508 
RURAL HOURS. 
out long at a time. It is something of an exertion to leave the 
fire-side and face such a sharp frost. 
Tuesday, 20th . — Growing milder. Cloudy; thermometer above 
zero at sunrise ; at two o’clock it had risen to twenty. 
Amused ourselves this evening by looking a little into the state 
of things in our own neighborhood, as reported by the last gen- 
eral Census ; comparing the condition of our own county with that 
of others in the same State. The growth of the inland region, to 
which our valley belongs, will prove, in most respects, a good ex- 
ample of the state of the country generally. The advance of thb 
county has always been steady and healthful ; things have never 
been pushed forward with the unnatural and exhausting impetus 
of speculation, to be followed by reaction. Neither do we pos- 
sess a railroad or a canal within our limits. We have not even 
a navigable river within our bounds ; steamboats and ships are as 
great strangers as the locomotive. It will be seen, therefore, that 
we claim no striking advantages of our oum, and what prosperity 
we enjoy, must flow from the general condition of the country, 
and the industry of our population. Improvement, indeed, has 
here gone on steadil)'^ and gradually, from the time when the val- 
ley was shaded by the forest, some sixty-five years since, to the 
present hour. And now let us see what has been done in that 
time. 
Tlie county is one of fifty-nine in this State ; its area is 892 
square miles, that of the State is 45,658 miles. The population 
of the county in 1840, the date of the following estimates, was 
49,626 souls, that of the State, 2,428,292 souls. This is the 
nineteenth county in the State for extent, and the tliirteenth for 
population. The people are scattered over the hills and valleys, 
m farm-houses and cottages, or collected in ^^llages and hamlets ; 
