PARTICULAR EXAMPLES OF IMPROVEMENT. 487 



extreme squalidness and destitution, it is underlaid with inex 

 haustible mineral treasures, as I myself, in a dress befitting the 

 infernal regions, with a lighted torch in my hand, descending 

 by the slippery rounds of a ladder seven hundred feet, and trav 

 ersing two miles under ground, had the gratification for so I 

 may call it, since I am once more on the surface to witness. In 

 this part of the country there is little wood, and no coal, and, for 

 fuel, the inhabitants pare the surface of the land, which seems 

 covered with a thick matted moss and heather, and which, when 

 taken off, leaves under it a mixture of white gravel, and black, 

 peaty mould. This being taken off in spots, the country resem 

 bles the face of a man reduced to a skeleton, with his skin pitted 

 and blotched all over with the small-pox. It will be understood 

 that I am speaking only of a part of Cornwall, and, in particular, 

 the mining districts ; for in some parts there are spots of eminent 

 fertility, of which the culture is singularly skilful, and the pro 

 ductiveness nowhere exceeded. 



Some of the land owned by Colonel Scobell is of the description 

 of which I have spoken. He sells the moss and heather, taken 

 off by, what a native American may properly call, this scalping 

 process, at twenty-four pounds per acre : and then, by deep and 

 brave cultivation, and by most ample manuring, at an expense 

 of ten pounds an acre, he brings this very land into productive 

 cultivation. This is what, in New England, we should call 

 adroitly, and, certainly, most honestly and creditably, &quot; turning a 

 penny ; &quot; here it is evident it might be designated by a denom 

 ination two hundred and forty times larger. After this land is 

 in this way brought to, it would readily let at thirty or forty 

 shillings per acre. After the land has been pared, his process is 

 to drain, subsoil, and manure it, and then he gets excellent crops 

 of turnips, barley, and wheat. 



All circumstances considered, the whole management of this 

 farm seemed to me excellent, and it will not be deemed out of 

 place if I now speak of it, since the subject is before me. 



The farm embraces an extent of some hundreds of acres, of a 

 gravelly soil, and much of it composed of rotten and decomposed 

 granite rock. It required no small resolution and courage to 

 take such a tract of country in hand, with a determination to 

 make its cultivation profitable ; for, though I have referred to 

 some cases in which the returns from the sale of the furze and 



