1823, OCTOBER. ALBANY 21 



taken for the furtherance of the Society's views, I went on board the 

 steamboat and at 10 at night arrived at the house of General Morgan Lewis. 



Sunday, October 12th. General Lewis in his country stands very 

 justly, high ; his house is open and frequented by all denominations of 

 people, and particularly by foreigners. We went to church to the forenoon 

 service and returned at midday. 



October 13th, lith, 15th, 16th. When at Albany I was seized with 

 rheumatism in my knees, which almost reduced me from being able to do 

 anything. Here I became lame for two days. I can never forget the 

 attention paid to me by General Lewis and family. On Wednesday and 

 Thursday I was able to crawl about a little. I went with Mr. Lewis over 

 the greater part of his estate. He pays great attention to agriculture and 

 gardening ; he has all the newest modes of tillage and many of the newest 

 and most improved implements. 1 His garden is about two acres English, of 

 a light gravelly soil. He has fine apples, pears of the finest varieties ; peaches 

 do not do so well as in many other places. They have been, within a few 

 years, seized with disease occasioned by a sort of worm, which makes them 

 drop their fruit before being ripe. He has a collection of grapes, consisting 

 of such as are generally cultivated ; they do well. In October he digs in 

 well-fermented dung, and lays them down on the surface of the ground 

 and covers them with earth for protection. Some of them are trained on 

 espaliers, some on poles. They have been tried on southern aspects of walls, 

 but were unsuccessful ; probably the intensity of heat during the summer 

 months hurt them, as the fruit, before ripening, became shrivelled and 

 dropped from the trees. North of his house, Quercus sp. 16, tree tall, but 

 not thick ; soil, rich black loam ; fruit very long Q. Castanea, 1 I think. 

 The squirrels eat the fruit of this with eagerness ; I am informed they 

 prefer them before any sort of nuts, Corylus excepted. Two species of 

 pine, one with large cones like sylvestris ; the other, small cones and leaves 

 like Larix of Europe. Juqlans sp., porcina, 2 nuts of them, trees from 

 20 to 40 feet high, make good fuel ; the wood is not considered of any value. 

 Two species (alba ?) 3 called Koeskatoma nuts. The nuts appear to be a 

 very distinct variety, if not a species, shell thin, kernel large and well 

 tasted. Mr. Lewis informs me that they are only in one other place, which 

 is near Catskill, east of the Alleghany Mountains. Trees 60 feet high, 

 wood hard, and makes excellent fences ; much used in farmwork 

 generally. Juglans var. (?) sp. (?). Trees very like the former, fruit 

 smaller, longer, and acute at the point. Husk much larger than the 

 former. Castanea sp., seems to be a large variety of the common is it 

 produced by the richness of the soil ? After getting two plants of 

 Juglans alba (?) 3 raised from nuts of the same trees of which the parcel 

 of nuts is in this year's produce, some Indian corn, and a Honeysuckle, 

 Mr. Lewis took me to the house of his friend and neighbour, James 

 Thomson, Esq., to whom I had a letter of introduction from Mr. Clinton. 



1 Q. acuminata, see Sargent, Silva N. Am. viii. p. 55, Q. MueMenbergii, Kew 

 Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs, ed. 2, p. 697. 



2 Carya porcina, C.DC. in DC. Prod. xvi. ii. p. 144. 



3 Carya alba, C.DC. loc. cit., p. 143. 



