3 



The two ranges mentioned, with their spurs, cause the streams 

 that bathe their feet to be more rapid than if the country was less 

 hilly or more gently undulating. The numerous falls that occur 

 are of immense advantage to the manufacturing interests of the 

 country ; mill sites abound, several forges and iron smelting 

 furnaces have been erected, and are now in active operation. 

 The highly undulating surface of the country, and the strata of 

 impervious schistose rocks, give rise to numberless springs. 



That portion of the soil which is termed limestone land may 

 be known on first sight, even when the rocks are not apparent, 

 by the admirable order in which every thing appertaining to 

 these farms is sustained. These lands were first settled by 

 Germans, and their descendants retain them with a kind of 

 religious attachment. The soil being naturally well adapted 

 to the growth of wheat, and the farmer bestowing upon it all 

 the labour requisite, is thus enabled to reap prodigious crops. 

 The German farmer is characterised by his close industrious 

 habits; and besides the prolific qualities of the earth, his great 

 secret in farming is the quantum of labour bestowed upon a 

 given portion, and this he could not do if he was possessed of 

 too much, for one should never be mastered by the land ; on the 

 contrary the farmer should always rule his estate. 



The slate land stands next in point of reputation, though in 

 fertility far behind the former. The quality of the soil varies 

 with the chemical composition of these transition rocks, which 

 form the basis of the soil; certain varieties are passably good, 

 whilst others are wretchedly poor. Wonders have been effect- 

 ed within the last few years by the application of lime. It is 

 as if some quickening fairy queen had waved her miraculous 

 wand over these long abandoned sterile grounds. Thousands 

 of acres had been laying open as barren; dwelling-houses, 

 barns, fences. &c. had been left by their owners to the dilapi- 

 dations of weather and time; and they thus from the want of 

 but one single simple, scientific application were forced to quit 

 their places of birth, the sites of frolic and youthful mirth, and 

 seek an apparently less ungrateful soil in the far wilds of the 

 lonely west, 



