184 OBober 1748. 



OSfober the 1 ith. I have already men- 

 tioned, that every countryman has a great- 

 er or lefler number of apple trees planted 

 round his farm-houfe, from whence he gets 

 great quantities of fruit, part of which he 

 (ells, part he makes cyder of, and part he 

 uies in his own family for pyes, tarts, and 

 the like. However he cannot expect an 

 equal quantity of fruit every year. And I 

 was told, that this year had not by far af- 

 forded fuch a great quantity of apples as the 

 preceding ; the caufe of which they told 

 me, was the continual and great drought 

 in the month of May, which had hurt all 

 the bloffoms of the apple trees, and made 

 them wither. The heat had been fo great 

 as to dry up all the plants, and thegrafs in 

 the fields. 



The Polytrichum commune, a fpecies of 

 mofs, grew plentifully on wet and low 

 meadows between the woods, and in feve- 

 ral places quite covered them, as our morT- 

 es cover the meadows in Sweden. It was 

 likewife very plentiful on hills. 



Agriculture was in a very bad ftate 

 hereabouts. When a perfon had bought a 

 piece of land, which perhaps had never 

 been ploughed fince the creation, he cut 

 down part of the wood, tore up the roots, 

 ploughed the ground, fowed corn on it f 



and 



