AGRICULTURE. 35 



found, the second and third, covered with a thick depo- 

 sit of vegetable matter, leaves, partly decayed, 'soft as 

 an under bed,'' 'black as my shoe.'' — Such is the surface. 

 On tearing up some handfuls of tlie ground, this is well 

 blackened of course, and little is thought of looking for 

 the sub-soil, as those invariably do, who have once been 

 deceived by black muck, and these soft beds of leaves. 

 Brooks are plenty, in such woods, though they will be 

 scarce, on the same land, when opened to the sun, and 

 the blankets and bed of leaves are removed so as to dry 

 the surface of the ground. 



On the 4th quality of land, the dry and warm gravel, 

 there is none of this great store of slowly rotting leaves, 

 because they rot rapidly, and fires often burn them up, 

 the land being dry; and brooks, and springs, are even 

 more scarce than they will be when the woods are de- 

 stroyed. The ground, having its surface uncovered, and 

 the woods generally more open, presents an appearance 

 of nakedness, especially after having passed over black 

 muck lands, shrouded in leaves. — With no allowance 

 for the far greater frequency of fires, to burn off the 

 leaves, and to destroy much of the growth of wood, 

 keeping the woods more open, this land is condemned, 

 for barrenness, and the land of muck is chosen, all blan- 

 keted and carpeted with leaves. We may, on reading 

 this, admitting it to be a true and faithful outline or de- 

 lineation, all agree that we would act more wisely, and 

 yet 99 in a hundred of us, uninstructed by experience, 

 would probably choose the carpeted land, as 99 in a 

 hundred have done before, in all parts of the United 

 States. I would not, and did not, but my father did, 

 much to his regret, and I had the benefit of his expe- 

 rience, as well as my own, having been born and bred 

 on one of those carpeted farms. 



Land, that is cold and wet, may bear immense 

 growths of trees, as of the elm, ash, baswood, birch, 

 beech, maple and hemlock; and having a very thick 

 shade, tlie ground will be cold, and wet, and the leaves 

 must, of course, decay very slowly. Hence the carpe- 

 ting, whicii is, invariably, a sure indication of either cold, 

 or wet land, or of both. If of both, it never will make 



