244 [Assembly 



unerring hand of nature. These valleys contain none, or very 

 little of the sour, coarse grasses which infest (he uet swampy 

 grounds below, and which cattle will not touch if they can get 

 anything else, and then only to prevent them from starving, so 

 deficient are they in flavor and nutriment. 



A considerable portion of our highlands on the Hudson river 

 contain many such valleys and side hills, and have some very 

 good farms in and upon them ; they grow the best of these natu- 

 ral grasses, and as much grain as the owners want for domestic 

 consumption ; the great object is the dairy, and no better butter 

 and cheese, especially the former, upon which they chiefly run, 

 can be produced in this or any other country. Fruits, too, ap- 

 ples, peaches, pears, plums, &c., large and high flavored, and not 

 so liable to be cut off by changes of seasons and some other causes 

 as below. We speak of these from personal knowledge, as we 

 have often traveled through parts of tliese mountains, been upon 

 some of these farms, examined and admired them, and been re- 

 freshed by some of their delicious products. These mountain 

 grasses would not grow as well on the grounds below, or if they 

 would, (and no doubt there are some there similar to them,) they 

 lose the sweetness which they possessed on the mountain hills 

 and valleys ; rich manures and the system of low land culture 

 adulterate their juices and render them less palatable to stock. 

 Plants, like animals, have their habitat or liome ; they get accus- 

 tomed to this home, and are more tenacious of the habits acquir- 

 ed there, and cling more to them than animals. Hence, on a re- 

 moval to a short distance only, unless done with the greatest 

 care, they degenerate somewhat in their new home, and must 

 get domesticated in it to thrive and do w^ell. The ancients were 

 well aware of this, and Virgil, nearly two thousand years ago, 

 advises in transplanting from one locality to another, whether 

 distant or near, to mark on the shrub or tree, removed, the sides 

 exposed east, west, north and south, and expose the same sides 

 to the same quarters in the new locality. He farther advises a 

 removal of a portion of the earth in which they first grew to their 

 new home, and bed, as most congenial with their habits, and 

 they would be more certain to take root and grow. Grasses are 

 often, as is well known, transplanted, to form a new bed of turf 



