232 Ten Days in Ohio. 
PERRY counTy—productions. 
Not far from this spot is the eastern boundary of Peny County, 
ten miles from Somerset, the seat of justice for the county. The 
road passes over a most interesting and picturesque country. The 
hills are rounded and broad, and under fine cultivation. ‘The most 
common forest trees are beech, sugar tree and white oak, with an 
abundance of the Cornus florida, or dog-wood. The soil in this 
county is arich loam, of a light amber color, loose and friable, 
made up of decomposed argillite, sandstone and limestone, in such 
proportions as to resist drought, or absorb wet, when too abundant ; 
and produces the finest crops of grain, clover, yellow leaf tobacco 
and fruit trees. The valleys and hill sides, afforded many a deli- 
‘cious treat to the eye, in far extended fields of blossomed clover and 
verdant grain. The “yellow tobacco” is becoming a valuable arti- 
cle of culture, and several hundred hogsheads are annually grown in 
this country. Five or six years since, the Tobacco mania prevailed 
among the farmers, in all the hilly portion of the state. Many of 
them thought it the sure road to wealth, and neglected other crops 
for that of the “yellow leaf.” Almost every one entered, more or 
less, into it, and the merchants encouraged the cultivation. The 
consequence was, the overstocking of the market; the reduction in 
price from twenty dollars per hundred to two or three dollars, and 
the ruin of many dealers in the article. But it is said, trade will 
regulate itself. Tobacco is now in demand; and while a limited 
number only cultivate the “aromatic weed,” i wil continue to be a 
profitable crop. Virgin soil, the natural growth of which is white 
oak and dog-wood, is found to produce the finest tobacco. The 
average crops of grain, are twenty or twenty five bushels of wheat, 
forty to fifty of corn, thirty to forty of oats, and two hundred of po- 
tatoes, tothe acre. Less attention is paid to the improvement of the 
soil in this county than in Muskingum, where the land is regularly 
prepared for a crop of wheat, by plowing in a heavy growth of red 
clover. This is found to afford the very best nutriment for the wheat 
plant, producing the fairest and heaviest brain; and accordingly, 
Zanesville, where most of the wheat is manufactured, on all the 
waters of the Mississippi, where the article is principally sold, is no- 
ted for its superior flour.* The soil of Muskingum is naturally thin 
* Three years ago, seventy —— thousand barrels of flour were made in Zanes- 
ville ; ‘the production of one seaso 
