130 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



lowed in South Carolina from the conviction that such 

 a tax will be useful in the furtherance of salutary ends. 



Hereabouts there is a seeding-plough in use and 

 highly regarded, which is known as the Bucks county 

 plough. Elsewhere the wheat is seeded on fallow 

 broken but once, and then the seed ploughed in. The 

 allowance is one half to one bushel of seed to an acre, 

 according as the wheat is old or new, if new a half- 

 bushel is sufficient. They commonly expect, from three 

 fourths of a bushel seed on unmanured land, 10-15 

 bushels yield, but in other parts of Pensylvania, about 

 Reading and in the Tulpehocken valley, the yield is 

 25-30 bushels. A four-horse wagon hauls 40-50 

 bushels of wheat to the city, the price at this time being 

 one Spanish dollar a bushel, or 7 shillings 6 pence 

 Pensylv. Current. What with the quantity of land many 

 farmers own, they cannot work the whole of it properly, 

 and therefore many acres lie fallow 7 5-6-7 years to- 

 gether. The usual practice is to plant maize the first 

 year ; the second year wheat is sown along with Eng- 

 lish grass-seeds, and after the wheat is off, the field is 

 pastured for four or five years. At other times they 

 sow buckwheat ( l / 2 bus. to the acre) after wheat, or 

 it may be turnips. 



Most of the lime used at Philadelphia comes from 

 the region about Whitemarsh and Plymouth, some 15- 

 17 miles' distance. Nearer than that no good limestone 

 hills are found, and wood for the kilns is not to be had. 

 And beyond the Whitemarsh country no usable lime- 

 stone occurs until five miles this side Bethlehem. 

 Formerly the price of a bushel of burnt lime delivered 

 at Philadelphia was a shilling, but at present a shilling 

 and a half. A four-horse wagon brings in (according 

 to the goodness of the road) 40-50 bushels. 



