THANKSGIVING DAY. 
S93 
apples have lain rotting* on the grass, strawberries have filled the 
meadows, raspberries and blackberries have grown in every thicket, 
while the richer fruits of warmer climates, oranges, and peaches, 
and water-melons, have been selling for copper in om* streets. 
The only approach to anything like scarcity known here since 
the full settlement of the county, occurred some ten years since ; 
but it w^as owing to no failure of the crops, no ungenial season, no 
untimely frost. During the summer of 1838, wheat-flour became 
scarce in the country, and all that could be procured here was 
of a very indiff'erent quality — grown wheat, such as we had never 
eaten before. It was during the period of infatuation of Western 
speculation, when many farmers had left their fields untilled, while 
they followed the speculating horde westward. At that moment, 
many houses in the county were seen deserted ; some closed, 
others actually falling to ruin, and w^hole farms were lying 
waste, while their owners were running madly after w^ealth in the 
wilds of Michigan and Wisconsin. The same state of things was 
general throughout the country, and, united to speculations in 
wheat, was the occasion of a temporary difficulty. As yet, this 
has been the only occasion when anything like scarcity has been 
felt here. 
Well, indeed, does it become us to render thanks for mercies so 
great, wholly unmerited as they are. As we pass from valley to 
valley, from one range of highlands to another, from broad and 
heaving plains to plains still broader, from the fresh waters of 
great rivers and inland seas to the salt waves of the ocean, every- 
where, on either hand, the bounties of Providence fill the land ; 
the earth is teeming with the richest of blessings. And yet, in 
what part of this broad land, from one utmost verge to the other, 
17* 
