OF NORTH CAROLINA. 137 



whereas the latter settlers are forced to purchase 

 smaller dividends of the old standers, and some- 

 times at very considerable rates ; as now in Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland where a thousand acres of 

 good land cannot be bought under twenty shil- 

 lings an acre, besides two shillings yearly acknowl- 

 edgement for every hundred acres ; which sum, 

 be it more or less, will serve to put the merchant 

 or planter here into a good posture of buildings, 

 slaves, and other necessaries, when the purchase 

 of his land comes to him on such easy terms and 

 as our grain and pulse thrives with us to admira- 

 tion, no less do our stocks of cattle, horses, sheep 

 and swine multiply. 



The beef of Carolina equalizes the best that our 

 neighboring colonies afford ; the oxen are of a 

 great size when they are suffered to live to a fit 

 age. I have seen fat and good beef at all times 

 of the year, but October and the cool months are 

 the seasons we kill our beeves in. when we intend 

 them for salting or exportation ; for then they are 

 in their prime of flesh, all coming from grass, we 

 never using any other food for our cattle. The 

 heifers bring calves at eighteen or twenty months 

 old, which makes such a wonderful increase, that 

 many of our planters, from very mean beginnings, 

 have raised themselves, and are now masters of 

 hundreds of fat beeves and other cattle. 



The veal 'is very good and white, so is the milk 

 very pleasant and rich, there being at present, 

 considerable quantities of butter and cheese made 



