304 Changes of Timber and Plants, ^c. 



ber, however, that they were generally of a rapid and 

 luxuriant growth. I further recollect, that at least, 

 some of them were lactesmit plants. They always ap- 

 peared to me in the light of neiv productions. 



It sometimes happened that the land, after having 

 been cleared of its underbrush and forest timber, was 

 not put under actual cultivation for two, three, or four 

 years. In this case it never failed to produce, during 

 the second or third summer, a crop of white clover, al- 

 though not a sprig of that vegetable grew within many 

 miles of the place. This fact occurs not only in Vir- 

 ginia and North Carolina, where I have myself witnes- 

 sed it, but also as I am well informed, in many other 

 parts of the United States. Indeed its existence can 

 be as well authenticated as the existence of th^ Allega- 

 ny mountain or the Chesapeak bay. 



In other parts of North Carolina, where the growth 

 of timber consists almost entirely of oak and hickory, if 

 this be removed, it will be succeeded in a few years 

 by a general and plentiful crop of young pines. Nor 

 is it necessary to the success of this experiment, that 

 the place cleared should be in a piney neighbourhood. — 

 The event will take place with equal certainty, though 

 there be not a pine within many miles. 



During the time of my residence in North Carolina, 

 as the farmers generally possessed large bodies of land, 

 they seldom made use of much manure. When the 

 soil of one field became exhausted, instead of manur- 

 ing and renovating it, their common practice was, to 

 turn it out to lie fallow for many years, and to proceed 

 to the clearing of another field. In this case the ex- 

 hausted fallow ground never failed to produce sooner 



