RETURN FROM PITTSBURG 305 



It is mostly Irish families who live here, and a few 

 Germans at the northern end. The land in the deeper 

 hollows and along Cove Creek is good, and bears all 

 the crops customary here. But this season the maize 

 had suffered from the cold. Particularly spelt is much 

 raised hereabouts, and is said to yield commonly 30 

 bushels for one, which is vastly more than their wheat 

 does. Their spelt is used solely as feed for horses, 

 for which purpose, unthreshed, it is certainly better 

 than oats. Also, at the first cultivation of fresh rich 

 land it is used in preference to wheat which on new 

 land grows too much to straw. The people believe 

 that spelt does not make as good or as white flour as 

 wheat, but the reason is the lack of the requisite shell- 

 ing-mills. 



Now past the middle of September the leaves of 

 most of the trees and shrubs were beginning to fall, 

 and those still remaining on the trees have exchanged 

 all their summer-green for divers other colors. I 

 scarcely know more richly colored landscapes than the 

 American in their autumn attire. Of the multifarious 

 growths, some change hue earlier, others later, purple, 

 scarlet, pale-red, yellow, and brown through all their 

 shades. In among them berries and fruits of all man- 

 ner of tints make parade, and the indescribable number 

 of different species of aster and solidago, at this time 

 in full bloom, helps to embellish the splendid coloring 

 of this autumnal picture. 



The entrance into the Cove is not so much by high- 

 ways as narrow ' bridle-roads.' In the Valley itself 

 they use, however, little wagons for farming purposes 

 furnished only with block-wheels, and these every 

 farmer can make for himself without great trouble by 

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