210 Climate, Ge. of Washington County, Ohio. 
trees and shrubs, while the fruit remains hanging in crowded 
clusters, long after the leaves are all fallen, affording the most 
delicious repasts to the bears, raccoons, and other wild ani- 
mals of the forest. . 
Another source of comfort to these remains of the aborigi= 
nals, is found in the great quantities of nuts that abound in 
the remote parts of the county, as yet uncultivated. T 
nuts of the beech, chesnut, black walnut, butternut, various 
kinds of hickory nuts, besides the acorns and more humble 
chinquapin and hazel, nut, literally cover the ground in many 
_ places, and large droves of hogs are fattened witheut any ex- 
pense to the owners. 
woods abound with the native or purple mulberry; . 
whose leaves are said to afford food for silk worms, fully equal 
to the white mulberry ; and that the wornis will flourish here, 
was proved, more than twenty-five years since, by the 
family of the late Gen. Rufus Putnam, whose females, in the. 
early settlement of the county, used to supply their own sew- 
ing silk from the cocoons of worms of their own raising; 
and in the year 1806, at Bellepre, a sister of my wife reared 
more than six thousand silk worms; these were fed from the 
leaves of the white mulberry, as it was then supposed no oth- 
er would answer. They were very healfhy, and furnished the 
raw material for many yards of silk, had any one known how 
to manufacture it. Since then, the raising of silk worms has 
not been attempted, but many of the inhabitants have tur 
their attention to the raising of an article next to silk in fine 
ness, beauty, and value, and that is merino wool. 
Large flocks of merino sheep are owned in this county- 
Mr. Seth Adams was the first person who introduced them 
into this state, and I think he imported them himself from 
Spain, as early as the year 1804 or 1805. The blood of 
this valuable animal has been kept with great purity by se- 
veral highly enlightened cultivators ; and from the mildness 
of the climate and the well directed efforts of the owners, the 
merino sheep has much improved in size, beauty of form, and 
fineness of wool, and will ultimately become a prolific source 
of wealth and independence to the state. They are far more 
healthy than the common sheep, and require no more food or 
extra attention. ir Increase is rapid, as it is not uncom- 
mon for a well fed, healthy ewe, that bas yeaned in the win- 
bi ass ng forth again in the autumn of the same year; @ 
fe Has twins at each birth, as they are often known to do, @ 
