JOURNAL 



other necessaries (the produce of the country), and therefore 

 employs himself much better in making barns and houses and 

 mills for the reception and disposal of his crops, and fences to 

 preserve them while growing, before he grows them, than to get 

 the crops first. I have heard it observed that any American settler, 

 even without a dollar in his pocket, would have had something 

 grozving by this time. Very true ! I do not question that at all ; 

 for, the very first care of a settler without a dollar in his pocket 

 is to get something to eat, and, he would consequently set to work 

 scratching up the earth, fully confident that after a long summering 

 upon wild flesh (without salt, perhaps) his own belly would stand 

 him for barn, if his jaws would not for mill. But the case is very 

 different with Mr. Birkbeck, and at present he has need for no 

 other provision for winter but about a three hundredth part of 

 his fine grass turned into hay, which will keep his necessary horses 

 and cows ; besides which he has nothing that eats but such pigs 

 as live upon the waste, and a couple of fine young deer (which 

 would weigh, they say when full grown, 200 Ibs. dead weight), 

 that his youngest son is rearing up as pets. 



910. I very much admire Mr. Birkbeck s mode of fencing. He 

 makes a ditch 4 feet wide at top, sloping to i foot wide at bottom, 

 and 4 feet deep. With the earth that comes out of the ditch he 

 makes a bank on one side, which is turfed towards the ditch. 

 Then a long pole is put up from the bottom of the ditch to 2 feet 

 above the bank ; this is crossed by a short pole from the other 

 side, and then a rail is laid along between the forks. The banks 

 were growing beautifully, and looked altogether very neat as well 

 as formidable ; though a live hedge (which he intends to have) 

 instead of dead poles and rails, upon top, would make the fence 

 far more effectual as well as handsomer. I am always surprized, 

 until I reflect how universally and to what a degree, farming is 

 neglected in this country, that this mode of fencing is not adopted 

 in cultivated districts, especially where the land is wet, or lies 

 low , for, there it answers a double purpose, being as effectual 

 a drain as it is a fence. 



911. I was rather disappointed, or sorry, at any rate, not to find 

 near Mr. Birkbeck s any of the means for machinery or of the 

 materials for manufactures, such as the water-falls, and the 

 minerals and mines, which are possessed in such abundance by 

 the states of Ohio and Kentucky, and by some parts of Pennsyl 

 vania. Some of these, however, he may yet find. Good water 

 he has, at any rate. He showed me a well 25 feet deep, bored 

 partly through hard substances near the bottom, that was nearly 

 overflowing with water of excellent quality. 



912. July ist. Left Mr. Birkbeck s for Harmony, Indiana. 

 The distance by the direct way is about 18 miles, but there is no 

 road, as yet ; indeed, it was often with much difficulty that we 

 could discover the way at all. After we had crossed the Wabash, 

 which we did at a place called Davis s Ferry, we hired a man to 



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