. The scenery now somewhat changes, but continues to inspire the mind with pleasing and elevating sensations. Deep ravines, or rather gulfs, in many places make their way from the sides of the mountain to the borders of the Lake. They seem like passages for the waters which fill its bed, and once gushed out, as it were, from the fountains, which abound in the everlasting hills of this state.
Passing through Rutland you enter Addison county ; and taking the road on the borders of the Lake, you have delightful views on either hand. On your right, the distant mountains, with their diversified appearance of hills and vallies, of pines and firs, and maple and beech, with all their various intermingling forest trees and shrubbery. On your left, the surface of the Lake presents itself to you in a great variety of shapes and dimensions, winding its way between this and the state of New York. Its waters alternately expanding and contracting ; widening in one place as far as the eye can reach ; and in another apparently narrow enough for a rifle to throw a ball over it, you are presented with its endlessly diversified shores, and numerous islands, which dot its surface .- Many of these have traditionary and significant names ; and the various points and pro- jections ; and inlets and bays are known distinctly to the mariner and steam boat captain, as the mile stones of
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the turnpike to the mail carrier ; or the Railroad Depot to the conductors of the cars.
Going in this direction you reach the town of Addi- son ; and on the shore a bold irregular projection, called Chimney Point; a brick tenement with its hospitable sign, an interesting spot on which to pass a rainy day. The opposite shore is classic ground ; and the sun coming out of the clouds, you can almost see the remains of the forts of Crown Point. This is a spot to run the mind into sober and salutary contemplation ; and delay the traveler a day or two, to visit the opposite shore ; and look at the works of martial bands long since disbanded and motionless in the grave.
The late Dr. Griffin, a short time before his death, spent several days here unattended, viewing the scenery, and the mementos of past and interesting events and trans- actions. This significant Point and the opposite shore, have been honored also by the footsteps and pen of Dr. Dwight.
Pursuing your course northward, you enter Chittenden county ; and enjoy the pictured scenery of Charlotte, and other places, keeping your eye on the waters of Champlain, enlivened by the passing and repassing of sail boats ; and of the dark, smoking steamer. You are now drawing near Burlington bay, the road curving round this beautiful basin, so to speak, of water, and leading you abruptly and unexpectedly to the brow of the hill overlooking the pleasant town of Burlington ; one of the most pleasant in New England. It is about
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a mile square, situated on a declivity, descending gradu- ally to the shore of the Lake, westward. The view of the Lake from the summit of this declivity is very im- pressive. With the advantage of the morning sun, the naked eye can see the shores, and white buildings of Keysville, twenty miles distant, and almost to the place of M'Donough's victory over the British fleet near Plattsburg.
Leaving Burlington, you soon come within the limits of Franklin county, which borders on Canada. The prospect south and west from the town of Westford, is one of the finest, even in this state ; abounding as it does, in situations the most enchanting and romantic. Bur- lington, fourteen miles distant, and a large portion of the Lake, appear to the naked eye from the elevation in the south part of this town [Westford]; and the expanse beyond to the horizon fills the mind with emotions bordering on the sublime. You are fixed in the contem- plation ; and reluctantly leave the ground, affording such a display of unusual beauty and grandeur. But your way is to St. Albans, the principal town in this county. You find it situated on a level plat ; and the ground around it even, excepting a gradual slope four miles to the Lake shore. The view of Champlain from it, is far less distinct and commanding than at Burlington. But the place is pleasant ; the main street long, regular, broad, and the buildings on it compact. Instead of a stinted, frozen village, which its Hyperborean situation would lead you to apprehend, you might think yourself
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in the main street of some large place or city. But having passed through this street, you have seen most of the village.
Shelden and Enosburgh are towns in this part of the state, which afford great variety of appearance, many interesting points of view, and much attractive scenery. Missisquai river passes through this county .- Its cur- rent, and banks and adjacent meadows and hills are ob- jects of much curiosity to the traveler. Indeed one is ready to give the preference to this northern county, to any one in the state, in an agricultural point of view. The land is warm and rich; and as early in producing many crops, and more so than the southern part.
The land in Vermont, taken together, is good. In some parts it is rich and very productive. On the east side of the mountain, bordering immediately the Con- necticut, the soil is either a loam, or alluvial. At a dis- tance from the river, particularly in the south eastern part, it becomes what is called hard-pan. But this is a soil deep and strong, retaining long the manure applied to it. Extensive intervals, affording beautiful and pro- ductive farms, are found in Putney, Windsor, Newbury, Bradford, and other places. The vallies and hollows interspersed among the mountains and hills, are gene- rally very fertile, and of easy cultivation. The soil is a vegetable mould; and kept in good heart, by the wash of the surrounding hills. Indeed nature seems to have provided a kind of compensation to this state for this inland position. The low lands are constantly more or less watered and enriched from the neighboring emi-
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nences and ridges. Leaves falling annually and decay- ing, and trees broken down by storms, or yielding to age, decomposing, form a mould, which being washed down by the rains, and the dissolving of the snow in the spring, affords a yearly coat of good manure. In the absence of floodings by large rivers, this is no inconsider- able annual recruiting of the soil.
On the west side of the mountain the soil in many places is argillaceous ; in others a mixture of clay and loam, particularly in Bennington, Rutland, and Addison counties. Here in the spring, and after heavy rains, the traveling is bad, particularly on what is called the Lake road. But the soil is very rich and productive. Fine tracts of land are seen in Rutland, Middlebury, Shore- ham, Bridport, Addison, Vergennes, and other places. In Chittenden county the soil is more loamy ; and in some parts of it sandy. But on the banks on Onion river is found some first rate land. In Burlington the soil is warm and early, producing most kinds of vegeta- bles and fruits that grow and come to maturity in any part of New England. In the village itself, the soil is somewhat various, but generally of a dark rich color, mellow and very productive, resembling that of Weth- ersfield, Ct. Going there in autumn you may see, and the writer has witnessed it more than once, the gardens full of the richest kinds of vegetables for the table; and flowers to light the eye and regale the senses ; and the fruit trees bending with the pressure of the choicest fruit. You will see cauliflowers, and Lima beans growing to as great perfection as in New Haven,
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Ct .; and melons like those of Long Island. The apples, so large, and of such flavor ; the peach and pear and plum, so sound and full and delicious, you will find, that you may almost forget your northern position, and think yourself as far south as Newport, R. I.
Franklin is the last county in this direction, but not the least fertile of soil. On the contrary for the pur- poses of agriculture, it is probably the best in the state. The soil is a mixture of loam, and marl, and clay slightly, forming ground pleasant to till ; and yielding rich and abundant crops. Excellent farms are found in St. Albans, Swanton, Shelden, Enosburg, and Montgomery. Indeed no town here can be named without them ; and the great business of the inhabitants of this county is agriculture ; and what is connected immediately with it. The writer witnessed at a fair in Shelden, October, 1838, a collection of horned cattle, and other domestic animals, and many specimens of home manufacture, and productions of the soil, which would do no discredit to the most favored parts of New England.
With regard to rocks and stones, aside from numerous ridges and mounds, and caverns of the Green Mountains strictly, which, to the end of time never will be tilled ; it may be said that no more are found generally through- out the state than are wanted for fences, and building ; and other similar purposes. They impede tillage but in very few places.
The land on the Connecticut, and for several miles back, produces large crops of corn; and thence to the summit of the mountain, potatoes and oats in abundance ;
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and summer wheat moderately. Far less winter wheat is raised now than formerly, in the whole eastern range of the state. Considerable winter wheat is raised on the west side of the mountain where corn and the other grains grow luxuriantly. The grass crops are abundant in almost every part of the state. No country produces grass more abundantly or of a better quality of hay than Vermont. Thus it is, and by their fine grazing upland pastures ; and esculent roots, that the farmers are ena- bled to fatten so much beef and pork, which is one great source, perhaps the principal one, of their sustenance and profit. These are of good quality, and do not come be- hind, in market, those of other states. Their beef in Boston generally has the preference.
Butter and cheese also are sources of income to the husbandmen. Great quantities of both go to the New York market by water conveyance and thence to the south. This is a business pursued extensively on both sides of the mountain ; and to Boston is carried gene- rally what is made in the eastern, and some of that in the western part of the state. But the largest dairies are found south of the mountain, particularly in Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties ; and the cheese- mongers from New York make their appearance in those quarters in the Autumn with more smiling countenances than the Yorkers formerly did ; claiming farms and tene- ments, which would not come at their bidding. You will see at this season, great quantities of these articles, carried from every part of these counties, and from Lamoille, in casks made on purpose. The casks for the
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cheese resemble somewhat the cider barrel, but of less dimensions ; and more tapering at the ends. The largest cheeses are placed in the centre, and those of less cir- cumference gradually each way to the ends ; and thus in a close, compact state, they are easily handled and pre- served from damage in carrying them to the remote parts of the country.
Some of the dairy establishments in these counties are extensive ; forty, fifty, and sometimes sixty cows being kept by one farmer ; with great conveniences for the business, every thing connected with them, neat, cleanly and in good order. The articles of this kind going from these places, are of excellent flavor ; and being stamped, find a favorable reception wherever they go.
The rearing of sheep, and wool growing, as it is called, is also an increasing business and affording at times no small income and profit. Great facilities exist here for the keeping of large flocks of this useful animal. The grass growing on the elevated places, is the very food on which they best thrive ; and much land may be thus possessed, which could not be in any other way. It is inaccessible to man for the purposes of culture, plowing and sowing. For if the owners occasionally and par- tially ascend them so as to call their flocks into the lower parts, for the purpose of salting them, it is as much as can be expected. Having in the spring surmounted their wall fence with branches of the hemlock, so handy and effectual to enclose them safely in their own pre- cincts, they permit them to ramble at leisure over the precipices and high lands, till the winter drives them to
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seek quarters in the barn-yard. If the winters should be hard and long, a thing not unknown in these regions, these boughs of the hemlock, and the tender branches of other trees, help to prolong the forage, sometimes scanty and failing ; the former of which affords the sheep occasionally a welcome and nourishing sustenance. If spring sometimes comes late, it comes doubly dear to man and beast ; and the long lowing of the herds and bleating of the flocks around their stalls and folds, wel- come " the time of the singing of birds and the voice of the turtle."
Some flocks of several hundreds, and in a few in- stances of thousands, are owned by individuals ; and those yielding fine and substantial wool. Such large flocks are found, it is believed, more often on the east side of the mountain. Wool growing however is much attend- ed to on the other side ; and if its price should be estab- lished at a fair rate, it would become a source of great and increasing income to the state. For the income and prosperity of individuals, is the wealth of the community, of whom it is composed.
The honey bee is not forgotten by many judicious farmers ; whole yards and orchards are sometimes adorn- ed with WEEKS's patent hive, with its brass rings and knobs; its slides and drawers ; with lock and key, so contrived that honey may be taken out any time with- out destroying the busy makers of it. Since the inven- tion of that hive considerable quantities of excellent honey are carried to market ; and it commands a quick sale ; so clear and transparent the comb, and so rich its
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flavor. The enterprising inventor still lives and resides in Salisbury. In 1838, the writer had the pleasure of seeing his Apiary ; some twenty or thirty beautiful patent hives of his own construction, neatly ornamented ; and placed singly over a surface of two or three acres, and under fruit, or ornamental shade trees. The appearance was beautiful. Nor was the eye alone gratified ; but substantial profit derived to the owner ; and in melting strains regaled the taste of his visitors and customers. It was a sight to be coveted by the Mantuan Bard, who so sweetly sung the praises of bees ; their habits and customs and wars ; their position and judicious manage- ment. But he would have seen, if not additional traits and political science in these mimic nations, the triumph of modern, and Yankee invention in constructing their habitations, and dispossessing them bloodlessly of the labors of their hands. The example of this enterprising man is extensively followed in this vicinity. Indeed the procuring of honey by the multiplication of bees is be- coming more and more a business throughout the state ; particularly, the north western part. The flavor of the honey here made is mellow and delicious. Nothing can be more palatable. The flower of buck wheat has not yet become so accessible to the bees as to injure their honey by giving it an unpleasant, heated taste. The sweet extracted from clover is doubtlessly the most deli- cious ; and a second crop might be raised so as to accom- modate the honey bee the latter part of the season ; and at the same time to promote agricultural improvements.
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The flowers and foliage of the various forest trees afford ample room for this far traveling, and inquisitive little busy body. That he finds sources of storing his cells in the forest, is evident from his so often visiting them, and finding there his home.
From the Knickerbocker.
THE BEES OF ST. SIMONS.
For several years the bees have deposited their honey in the tower of the Church on Saint Simon's Island, off the coast of Georgia. The Rector, Rev. Mr. Walker, has regularly sold the honey, and sent the proceeds to the Mis- sionary Funds.
THERE lies far in the bosom of the seas, An Island fair ; All summer long the patient little bees Are busy there.
The honey which they gather in their rounds, Buzzing from flower to flower, They hoard it in a quaint bee hive they 've found In the old church tower.
Their store is taken every year, nor do The bees complain ; They know that God will send, next spring, a new Supply again.
The produce of their careful gatherings goes To men in lands abroad, Who preach " glad tidings of great joy" to those Who know not God.
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Like Jonathan, when panting he did roam The hungry waste, How was he quickened when an honey comb He did but taste ;
So to those weary laborers on lone shores, This humble hive supplies The luscious droppings of its annual stores To light their eyes.
Poor Christian ! e'en in such small flock as these, A lesson see ! Doth God take such good care for tiny bees, Yet none for thee ?
Then say not Little-Faith, thou hast no power To gather honey too ; All round thee bloom the flowers, and every flower Is filled with dew.
The making of sugar, also, from the maple so abundant in this state, is a business of considerable extent. It is becoming more and more an object with the farmers here not only to supply themselves with this article of domestic use and comfort, but a portion to spare to their neighbors. The expense of fuel to boil away the sap has prevented many from engaging in this business. But the sheet iron boilers lately invented and now exten- sively used, have in a measure, removed this objection ; and, in future, the beautiful maple trees of Vermont will be better husbanded and less carelessly reduced to ashes. This sugar is becoming better and better manufactured ; and when made in the best manner must take the prece-
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dence of all common brown sugars in use. The maple molasses is decidedly the best flavored.
As early as 1794, according to Dr. Williams, was made in Cavendish, by eighty-three families, 14,080 pounds of maple sugar.
It is now stated on good authority ; (the census of the United States) ; " that next to Louisiana, the state of Vermont is the greatest sugar-producing state in the Union ! The amount of maple sugar produced in 1840, was over 2,559 tons, being over 172 pounds to each in- habitant, allowing a population of 291,948. At five cents a pound this is worth $253,963 20. This quan- tity is far below that produced this year, (1842,) and it may be safely estimated, that the sugar produced this season, will, at the low price of five cents a pound, be worth a million of dollars."
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CHAPTER III.
First settlement .- Remains of forts .- Claimed by Massachusetts, and New Hampshire .- Limits .- Orders of the crown to the Governor of New Hampshire to take direction of its settle- ment .- Wentworth's grant for the settlement of Bennington .- Previous commencement by the French on Champlain .- Claimed by New York .- Collision and violence threatened .- Courts in- terrupted .- Systematic opposition to the claims of New York, headed by Ethan Allen .- His character, associated with Seth. Warner .- Deputation to Great Britain .- Royal interdict, dis- regarded by New York .- Measures to arrest Allen and his associates .- The progress of things hastened by the home government .- Under sanction of the first Congress, the royal courts interrupted .- Court house at Westminster seized, blood- shed and death .- Excitement .- Battle of Lexington .- War of the Revolution .- Contest suspended between New York and these settlers .- Their singular position, without regular govern- ment .- Convention .- Constitution adopted .- Petition to Con- gress .- Claiming independence .- Opposed by New York .- Perplexing to Congress .- Their evasive and dilatory policy .- Leave given to withdraw their petition .- Burgoyne on their frontier .- Their independence admitted by New Hampshire .- Proposed state in the valley of the Connecticut .- Claimed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York at the same time .- Disturbances in the southeastern section .- The decision of the question claimed by Congress.
IN that portion of the United States called Vermont, settlements were commenced in the south eastern part.
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on Connecticut river, about a mile below Brattleboro. A fort was erected, which was called Dummer ; from which the town of Dummerston probably derived its name. Remains of this fortification are yet visible. It was built, and the clearing of the ground in the vicinity undertaken by the government of Massachusetts, in 1724. But the claim of this state to this territory was soon con- tested by New Hampshire, whose government insisted that her jurisdiction went as far west as that of her sister state ; that is, within twenty miles of the river Hudson. This was the boundary between Massachusetts and New York, as determined in the reign of George II. 1740. Indeed by the orders of the home government, the Governor of New Hampshire was authorized to take charge of this fortification. His name was Benning Wentworth. He soon after, in 1749, caused a township to be settled on the west side of the mountain, which is
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