218 
ignorant and foolifh mifreprefentations, to 
arreft the progrefs of European emigrants 
towards the weftern country, greacly to 
the difadvantage of the adventurers. 
Within the laft ten years our population 
has extended from 73,000 to 23,000. 
We have about 25,000 men enrolled in 
the militia, which is compofed of all the 
free males between the ages of fixtecn and 
forty-five. Our commerce has been cre- 
ated, and domeftic manufactures, in the 
family way, have advanced fo much, that 
perhaps nine-tenths of the people are 
principally cloathed in articles of their own 
making, 
7. Market-towns.—A market-town, in 
the Englifh fenfe of the word, is hardly 
any object to an American. We gene- 
rally attempt to raife on our own land 
what we want; and, in the fummer, we 
ufe-much more commonly bacon, hams, 
poultry, and a profufion of various vege- 
tables, than butcher’s meat. The Vir- 
ginian, indeed, confines himfelf almoft en- 
tirely to bacon, and greens boiled with it. 
Experience demonftrates that this diet is 
very wholefome. The fcurvy is {carcely 
known here. We feldom go to inarket 
to buy. As to markets to fell at, the 
mills and the ftores are the market; and 
the merchants and millers export our 
flour, tobacco, hemp, cotton, cordage, 
whifkey and. pork, to New Orieans, on 
the Miffiffippi. The expence of freight to 
New Orleans is about one dollar per 
100 lb. for bulky articl:s. Flour is about 
one and a half dollar per barrel, and in- 
furance two and a half per cent. We 
fend horfes likewife to Georgia, South 
Carolina, and Virginia. We have, how- 
ever, a few towns in which markets I 
think are held, viz. Lexington, Wathing- 
ton, Danville, Bairditown, Paris, and 
Frankfort, though I am not fure that 
there is a proper regular market in moft 
of thofe places. We have forty-three 
counties, and in every county human va- 
nity and folly bas laid off in lots and re- 
gular ftreets, one or two traéts of land, 
and have pleafed themfelves with the con- 
ceit that they bad efablifhed towns. 
8. The Expence of clearing Land.—In 
the fettled parts, four years rent free, or 
about five dollars, an acre for clearing 
and fencing with rails, but the larger 
timber is left on the ground. In the 
fouthern parts of the State there are large 
tra%ts of good land free from timber; yet 
nothing is more common than for the 
fettlers to fettle themfelves at the edge of 
a grove, cut down the timber in order to 
make a farm, and leave the barrens (as 
Letter on Kentucky, from Mr. Foulmin. 
[O&ober 1, 
they are called, from the want of timber) 
untouched. The State has ftill fome of 
this land unoccupied, and fettiers take it 
up at twenty dollars per 1c acres. 
9. Water.—The country is well fup- 
plied generally with fprings. There are 
particular fpots, however, where water is 
{carce without digging wells. © 
10. The rock and ore.——Horizontal ftratg 
of limeftone run through the whole of 
the good land on the north fide of Green 
River. Except on the hill fides, and on 
the tops of poor ridges, it is tar out of 
the reach of the plough. There is an 
abundance of ttone-coal towards the heads 
of the main reams, and in fome places. 
fouth of Green River, convement to fome 
of the barrens, or untimbered Jand. Iron- 
ore likewife abounds in -various places, 
and there are allo fome good veins of 
lead. In feveral places I have obferved a 
fine blue clay, which I haye thought 
would make good earthen-ware. I have 
faid nothing of filver, though there is 
faid to be a rich mine of it in the north- 
eaftern corner of the State, near the Green 
River, and many wecks have, from time 
to time, been {pent in vain by fanguine 
adventurers, in exploring the mountains 
between our fettlement and thole of Vir- 
ginia, in fearch of a very rich mine, 
which an old hunter fays he found 
there, and made horfe-loads of dollars 
from, fome twenty or thirty years ago. 
t1. Manufadtures-—As yet they are 
principally, as to cloathing at leaft, car- 
ried on in the family way, and with fuch 
improvements as were ufed in England 
Ioo years ago; but we muft, ere long, 
manufacture on a larger fcale the molt 
efiential articles. The immenfe expence 
of tran{porting goods three or four hun- 
dred miles, from the Atlantic to the 
Ohio, and then by water as much farther 
to Kentucky, together with the cheapnels 
of our produce, cccafioned by its abun- 
dance, and by the diftance of our export- 
market, render it inevitable that the peo-_ 
ple of Kentucky fhould manufaéture for 
home confumption. Our principal manu- 
factures at prefent, not of the domeftic 
kind, are nails, cordage, hats, fhoes, 
whifkey, and the coarfeft earthen-ware. 
There are three or four bloomeries, a 
forge or two, and flitting-mills, in the 
State. But the iron is very brittle. Its 
price is from 6d. to od. fterling per 
pound. I fulpeé it would bea moft profit- 
able concern to European workmen. There 
are three or four breweries in the State ona 
{mall fcale, but I have tafted no good 
beer. They ufe the hard limettone 
fpring 
