481 



SECTION XXVI. 



Observations on the Soil and Climate. Reasons 

 why Canals, and Improvements in Draining, 

 mil not succeed in America. The Difficulty 

 of making Division Fences, planting Quicks, 

 fyc. 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 will not bear even the weight 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, when 

 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 which, in the 

 I I 



