BOTANY. 89 



This yellow leaf tobacco, is cultivated in Fairfield, Hocking, 

 Perry, Licking, Guernsey, Belmont, Starke, Muskingum, and 

 many other counties in our hilly region. In the Miami valley 

 the cultivation of the palma christi has been attended with 

 great success, and the manufacture of castor oil from it, cold 

 pressed. It has been found quite profitable to those who made 

 it. The annual value of this oil, thus made, we do not know, 

 but we do know, that it is considerable. 



The cultivation of the sweet potatoe, along the Ohio river, 

 and all its tributaries, as high as latitude 40° north, has suc- 

 ceeded extremely well. They are a very profitable crop. Its 

 value sometimes is worth three hundred dollars, on an acre. 



In Lawrence county, cotton has always been raised, for 

 family use. We raise the green seed, mostly, such as grows 

 in Kentucky, below latitude 37° north. This plant is more cul- 

 tivated on the Wabash as high as Vincennes, but, in so high a 

 latitude it is not a certain crop, and it has to be topped in Au- 

 gust to check its further growth. The largest field which we 

 ever saw, along the Wabash, contained only twenty acres. 



Hemp is cultivated in places, and produces very well, but 

 our people, as well as many others, do not like to handle it. 

 Our Irish people prefer to it, the potatoe, just as our yankees 

 do the pumpkin. 



Flax seems to be going out of use, and our people cultivate 

 less of it every year. They prefer cotton to flax, and they 

 prefer too, the cotton cloths of Rhode Island and Massachu- 

 setts to their own manufactured cloths. The spinning wheel, the 

 reel, and the loom are not much used in Ohio, especially the 

 two former. Our people prefer buying their cloths from the 

 east, to making them here, and they are right. The production 

 of the articles of food— meat and bread, for the hungry labor- 

 ers of the east, best suits our present condition. 

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