100 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



prevailed in the United States. We have enjoyed a degree of 

 health unparalleled in the whole Union during the last teu 

 years. Our autumns aim .st without a cloud in view, have been 

 truly dclifrhtful. We see the rosy cheek, the cheerful counte- 

 nance, the quick, light, elastic step, and hear the sound of in- 

 dustry in all its life and vigor, in all our growing and prosper- 

 ous towns. We no longer have a sickly season, every year, 

 as all new countries have, but in their stead, health, happi- 

 ness and prosperity prevail. From all we hear, see, and know, 

 of our country and its climate, we have reason to believe, 

 and do believe, that Ohio will be one of the healthiest regions 

 in the world. The forests are cleared otf, to a great degree, 

 over a large portion of our territory, and the grass and weeds, 

 in the woods, have been ate down by the cattle. The whole 

 surface of our soil, even in the woods, has become dry, com- 

 pared with what it vv'as twenty years since. The whole at- 

 mosphere is drier than formerly, and the fogs and mists which 

 once rose from the earth every morning, and fell down upon it 

 again in the evening in the form of a heavy dew, are no lon- 

 ger seen, felt, or known among us. Those who wish to find 

 these things, must travel beyond us to the west. Our roads, 

 twenty years since, were mostly shaded by a dense forest, and 

 the mud was abundant in them, even in August. Those for- 

 ests, are mostly destroyed, and our roads, are dry eight 

 months in the year. Within a few short years, Ohio will pre- 

 sent the aspect of an old settled country, traversed by canals 

 and roads, thronged with travelers and animated by a dense 

 population. Our winters have very little snow, and what we 

 have soon disappears before the rays of the sun. While the 

 people of New York and all the eastern states, even Philadel- 

 phia, are suffering from deep snows, and intense cold, it is not 

 uncommon with us to have warm weather, freezing a little in 

 the night, and thawing during the day, opened by a white frost 

 in the morning. 



Thus our winter proceeds, until early in March, when the 

 fanner plows his fields, and sows his oats and other spring 

 grains. 



