The Western Reserve. 
The Western Reserve is not a state, a 
separate province, or an Indian reservation, 
but is the northern portion of Ohio, and 
comprises 14 counties in whole, or part, 
comprising 3,800,000 acres of the most val¬ 
uable lands of the state. The title of “West¬ 
ern Reserve” originated in this wise: The 
kings of England, not being personally 
familiar with the geography |)f the North¬ 
west gave Virginia dominion over the north¬ 
west territory and then in 1662 gave to the 
colony of Connecticut lands “bounded by 
south line of Massachusetts, on the south by 
Long Island and sound, and by the Narra- 
gansett river on the east, to the Pacific 
Ocean on the west.” This would make the 
“Western Reserve” include part of New 
York, New Jersey, half of Pennsylvania, 
besides Ohio, Indiana, etc., with all of the 
present great territories. For 150 years the 
colonies had various disputes about their 
boundaries, which the Revolution finally 
decided, putting a new construction on the 
patents of the various kings of England. 
Virginia in 1787 ceded her claim to the 
Northwest territory to the United States, 
and about the same time Connecticut did 
the same, but reserved a strip of land along 
the south shore of Lake Erie, 120 miles 
long, with the 41st parallel, of latitude for 
the southern boundary. 
This Western Reserve contains 3,800,000 
acres, and is all surveyed into townships 
each five miles square. At the extreme 
west end of the Reserve, Connecticut in 
1792 gave half a million acres of land to the 
residents of Greenwich, New London, Nor¬ 
walk, Fairfield, Danbury and New Haven, 
who had suffered by the burning of prop¬ 
erty by the British soldiers. This grant 
was known as the “Fire lands,” and as 
this tract was mainly settled from these 
towns, the settlers named their new homes 
after the old ones, and thus one finds the 
names of Connecticut towns duplicated all 
over the Reserve. * ' 
The Western Reserve was settled almost 
wholly from New England, and is now 
largely occupied by their decendants, and 
it is asserted by eminent authorities, that in 
Huron and Geauga counties one can find 
“New Englandism” in habits, customs and 
principle, in a more perfect state or condi¬ 
tion than now exists in New England itself. 
The settlement of the “Western Reserve” 
reads like romance, and from its occupancy 
by the French, and its successive owner¬ 
ship, to the present time, including its In¬ 
dian history and tradition, the history of 
this section is the “glory” of the state.— J. 
O. in New England Homestead. 
THANKSGIVING. 
All that Spring with bounteous hand, 
Scatters o’er the smiling land; 
All that liberal Autumn pours, 
From her rich o’erflowing stores: 
These to Thee, my God, we owe— 
Sources whence our blessings flow; 
And for these my soul shall raise 
Grateful vows and solemn praise. 
—Mrs. Barbauld , 
Covering Strawberries. 
Mr. Emerick wanted to know if it were 
really essential to cover strawberry plants. 
Messrs. Ohmer, Fromm and Bock an¬ 
swered in the affirmative. Mr. Ohmer ad¬ 
vised never to cover to a greater depth than 
about an inch, or so shallow that the plants 
will readily grow up through it, thereby 
rendering its removal unnecessary. 
Mr. Fromm related an incident which 
seemed to militate somewhat against the 
rule just laid down in regard to the proper 
depth to cover. In the course of my per¬ 
egrinations, said he, among the strawberry 
plantations last spring, I came across one in 
Browntown, belonging to a Mr. Bohlender. 
It looked as though he had put upon it all 
the straw he could gather in all the country 
around. It was certainly covered to a depth 
of six inches, and I left it with the con¬ 
viction that no grower need feel any fear of 
Mr. B.’s competition. But what was my 
surprise, continued Mb. F., when tolerably 
late in the season, just late enough to catch 
the high prices, Mr. Bohlender brought to 
the city by far the largest and in every way 
the finest berries I had seen during the sea¬ 
son. ^ 
“Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still,” 
