PINNATED GROUSE. 323 
there are numerous inhabitants, and among’ 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 
where the population is spare and scanty. These are, 
however, by no means, naked deserts : they are, on 
the contrary, covered with trees, shrubs, and smaller 
plants. The trees are mostly pitch-pines of inferior 
size, and white oaks of a small growth. They are of a 
quality very fit for burning. Thousands of cords of 
both sorts of fire- wood are annually exported from these 
barrens. Vast quantities are occasionally destroyed by 
the fires which, through carelessness or accident, spread 
far and wide through the woods. The city of New 
York will probably, for ages, derive fuel from the grouse 
grounds. The land, after having been cleared, yields 
to the cultivator poor crops. Unless, therefore, he can 
help it by manure, the best disposition is to let it grow 
up to forest again. Experience has proved, that, in a 
term of forty or fifty years, the new growth of timber 
will be fit for the axe. Hence it may be perceived, that 
the reproduction of trees, and the protection they afford 
to heath-hens, would be perpetual, or, in other words, 
not circumscribed by any calculable time, provided the 
persecutors of the latter would be quiet. 
“ Beneath these trees grow more dwarfish oaks, over- 
spreading the surface, sometimes with here and there a 
shrub, and sometimes a thicket. These latter are from 
about two to ten feet in height. Where they are the 
principal product, they are called, in common conversa- 
tion, brush , as the flats on which they grow are termed 
brushy plains. Among this hardy shrubbery may 
frequently be seen the creeping vegetable named the 
partridgeberry, covering the sand with its lasting ver- 
dure. In many spots, the plant which produces hurtle- 
berries sprouts up among the other natives of the soil. 
These are the more important ; though I ought to inform 
you, that the hills reaching from east to west, and 
forming the spine of the island, support kalmias, hicko- 
ries, and many other species •, that I have seen azalias 
