wise be worthless. The facilities for putting together the materials, which are now bevelled by machinery, save a great amount of labor. The number made cannot be ascertained. In 1826 it was estimated at 30,000.1 Considerable inquiry has been made of coopers and carters; and it is not unreasonable to say that at the present time there are not less than one hundred thousand, and it is not improbable that there are one hundred and fifty thousand made annually in Union alone.

Not far from the year 1840, a few shrewd traders about the Common, during one winter, purchased all the lime-hogsheads which were brought to them, and paid for them in goods at the Thomaston prices. They were heaped up till the Common appeared almost as if covered with one huge pile. The store-keepers made contracts to supply purchasers in Thomaston at a fixed price. Thus the prices, which fluctuated daily according to the number in the market or the number immediately wanted, assumed a firmness which it is said was on the whole favorable to the makers, to the Union traders, and to the Thomaston lime-burners.

When hogsheads were first made, the number carried to Thomaston in a load was comparatively small. About the year 1817, it had increased to sixty. The roads were so bad that this was as large a load as four oxen could draw. Now the casks are smaller, the roads better, and four oxen will carry two hundred; and a load of one hundred and sixty is common. Formerly these were placed on their ends in long erect racks built for the purpose. Three tiers, one above the other, numbering ten in each tier, presented thirty lime-casks to view on either side. Now the tops of the racks are wider than the bottoms, and of course the loads spread at the top and are not so high.

For many years, after letting their oxen rest on the Lord's Day, the farmers started them at sunset, and, driving during the night, arrived at Thomaston on the

1 N. P. Hawes's MS.

following morning. Now, horses are frequently substituted for oxen; and the plan is to drive on Friday night, so as to give teams rest on the Lord's Day, after their return, before putting them to the regular week's work. But neither Saturday nor Monday has ever been exclusively the market-day. The manufacturers or carters go when it is most convenient or advantageous; and, instead of being limited to Thomaston, as they were thirty years ago, they now dispose of the greater part of their hogsheads at East Thomaston, or Rockland, which has grown up since that time, and to which is a road through the Camden Hills by Mount

Pleasant.

If no more were carried to Thomaston annually than the one hundred or one hundred and fifty thousand from Union, it would be an item of value in trade. But on some mornings, thirty, forty, or perhaps fifty loads of various sizes, containing from twenty to one hundred and sixty lime-casks each, are seen at the market. They are brought from the country nearly fifty miles back; from Hope, Appleton, Searsmont, Montville, Liberty, Palermo, Washington, Jefferson, &c. The farmer, on rainy days, goes into his coopershop, and, in the course of a summer, has time to manufacture one or more loads. The hired laborer, easily taught, thus makes his rainy days and leisure hours profitable to his employer.

Having carried a load or more to market, the man, in comfortable, if not affluent circumstances, brings home flour, groceries, and other necessaries, or money to pay taxes, or he lays up something for sickness or declining years. The team returns leisurely northward on Saturday afternoon, bringing the teamster reposing at full length on the bottom of his rack, with his feet in an opposite direction from the sun. His hat is pulled over his face to exclude the sun's beams from his eyes, and his body vibrates from side to side, as either wheel strikes and passes over a stone or plunges into a hole. A barrel of flour is on the end of his rack, and a bag of groceries is suspended from a chain

across the top. It seems as if such must be a hard life. But it is free from the anxiety which sometimes, every night, week after week, drives sleep from the man of extensive business; it is favorable to health, vigor, and independence; and, when to these are added moral and intellectual cultivation, it may well be doubted if there is, with all its hardships, any life so happy as the farmer's.

BARLEY AND RYE. Neither rye nor any grain but barley was raised on the St. George's when Union was settled. "It was thought a stupid thing for Philip Robbins to go back into the country to get a living on a farm." When he mentioned to Anderson of Warren his intention of raising rye, Anderson scouted the idea. Robbins is said to have told him, "I mean to get a living off of my farm; I shall raise rye, and you may have to come and buy of me yet;"-a prediction that was fulfilled in a season of scarcity which followed.1 The first grain put into the ground by any one in town was rye. Within two years after Philip Robbins settled here, twice as much rye was raised on his and the Mill Farm as along the whole of the St. George's. The common kind was the winter rye. It was sown in autumn upon burnt ground, a mode not known to the settlers of Warren, who supposed the soil, in order to produce grain, must be ploughed, as

1 Jacob Robbins.

in their native country. Since the woods have been cut off, the summer rye has been introduced, and the sowing of this kind is generally preceded by ploughing. In 1840, according to the town-valuation, 559 bushels were raised; according to the United States census, 1,443.

INDIAN CORN was planted on burnt ground. By some of the early settlers, the ground was ploughed before the grain was put into it. This mode of cultivation was inconvenient among the roots, stumps, logs, and knolls, which abounded in every new field; and experience soon taught the lesson that corn came to maturity sooner when planted in the warm black mould than in the ploughed soil. In 1840, according to the town-valuation, 3,151 bushels were raised; according to the United States memoranda, 4,960.

The year 1831 was the most remarkable for corn which has ever been known in Maine. It flourished like weeds, and ripened very early. Ezekiel True, of Montville, harvested one hundred bushels on the last day of August. It seemed as if every kernel grew which was dropped anywhere on the ground.1 Success, however, with Indian corn is uncertain. An early frost has often ruined the crop.

WHEAT is raised; but the people commonly prefer to buy flour, and to give their attention to other kinds of produce. Ten or twelve years ago, much interest was taken in wheat. In 1840, according to the townvaluation, there were raised 3,013 bushels; according to the United States census, 2,658. In 1837 the crop was 4,249 bushels.

POTATOES were a very important article of culture, till "the rot" prevailed extensively in 1846. Since that time, comparatively little attention has been given to them, and the whole State has been obliged to abandon the cultivation of the agricultural product most important for subsistence or for export. In 1840 the town-valuation states that 44,075 bushels were raised;

1 N. Robbins, Esq.

and the United States census, that there were 44,960 bushels.

PEAS, BEANS, TURNIPS, CARROTS, BEETS, ONIONS, PARSNIPS, CABBAGES, yield abundant crops.

FRUIT. - There are several kinds of fruit. And if each man would give a little attention to the subject, and plant a few fruit-trees, and graft or bud them, he might have the luxury of a rich repast at almost any season of the year.

PEACHES AND PLUMS. The climate is so cold that peaches cannot be raised. But there might be an abundance of garden plums. Whenever their cultivation has been properly attended to, there has been great success.

...

APPLES. There were but few apples till after the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among the items of property belonging to Matthias Hawes, very soon after his arrival, is recorded "a box of apple-trees." Philip Robbins and David Robbins, before they had been here long, probably did something in the way of raising them. A memorandum made by Levi Morse, Nov. 12, 1793, says, "Set fifteen apple-trees. Nov. 17 and 18, 1794, set fifty apple-trees.... Nov. 12, 1797, first fifteen apple-trees I set bore ten apples. . Our orchard bore about one bushel of apples this year-1798." This orchard, and those of Philip Robbins and David Robbins, were probably the first in town. In the year 1800, Dr. Sibley had one or two quarts of apple-seeds, picked out of pomace, brought to him on horseback from Hopkinton, N.H. They were planted, and the trees disposed of among the inhabitants. Orchards have since become common and large. In 1826, it was estimated that there were one hundred, which produced on 1 an average 10,000 bushels annually. According to the valuation of 1840, the quantity was 9,546 bushels. But the interest once felt in raising them for the purpose of making cider has diminished in consequence of the progress of temperance.

1 N. P. Hawes's MS.