84 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



tatoes and tobacco, with very little culture and no 

 manure, for several years. Sometimes tlioy are 

 under grass, or partially covered with brushwood, 

 in whicii tlie operation of clearing is easier. In 

 either case, the occupier has to drain where neces- 

 sary ; to enclose with a ring fence, if he wishes to 

 be compact; to lay out and make the farm-road; 

 and to build a house and farmery. The latter he 

 constructs of timber, sometimes plastered with 

 neatness and taste, as in England, bat generally 

 with logs and mud, as in Poland and Russia. With 

 timber he generally forms also his fences, though 

 tJiorn aud other live hedges are planted in some of 

 the earlier-cultivated districts. 



" The iisual practice of settlers with capital may 

 be very well exemplified in the case of Birkbeok. 

 This gentleman having purchased an estate of 1440 

 acres, in the Illinois, and fixed on that part of it 

 which he intended as his future residence and farm, 

 'the first act was building a cabin, about two hun- 

 dred yards from the spot where the house was to 

 stand. This cabin is built of round straight logs, 

 about a foot in diameter, lying upon each other, 

 and notched in at the corners, forming a room 

 eighteen . feet long by sixteen ; the intervals be- 

 tween the logs "chunked," that is, filled with slips 

 of wood; and "mudded," that is, daubed with a 

 plaster of mud; a spacious chimney, built also of 

 logs, stands like a bastion at one end; the roof is 

 well covered with four hundred clap-boards of cleft 

 oak, very mucii like the pales used in England for 

 fencing parks. A hole is cut through the side, 

 called, very properly, the "door (the through)," 

 for which there is a " shutter," made also of cleft 

 o«.k, and hung on wooden hinges. All this has 

 been executed by contract, and well executed, for 

 twenty dollars. I have since added ten dollars to 

 the cost, for the luxury of a floor and ceiling of 

 •sawn boards, and it is now a comfortable habita- 

 tion.' 



'■'■An example of a settler who began -with capi- 

 t.il only sufficient to pay the first instalment of 

 eighty dollars of the price of 160 acres of land is 

 given by the same author, who had the informa- 

 tion from the settler himself. Fourteen years ago 

 he ' unloaded his family under a tree,' on his present 

 estate, where he has now two liundred acres of 

 excellent land, cleared and in good cultivation, 

 capable of producing from eighty to one hundred 

 bushels of Indian corn per acre. The poor emi- 

 grant, having collected the eighty dollars, repaired 

 to the land-office, and entered liis (piarter section, 

 then worked his way, without another cent in his 

 pocket, to the solitary spot which was t<> be his 

 future abode, in a two-horse wagon, containing his 

 family and his little all, consisting of a few blankets, 

 a skillet, his rifle and his ax. Arriving in the 

 spring, after putting up a little log cabin, he pro- 

 ceeded \a> clear, with intense lal)or, a ])lot of ground 

 for Indian corn, which was to be their next year's 

 support; hut for the present, being without means 

 of obtaining a supply of flour, he depended im Ids 

 gun for .subsistt^nce. In pursuit of the game, he 

 was compelled, after his day's work, to wade 

 through tfie evening dews, up to his waist in loni: 

 grass or bushes; and, returning, found nothing to 

 tie on but a bear's skin on the cold ground, exposed 

 to every blast through the sides, Mud every shower 

 thruugli the opea roof of his wrtstched dweiliug, 



which he did not even attempt to close, till the ap- 

 proach of winter, and often not then. Under such 

 distresses of extreme toil and exposure, debarred 

 from every comfort, many valuable lives have sunk, 

 which have been charged to the climate. The in- 

 dividual whose case is here included, had to carry 

 the little grain he could procure twelve miles to be 

 ground, and remembers once seeing at the mill a 

 man who had brought his corn sixty miles, and 

 was compelled to wait three days for his tnrn. 

 Such are the difiiculties these pioneers have to 

 encounter; but they diminish as settlements ap- 

 proach each other, and are only heard of by their 

 successors, 



" Tlie political circumstances of the United 

 States aflfect the agriculturist both as to the cost of 

 production and the value of produce. It is evident 

 that the want of population must render the prico 

 of labor high, and the produce of land low. The 

 cheapness of land affords the possession of inde- 

 pendence and comfort at so easy a rate, that strong 

 inducements of profit are required to detain men 

 m the condition of servitude. Hence the high 

 price of all commodities, not simply agricultural ; 

 of the labor of mechanics of every description ; 

 and hence also the want of local markets for grain, 

 because where three-fourths of the population raise 

 their own gr.ain (which is the calcnlniioii), the re- 

 maining fourth will use but a moderate proportion 

 of the spare produce. The low rate of land and 

 taxes and this want of home markt-ts form the rea- 

 son why the American farmer, notwithstanding the 

 price of labor, affords his grain so cheap for ex- 

 portation. Although the rate of produce is low, 

 tiie profits of the American f'Hrmers are high, on 

 account of the small capital required. 



" Tlte Agricultural Products of the United 

 States include all tiiose of Britain and France. The 

 British grains, herbage, plants and fruits are grown 

 in every district. What a|)pears at first sigl)t very 

 remarkable is, tliat in America the nntive pastures 

 (except on the banks of the rivers) consist entirely 

 of annuals; and that is the reason why the coun- 

 try is bare and black in winter; but perennial 

 grasses, when sdwn in the uplands, are found to 

 thrive in many situations. The grestest quantity 

 of wheat is grown in Pennsylvania and New Eng- 

 land. Maize ripens in all the districts, except some 

 of the most northerly. Rice is cultivareil in Vir- 

 ginia and on the Ohio; and the vine is indigenous 

 in these and other provinces, thoutHi its culture has 

 not yet been much attempted. Some French cul- 

 tivators are of opinion that the American soil and 

 climate are unfavorable; this, however, is not 

 likely to be the case, it being a native of the coun- 

 try. The Government have established a Swiss 

 colony for its culture, at Vevay, in Indiana; and 

 another in Louisiana for the culture of the olire. 

 The mulberry, the cotton and the su<r>ir-oane are 

 cultivated in Virginia, but not extensively. Sugar 

 is procured plentifully in the woody d stricts, hy 

 tappiuir dirterent species of Maple, especitdly the 

 siiccliarinum, in spring; boiling the juice till it 

 thickens; and then granulating it by letting it 

 .stand and drain in a tub, the l>ottom of which is 

 pierced with small holes. The sugar obtained does 

 little more than pay for the lal)or. 



" Of the Live Stock of the United States, the 

 i breed of horses of English extraction is, in gene- 



