203 



UNITED STATES* 



Soil of Pennsylvania* 

 The soil of the state of Pennsylvania is greatly 

 diversified. The Alleghany mountains run through 

 the state from north-east to south-west, and have 

 many spurs or offsets, and parallel ridges, between 

 which, the soil is ver}/ fertile, and produce every spe- 

 cies of grain suitable to the climate, and of weight 

 equal to any in the world* In some of the newly 

 cleared land of the western counties, the strength of 

 soil is so great as to cause wheat to lodge before it ri- 

 pens, to prevent which it is necessary to take repeat- 

 ed crops of hemp, tobacco, and corn (maize) in order 

 to reduce its strength, and cause the head to shoot. 

 Years of cultivation pass on without any manure be- 

 ing put upon the land. The county of Lancaster is 

 composed of a durable clay, not liable to be much in- 

 jured by the wet in Winter, or the sun in Summer, 

 and being in high cultivation, the land sells at as 

 great a price as within one mile of Philadelphia* 

 Limestone almost every where abounds in this coun- 

 ty, and enable the farmer to keep up the strength o£ 

 his land upon moderate terms, by the use of that 

 powerful and most exceDent manure. Hence it is 

 not uncommon to find land as good after having been 

 worked half a century, as the best land of newly 

 cleared tracts. These facts which are so well 

 known to the inhabitants of the counties to which a 

 reference is particularly had, will not be credited in 

 Europe, where the truth ufion any subject connect- 

 ed with the native or artificial riches of this country 

 is seldom if ever told. 



