JOURNEY THROUGH THE WOODS. 315 
by gnawing off the bark; they are also very 
fond of feeding upon the young trees that 
spring up from teed, as well as upon the 
suckers of the old ones ; it may readily be 
imagined, therefore, that the entire of the trees, 
on very extended tracts of land, might be thus 
killed by them; and as the American timber, 
when left exposed to the weather, soon decays, 
at the end of a few r years no vestige of the 
woods would be found on these tracts, any 
more than if they had been consumed by fire. 
It appears to me, however, that there is 
more weight in the opinion of those, who 
ascribe the deficiency of trees on the plains to 
the unfriendliness of the soil; for the earth 
towards the surface is universally very light, 
and of a deep black colour, and on digging 
but a few inches downwards vou come to a 
cold stiff* clay. On Long island in the state 
of New York, plains are met with nearly 
similar to these in the back country, and the 
Dutch farmers, who have made repeated trials 
of the soil, find that it will not produce wheat 
or any other grain, ^nd, in short, nothing that 
is at all profitable except coarse grass. I make 
no doubt but that whenever a similar trial 
comes to be made of the soil of the plain to 
the westward, it will be found equally in¬ 
capable of producing any thing but w hat it 
does at present. 
