1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



201 



also irregular, brittle; fracture granular; lustre me- 

 tallic, brilliant; too hard to yield to the knife, which 

 distinguishes it from suiphuret of copper, which 

 yields readily to the knife. Heated in the fire or 

 in an open tube, it exhales the smell of sulphur. 

 Is often mistaken by ihe ignorant for ffold, but its 

 great hardness immediately distinguishes the two. 

 Specific gravity 4.7. 



From Communications to the Board of Agriculture. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE UNITED STATES OF 

 AMERICA. 



By William Strickland, Esq. of Yorkshire. Re- 

 ceived 8 th March, 1796. 



Mr. Strickland, having been favored with some que- 

 ries from the Board of Agriculture, before his late 

 visit to the United States of America, in which 

 were pointed out objects of inquiry, connected with 

 the institution of the Board, and particularly de- 

 serving; his attention, takes the liberty of returning 

 the following answers to them. He is satisfied that 

 they are by no means complete, nor as worthy of 

 the inspection of the Board as he could have wished 

 them to have been; he hopes, however, that the im- 

 perfections will prove to arise rather from having 

 omitted much, than from having stated that which 

 is inaccurate; and that it will be considered, that 

 his residence in that country was short, the country 

 very extensive, and that other objects demanding 

 his chief attention, might be very numerous. 



York, Feb. 21lh, 1796. 



"What is the price of land?" 



In taking an agricultural survey of the United 

 States of America, our inquiries are rendered more 

 easy in one instance, than they would be, in that 

 of any other country, from the circumstance of 

 one superficial measure only, being there made 

 use of, the statute acre of England. As far as I 

 could find, no other measure is known or referred 

 to; but in other instances, the result will prove 

 very different; in Europe, and in England partic- 

 ularly, mere locality occasionally excepted, the 

 quality of the soil has the chief influence on the 

 price, and will in every country efiect it, in pro- 

 portion as agriculture is well understood. In Eu- 

 rope, the produce of the land is the object of the 

 purchaser, or the rent, which to the owner, is the 

 same thing; in America, quality of soil has little 

 influence on- the price; for there, agricultural 

 knowledge in general is at the lowest ebb; for un- 

 less the land be actually incapable of producing 

 any thing from being mountain or swamp, the 

 quality of it is little considered in the purchase. 

 This circumstance 1 should have been apt to have 

 attributed to the great variety of produce culti- 

 vated in the country, in consequence of which 

 every variety of land would be applicable to some 

 of them, had I not observed the same uniformity 

 of price, where the kind of articles cultivated was 

 much more limited. In America, the price of 

 the land is chiefly affected by the vicinity of easy 

 conveyance of the produce, or of the great towns 

 on the Atlantic, the chief seats of consumption 

 and export; but the situation of it on navigable 

 waters has always a greater tendency to increase 

 the price, than distance from the coast has to de- 

 press it. 



One other very essential difference is also to be 

 pointed out; in Europe, rent must ever be con- 



Vol. Ill— 26 



nected with price, and that is influenced by the 

 quality of soil; in America, rent is never thought 

 of, forlandis very rarely let; what instances of it 

 have occurred, and what information I could pro- 

 cure respecting it, I shall hereafter state; but first, 

 I shall proceed to the price; and with that view 

 commence with Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

 and Connecticut. These states, being in so many 

 instances circumstanced alike, having no back- 

 lands, as called, that is, lands lately taken up or 

 settled; being all situated on the sea; all of the 

 same early foundation; covered with an uniform 

 and abundant population; inhabited by the same 

 unmixed race; governed by the same laws, prin- 

 ciples, and customs; actuated by the same spirit 

 of order, industry, economy, and enterprize, may 

 properly be taken together, under the general 

 name of 



NEW ENGLAND. 



This is universally an hilly country, of irregular 

 surface, very rocky, in most parts great masses of 

 stone lying on the surface, or starting abruptly 

 from it, but no where what may be termed moun- 

 tainous; the green-woods, [green-mountains] as 

 they are called, running along the western ex- 

 tremity of it, and" which are part of that chain of 

 mountains which traverse the continent of North 

 America, in the north-east and south-west direc- 

 tions, are here of no very great height, and 

 would, I believe, admit of cultivation in almost 

 every part of them; certainly where I crossed 

 them in the north-west part of Massachusetts, 

 where they by no means come under the descrip- 

 tion of mountains. The soil of New England 

 has in general a tendency to clay, variously mixed 

 with sand and loam, but nothing of a calcareous 

 quality is known in any part of it. 



The country is chiefly applied to the breeding 

 and grazing of cattle and sheep; for winch, from 

 the verdure, and great inclination to produce her- 

 bage, it appears to be particularly calculated. No 

 great quantity of grain is grown; I believe not suf- 

 ficient for the maintenance of the people; so that 

 in general the consumption demands import, cer- 

 tainly never admits of export. 



Ail along the coast of New England, as far 

 north as Boston, land sells on an average by the 

 farm at from £3* to £3 15s. per acre, and ia 

 eagerly sought after at that price; much of this 

 land is not of a good quality, and all of it greatly 

 exposed to the influence of the sea. About Bos- 

 ton the price is considerably higher, particularly if 

 near the town; a gentleman residing there, has an 

 estate within three miles, consisting of three hun- 

 dred and eighty acres, divided into two farms, 

 which he has great difficulty in letting, and then 

 only for £52 10s. per annum of which he doea 

 not receive more than £30, the rest being laid 

 out in improvements and cultivation; besidea 

 which, he partly stocks the farms, having twenty 

 cows upon them, his property. Supposing the 

 land to be worth £ 3 15s. per acre, this estate, 



* I have throughout reduced the various denomina- 

 tions of money met with in the United States, and the 

 various currencies of the different states, to sterling; 

 in larger sums, omitting minute fractions, but inserting 

 them where their relative proportion to the sum could 

 be of any material value. 



