10 



fore, the maturing of the crops in England and the 

 power of using these crops, creates a material dif- 

 ference between its agriculture and ours. It may 

 be supposed that our climate must resemble that of 

 China in the same latitudes; and this fact may have 

 an essential bearing upon that branch of agriculture 

 which it is proposed to introduce among us, the pro- 

 duction of silk. 



The second point of difference between the two 

 countries lies in the soil. The soil of England is 

 mainly argillaceous ; a soft and unctuous loam upon 

 a substratum of clay. This may be considered as 

 the predominant characteristic in the parts which he 

 visited. The soil in some of the southern counties of 

 England is thinner ; some of it is what we should call 

 stony ; much of it is a free gravelly soil, with some 

 small part which with us would be called sandy. 

 Through a great extent of country this soil rests on a 

 deep bed of chalk. Ours is a granite soil. There is 

 granite in Great Britain ; but this species of soil 

 prevails in Scotland, a part of the country which 

 more resembles our own. We may have lands as 

 good as any in England. Our alluvial soils on Con- 

 necticut river and in some other parts of the country, 

 are equal to any lands ; but these have not, ordinari- 

 ly, a wide extent of clay subsoil. The soil of Mas- 

 sachusetts is harder, more granitic, less abounding in 

 clay, and altogether more stony, than the soil of 

 England. The surface of Massachusetts is more 

 uneven, more broken with mountain ridges, more di- 

 versified with hill and dale, and more abundant in 

 streams of water, than that of England. 



