481 



SECTION XXVI. 



Observations on the Soil and Climate. Reasons 

 why Canals J and Improvements in D raining y 

 7vill not succeed in America. The Difficulty 

 of making Division Fences, planting Quicks, 

 S^'C, Some Remarks on Diseases, 



The soil is in general very thin ; in many 

 places, not more than from one inch to an 

 inch and a half thick. The under stratum 

 is of a loose sandy nature, and so light, that, 

 after the frosts are over, the pavement in the 

 streets v^ill not bear even the v/eight of a 

 man ; and the fields are so like a quagmire, 

 that a man on horseback would be endan- 

 gered in attempting to pass over them. 

 From such lightness, the soil is apt, v^rhen 

 rain comes, to form into small channels, that 

 afterwards constitute what are termed gullies, 

 which, as I have before observed, are holes 

 like quarries or marl-pits ; and Vv^hich, in the 



I I 



4 





