44 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



passes through a tract of level and open country, in 

 which, however, some entertainment is afforded by the 

 sight of many country-seats embellished by very good, 

 large, and at times tastefully planned dwelling-houses. 

 Still more numerous and pleasant seats lie along the 

 beautiful banks of the Potowmack and the other rivers, 

 and therefore a journey by way of these rivers offers 

 far more of variety to the eye than the common roads 

 by land. The rich Virginians who, from their luxury 

 and love of display, have for many years been of evil 

 repute among their more frugal neighbors to the north, 

 prefer generally to live in the country rather than in 

 towns, and according to their circumstances and oppor- 

 tunities spare nothing in rendering their houses agree- 

 able both outside and in. 



There appeared now and again extensive fields 

 seeded to wheat. Some years before the outbreak of 

 the war the cultivation of this grain had already been 

 undertaken with more enthusiasm in this region ; that 

 is, after the profit from their tobacco had been greatly 

 lessened by the heavy duties imposed in England, and 

 besides, their lands, (even then exhausted), not pro- 

 ducing such large crops of tobacco, the profitable cul- 

 ture of wheat + gave the land a new and greater value. 

 Here, as in other parts of America, wheat is sown on 

 the last year's corn-fields, the old stalks not having 

 first been cleared off. A peculiar insect, called weevil,* 



* In the American Philosoph. Transactions there are to be 

 found sundry articles treating of this injurious insect; but in 

 none of them is its species determined ; the names Weevil and 

 Grub describe merely a worm or maggot which eats into other 

 bodies. Is this perhaps the Curculio granarius L., brought 

 over from Europe, or a related species? 



