Season of l^U. 283 



buckwheat (not extensively cultivated, in this part of 

 the country) is an exception. I have heard little of ei- 

 ther mildexv, smut, or the Hessian fiy. The second crop 

 of hay, was bad. The /?a^^z/7'(?^, were much complained 

 of; though plentiful. The ^m^^ was not nutritive; 

 and did not, as usual in good seasons, promote milk 

 in dairy-cows, or quick fatting, in other cattle. Fruity 

 of all kinds, is bad, and scarce. Our orchards \\i\vt ge- 

 nerally failed. Oi potatoes, there is but a scant crop, 

 in general. I had a good crop ; and I have heard of 

 some others. But most commonly I have had unla- 

 vourable accounts. 



Salivary defluxions (ptyalism) in horses, be- 

 gun earlier, and yet continue more inveterately, than 

 usual ; though they have been lamentably common, 

 for many years past. Myriads of small spiders, of va- 

 rious colours and configurations, and diminutive insects, 

 almost imperceptible to the ny.ked eye, might be seen 

 through a glass, on the stalks and blades of grass. 

 Whether the-e have any agency, in producing /Jify«/- 

 ism, I do not venture to determine. Nor do I believe, 

 that the cause has ever been clearly ascertained.* But 

 J have been repeatedly informed, (as I have, on a for- 



* There are scarcely any tolerably plausible conjectures, which 

 have not been formtd on this subject. But none seem yet to have 

 hit the point. If the spiders and insects were the causes, (and they 

 may so be in some instances) they must infect the grass ; so as to 

 leave a taint, or acrid feculence, in its system. For the hay of our 

 second crops, has, for a lonp; time past, had tiie same morbid fa- 

 culties, with the pastures. Horses and cattle run at the mouth, 

 when fed on it, nearly as much in winter ; as in summer on the 

 pastures. My neighbours, as well as myself, have repeatedly 



