Cornish soils have been cultivated in garden plots and farms to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers ever since the first English-speaking settlers arrived here. Now a resurgence in gardening is underway in Cornish, buoyed by an interest in healthy living as a lifestyle.
Cornish soils, the New Hampshire growing season, and regular rainfall provide a firm foundation upon which thoughtful citizens can grow and preserve a year round supply of varied, interesting, and nutritious food. Shortages of seeds and plants, and even canning jars and freezers are evidence of the renewed interest in gardening.
Cornish soils and climate are supportive of livestock grazing on pastures. Beef, dairy, pork, lamb, goat and poultry thrive on fertile Cornish soil. Sheep’s wool produced on Cornish pastures in earlier times was prized by mill owners then building large woolen mills along the Merrimack River, as in Manchester and the Sugar River in Claremont. Merino sheep had been imported from Spain. The fine wool and woolen mill prices set off a financial boom and sheep numbers exploded. According to records, in 1835, 5,240 sheep grazed Cornish hillsides. The sheep and wool business eventually moved out West as new land was settled, providing new opportunities in Cornish for agricultural land use.
In 1888 the first of two creameries was built to process the milk of the 700 cows living on small Cornish farms at that time. The Cornish Creamery was operated as a co-op, and was located in Cornish Flat on Creamery Road, and it is now the home of garden book author Henry Homeyer. The second creamery, built in 1889, and known as Hillside Creamery, was located near the entrance to the Covered Bridge to Windsor.
Much to the credit of the Cornish farmers, their cows, their pastures, and the butter makers, butter made at the Cornish Creamery won the gold medal at the Paris Worlds’ Fair in 1900. Sadly, fire in 1915 knocked the Hillside Creamery out of commission.
In 1883 Charles C. Beaman , a wealthy New York City lawyer, with friends in Windsor, began buying farmland in Cornish on his way to creating a model farm to be known as the Blow-Me-Down Farm. By 1900 Beaman had 150 head of cattle, including 70 registered Jersey milk cows. The Blow-Me-Down grist mill was built by Mr. Beaman to grind grain for his farm and for nearly 100 other area farmers. Beaman and his son William are given credit for using best management practices on their farm. The Beaman family retained ownership of approximately 800 acres until 1950.
The Blow-Me-Down Gristmill on Rt. 12A, and 50 acres of the original Blow–Me-Down Farm are now part of the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site. Most of the rich soil along the river is now protected from development by conservation easements. Other Cornish lands, totaling approximately 3,000 acres, are also protected by conservation easements. The Cornish Conservation Commission uses the Cornish Conservation Fund to assist property owners wanting to place easements on their land.
In 1885 Charles and Hettie Beaman invited New York City friends Agusta and Augustus Saint-Gaudens to visit Cornish. Saint Gaudens then summered in Cornish until buying a house that is now the National Historic Site. Soon thereafter many noted and famous artists, friends of Saint Gaudens, including Charles A. Platt and Maxfield Parrish, followed him to Cornish, drawn by the beautiful Cornish landscape, climate and views of Mt. Ascutney. Some estimates put the number of artists living summers or year round near 100 during the period between 1885 and 1920. The beauty of the Cornish Colony gardens attracted national home and garden magazines throughout this period.
Two fine books, “This Land of Pure Delight” by Cornish’s John Dryfhout, and “A Place of Beauty, The Artists and Gardens of the Cornish Colony” by Alma Gilbert and Judith Tankard are available at Cornish’s George H. Stowell Free Library. Wikipedia shares details on The Cornish Colony, as well as on the lives of Charles A. Platt, Augustus Saint Gaudens, garden designer Ellen Biddle Shipman, Stephen Parrish, and the Augustus Saint Gaudens National Historic Site.
The Cornish “Natural Resources Inventory”, available through the Town of Cornish website, presents technical information relative to agricultural soils and their use in Cornish.