28 ji Change and Succession of Crops recommejidedy 



who cannot furnish some materials, for such a design. 

 Facts may be collected, when the mind is turned to an 

 object, which would otherwise pass without observation 

 or useful instruction. If, in the prosecution of enqui- 

 ries of this kind, some ideas may appear speculative, 

 and visionary, they may nevertheless lead to practical 

 and useful results. 



I am, Sir, 



Your obedient Servant, 

 Richard Peters. 

 Dr. James IMease, 



Secretary, Agric, Society , Fhilad, 



There is an account in the public prints, of the ge- 

 neral decay of the pine woods in South Carolina ; effected 

 by a disease, which commenced in 1802. It would be 

 highly useful to ascertain and record the facts, relative 

 to this catastrophe. It has fallen under my observation 

 to know, that this phenomenon is not rare, or singular. 

 Intelligent surveyors, who have been occupied in run- 

 ning out new lands, in Pennsylvania, and other States, 

 remark, in a variety of instances, a total change of tim- 

 ber, in many extensive districts of the wilderness. 

 They discover by the fallen timber, coated with a di- 

 versity of the mosses (by which the air, and other means 

 of decay, being excluded, they were the better preserv- 

 ed*) that the present forest trees are entirely different 



* Coating, or covering large timber, before the acid sap 

 is evaporated, is destructive. After it is seasoned, protec- 

 tion from exterior injuries, is beneficial. The moss^ must, 



