PINNATED GROUSE. 323 
there are nximeroiis inhabitants, and amon^ them some 
of our most wealthy farmers. 
“ But within the same limits, there are also tracts of 
great extent where men have no settlements, and others 
'vherc the population is spare and sc.iuty. These are, 
liowever, by no means, uaUod deserts : they arc, on 
the contrary, covered with trees, shrubs, and smaller 
plants. The trees are mostly pitcli-pines of inferior 
size, and white oaks of a small growtli. They are ot a 
Tiality very lit for burning. Tlionsands of cords of 
both sorts of dre-wood are annually exported from these 
barrens. Vast (jnantities are occasionally destroyed by 
the lires which, through carelessness or accident, spread 
far and wide through the woods. The city of New 
York will proba1)ly, for ages, derive fuel from the grouse 
grounds. The laud, after having been cleared, yields 
to the cultivator poor crops. Unless, therefore, he can 
help it by manure, the best dis|) 03 ition is to let it grow 
'ip to forest a'l-ain. Kxpcrience has proved, that, in a 
term of forty'or fifty years, the new growth of timber 
^ill be fit for the axo. Hence it may be perceived, that 
the reproduction of trees, and the protection they atford 
to heath-hens, would be perpetual, or, in other words, 
*101 circumscribed by any c.alculable time, provided the 
persecutors of the latter would he quiet. 
“ Beneath these trees grow more dwarfish oaks, over- 
^Preadlne- the surface, sometimes with here and there a 
^hrub, and sometimes a thicket, d hese latter are from 
“thout two to ten feet in height. Where they are the 
P''incipal product, they are called, in common conversa- 
Won, bnish, as the fiats on which they grow are termed 
>^i-usliy plains. Among this hardy shrubbery may 
frequently be seen the creeping vegetable named the 
partrid‘''eberry, covering the sand with its lasting ver- 
Jlm-c. lii many spots, the plant which jiroduces hurtle- 
“frics sprouts up among the other natives ot the soil. 
These are the more important ; though I ought to inform 
You, that the hills reaching from east to west, and 
fri’niing the spine of the island, support kalmias, Uicko- 
aud many olliBr species j that 1 have seen azalias 
