V'M.. XIV. NO. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGLSTER, 



77 



fifly I'al Uiiilis, wortli £12 10s., for they will not 

 fetch more than five shillitigs each. In Enghind, 

 the keeping of sheep is, in every point of view, a 

 profitable part of fanninij ; bnt wliat is to be jrai[i- 

 ed from it in America? As I thought on the keep- 

 ing of sheep in America, and compared it with the 

 same stock in England, I could not help saying to 

 myself, ' this is indeed fine farjning,' and is this 

 part of t'le fartnin;; for which I have left the slioros 

 of old Englund and all its comforts, to come hore 

 and he surfeited wiili pickled pork, and toil like 

 some poor wretched nogrn slave in Soulli Carolina, 

 and live, too, as I have never been accustomed to 

 do, on a perfect level with my laborers. What if 

 There is 'no rent to pay,' the land must be bought 

 and paid for; and what is there to pay you any in- 

 terest for money expended in land and stock ? 

 What is there to enrich you after years of servi- 

 tude, and enable you to return to England, to end 

 your days where they began, surrounded with the 

 comforts which an Englishman is privileged to en- 

 joy? Is the reader thinking what a fine opportu- 

 nity I had of improving their breed of sheep, and 

 immortalizing the name of Edmunds as the- great 

 benefactor of the country ? What a fine opening 

 for beconiing a great sheep breeder ! Though I 

 did not cross the Atlantic in pursuit of fame, yet I 

 was not insensible to the importance of introducing 

 a very superior breed of sheep, and it was tor that 

 purpose that I took with me eight such e.\cellenl 

 iong-wooled tups. But did they maintain their 

 English character and good properties, and keep 

 up their healthy appearance? No. I saw them 

 degenerate daily, faster than I thought it possible 

 for any creatures to do. When they landed they 

 were in good condition, bnt I could not keep it up. 

 Though I set great store by them, and they were 

 all the stock I had to attend to — though they had 

 the best pasture the country afforded, and were 

 well shaded ivith trees — had as much as they could 

 eat of oats, peas, Indian corn and potatoes — still 

 they got poorer and poorer, worse and worse every 

 day, till at last they became very thin, and their 

 wool so harsh, witliout any moisture or nature in 

 it, that it was certain they would never cut a good 

 fleece again. But the heat was so intolerable to 

 them, that they had no more comfort of their lives 

 than I had, who at that time was obliged to change 

 my shirt at least twice a day, though I had nothing 

 to do but to sit still in the house. 



" From my own experience, I can only speak of 

 the overpowering heat of the summer, that moist, 

 relaxing, melting kind of heat, which unfits a man 

 for every thing and makes existence almost a bur- 

 den. I may venture, however, to assert with truth, 

 and therefore without any fear of contradiction, 

 that tlie winters are most severe. Cows with tlieir 

 tails frozen off, would have given the lie to any A- 

 merican who should have maintained that their win- 

 ters were not more severe than ours. But I heard 

 enough of their winters from the Americans them- 

 selves, to convince mo that a winter's residence in 

 the State of New York is not more desirable than 

 my summer one. which has made such a lasting im- 

 pression on my mind." 



Again — 



" Of the ytates west of New York I can say but 

 little, except tint every one fold me how subject 

 they were to the ague, and that if I went to settle 

 in either of them I could nut escape it. This re- 

 port I have had confirmed, and my opinion is, from 

 all 1 have heard, that there is not so gri-'at a differ- 

 ence in any of the Western States as any one 



would suppose. A nephew of mine complained 

 exceedingly of the heat of Illinois, and I have no 

 doubt ho would have found the winters very cold, 

 if after coming to England he had determined to 

 return to his claim, which he had marked out, and 

 which, as far as the land was concerned, hold out 

 every prospect that America could present to a 

 young man well qualified for encountering the dif 

 ficulties which every settler nmst expect. I am 

 convinced from my own experience, that the Eng- 

 lishman who tioes to the United States must expect 

 10 find liiniself not only destLtute of the comforts to 

 which lie has been accustomed, hut many iiiconve- 

 niencios which ho did not reckon upon. The in- 

 tolerable bite of musquitOHs ; houses swarming 

 with bugs, and so full of black flies that they get 

 into every thing; they are in your tea cup, half a 

 dozen at a time, before you can swallow your tea, 

 and you must pick them off your butter, soft with 

 the heat, before you can spread it on your bread. 

 The chirping of iityritids of crickets and grasshop- 

 pers, trirte as it may appear in comparison wiih 

 mnsquitoe* anil bugs, is so wearisome, that it be- 

 comes quite a nuisance ; and as for the American 

 forests, they are as gloomy and dull as any thing 

 you can imagine. No singing birds to delight and 

 cheer you, and for a while make you forget, if you 

 can, the country you have left behind. ■ No voice 

 of the turtle is heard in the land;' but, after sun- 

 set, the doleful croaking of three or four sorts of 

 toads, with the loud horrid noise of the bull toads, 

 which weigh from three to four pounds each ; such 

 are the sounds which break the death like silence 

 of a grand American forest, with its lofty pines and 

 magnificent trees of almost every description. 



" There is, no doubt, a great deal of sickness 

 and innumerable deaths occasioned by the exhala- 

 tions which arise from the swamps, and which are 

 not likely to be drained till labor is cheaper and 

 produce of more value. There is, in fact, no capi- 

 tal — and where there is no capital you cannot ex- 

 pect improvement. 



" But the one grand objection to thi,' United 

 States is that of which I was most ignorant — tlit 

 climale. It does not suit the Americans, and it 

 cannot suit an English constitiuion, to work in a 

 country where there is not, for many days, a breath 

 of wind stirring, and where it is impossible to con- 

 ceive heat more close and sultry ; the thermometer 

 in the summer is often, for days together, at 90 

 degrees in the shade ; and in the winter oO de- 

 grees, and even lower than that, below zero. If a 

 man have 'bones of iron and flesh of brass,' he may 

 be proof against all such great extremes ; but if he 

 have the constitution of men in general, let him be 

 ever so stout, ho will soon look as thin and sallow 

 as his neighbors. Go where you may, and look 

 which way you will, you neverseethe ruddy bloom 

 of health which meets you every where in England, 

 nor old men and women of between eighty and 

 ninety, as you will see in almost every English 

 village. It is the climate that carries off the pop- 

 ulation so fast, that I doubt whether it would ever 

 beooino a populous country, were it not for the im- 

 mense tide of emigration flowing in, more or les.s, 

 from every country in Europe; more than 4000 

 emigrants having arrived at New York in four days 

 It is the climate of America which is the grand ob- 

 stacle to its prosperity — it is the climate which dis- 

 heartens and sickens the man who dwells uiubr its 

 influence ; for it is a power which he cannot re- 

 sist ; other difliculties might all be overcome, but 

 with this he struggles in vain." 



He at length resolves to return to old England : 

 " Let not my reader suppose for a moment that I 

 was the <mly person who returned to England with 

 such views of America, that I would on no conside- 

 ration ever go to it again. There were hundreds 

 who left the very day I left, and I know that thou- 

 sands and lens of thousands were left behind be- 

 cause they could not return ; and if, after all I have 

 litanl, and seen, and felt, I did not wain my fellow 

 countrymen, and let them reap at home all tae ad- 

 vantages of what I learnt abroad, at no little cost 

 and trouble, I should he wanting in the discharge 

 of a duty wliich I consider my brother farmers have 

 a right to expect from one who, I trust, will never 

 be chargeable with indifference to the happiness 

 and welfare of any man. 1 icas deceived, and I 

 would not have you deceived, and go out to Ameri- 

 ca with expectations which I am sure cannot be 

 realized. Every person who ijitends to settle in a 

 distant country, should know well the climate of 

 the country in which he intends to settle; that I 

 can say, from my own experience, is the first and 

 most important point ; for if the emigrant is to do 

 any good, he will need all the advantages that a 

 temperate climate can afford, to give success to his 

 exertions. Now, the climate of America, as I ob- 

 served its effects on others and felt them too, on 

 mi/ oicn constitution, does not promise the enjoy- 

 ment of that health and strength, without which 

 human life soon becomes a burden, and the pros- 

 pects of ouccess are but very hopeless. Though I 

 went out with some capital, quite as much as was 

 necessary, and with a determination to work and 

 make the best of every thing, and with no idea of 

 setting lip for a fine gentleman, yet I could not dis- 

 cover any thing in America that held out those 

 prospects which I certainly was led to hope for, and 

 which every man naturally expects to find who has 

 left his own country. If a man of sober and in- 

 dustrious habits — and it is no use for men who are 

 not sober and industrious ever to think of emigra- 

 ting to any country — I say again, if a man of sobri- 

 ety and industry, and a few hundred pounds in his 

 pocket, must, if he goes to .America, slave in the 

 heat, and toil in the cold, and get nothing better 

 than pickled pork and potatoes, he had better stay 

 at home, and oat fat bacon and cabbage in England, 

 and make the best of what little he has in his own 

 country, amidst his. own relations and friends, than 

 banish himself from, all those comforts of life to 

 which he has been accustomed, and sail away to a 

 counlry where produce i.s cheap, labor dear, money 

 scarce, and climate unhealthy." 



Hoeing Rvta Bas;a. — On ground of any common 

 degree of fertility, the distance of one fojt at least 

 should be allowed between these roots, except they 

 be in drills three feet asunder, when they may be 

 suffered to stand a little nearer. If sown broad- 

 cast, eighteen inches square should be allowed to 

 each root. If the land is rich enough, they will 

 be so much larger in consequence of this increased 

 space, as considerably to increase the amount of 

 the crop, and greatly diminish the labor of harvest- 

 ing. 



We liave observed, on the best soil, well ma- 

 nured previous years, where the crop had been sow- 

 ed broadcast, and two feet squire allotted to each 

 plant, roots weighing from ten to fifteen pounds, 

 and yielding about fifteen hundred bushels per acre. 

 If the soil be poor, the roots must be mucn nearer 

 together, as they will not grow large, and number 

 must be made to compensate for magnitude. 



