34. = Fruit Trees.— Original Patent.—Sulphate of Lime. 
dry for all the purposes of agriculture, and the roads which were 
once all mire are now firm an 
Fruit Trees—Fruit trees flourish luxuriantly, and are rarely 
rendered barren by untimely frosts. Almost every farm is pro- 
vided with an orchard, it being a prime object with the first set- 
tlers to plant out fruit trees as early as possible; and in my journey 
to-day, at every new opening, I observed a small collection of apple 
and other fruit trees, on the first half acre cleared near the house. 
This rich region has lately become still more valuable from the con- 
templated canal down the valley of the Mahoning to Beaver. The 
inhabitants are generally from the State of Connecticut, and display 
all that neatness in their buildings and in the cultivation of the soil, 
which distinguish that enterprizing people. 
_ Original Patent.—Under the patent of the Saybrook Colony, 
granted by Charles the First, in the year 1631, the territory of 
Connecticut extended westerly across the continent to the South 
Sea or Pacific Ocean. The patents of Virginia and the Carolinas 
had also the same westerly extension. On the strength of these 
patents, when the general compact of all the States was formed, the 
right of Connecticut was acknowledged with the rest ; and that right 
was commuted by the grant of a certain tract, bounded east by Penn- 
sylvania, on the south and north by the Ohio River and Lake Erie, 
and extending west on the forty first degree of north latitude one 
hundred and twenty miles; embracing about three millions, eight 
hundred thousand acres,* and at present divided into eight counties, 
with a population of 150,000: after setting off half a million of acres 
from the west end of this tract, for the benefit of the sufferers by fire 
in New London and other places, the State of Connecticut sold the 
remainder to individuals on a credit of years: the proceeds are ap- 
propriated to the perpetual support of common schools in that State.t 
» Sulphate of Lime.—About noon I visited an interesting locality 
of the sulphate of lime. It is found crystallized, and diffused 
through a deposit of calcareous earth. The crystals are tabular, and 
are sometimes large and very fine. It is on Meander Creek, a 
branch of the Mahoning, near the western border of the town of 
Canfield. Below this deposit, is a stratum of bituminous shale, con- 
taining the imbedded relics, and casts of many fossil plants and 
shells. Some of the plants resemble long feathers, and are probably 
* This tract, being reserved, was called The Reserve; % and is is so named in this diary. 
+ Now constituting a productive fund of 
tion of 300,000. 
a 
