352 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



and was then applied at the rate of nearly 200 pounds, mixed with 72 pounds of 

 plaster per acre. The appearance of the wheat after ii came up astonished, and 

 was the admiration of every person who passed the public road that runs imme- 

 diately by it ; and, notwithstanding it was so late sown, and the uncommon 

 drouth of two months' duration last spring, yielded an average of 9 bushels of 

 wheat to the acre — but, previous to the drouth, promised to be good for from 15 

 to 20 bushels per acre. The corn was also much improved by the guano, but to 

 what extent I am as yet unable to determine, as I have not yet gathered it — but 

 am satisfied it will pay well for the expenditure. With proper management and 

 a moderate expense, 1 have no hesitation in saying our lands generally can be 

 made as productive as any lands on the Atlantic slope ; and for beauty of scenery 

 they are not surpassed from Maine to Texas. Suthciently undulating to carry 

 off redundant water, beautifully diversified by hill and dale, and plentifully sup- 

 plied by the very best springs of water the world can afl'ord — the largest streams 

 affording constant and ample supplies of water for milling and manufacturing 

 purposes ; and, with^the exception of a few situations on the borders of our riv- 

 ers, healthy, almost to a fault, as our physicians would say. The timber gen- 

 erally, except on the margin of the streams and in the valleys, is young and 

 thrifty, consisting of every variety of oak, hickory and poplar, interspersed on 

 the ridges with chestnut. I located myself here in the year 1S12, at the com- 

 mencement of the late War with England, and about that time, in a conversation 

 with an old gentleman (84 years old) who was born on one of the plantations 

 I purchased, he told me that his father ivas the only white man then settled be- 

 tween the Eastern Branch [at Washington City) and the neio settlemc7it at 

 (now) Frederick City — that the only road between those places was an Indian 

 trail that crossed the Seneca immediately above my factory and mills, and that the 

 country when he was a boy, except the valleys, was covered by a low growth 

 of bushes, over the tops of which he could see the deer bounding for a long dis- 

 tance, whenever they were started. This accounts for the present timber being 

 young and not very large, except in the valleys, where it is found in many of 

 them very large and of the very best quality, particularly white-oaks that are hard 

 to beat in any country. Since that period the country has been occupied and is 

 still occupied in part by the proprietors of the soil ; but besides them there was 

 a class of tenants on large tracts of land held by non-residents, whose sole ob- 

 ject was to obtain all they could from the soil, cutting down, clearing and culti- 

 vating it in such a manner as to obtain all they could from it, and when it would 

 no longer yield them a profit on their labor, deserting it for other new regions, 

 and leaving it exhausted and unoccupied, and finally turned out into what is 

 termed old fields. Those old fields, however, in many instances, are filling up 

 and becomiftg covered with a growth of pine which in a few years gives a new 

 character to the soil, and when cleared is very productive, and by judicious treat- 

 ment can be rendered permanently so, by the proper use of clover, plastering and 

 rest. The inhabitants generally are very hospitable, peaceable, and (becoming) 

 industrious in their habits, and have a desire to improve their condition. In this 

 respect there has been a most wonderful change within the last ten or twenty 

 years, and is still on the increase — of which you may form some idea when I in- 

 form you that I have understood from reliable authority that of the article of 

 guano alone there have been used nearly or quite 500 tons in this county the pres- 

 ent year. ]Now is the time for purchasers to procure lands in this country (be- 

 fore their value is more fully demonstrated or known), while they can be pur- 

 chased for a song, and will fully repay the investment in a year or two, by the 

 application of those imported manures and the use of such materials as the lands 

 themselves afford. I should think the opportunity a favorable one for establish- 

 ing the young scions of some of your wealthy citizens to advantage, where they 

 might be pleasantly located near the Capital of the Union, and by proper atten- 

 tion to their new vocation become useful and respectable citizens, and infinitely 

 more happy than in the pursuits of fluctuating and precarious mercantile opera- 

 tions and trade. Our young ladies are intelligent and fascinating, and make the 

 best of housewives ; and as for the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, 

 they are to be procured here in abundance, including, as you justly observe, the 

 best bacon in the United States, 



Your ob't serv't FRANCIS C. CLOPPER. 



(672, 



