Penfyhania, Philadelphia. 173 



ed me fome houfes in this town which 

 were built of ftone, and to the mafon work 

 of which the lime of oyfler (hells had been 

 employed. The walls of thefe houfes were 

 always fo wet two or three days before a 

 rain, that great drops of water could plain- 

 ly be perceived on them ; and thus they 

 were as good as Hygrometers.* Several 

 people who had lived in this kind of houfes 

 complained of thefe inconveniences. 



Oclober the 9th. Pease are not much 

 cultivated in Penfyhania at prefent, though 

 formerly, according to the accounts of 

 fome old Swedes, every farmer had a little 

 field with peafe. In New Jerfey and the 

 fouthern parts of New York, peafe are like- 

 wife not fo much cultivated as they ufed to 

 be. But in the northern parts of New 

 York, or about Albany, and in all the parts 

 of Canada which are inhabited by the 

 French, the people fow great quantities, 

 and have a plentiful crop. In the former 

 colonies, a little defpicable infect has obli- 

 ged the people to give up fo ufeful a part of 

 agriculture. This little infect was formerly 



3f f!ittle 



i SUi3 JflUOft AS 



* As the fhells of oyfters are a marine animal production, 

 and their cavities are full of particles of fea-water, the moif- 

 ture of it flies oft", leaving behind its fait; when the fhells 

 are burnt, and the lime is flacked, the fait mixes with th« 

 lime : and though the mortar of fuch a lime grows ever fo 

 <lry, the particles of fait immediately attraft the moifture of 

 the air, and caufe that dampnefs complained of here. F. 



