52€j ACRIOfULTURAL M US EUJJ. 



place of all others in the country before mentioned ig 

 the white ash and will cUirry, fori observed that all |)la' 

 ces where the woods Iiavc been blown down by hnrri- 

 eanes for a number of yeai's back, the youti^ growth 

 consists principally of those two kinds of trees, and the 

 largest saplins of them which I saw, were six to nine 

 inches diameter. I suppose that the appearance of tho 

 latter trees commenced between twenty and thirty years 

 back, counting from 179i or 1795, There are several of 

 thase wind falls in the remote parts of Pennsylvania and 

 New York, near the line dividing the two States ; they 

 are generally 1-Sth rarely 3 4ths of a mile wide, and se- 

 veral miles in length, and in every one that I saw. and 

 that did not appear to have happened more than from 20 

 to 30 years back, the ash and wild cherry were the pre- 

 vailing timber." 



Extract from a publication of Rembrandt Peale. 



" Many of the cavities between these knolls are dr}', 

 others are in a state of ponds, but an infinite number 

 containing morasses, which must originally have been 

 ponds supplied by springs which still flow at their bot> 

 toms, and filled in the course of ages with a succession 

 of shell fish, and the decay of vegetables ; so that at pre- 

 sent they are covered with timber, 2ind have been so with 

 in the memory of man. An old man, upwards of sixty, 

 informed us, that all the difference he could remark be- 

 tween these morasses now, and what they were fihy 

 years ago, was, that then they were generally covered 

 WITH FIRS, and now with beech. This was verified by 

 the branches and logs of fir which we found in digging. 



" Judge Peters corroborates the fact in a variety 

 nf ways. Among other things he says, " My son also 

 brings to my recollection, that when we surveyed the 

 tract, called in old times the pine Tract, in Northampton 

 county, a great number of ash trees were intermixed 

 with the present growth of oak and hickory." 

 Pr. Caldwell observes, in a letter to ,Tudge Peters. " The 

 ibllowing fact I believe to be well known to many of tho 



