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 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924025959069 
 
A GUIDE IN THE WILDERNESS ; or the History 
 of the First Settlement in the Western Counties 
 of New York, with useful Instructions to Future Settlers. 
 In a series of letters addressed by JUDGE COOPER, of 
 Coopers- TOWN, to William Sampson, Barrister, of New 
 York. Dublin : printed by Gilbert & Hodges, 37 Dame 
 Street. 18 10. 
 
 Three, hundred copies printed, 1897, with an Intro- 
 duction by James Fenimore Cooper, for George P. 
 Humphrey, Rochester, N. Y. 
 
Copyright 1897 by 
 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 
 
r>3f« ^ne 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 William Cooper, the writer of the letters composing the " Guide 
 in the Wilderness " was born December 2, 1754, in Byberry town- 
 ship, then in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania. He married 
 December 12, 1775, at Burlington, New Jersey, Elizabeth Fenimore, 
 daughter of Richard Fenimore, a descendant of early English settlers 
 in New Jersey. He became interested in large tracts of land in New 
 York and elsewhere shortly after the Revolution, and from that time, 
 until his death in 1809, his principal occupation seems to have been 
 settling his own lands and those in which he had a joint interest with 
 others. 
 
 The time was one of great activity in land settlement and specu- 
 lation. Few, if any, new settlements had been undertaken during 
 the war and this period of stagnation was naturally followed by 
 large speculative purchases of wild lands by men with money to 
 invest. The rapidity with which land could be disposed of to 
 persons seeking homes is shown by the settlement of the tract of 
 which the village of Cooperstown forms a part. Judge Cooper after 
 examining this land in 1785 offered forty thousand acres for sale to 
 settlers, and he states, that in sixteen days it was all taken up by the 
 poorer class of people, who bought principally small holdings. 
 Here, at the foot of Otsego lake, in 1787, he laid out a village which 
 was given the name of Coopers-Town. He gradually acquired other 
 large tracts of land in the neighborhood, and had, practically, the 
 management of the settlement of the greater part of what is now 
 Otsego county, either as owner or by agreement with the owners, 
 as well as of lands in other parts of the state which he owned or 
 controlled. 
 
 Speculation in American lands was not confined to residents 
 of this country. Large tracts were bought by foreigners. The 
 voluminouscorrespondence which Judge Cooper has left shows that 
 Necker, and afterwards Madame de Stael, were owners of lands in our 
 northern counties. Under the stimulus of this speculation land in 
 some localities brought prices which it is doubtful if it has realized 
 since. Judge Cooper paid ten dollars an acre for land in what is 
 now known as the North Woods, which is hardly worth a quarter 
 of that price to-.day. Generally, however, his judgment was re- 
 markably good. This is shown by his designation in one of the 
 
following letters of the locations which were likely, in his opinion, 
 to become the sites of important towns ; among them he mentions 
 the mouth of the Buffalo creek— now Buffalo ; the straits of Niagara 
 below the falls— now Lewiston, and the first falls of the Genesee— 
 now Rochester. 
 
 When the "Guide in the Wilderness" was written, the only 
 means of transportation were waterways and roads ; and the value 
 of lands, present and future, rested largely on their location with 
 reference to rivers and lakes, to roads or the probable line of great 
 highways. Already a canal was under discussion and the sugges- 
 tions on this subject of Judge Cooper are interesting in view of the 
 subsequent building of the Erie Canal. One element in the specu- 
 lative value of land, which investors apparently overlooked, was 
 the effect which the clearing of the forests would have on the streams. 
 Large tracts of land, then deemed valuable because they were located 
 on the banks of some stream, navigable for scows and small*boats, 
 soon lost the advantage of such a location by the shrinking of the 
 streams, due to the cutting away of the woods. 
 
 Great profits were anticipated from the manufacture of maple 
 sugar, and among Cooper's papers is a copy of a letter to the 
 President of the United States (George Washington) which ac- 
 companied a present of "sugar and spirits produced from the 
 maple tree " sent by Arthur Noble (after whom the patents of 
 Arthurborb and Nobleboro are named) and Judge Cooper. 
 
 The views of the author of the "Guide " on the wisdom of selling 
 in fee, instead of leasing in fee, have been proved sound,- by the 
 collapse of the attempt to create in this State a system of land 
 proprietorship based on perpetual leases binding the tenants to the 
 payment of perpetual rent. This course was followed on many of 
 the great estates in New York and resulted in endless litigation and 
 the " anti-rent war." 
 
 Life, in what was then the frontier settlement of Cooperstown, 
 was not without its interests other than those of mere business. 
 The village grew and the settlers in the surrounding country pros- 
 pered. In 1790 Judge Cooper brought his family from Burlington. 
 It consisted of fifteen persons, including servants. In the same 
 year, as appears from a census taken then, the village, proper 
 contained eight families with a total of thirty-three persons and 
 two slaves ; seven houses and three barns. This " census " is 
 endorsed by the maker as follows : " I may not be perfectly correct, 
 but the difference is not material if any." In 1802 the population 
 had increased to 342 whites and 7 blacks, and in i8i6to 826 persons. 
 Churches, an " academy " and a public library had been started. 
 
iii 
 
 A newspaper was published in 1795, and at least one has been pub- 
 lished in the village continuously since. Cooperstown at the time 
 of the writing of the " Guide in the Wilderness " stood in point of 
 trade and population next to Utica. The former now has about 
 2900 inhabitants and the latter about 45,000. 
 
 Jacob Morris, writing in January 1796, says : '' The brilliancy 
 exhibited at Cooperstown last Tuesday— the Masonic festival — was 
 the admiration and astonishment of all beholders. Upwards of 
 eighty people sat down to one table— some very excellent toasts were 
 drank and the greatest decency and decorum was observed. . . . 
 In the evening we had a splendid ball, sixty couple, thirty in a set, 
 both sets on the floor at the same time, pleasant manners and good 
 dancing." 
 
 This was not the first ball given at Cooperstown. There is»the 
 record of the trial, in 1791, of a Doctor P., who was charged with 
 having mixed an emetic with the beverage drunk at a ball given at 
 the " Red Lion." He was tried, convicted of the offense, put in the 
 stocks, and then banished from the village. Banishment was not 
 an unusual, though probably an unlawful, form of punishment at 
 the time. 
 
 The place seems to have been attractive to foreigners, seeking a 
 permanent or temporary home in this country, as many of them 
 found their way to it. For some years an ex-governor* of one of the 
 French islands kept a shop in the village. Talleyrand visited Judge 
 Cooper, and wrote verses to one of his daughters, and many of the 
 prominent federalists of the state stayed for longer or shorter periods 
 with him. In 1796 he began g. large brick house for his own occu- 
 pation calling it Otsego Hall. It took the place of an older one 
 known as the Mansion. Here open house was kept and a liberal 
 hospitality dispensed. Traveling was done by short stages, over 
 poor roads, from the home of one friend or acquaintance to that of 
 another, and doubtless the Mansion, and later the Hall, received 
 their share of such patronage. Traditions still live of the good times 
 enjoyed, and the receipted bills for the tuns of madeira consumed 
 have long survived the giver and partakers of the feasts. That 
 dinners were not unusual is apparent from the following provision in 
 the lease of Judge Cooper's house, made in 1798, when he went to 
 Philadelphia for the winter but expected to board with the lessee at 
 times: "When he makes a dinner for his friends, then the said 
 
 * He went by the name of " F. Z. LeQuoy," and had been Civil Governor of 
 Martinique, but was called " de Mersereau " by a fellow countryman who had known 
 him while Governor. He returned to, and died of yellow fever, at Martinique. 
 
William sliall pay three siiillings per man to the said Samuel and on 
 all occasions find his own liquors." - 
 
 The hospitality, if tradition speaks truly, was sometimes enforced 
 with amiable roughness. The story is still told of how Judge 
 Cooper, while driving a sleigh full of guests, stopped at the house 
 of a friend, an ex-gfficer of the French army,t who was living on 
 the shores of Otsego lake, and asked him to join the party and dine 
 at the Hall. He firmly declined the invitation, but his would-be 
 entertainers were not to be discouraged and carried him forcibly to 
 the dinner. Arrived at the Hall they found, to their delight, that 
 their captive, suffering from the delays and inconveniences of 
 frontier housekeeping, was without a shirt. Judge Cooper, however, 
 supplied him with one, and, as the involuntary guest was fre- 
 quently heard to say afterwards, was so hospitable as to give him 
 a ruffled one. 
 
 The head of a settlement was subject to other demands than 
 those on his wardrobe. One of the French settlers borrowed of 
 Judge Cooper some fifty dollars. As time went on the latter 
 noticed that his debtor's visits to the Hall became less and less fre- 
 quent until they finally ceased. Meeting the man one day, he re- 
 monstrated with him, telling him that so small a matter should 
 not cause him annoyance and urging him not to allow it to 
 interfere with his visits to the Hall. The Frenchman, however, 
 felt that the fifty dollars weighed heavily on his honor, and that he 
 could not partake of the Judge's hospitality until the debt was paid. 
 Not long afterwards Judge Cooper saw his debtor approaching him 
 with every manifestation of joy, waving his hat and shouting: 
 "Judge Cooper! Judge Cooper!* My mother is dead! My 
 mother is dead ! I pay you the fifty dollars." 
 
 Judge Cooper seems to have prided himself on his physical 
 strength and agility. He offered a lot (probiibly 150 acres of land) 
 as a reward to any man on the settlement who could throw hijni- 
 The challenge was accepted, the Judge finally thrown by one oTthe 
 settlers, and the lot conveyed to his conqueror.^ - ■^'^ 
 
 William Cooper was appointed First Judge of the Court of Com- 
 mon »Pleas of Otsego county in 1791 and held this office until 
 October 1800. His appointment, so the commission reads, was for 
 " such time as he shall well behave himself therein or until he shall 
 attain the age of sixty years." His retirement from office was not 
 due to either limitation. The commission is signed by George 
 Clinton, recited to be " Governor of our said state, General and 
 
 t L' Abbe de Raffcourt. 
 
Commander-in-Chief of ail tlie miiitia and Admlrai of the navy of 
 the same." He was twice elected to Congress, in 1795 and in 1799, 
 and once lost his election. 
 
 The interest in politics during the earlier years of the United 
 States far exceeded that of to-day, and entered largely into the life 
 of all the inhabitants. Nearly every elector seems to have been 
 a politician. The letters of the time are full of politics and 
 party animosity. Judge Cooper, a federalist, was a prominent 
 member of his party and devoted much of his time to its cause. He 
 was on intimate terms with its leaders, and in constant correspond- 
 ence with many of them. 
 
 The population in the country was scanty, and as the franchise 
 was restricted by a property qualification, the voters were compara- 
 tively few ; but the enthusiasm was unlimited. The polls could be 
 kept open five days, so as to accommodate all wanting to vote, and 
 as there was no secret ballot the excitement was constant and 
 intense. Jacob Morris, writing of an election in Unadilla (Otsego 
 county) at which 141 votes were cast, and the federalist majority 
 ■was five, after dwelling on the completeness of the victory, says : 
 " Our success is wholly ascribable to the federal spirit of the Butter- 
 nuts ; the hardy sons of this new settlement, rushed over the Otego 
 hills, an irresistible phalanx "^and then referring to his political 
 opponents, adds : 
 
 " That since in political dust they are laid 
 They 're all dead and d d and no more can be said." 
 
 There are frequent complaints in the letters of fraud and of the 
 influence and prominence of foreigners, especially the Irish. Fear 
 for the future of the country anifthe stability of property is expressed 
 in almost the terms used to-day. The federalists are "friends of 
 order " and their opponents " anti-Christians ", " enemies of the 
 country " etc. One prominent resident of Otsego county and of 
 Philadelphia, writes : " We are busy about electing a senator in 
 the state legislature. The contest is between B. R. M — , a gentle- 
 man, and consequently a federalist, and a dirty stinking anti-federal 
 Jew tavern-keeper called I-. I — . But, Judge, the friends to order here 
 don't understand the business, they are uniformly beaten, we 
 used to order these things better at Cooperstown." 
 
 Philip Schuyler, writing to Judge Cooper of the election of 1791, 
 says : " I believe fasting and prayer to be good, but if you had only 
 fasted and prayed I am sure we should not have had seven hundred 
 votes from your country — report says that you was very civil to the 
 young and handsome of the sex, that you flattered the old and ugly, 
 and even embraced the toothless and decrepid, in order to obtain 
 
votes. When will you write a treatise on electioneering ? When- 
 ever you do, afford only a few copies to your friends." 
 
 Campaigns were not, however, always conducted on such peaceful 
 and pleasant lines, as appears from thefollowing affidavits, a number 
 of printed copies of which are among Judge Cooper's papers, en- 
 dorsed in his handwriting, " Oath how 1 whipped Cochran." They 
 were apparently used as campaign documents. The James Coch- 
 ran referred to was a political opponent, and defeated Cooper for 
 Congress at an earlier date. 
 
 "Jessie Hyde, of the town of Warren, being duly sworn, saith, 
 that on the sixteenth day of October in the year 1799, he this 
 deponent, did see James Cochran make an assault upon William 
 Cooper in the public highway. That the said William Cooper 
 defended himself, and in the struggle Mr. Cochran, in a submissive 
 manner, requested of Judge Cooper to let him go. 
 
 JESSIE HYDE. 
 Sworn this sixteenth day of"! 
 October, 1799, before me, J 
 
 Richard Edwards, Master in Chancery." 
 
 " OTSEGO COUNTY, ss. 
 
 Personally appeared Stephen Ingalls, one of the constables of the 
 town of Otsego, and being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that he 
 was present at the close of a bruising match between James Cochran, 
 Esq. and William Cooper, Esq. on or about the sixteenth of October 
 last, when the said James Cochran confessed to the said William 
 Cooper these words : " 1 acknowledge you are too much of a buffer 
 for me," at which time it was understood, as this deponent conceives, 
 that Cochran was confessedly beaten. 
 
 STEPHEN INGALS. 
 Sworn before me this sixth day "I 
 of November, 1799. J 
 
 Joshua Dewey, Justice of the Peace." 
 
 In the election of 1792 the state canvassers, acting upon the 
 advice of Aaron Burr, rejected, for alleged irregularity in the manner 
 of their return, certain votes and among them those of Otsego 
 county, and by so doing changed the result of the election, defeated 
 Jay, and declared, Clinton elected governor. This action caused 
 great indignation among the federalists and seems to have been 
 unjustified. As a means of diverting attention from it, a petition, 
 charging Judge Cooper with having unduly influenced the 
 voters in his county, was presented to the state legislature. An 
 investigation was had, and the petition finally dismissed as frivolous 
 
and vexatious. Judging from the personal letters on the subject 
 written Cooper at the time, the charges were groundless. 
 
 Judge Cooper died at Albany, December 22, i8og, as the result 
 of a blow on the head, struck from behind, by an opponent as they 
 were leaving a political meeting. 
 
 This " Guide in the Wilderness" was not published until after 
 his death, and it gives an excellent idea of the man. The letters 
 composing it show Judge Cooper to have been a close observer of 
 nature, a man who saw and understood the value of the natural 
 phenomena among which he lived, and a student of character. That 
 he was of a kindly disposition the letters which exist among his 
 papers show. He made some bitter enemies, as was inevitable with 
 a man leading so active a life and taking so great an interest in 
 politics as he, but he had many devoted friends. 
 
 William Sampson, to whom the letters composing " The Guide 
 in the Wilderness " were written, was a well-known lawyer. He 
 was born in Londonderry in 1764 and died in New York in 1836. He 
 was the son of a Presbyterian minister, and an officer of the Irish 
 Volunteers. He was counsel at Dublin for members of the Society 
 of United Irishmen. After the failure of the revolution in 1798, he 
 fled from Ireland but was brought back to Dublin and eventually 
 allowed his freedom upon the condition of his living in Portugal, 
 where he was afterwards imprisoned at the instance of the English 
 government, but was finally set at liberty and came to this country. 
 He wrote a number of books , among them his own memoirs, of which 
 three editions were published. 
 
 The following extract from a letter of his to Judge Cooper 
 explains the reason for the publication of the "Guide" in Dublin 
 and fixes the date of the letters as prior to 1807. 
 
 Sir: — Since you left iis 1 have been too much occupied with 
 moving, attendance on the courts, and other matters to have made 
 much progress respecting our little work. 1 have however employed 
 my spare moments towards making a fair transcript of your letters. 
 The booksellers here give little encouragement, or to say better, very 
 great discouragement to any literary object, and unless they have it 
 for nothing to themselves they seem to make it a point to keep it 
 down. But there is a ship about to sail shortly for Belfast or 
 Londonderry, in both of which quarters I have brothers, men of 
 liberal minds and passionate for useful knowledge. I have no doubt 
 your letters will interest them highly, and the public no less. And 
 although neither your object in writing those letters nor mine in 
 publishing them was to get money, yet I should think that going to 
 the expense of printing a work so likely to be productive to a pub- 
 
lisher would be useless. I wish to have your consent before 1 take 
 any further step, and shall be glad to hear how your health has been 
 
 and what there is new in your woods 1 am sir, 
 
 Your friend and humble servant, 
 
 WILLIAM SAMPSON. 
 " New York, 12th of May, 1807." 
 
 In this republication, the original text has been strictly followed, 
 and there appear all of the mistakes in spelling and grammatical 
 errors existing in the pamphlet as first published — for some of them 
 the author is probably responsible, for others the printer. 
 
 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 
 Albany, IVlarch, 1897. 
 
A GUIDE IN THE WILDERNESS 
 
 LETTER FROM WILLIAM SAMPSON, ESQ., TO 
 JUDGE COOPER. 
 
 SIR: — Our late conversations have awakened in me tlie strongest 
 desire to be better informed on a subject so interesting. It seems 
 generally allowed that you are peculiarly qualified to give a faithful 
 and useful account of the cultivation of the American woods. 
 Whatever our respective opinions may be as to the advantage erf 
 foreign commerce, in this we both agree, that the first and best of 
 arts is agriculture; it is in my opinion most conducive to the 
 welfare of this new country, most congenial to its mild policy and 
 happy institutions, and doubly deserving of attention when the 
 violence of foreign powers threatens the existence of commerce, and 
 seems imperiously to dictate a recurrence to internal resources. 
 
 Many crude and conceited things have been given to the world 
 by running writers and traveling book-maiters ; but so far from 
 being of any authority, they have rendered it still more necessary to 
 seek information at some authenic source. 
 
 Those whose object is, at all events to write, are apt to take the 
 subject by the wrong end. 
 
 They first form a theory, and then go about collecting facts to 
 prove it. These are not much to be relied on. But he who has 
 acquired by long practice and repeated experience a knowledge of 
 many facts, can scarcely err in theory. His theory will be no more 
 than that generalization which is the instinctive process of every 
 intelligent mind ; it will be impossible for him to wander into 
 fanciful errors, for the number of facts of which he has the certainty 
 will come in aid of his judgment, and rise in the defense of truth. 
 
 I consider besides, that the success of your plans gives great 
 weight to your authority. For though I would not condemn 
 measures merely because they fail, yet it is a good proof of their 
 fitness that they succeed. And who would not prefer as a guide, 
 the man that found his way, to him that lost himself. 
 
 Your knowledge has been all practical, all profitable ; the face 
 of immense tracts of country bears testimony of this,: and thousands 
 of living witnesses confirm it. It would be, therefore, a subject of 
 
regret, if you should be disposed to withhold that knowledge from 
 others, which has been so useful to yourself. 
 
 And I should hope that the communication would be attended 
 with some pleasure, and that the liberal and manly' enterprise of 
 reclaiming from its rude state the barren wilderness, and scattering 
 the smiling habitations of civilized man in those dreary wastes, 
 when for nought appearing, the wandering savage had not before 
 imprinted the image of his foot, must be dear to the recollection of 
 him whose courage and perseverance has triumphed over so many 
 difficulties. 
 
 If success in such enterprises be not glory, it is something better ; 
 and in any rational view it is doubtless preferable to the distinctions 
 earned by political craft, or won in the lawless career of war. Leave 
 to Cagsar the boast of having destroyed two millions of men ; let 
 yours be that of having cut down two millions of trees. He made 
 men disappear from the fruitful soil where they were born ; your 
 labors made a new and happier race appear where none before had 
 been. To say that you have done all this for your own interest, 
 does not take away the merit ; but to render your labors useful to 
 others, and lend the lights of experience to those who may stand in 
 need of them, is the duty to which 1 now invite you. Good rules of 
 practice are essential to the farmer and to the landholder. Minute 
 details of experiment are precious to the philosopher, although made 
 with no view to his utility, and the honest statesman will never 
 disdain to learn by what means the resources of his country can be 
 best improved. 
 
 But there is another class for whom 1 feel a warmer interest ; the 
 poor, the unfortunate, whom want and oppression drive from their 
 native land, to seek an asylum beyond the waves of the ocean, where 
 inexhaustible regions lie open to their industry ; where peace and 
 toleration invite them to take refuge and the genius of equal law 
 and liberty beckons them to security and consolation. 
 
 Thus it is in your power to befriend the wealthy capitalist and 
 the poor emigrant, and at the same time to give agreeable instruc- 
 tion to such whose liberal range of thought carries them beyond the 
 little sphere of self, and who will be pleased to see by what means 
 the face of nature can be altered, and how in half the span of one 
 man's life, towns, roads, and cheerful seats, with all the comforts 
 of civilized life, can be substituted for the gloomy monotony of the 
 barren desert. 
 
 You may perhaps say that what I ask would be a history of your 
 own life, and 1 confess as far as discretion will permit, I should 
 desire to know that part of it which is interwoven with the subject. 
 
3 
 
 I should delight to follow your first steps through the Wilderness ; 
 to conceive all the difficulties you had to surmount, and the means 
 by which you overcame them. I should then have instruction con- 
 veyed in the most interesting manner, with all the advantages of 
 example, precept, and proof. I am, sir, with respect and friendship, 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 WILLIAM SAMPSON. 
 
 QUERIES. 
 
 I. Which is the best way for the purchaser of a large tract of 
 forest or unsettled lands to bring it into a productive state? What 
 profit he ought reasonably to expect whilst he leaves to the tenant 
 or settler the means of advancing himself? In short, what is the 
 interest, and what the duty of such landlord ? 
 
 II. What description of men is best qualified and most likely to 
 settle in the Wilderness and become farmers? How they should 
 proceed ? Are mechanics apt to prosper ? 
 
 III. What part of the state is best situated for present or future 
 marltet? Where are the principal places of deposit for the produce 
 of each part? How far natural or artificial means may open others, 
 and when it is probable that great leading roads will be made or 
 encouraged by the state ? How far canals would be advantageous, 
 productive, and practicable ? 
 
 IV. Is there much variety in the soil ? If so, what is best for 
 each several kind of culture ? How far is the soil and climate favor- 
 able to the growth of fruit trees, vegetables, grain, grass, flax, hemp, 
 &c.? To what use can the trees of the forest be best turned? Is the 
 timber durable for fencing, building, &c. ? Is there no reason to fear 
 that too great zeal for clearing may render it in some time as scarce 
 as it is now abundant? 
 
 V. What domestic animals are most profitable to the farmer? 
 What are the wild beasts of the forest? What are useful or noxious 
 to the settler ? Are there fish ? Of what kinds ? How plenty ? Is 
 there much game? Are there valuable furs? How are they 
 obtained? 
 
 VI. By what indications may the quality of the soil be known? 
 VII. What progress have manufactures made in the new settle 
 
 ments? What are the raw materials ? What the encouragement? 
 What are the principal exports? 
 
 In answering these Queries I should request you not to confine 
 yourself to the heads therein specified. My ignorance of the subject 
 
— it being one upon which 1 have never meditated;-^makes it impos-' 
 sible for me to point to all its details, and therefore it is that the 
 history of your own progress in the various settlements you have 
 made, would be the bfst answer possible to the whole of my 
 questions. How fai" you suffered from inexperience in the first 
 undertakings, where you have erred or failed, or have observed 
 others to do so from the same cause ; what motives first led you to 
 adventure in the Wilderness, example, necessity, or taste ? 
 
 LETTER FROM JUDGE COOPER TO WILLIAM 
 SAMPSON, ESQ. 
 
 Sir : — I shall cheerfully answer the Queries, you have put to me. 
 The manly way in which you have challenged me, and the good 
 sense you have shown upon a subject of 'Which you can have no 
 experience, and the object I preceive you have at heart, that of, pro- 
 curing information in a matter interesting to your countrymen, does 
 you honor, and makes it a pleasure for me to satisfy so fair a 
 curiosity. I shall answer each query in the order you have proposed 
 them ; and, although that knowledge acquired by practice alone 
 cannot well be imparted, yet 1 feel, 1 believe, the bent of your 
 inquiries, and shall do all in my power to make my answers useful, 
 as well to your countrymen as to my own. 
 
 I shall first make the general supposition, that either a wealthy 
 individual or else a company purchase a large tract of land, say 
 50,000 acres. The purchaser, or some one strongly interested in the 
 purchase, should go upon the spot, and give public notice of the day 
 when he means to open the sales. The conditions' should be adver- 
 tised, and notice given, that every person desirous of buying should 
 have as much or as little as he chose, on a credit of seven or ten 
 years, paying annual interest. The price will naturally vary 
 according to soil and situation. 
 
 It should be distinctly understood that the whole tract is open 
 for settlement without any reserve on the part of the landlord, as 
 nothing is more discouraging than any appearance in him of views 
 distinct from the prosperity of the whole ; and this would be evident 
 if in the very outset he reserved any part in contemplation of a 
 future advance, at the expense of the labor of the original settlers 
 to whose advantage these reseryed tracts had not contributed. The 
 reason is plain ; the first difficulties are the greatest, and it is only 
 
by combination and cooperation that they can be surmbunted. The 
 more the settlers are in number, the more hands can be brought to 
 affect those works which cannot be executed by a few ; such are the 
 making of roads and bridges, and other incidents to the cultivation 
 of the Wilderness, which are impossible to individuals, but which 
 numbers render practicable and easy. 
 
 Besides, he who comes to better his condition, by embarking in 
 such an enterprise. would find it no relief from his present poverty, 
 to be doomed to a life of savage solitude ; he will still desire the 
 society of his species, and the ordinary comforts of life ; he will look 
 for some religious institution, some school for his children. There 
 must b^ mechanics to build houses, and erect mills, and other useful 
 or necessary purposes. Where there are a number of settlers, each' 
 bearing his proportion of the labor, and contributing to the expenseJ 
 these things arise almost of course, but it would be very discourag-' 
 ing to a few scattered settlers to reflect that they were toiling under 
 all the hardships and disadvantages of a new and arduous under-i 
 taking, whilst others, who had contributed nothing, should 
 afterwards come in and reap all the advantages of their activity. 
 The reserved tracts, therefore, serving only to separate from each 
 other, and depriving them of the comforts of society, and of the 
 advantage of cooperation, would be sources of just discontent, and 
 the landlord who seemed to harbor the ungenerous project of] 
 trafFicing with the future profits of their industry, and to give allj 
 his care to his own interest, without any sympathy with them, 
 would become deservedly an object of distrust and jealousy ; his 
 influence would cease, and that confidence, which could alone 
 animate and invigorate a difficult enterprise, once vanishing, nothing 
 but failure could ensue. 
 
 Thus the advantage of the landlord is to reserve no part, if he 
 can possibly dispose of it. Sometimes a man of large property with 
 an enterprising spirit, will seek for a tract suitable to his means and 
 his ambition. Such a one may have friends and connections, who 
 may want courage to face the first difficulties, or venture on untried 
 ways, but whom he hopes to draw after him by example. It is of 
 great importance to promote the success of such a person, and he 
 will be justly entitled to kindness and support. His task will be to 
 smooth the way for others. As soon as he is himself seated, his 
 next wish will be to draw around him a neighborhood of relatives 
 and friends, whose habits are congenial to his own. He will be 
 repaid^'for his labor and risk by selling at a small advance beyond 
 the price he paid, and the interest upon it. Such, 'besides that he 
 will come provided with stock and capital, will be useful, as it were, 
 
6 
 
 to sound the horn and proclaim the settlement, and will be a neW 
 centre of attraction. 
 
 But, while we acknowledge the importance of the wealthy under- 
 taker, we must not despise the offer of the poor man. He can never 
 be insignificant who is willing to add his labor to the common 
 stock, for the interest of every individual from the richest land- 
 holder to the poorest settler conspires and contributes to the great 
 primary object, to cause the Wilderness to bloom and fructify ; and 
 each man prospers in proportion as he contributes to the advantage 
 of his neighbor. 
 
 With respect to the lands : although they will naturally vary in 
 quality, I never in the first existance make any difference ih price, 
 but leave that matter to regulate itself. In the beginning the poorer 
 settler will refuse the rougher spots, and rightly, as they will yield 
 him no immediate subsistence. I therefore leave them until that 
 period when the timber they afford shall become valuable for the 
 purpose of fencing and for fuel ; and by the simple measure of letting 
 things take their own course, I find my interest aqd that of the 
 whole community promoted; and in no instance have the rough 
 grounds and the swamps failed to be eventually most profitable to 
 me; nay, in fifteen years' time their value has increased to seven fold. 
 
 The poor man, and his class is the most numerous, will generally 
 undertake about one hundred acres. The best mode of dealing with 
 him is to grant him the fee-simple by deed, and secure the purchase, 
 money by a mortgage on the land conveyed to him. He then feelsl 
 himself, if I may use the phrase, as a man upon record. His views 
 extend themselves to his posterity, and he contemplates with pleas- 
 ure their settlement on the estate he has created ; a sentiment ever 
 grateful to the heart of man, His spirit is enlivened, his industry 
 is quickened, every new object he attains brings a new ray of hope 
 and courage ; he builds himself a barn and a better habitation, plants 
 his fruit trees, and lays out his garden ; he clears away the trees, 
 until they, which were the first obstacles to his improvement, becom- 
 ing scarcer, become more valuable, and he is at length as anxious to 
 preserve as he was at first to destroy them ; he no longer feels the 
 weight of debt, for having the fee he can sell at an improved value, 
 nor is he bound to remain against his will. 
 
 Not so if he had been bound by special contracts and conditions, 
 subjecting him to the forfeiture of his land, and with it of his labor. 
 Gloomy apprehensions then seize upon his mind, the bright view of 
 independence is clouded, his habits of thought become sullen and 
 cheerless, and he is unable to soar above the idea of perpetual 
 poverty. 
 
Thus, by the adoption of a rational plan, it appears that the 
 interst of all parties are made to coincide. The settler sleeps in 
 security, from the certainty of his possession, and the landlord is safe 
 in the mortgage he holds, and the state profits by the success of 
 each, in the Increase of its wealth and population. 
 
 A moderate price, long credit, a deed in fee, and a friendly land-^ 
 lord are infallible inducements to a numerous settlement, and where 
 there is much people there will be trade ; and where there is trade 
 there will be money ; and where there is money the landlord wiJJ- 
 succeed ; but he should be ever in the midst of the settlers, aiding 
 and promoting every beneficial enterprise. 
 
 In this point of view 1 have often compared the dealer in land to 
 a ship. Money is the element he swims in ; without money he is 
 aground ; and as a ship that is not afloat is no better than a wreck, 
 so when he ceases to have money his activity and usefulness are 
 gone. 
 
 So, in rural phrase, may we compare the poor settler to the 
 creature of draft. Unsustained, over-loaded, and oppressed, he 
 yields no profit ; well treated in good heart, and gently driven, his 
 labor is lighter and his profit more. It is not otherwise with man. 
 He can bear so much and no more ; if forced beyond that his spirits 
 will finally sink under oppression ; whereas, by timely aids, encourag- 
 ing words from a landlord, who has his confidence, and whom he 
 feels to be his friend, he will perform wonders and exceed his own 
 hopes. 
 
 You have desired to know something of my own proceedings, 
 and since I am to speak of myself, I can nowhere better introduce 
 that subject than now, in proof of what I have asserted. 
 
 I began with the disadvantage of a small capital, and the encum- 
 brance of a large family, and yet I have already settled more acres 
 than any man in America. There are forty thousand souls now 
 holding, directly or indirectly, under me, and I trust that no one 
 amongst so many can justly impute to me any act resembling 
 oppression. I am now descending into the vale of life, and I must 
 acknowledge that I look back with self complacency upon what I 
 have done, and am proud of having been an instrument in reclaim- 
 ing such large and fruitful tracts from the waste of the creation. 
 And I question whether that sensation is not nowS recompense more 
 grateful to me than all the other profits I have reaped. Your good 
 sense and knowledge of the world will excuse this seeming boast ; 
 if jt be vain (we all must have our vanities), let it at least serve to 
 show that industry has its reward, and age its pleasures, and be an 
 encouragement to others to persevere and prosper. 
 
8 
 
 In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego, where 
 there existed not an inhabitant, nor any trace of a road ; I was 
 alone, three hundred miles from home, without bread, meat, or food 
 of any kind ; fire and fishing tackle were my only means of sub- 
 sistence. I caught trout in the brook and roasted them on the ashes. 
 JVly. horse fed on the grass that grew by the edge of the waters. I 
 laid me down to slfeep in my watch coat, nothing but the melancholy 
 Wilderness around me. In this way 1 explored the country, formed 
 my plans of future settlement, and meditated upon the spot where a 
 place of trade or a village should afterwards be established. 
 
 In May, 1786, 1 opened the sales of 40,000 acres, which in sixteen 
 days were all taken up by the poorest order of men. I soon after 
 established a store, and went to live among them, and continued so 
 to do till 1790, when I brought on my family. For the ensuing four 
 years the scarcity of provisions was a serious calamity ; the country 
 jsjas mountainous, and there were neither roads nor bridges. 
 
 But the greatest discouragement was in the extreme poverty of 
 the people, none of whom had the means of clearing more than a 
 small spot in the midst of the thick and lofty woods, so that their 
 grain grew chiefly in the shade ; their maize did not ripen, their 
 wheat was blasted, and the little they did gather they had no mill 
 to grind within twenty miles distance ; not one in twenty had a 
 horse, and the way lay through rapid streams, across swamps or 
 over bogs. They had neither provisions to take with them nor 
 money to purchase them ; nor if they had, were any to be found on 
 their way. If the father of a family went abroad to labor for bread, 
 it cost him three times its value before he could bring it home, and 
 all the business on his farm stood still till his return. 
 
 ' I resided among them, and saw too clearly how bad their condi- 
 tion was. I erected a store-house, and during each winter filled it 
 with large quantities of grain, purchased in distant places. I pro- 
 cured from my friend Henry Drinker a credit for a large quantity of 
 sugar kettles ; he also lent me some potash kettles, which we con- 
 veyed as we best could, sometimes by partial roads on sleighs, and 
 sometimes over the ice. By this means I established potash works 
 among the settlers, and made them debtor for their bread and labor- 
 ing utensils. I also gave them credit for their maple sugar and 
 potash, at a price that would bear transportation, and the first year 
 after the adoption of this plan I collected in one mass forty-three 
 hogsheads of sugar, and three hundred barrels of pot and pearl ash, 
 worth about nine thousand dollars. This kept the people together 
 and at home, and the country soon assumed a new face. 
 
 I had not funds of my own sufficient for the opening of new 
 
roads, but I collected the people at convenient seasons, and by joint 
 efforts we were able to throw bridges over the deep streams, and to 
 make, in the cheapest manner, such roads as suited our then humble 
 purposes. 
 
 In the winter preceding the summer of 1789, grain rose in Albany 
 to a price before unknown. The demand swept all the granaries of 
 the Mohawk country. The number of beginners who depended 
 upon it for their bread, greatly aggravated the evil, and a famine 
 ensued which will never be forgotten by those who, though now in 
 the enjoyment of ease and comfort, were then afflicted with the 
 cruelest of wants. 
 
 In the month of April I arrived amongst them with several loads 
 of provisions, destined for my own use and that of the laborers I had 
 brought with me for certain necessary operations ; but in a few day% 
 all was gone, and there remained not one pound of salt meat, nor a 
 single biscuit. Many were reduced to such distress as to live upon 
 the root of wild leeks ; some more fortunate lived upon milk, whilst 
 others supported nature by drinking a syrup made of maple sugar 
 and water. The quantity of leeks they eat had such an effect 
 upon their breath that they could be smelled at many paces distant, 
 and when they came together it was like cattle that had been pas- 
 tured in a garlic field. A man of the name of Beets mistaking some 
 poisonous herb for a leek, eat it, and died in consequence. Judge 
 of my feelings at this epoch, with two hundred families about me 
 and not a morsel of bread. 
 
 A singular event seemed sent by a good Providence to our relief ; 
 it was reported to me that unusual shoals of fish were seen moving 
 in the clear waters of the Susquehanna. I went, and was surprised 
 to find that they were herrings. We made something like a small 
 net, by the interweaving of twigs, and by this rude and simple con- 
 trivance we were able to take them in thousands. In less than ten 
 days each family had an ample supply with plenty of salt. I also 
 obtained from the Legislature, then in session, seventeen hundred 
 bushels of corn. This we packed on horses' backs, and on our 
 arrival made a distribution among the families, in proportion to the 
 number of individuals of which each was composed. 
 
 This was the first settlement I made, and the first attempted 
 after the Revolution ; it was, of course, attended with the greatest 
 difficulties; nevertheless, to its success many others have owed 
 their origin. It was besides the roughest land in all the state, and 
 the ntost difficult of cultivation of all that had been settled ; but for 
 many years past it has produced everything necessary to the sup- 
 port and comfort of man. It maintains at present eight thousand 
 
10 
 
 souls, with schools, academies, churches, meeting-houses, turnpike 
 roads, and a market town. It annually yields to commerce large 
 droves of fine oxen, great quantities of wheat and other grain, abun^ 
 dance of pork, potash in barrels, and other provisions ; merchants 
 with large capitals, and all kinds of useful mechanics reside upon it ; 
 the waters are stocked with fish, the air is salubrious, and the 
 country thriving and happy. When I contemplate all this, and 
 above all, when I see these good old settlers meet together, and hear 
 them talk of past hardships, of which 1 bore my share, and compare 
 the misery they then endured with the comforts they now enjoy, my 
 emotions border upon weakness which manhood can scarcely avow. 
 
 One observation more on the duty of landlords shall close my 
 answer to your first inquiry. 
 
 If the poor man who comes to purchase land has a cow and a 
 yoke of cattle to bring with him, he is of the most fortunate class, 
 but as he will probably have no money to hire a laborer, he must do 
 all his clearing with his own hands. Having no pasture for his cow 
 and oxen, they must range the woods for subsistence ; he must find 
 his cow before he can have his breakfast, and his oxen before he 
 can begin his work. JWuch of the day is sometimes wasted, and his 
 strength uselessly exhausted. Under all these disadvantages, if in 
 three years he attains a comfortable livelihood, he is pretty well off; 
 he will then require a barn, as great losses accrue from the want of 
 shelter for his cattle and his grain ; his children, yet too young to 
 afford him any aid, require a school, and are a burden upon him ; 
 his wife bearing children, and living poorly in an open house is 
 liable to sickness, and doctors' bills will be to pay. If then, in addi- 
 tion to all this, he should be pressed by his landlord, he sinks under 
 his distress; but if, at this critical moment, he be assisted and 
 encouraged, he will soon begin to rise. The landlord should first 
 give him a fair time ; if after that he cannot pay the principal money, 
 he may take from him a release of the equity of redemption, and 
 then grant him a lease forever with a clause of fee on payment of 
 the principal, and the rent reserved, which it would be well to make 
 payable in wheat, with a moderate advance on the first price and 
 interest. 
 
 Indeed, justice and policy combine to point out the duty of the 
 landlord ; for if a man has struggled ten years in vain, and is at the 
 end of that time unable to pay, not only humanity, but self-interest 
 dictates another course, and some new expedient for reciprocal 
 advantage. So here, the tenant instead of being driven for the 
 principal, will not only keep his possession, but retain the privilege 
 of re-acquiring the principal at a future day, by the very produce of 
 
11 
 
 the lands. He will be happy in the idea of still preserving his home, 
 will pay his rent with cheerfulness, and the landlord has so much 
 certainly added to his capital, whether the tenant repurchases the 
 fee or not ; the improvements if he does purchase it, and if not, the 
 price agreed upon. 
 
 Therefore, independently of the reasons above given, it is better 
 for the landlord to accept of the poorest settler than to reserve tracts 
 in his own hands, because every part of the land by this means is 
 made to contribute to the common stock of labor, cooperation, and 
 general improvement, and because he has a better profit by the 
 consent of the individual, and consistent with the advantage of all. 
 For example : if you sell one hundred acres for one hundred 
 pounds, with interest at the end of ten years, it will amount to one 
 hundred and seventy pounds ; and though the tenant cannot pres- 
 ently pay this sura (at least without selling his farm), yet the 
 landlord has his security for it in his mortgage-deed, and the 
 improved value of the land, and is therefore no loser by the delay. 
 In most instances the tenant will be very unwilling to sell the farm 
 he has re-claimed with so much pains, and, worn with years and 
 labor, to enter upon the hardships of a new undertaking. He sees 
 that his land is now in good order and productive, and that he will 
 be able easily to pay the yearly rent of fourteen pounds in produce, 
 and that he can always acquire the disposal of the fee simple upon 
 performance of the condition. 
 
 Having now given you an idea of the difficulties of our first 
 settlement, it is right I should observe to you that the settlement of 
 lands in general is not at this day attended with such obstacles. In 
 many parts of the state the soil is so fine, and so many settlements 
 are already formed throughout, that the rest will follow of course ; 
 but still the landlord who resides on the spot, and pursues such 
 track as I have pointed out, will succeed with much the most cer- 
 tainty, and will gain many years of time. 
 
 Some rich theorists let the property they purchase lie unoccupied 
 and unproductive, and speculate upon a full indemnity from the 
 future rise in value, the more so as they feel no want of the immed- 
 iate profits. But I can assert from practical experience that it is 
 better for a poor man to pay forty shillings an acre to a landlord 
 who heads the settlement, and draws people around him by good 
 plans for their advancement, and arrangements for their conven- 
 ience, than to receive an hundred acres gratis from one of these 
 wealthy theorists; for if fifty thousand acres be settled, so that 
 there is but one man upon a thousand acres, there can be no one 
 convenience of life attainable ; neither roads, school, church, meet- 
 
12 
 
 ing, nor any other of those advantages, without which man's life 
 would resemble that of a wild beast. 
 
 Of this I had full proof in the circumstances of the Burlington 
 Company ; they were rich and purchased a tract of sixty-nine 
 thousand acres, and made a deed of gift of one hundred acres out of 
 each thousand to actual settlers, and this they were bound to do in 
 compliance with the condition in the King's patent. They provided 
 these settlers with many articles of husbandry under the particular 
 agency of Mr. Nathaniel Edwards. But he very soon returned, and 
 not long afterward the settlers followed, stating that they could not 
 support themselves so far in the woods in that scattered situation. 
 
 I then resided in Burlington, and when I undertook to make the 
 settlement on those very lands where so rich a company had failed, 
 it was thought a romantic undertaking for a man unprovided with 
 funds to attempt what gratuitous donations had not been able to 
 achieve. Nevertheless I succeeded, and for that very reason that 1 
 made no partial gifts, but sold the whole at a moderate price with 
 easy payments, having for myself a handsome profit ; and people 
 were readily induced to come when they saw a number of 
 cooperators, and the beaefits of-association. 
 
 You have now before you, as well as I can explain, the advan- 
 tages and the difficulties which belong to an enterprise in new lands. 
 But let me be clearly understood in this, that no man who does not 
 possess a steady mind, a sober judgment, fortitude, perseverance, 
 and above all, common sense, can expect to reap the reward which 
 to him who possesses those qualifications is almost certain. 
 
 W. C. 
 
 That part of the State of New York which includes the counties 
 of Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, IVladison, Otsego, Steuben, Lewis, 
 Jefferson, Clinton, Broome, and Essex, are the tracts that have 
 been settled since 1786, and certainly contain more fine lands than 
 are to be found contiguous in any part of the United States. They 
 extend from the forty-second to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and 
 from the eastern to the western extremity upwards of two hundred 
 miles. This region is everywhere intersected by rivers, navigable 
 in small boats of about three tons burden, by means of which the 
 produce of every part may be transported to tide-water and a 
 sea-port. 
 
 The counties of Tioga, Otsego, Broome, Chenango, Steuben, 
 and Allegany, have the Susquehanna and its branches ; for instance, 
 the Tioga with its branches carries off the produce of Allegany and 
 Steuben counties. Upon the Chenango they float the produce of 
 
18 
 
 Madison and Chenango, with abundance of salt to different places 
 in the Susquehanna, and their wheat and lumber to Baltimore. Of 
 the outlet by the Mohawk I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 The Unadilla passes between the counties of Chenango and 
 Otsego, and is navigable in the spring for boats, rafts, and arks ; 
 perhaps this latter term may to you require an explanation. An ark 
 then, is neither strictly a boat nor a raft, but partakes of the nature 
 of each ; it is of the form of a lozenge, so that each angle operates 
 as a wedge ; this figure is found convenient, as it admits more 
 rapidly of a lateral deflection, and in case of sudden interruption in 
 its course by shoals or other obstacles. It is hastily and cheaply 
 constructed, and is not even water tight, but the bottom is fitted up 
 with light timber, so that it is buoyant enough to keep the grain and 
 other perishable produce from being wet. 
 
 In these arks a surprising quantity of wheat is annually cofjf 
 veyed to Baltimore, besides much that finds a market far short of 
 that port, at Harrisburg, Middleburg, and Columbia, three consider- 
 able trading towns on this river within the state of Pennsylvania, 
 and had not this latter state lost somewhat of its ancient spirit of 
 enterprise, the whole of this trade might have centered in it ; for the 
 navigation which is free from all obstruction as far as Columbia, is 
 interrupted before it reaches Maryland by the Bald-Friar and Turkey 
 river falls, both of which are dangerous and difficult to descend, and 
 Impracticable in their ascent. 
 
 The Seneca Lake is forty miles long, and out of it boats can pass" 
 as far as Schenectady, which is within fourteen miles of the tide 
 water of the Hudson. At this place their loading must be landed, 
 on account of the interruption to the navigation by the Cohoes falls 
 lower down on the Mohawk near the town of Waterford ; by this 
 means the produce of Ontario County is brought to market. 
 
 The Cayuga lake is about the same length, and has a good 
 passage for boats with the produce of Seneca, Cayuga, and part of 
 Tioga counties. 
 
 From the Onondaga or Salt Lake, besides the produce of thev 
 adjacent lands, great quantities of salt are sent in every direction. 
 With a small land carriage they arrive at the salt landing in the 
 town of Homer, on the navigable waters of the Chenango river, 
 and from this point a great scope of country is supplied with that 
 precious article. Boats carrying from forty to fifty tons have water 
 sufficient for the transport of such a cargo into the neighboring 
 lakes;. the county of Upper Canada, the shores of lakes Erie, Huron, 
 Michigan, and Superior, with the shoresof the Saint Lawrence and 
 the many navigable rivers leading into it, can be thus furnished at a 
 
14 
 
 cheap rate with a never failing supply. In short, it seems as if nature 
 had exhausted her favors within the boundaries I am treating of. 
 
 The counties of Oneida and Lewis have the convenience of Utica 
 and Rome upon the Mohawk. The county of Genesee has the two 
 great lakes, Ontario and Erie, on its margin, from whence there is 
 an issue in every direction. The county of Jefferson has the lake 
 Ontario and several fine harbors. The county of Saint Lawrence 
 has that magnificent river from which it takes its name; the 
 Oswegatchie, which falls into the Saint Lawrence after a navigable 
 course of seventy miles ; the Richet and Saint Regis which cut the 
 country into convenient sections for trade, and this is, in my judg- 
 ment, toil and trade considered, a county as valuable as any in the 
 state. 
 
 Clinton and Essex counties have lake Champlain with all its 
 inlets and outlets. 
 
 As to those places likely to become principal emporia or great 
 markets, there are many of them. 1 shall point out some which 
 cannot possibly fail to become important, unless crippled by the 
 contracted views of those who may be proprietors of the soil. 
 
 I have already shown the impolicy of reserving certain tracts in 
 a new settlement on the speculation of their future rise in value. 
 This mistake, where trade is the object, is still more pernicious, for 
 as liberty is in my apprehension the very child of commerce, so the 
 one will not remain where the other cannot be. To make com- 
 merce thrive you must make it free, and where there is not freedom 
 there will not be trade, and all useless restrictions and reservations 
 are more or less clogging to the active disposition of property, and 
 to the freedom of men's choice and will. 
 
 The proprietor of a spot favorable for commerce should refuse no 
 part of it to a good mechanic or trader. He should reserve no spot 
 when such a tenant offers. He should not aim at partial advan- 
 tages, but look to the more liberal profits which are to arise out of 
 the stock of general prosperity ; and in all cases he should grant the 
 fee, without which the tenant will never improve with spirit, nor 
 build himself a good house. If the proprietor stands in his own 
 light, and takes the opposite course, he will have the mortification 
 to find some neighboring spot, with fewer natural advantages out- 
 strip him in prosperity, and cast him entirely in the shade. 
 
 And 1 hold it essential to the progress of a trading town, that it 
 be settled quickly and compactly, and the only point in which I 
 would thwart the wishes of the settler, whether merchant or 
 mechanic, would be in the desire which most entertain of possessing 
 a large lot. It is for his own advantage that this should be resisted^ 
 
15 
 
 for if he be half tradesman and half farmer he will neither prosper 
 as one nor as the other. There should be a mutual dependence 
 between the farmer and the villager ; the farmer relying upon the 
 villager for the purchase of his produce, and the villager upon the 
 farmer for the sale of the articles of his trade. If the mechanic will 
 have a farm, or even a large garden or orchard, or if he devotes his 
 time in any manner to the cultivation of the ground, even to the 
 raising what is sufficient for his own consumption, it is impossible 
 he should be so active and vigilant in his profession as he would 
 otherwise be ; for instance, the barber, instead of being in the way 
 to shave his customers, will be found weeding his onions ; the shoe- 
 maker hoeing his potatos ; the watchmaker, who has neglected to 
 repair the farmer's watch, will think it an excuse that his orchard 
 required his immediate care ; the blacksmith, who has been tilling 
 the ground, when he should have been providing himself with coal,* 
 will be unable to shoe the traveler's horse, or mend the carrier's 
 wagon. It is not he alone then that remains idle, but if it could be 
 calculated how much the loss of time and of the opportunities of 
 profit is multiplied by each of these delays, it would be the most 
 solid of all arguments. He, perhaps, who waits for the barber to 
 shave him, has been charged by his neighbors with various com- 
 missions, and their business, like his own, must stand still till he 
 returns ; obliged to loiter, he goes, perhaps, to the tavern, spends his 
 money, wastes his time, and gets drunk. Want of punctuality in 
 one man occasions the same in others, and dilatory habits are the 
 consequence, and it will be found that no industry in his out-door 
 labor can pay the mechanic for the loss of diligence within. The 
 traveler, again, is from the negligence of the smith forced to proceed 
 with his horse unshod, his beast becomes lame, he is delayed, per- 
 haps benighted, and obliged to waste his time and money at an inn ; 
 the wagoner who cannot have his wheel repaired, is obliged to wait, 
 and his team stand idle ; the farmer has no watch to regulate 
 his time, and wastes much of it in repeated calls for it. These frivo- 
 lous disappointments familiarize the mind to irregularity and pro- 
 crastination, the most pernicious of all habits in an early settle- 
 ment ; and if there be another village or another market, though 
 more inconvenient or more distant, where every man is to be found 
 at his post, the mechanic in his workshop, the merchant in his store, 
 such a place will carry off the prize of industry; and become the 
 rendezvous of traffic and prosperity. 
 
 The case will be quite different where the people are settled oii 
 small lots without either garden or orchard. They will there be all 
 found in their shops or workhouses, and in that manner the diligent 
 
16 
 
 and steady man never fails to gain a good and certain livlihood. 
 The farmer will choose a town so circumstanced as a market for his 
 produce, and will generally receive in payment from the trader, goods 
 to the full amount, and often become his debtor for more to be paid 
 at his next visit ; and this credit operates as an increase of capital, 
 and promotes the activity of all. 
 
 On the other hand, villages and trading towns built on exten- 
 sive lots, where the inhabitants are dispersed, never make much 
 progress in trade. They have all the disadvantages of towns, 
 without their comforts and convenience. A thousand little dash- 
 ings of interest, and sources of altercations arise between neighbors ; 
 the poultry of the one destroy the garden of the other, or the 
 pigs commit trespasses ; and such trifling accidents repeated and 
 resented, engender disputes and enmities. 
 
 One argument for building in this detached manner is the dan- 
 ger of fire, where wooden houses, as these must be, are crowded 
 together and contiguous ; but when it is considered that help is 
 more remote, the sense of common danger less pressing, and there- 
 for the energy in surmounting the evil less excited, the argument 
 may be turned the other way. 
 
 Certainly when the inhabitants are at a distance from each other 
 there is less society, less useful communication upon subjects of 
 common concern, such as the education of children and the like ; 
 there is less polish of manners, more carelessness in dress and 
 demeanor, and more languor and indifference in every sort of 
 improvement. But in towns compactly built there is a quicker 
 circulation of sentiment, and mutual convenience ; each follows his 
 own art without deviation, and becomes more perfect in it ; there is 
 more emulation ; a kind of city pride arises, and acts advantageously 
 upon the manners and modes of life ; better houses are built, more 
 comforts introduced, and there is more civility and civilization. 
 
 Where one family can support itself by trade upon one acre, six- 
 teen families upon the same acre, each having a trade, will exist 
 still better. Where one family can earn upon one acre three hun- 
 dred pounds per annum, sixteen families will earn four thousand 
 eight hundred ; and each, though aiming merely at his own private 
 emolument, will be working no less for the common benefit, and 
 they will reciprocally profit by each other's labor. 
 
 The labor of two or three hundred industrious men concentrated, 
 is like money collected into a bank; when scattered in distant 
 quarters its effects amount to little; when brought together it 
 resembles the heart, from and to which circulation flows, whilst it 
 gives life and health to the remotest extremes. 
 
17 
 
 A good instance of this is the town of Lancaster in Pennsyl- 
 vania; without any one natural advantage, nor any that I can 
 perceive, other than that of being in the beginning compactly 
 settled, it has risen to be the seventh in the union in point of popu- 
 lation and importance. 
 
 It is the same of Cpoperstown and of all the others where 
 industry, art, and capital are condensed ; and all those originally 
 distributed in large lots have ceased after a few years to increase, 
 insomuch that wherever you will mention a town in which each 
 man has his cow, his team, his wagon, and his barn, you will-find 
 it to be a place of little trade, consequently of little wealth ; but 
 wherever the artist, the merchant, or man of profession, has neither 
 bread, butter, milk, cheese, flesh meat, nor garden-stuff, but what 
 he purchases with the earnings of his calling, there, 1 engage, you 
 will find trade, comfort, and plenty ; there each living by the art i# 
 which he is versed, there will be no awkward waste of time, no 
 slovenly or loitering habits;, the baker will live by baking, the 
 butcher by his trade, the flour merchant by buying and by selling ; 
 schools, churches, and professional merit will advance ; all useful 
 skill will increase. And however strange it has appeared to you 
 that I should, where land is so abundant, propose to restrict the 
 settler in the occupation of it, yet certain it is, that if they would 
 prosper they must choose one of two things : either to have so much 
 land as will employ all their industry and support them by its pro- 
 duce, or to leave its cultivation entirely to others, and betake 
 themselves exclusively to the exercise of their trade. 
 
 You seem to be prepossessed with the idea of pleasure and advan- 
 tage, in mixing rural labours with the exercise of professions, and of 
 the mechanic arts. Such a picture of human life may gratify the 
 imagination, but it is romantic ; and both contentment and wealth 
 lie in the road I have traced, if an extensive field of observation and 
 many years' experience can be trusted. 
 
 Having given you my opinion upon the first plan of a trading 
 town, I shall proceed to point out the situations most conspicuously 
 advantageous ; these are : 
 
 The mouth of Buffalo creek on Lake Erie. 
 
 The straits of Niagara below the falls. 
 
 The first falls of the Genesee, where there is a fine harbor for 
 ships of two hundred tons. 
 
 The greater Sodus on Lake Ontario. 
 
 The Qswego falls. 
 
 The head navigation of the Black river. 
 
 Sackett's harbor on the Ontario lake. 
 
18 
 
 Ogdensburgh, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie. 
 
 All of these, if properly managed, must become important places 
 of trade. 
 
 In the interior, Rome and Utica are already considerably advanced. 
 The former has the most of natural advantages, but the latter has 
 outstripped it, because more attention has been bestowed upon its 
 interests. 
 
 Cooperstown, in point of trade and population, stands next to 
 Utica, and is better built, as the inhabitants have the fee ; whereas 
 Utica is all on lease, a circumstance which never fails to depress. 
 
 Chenango Point, on the Susquehanna, and Oswego are likely to 
 become considerable places. Canandaigua, and Geneva on Seneca 
 Lake, are already very handsome villages. 
 
 The Oxbow in the Oswegatchie, is clearly intended by nature as 
 a point of trade as is also the head of the navigation of the Racket 
 river at the falls of Stockholm. 
 
 Many other places of minor importance will present themselves 
 to notice, and wherever capital settles, allied with such natural 
 advantages, it must take root and flourish. 
 
 The trade of this vast country must be divided between Montreal 
 and New York, and the half of it be thus lost to the United States, 
 unless an inland communication can be formed from Lake Erie to 
 the Hudson. This project, worthy of a nation's enterprise, has been 
 for some time meditated by individuals. Of its practicability there 
 can be no doubt, whilst the world has as yet produced no work so 
 noble ; nor has the universe such another situation to improve. Its 
 obvious utility will hereafter challenge more attention ; men of great 
 minds will turn their thoughts and devote their energies to its 
 accomplishment, and I doubt not that it will one day be achieved. 
 
 The surface of lake Erie is elevated about 280 feet above the 
 Hudson at Albany. A canal large enough for sloops 50 tons burden, 
 will not only bring the produce of these great and rich tracts of land 
 in the state of New York to its capital, but will secure all the trade 
 and productions of the vast country which surrounds the lakes Erie, 
 Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Were this once effected, a sloop 
 might then perform an inland voyage of seventeen hundred miles ! 
 
 The trade of lake Erie already supports twenty-three ships, brigs, 
 scows, and sloops, and Ontario twelve. The United States have 
 millions of acres in the Michigan country of which the produce by 
 this operation would be transportable to a market. 
 
 How, you ask, and by what funds is this great work to be 
 accomplished? Without presuming that my opinion should be the 
 guide in so important a concern, it is enough if I can point out one 
 
19 
 
 way in which it may be possible, and I thinl< the mode I am about 
 to propose not only possible, but very practicable. The State of 
 New York may cede the track of this canal to the United States, and 
 the United States may then grant a charter to a company, with strong 
 rights and immunities, and the fullest security the general laws will 
 admit of against the evils of future wars or civil changes ; in short 
 whatever would encourage the European capitalist to adventure in 
 this magnificent enterprise. Let the United States take shares to 
 the amount of ten millions of dollars, which will serve as an encour- 
 agement and security to the foreign capitalist, and be a safeguard 
 against the effects of those fluctuations in councils and public 
 opinions, to which the affairs of men are every where liable. 
 
 The banks of this canal would become a carriage road, and on§ 
 of the most beautiful in the universe. That most attractive and 
 gratifying object of human curiosity, the falls of Niagara would of 
 itself create a thoroughfare, and the product of the tolls on the turn- 
 pikes and canal gates would raise a revenue sufficient in a very short 
 time, to requite the undertakers. No stranger but would make this 
 tour his object, and no traveler of taste would leave it uncelebrated. 
 But, as this speculation lies in the province of fancy and may be 
 treated as a vision, I leave it to its fate and shall proceed in more 
 direct answer to your queries touching roads likely to be made or 
 encouf aged by the' state ; I think they will be the following : 
 
 First, from Catskill on the Hudson westward to lake Erie, 
 through the counties of Delaware, Broome, Steuben, and Genesee. 
 
 Second, from Albany to Niagara. 
 
 Third, from Albany through the counties of Saratoga, and the 
 uncultivated parts of the state, to the county of St. Lawrence, at or 
 near the long Soo in the St. Lawrence. 
 
 Fourth, from Plattsburg on lake Champlain to Rome or Utica on 
 the JVlohawk river. ' 
 
 These ought to be made under the auspices of government, and 
 with these remarks I close my answers and observations on your 
 third head of inquiries. 
 
20 
 
 SOIL AND CLIMATE. 
 
 As to soil and climate, there is in the one as in the other a 
 considerable variety ; but in all these countries the ground is through- 
 out the winter covered with snow, and whenever there is most snow 
 in winter, there is most grass and most wheat in the summer. The 
 snow is emphatically and truly called the poor man's manure. The 
 ground is seldom frozen when the snow is deep, and vegetation is 
 nourished and protected by its covering. The wheat takes a much 
 stronger and deeper root than where the earth is drenched during 
 the winter by heavy rains. 
 
 In climates where there is alternate rain and frost, the root 
 perishes ; not so with us, although it does sometimes happen that 
 after a warm autumn the wheat will have shot up so far and 
 acquired such a premature exuberance from the strength of the sun 
 that it continues to grow under the snow and is smothered. 
 
 Some farmers, to prevent that mischief, will turn their young 
 cattle into it to feed it off, but that is a bad expedient ; it is better 
 to sow later, but yet not too late, for that has also its risk and 
 inconvenience, for a cold spring succeeding to a late seed time, will 
 give a light crop. It is a saying amongst old experienced farmers,— 
 " If you get a good crop from lite seed, do not tell it to your sons." 
 
 In general through the temperate zone the seed ought to be put 
 in the ground from the loth to the 20th of September ; summer 
 wheat, flax, oats, barley, and peas as early as the ground will 
 admit ; Indian corn about the 20th of May. 
 
 In those countries situated on the great lakes, the snows are 
 lighter, the land less hilly, but the water is not so plenty, nor in 
 general so pure as in the hilly countries ; of course they are not so 
 healthy. 
 
 Our soil and climate is very favorable to the growth of fruit ; the 
 apple grows fair and sound ; plums of all kinds large and fair ; 
 gooseberries and currants grow wild in the woods, and when culti- 
 vated become fine ; cherries, pears, and grapes succeed everywhere ; 
 peaches, apricots, and nectarines are best in the counties of Ontario, 
 Steuben, Genesee, and Cayuga, but in the hilly counties they are 
 uncertain. It is hoped, however, that in time the air will become 
 tempered to their growth, for the uniform effect of clearing the 
 surface of the soil from the immense timber that overshadows it, is 
 to produce a more moderate temperature of the air. The beams of 
 
21 
 
 the sun which till then were absorbed in the thick foliage, act now 
 with their full power upon the bosom of the earth, and produce that 
 glow which necessarily imparts itself to the atmosphere. For 
 instance, when the improvements were rare in the Otsego county, 
 the frost destroyed our fall crops, and no month passed over without 
 frost ; but since the surface has been laid open to the sun, we are 
 no longer in fear that our crops will be injured by the autumnal 
 frosts, and for the last two years I have succeeded in peaches of a 
 tolerable quality, although not equal to those which grow further 
 west in the same latitude. 
 
 Upon the subject of fruit-trees I have dear-bought experience ; 
 for although I have at present an assortment as good as most others, 
 it was not till after repeated failures that I succeeded, nor till after 
 much fruitless trials, and much obstinate perserverance, that I dis- 
 covered the cause of those failures ; it was this ; our winters are 
 severe, and if choice or tender fruits are planted in rich ground, or 
 highly manured gardens, and the wood being open and spongy, the 
 frost kills as it would a weed. 
 
 Every part of our land is naturally strong enough for plums ; the 
 best way of forwarding them is to put about three bushels of clear 
 gravel around the tree when first planted; this keeps the earth 
 moist, lets the water through, and prevents the grass from binding. 
 The tree grows moderately, the wood is firm and hardy, the fruit 
 fair and well flavored, and the tree apt to bear generously. 
 
 There are few farms in the seventeen counties I have mentioned 
 that do not show great progress in the cultivation of fruit trees, 
 which are raised in most cases from the seed. Otsego, which was 
 the first settled, now makes a great quantity of cider ; and when the 
 trees are duly grafted, produces the best flavored fruits. 
 
 The potatoes of those counties are equal to the Irish potato, and 
 frequently lie in the ground all winter under the snow, without 
 injury from the frost. All other vegetables grow to an uncommon 
 size, and are thought preferable to those raised by gardeners near 
 the City of New York. 
 
 The mutton of the hilly counties is fat and juicy, and very deli- 
 cate ; the wool fair and the fleece heavy. I have observed generally 
 that the further we go north in the United States, the better we find 
 both beef and mutton ; and the further we go south, the smaller and 
 sweeter the pork. Our hogs are apt to grow to a great size, but we 
 cannot make hams equal to those of Virginia and iWaryland. Horses 
 grow larger and more robust in the southern states. The air with 
 us is probably too sharp for their growth, therefore the animal is 
 small but hardy. 
 
33 
 
 In those parts where both pasture and hay abound, we give hay 
 to our cattle about the ist of December, and in April they begin to 
 refuse it. About the same time the farmers in the southern states 
 feed their cattle ; but there, if that were neglected their cattle would 
 be of much less growth and stature than ours. 
 
 Our bottom grounds produce hemp of an excellent quality, and 
 will, in a few years, produce an ample supply for the United States. 
 Those husbandmen who have made the experiment of its cultivation, 
 have found it very beneficial, and have produced as much as six 
 hundred pounds on an acre. 
 
 TIMBER. 
 
 As to the timber, its utility, its abundance, and its qualities: 
 Wherever this country remains unreclaimed by the l^bor of the 
 settler, its face is uniformly overshadowed by trees of immense 
 growth ; the white pine is the most stately, and it is useful for spars, 
 boards, shingles, rails, and building timber, having the valuable 
 property of resisting for a length of time the action of the weather. 
 A shingle roof of this wood will last fifty years, rails as long, and 
 were it but for these two purposes, a grove of such timber preserved 
 upon a farm will be always valuable. 
 
 The sugar-tree, which is found all over these counties, is next in 
 celebrity, and is the best fuel the forest yields, the hickory itself not 
 excepted. 
 
 Next in importance are the white, and red, or black oak, the 
 barren oak, found in rocky situations, the piss-oak, so called, because 
 the log when on fire emits water at each end ; the butternut, the 
 poplar, the red and white beech, all noble and majestic trees. The 
 elm is in abundance, and the bass wood or linden-tree is found every- 
 where, but is of little utility, being of a soft texture decaying quickly 
 in the open air. The hickory, besides its excellence as fuel, is of 
 great use for the fabrication of many farming utensils ; the cherry, 
 the white, black, and yellow birch, all produce excellent timber for 
 the cabinet makers ; the chestnut and hemlock-tree are both useful, 
 but the latter more particularly so, as, like the oak and the beech 
 trees, it supplies our tanners with bark. 
 
 It is a curious property of the hemlock, that a single stroke of an 
 axe is sufficient to destroy it, from which it has been called the tree 
 of sensibility, or, as the woodman says, the most sensible tree of 
 
the forest. It dges not immediately peristi from the wound, but 
 languishes and never revives. I have myself observed that where a 
 hemlock has been merely marked as a line tree, and only cut through 
 the bark in one spot, at the end of fifteen years it is sure to be found 
 dead. So, when they happen to lie by the road side, and are liable 
 to be fretted and disturbed by cart hubs, they perish in a few years. 
 No ashes are produced from this tree, other than an apparently sandy 
 sediment, except from its bark, which when burned separately 
 produces the very best of ashes. 
 
 The pine is the only wood which yields no ashes ; the best are 
 those produced from the elm, the bass wood, the sugar-tree, and the 
 beech. 
 
 You ask whether there is no danger of a future scarcity of 
 timber? I have always thought there was, and for these reason^: 
 great part of our timber is not only of slow growth but when used 
 for fencing, it is of short duration. Our winters require large sup- 
 plies of fuel, and we have neither peat nor coal to resort to, when 
 constant consumption in fuel and fencing will have rendered that 
 most necessary article scarce. Nor have we other mountainous 
 lands to resort to for wood, nor stony ground for the construction of 
 stone fences. The soil being all fit for culture, will be all cultivated, 
 and the wood of course wasted. 
 
 WILD BEASTS. 
 
 The principal wild beasts of our forests are, the bear, the black 
 and grey wolf and the panther. These are all called noxious animals 
 and so considered by our laws, which give rewards for their destruc- 
 tion, which in these new countries are sometimes as high as from 
 ten to twenty-five dollars, paid on the production of each pair of 
 ears and scalp. Some of the settlers have great address in contriving 
 traps for them, and a poor man sometimes renders himself of good 
 sers'ice by a benefit to the community. The reward is paid by the 
 County Treasurer, under a law passed by a majority of the people 
 in open town-meeting. The farmers are always disposed to vote 
 for a high bounty in revenge for the sheep they have lost, and the 
 hunters because they have hope of the reward. 
 
 A man by the name of Elsworth once made a pit-fall with a bait 
 or decoy upon it. He visited it from time to time, and on the morn- 
 ing of a town-meeting he found in it a she-wolf with six whelps. 
 
34 
 
 supposed to have had their birth after the bitch had fallen in. He 
 left them where he found them and wentto the town-meeting, where 
 he made an animated discourse upon the mischievous depredations 
 of these ravening animals ; stated in glowing colours the losses and 
 terrors of the farmers and finished by proposing a bounty such as 
 might encourage some enterprising spirits to devote themselves 
 entirely, and with zeal, to their destruction. His eloquence was 
 popular and successful. The bounty was doubled ; next morning 
 he went with a neighbor to examine his pit-fall and taking the seven 
 scalps, claimed and received for each, the augmented recompence. 
 The secret might have been kept till this day had not his vanity 
 tempted him to boast of his ingenuity in " taking in the flats/' 
 
 The bears are also numerous and mischievous in the new settle- 
 ments. They destroy not only the corn-fields, but even the swine 
 when they meet them in the woods ; but when they are taken they 
 pay damages, the furs being Worth from four to ten dollars. Their 
 flesh is tolerably good food, their hams when dried and smoked are 
 preferable to smoked beef. It is a remarkable fact in which all the 
 hunters agree that no person has yet been able to take the she-bear 
 with young. 
 
 The panther is more wary of man, and shy of approaching his 
 habitation. The grey, red, and cross-foxes are plenty ; the martin, 
 sable, the fisher, mink, and racoon are hunted for their furs, as are 
 the beaver, otter, and rauskrat, and produce annually a very hand- 
 some remittance. 
 
 There is an observation touching the fox and the wolf, which, 
 though foreign from our subject may be worth your attention as a 
 matter of curiosity, and of some interest to those who make a study 
 of natural history. It is a common, and I believe, an uncontradicted 
 opinion* that the dog, the fox, and the wolf are all of one species 
 and will intermix their race. Many dogs strongly resembling wolves, 
 are shown as instances of this and are called wolf-dogs ; others of a 
 smaller stature and bearing the characteristics of the fox are called 
 fox dogs, and thought to be a cross-race, half fox, half ddg : but after 
 taking much pains to inquire and after many years' residence in 
 situations where such a breed would be most likely to appear, if the 
 nature of these animals had not forbidden it, I am fully persuaded 
 that they do not intermix. If ever, therefore, such a fact did happen, 
 of which I have little faith, it must have been rather one of those 
 
 * It is evident the writer . was unacquainted with the careful and minute 
 experiments made and detailed by BufEon upon this subject ; however, ii is a proof 
 of the accuracy of his observation that witliout any particular regard or research, 
 he should have come to the same conclusion in contradiction at a popular opinion 
 universally received among the inhabitants of the country. W. S. 
 
35 
 
 sports of nature, by which her own laws, are sometimes, though 
 rarely violated, than the effect of any fixed or natural law ; and a 
 strong proof that it was never intended that these animals should 
 become promiscuous is, that the wolf carries her young five weeks 
 longer than the dog, and the fox a much shorter time. 
 
 The elk and moose-deer are found in various places, their flesh 
 is of excellent flavor, and their hides make a strong and useful 
 leather. Their period of gestation is nine months and they will 
 intermix with the cow. Some persons will have as much difficulty 
 in crediting this fact as in doubting of the other ; the following is an 
 instance which puts it past all doubt. A Mr. Hopkins of Vermont, 
 let his cattle run on a mountainous part of that state in the summer 
 of 1795; in the. following winter he removed with his stock to 
 Otsego ; there one of his cows had a calf which bore the charactei% 
 of one and the other race, and was said to be half cow, half moose. 
 This calf grew to be a cow and had several calfs, but they were 
 found to be unprofitable giving but little milk and being with diffi- 
 culty restrained by the fehces. They always inclined rather to 
 browse up on the trees and shrubs than to feed upon the grass. 
 
 The legs of the moose are so long that without spreading their 
 feet wide asunder they cannot bring their mouths to the ground, 
 and evidently are not destined by nature to pasture on the grass. 
 They travel with great rapidity, their swiftest gait being a long trot. 
 The male is nineteen hands high having enormous horns which he 
 casts every spring. The deer are found in abundance in every new 
 settlement, and for the first ten years form an article of provisions in 
 every family; their skins when dressed are used by glovers and 
 breeches makers and often to make clothing for children. 
 
 The squirrel and the hare follow the plantations and are seldom 
 seen far from improved lands. The martin formerly preyed upon 
 the squirrel, but now being hunted for his fur, the latter has found 
 in man an ally, the former an enemy. The martin, therefore, 
 becomes every day more scarce, the squirrel more plenty ; the flesh 
 of this little animal is delicate to eat. The hare is said to be the same 
 as the English hare, with the exception that it is smaller. The 
 rabbit is not very plenty. 
 
 There are a number of other animals indigenous in the woods ; 
 but as they are unimportant to the farmer, neither yielding him 
 advantage on the one hand by their flesh or their fur, nor on the 
 other giving him any annoyance it would be wandering from our 
 purpose to describe them. 
 
26 
 BIRDS. 
 
 The birds which afford any profit to the farmer, are : 
 
 The wild-duck, which are of various liinds, and fallen in abund- 
 ance, and are useful as well for their flesh, as their feathers. 
 
 The wild-goose ; they are very shy however, and seldom caught ; 
 they fly very high, and pass in large flocks to the sea in the months 
 of November and December, and return in the spring to the lakes. 
 Their flight from the lakes is a sure warning that winter is about to 
 set in, and their return brings notice to all the vast territories where 
 they pass, that it is at an end. Sometimes, in heavy snow or in 
 rain, their feathers become so drooping, and charged with wet, that 
 they become fatigued and unable to continue their flight, light in the 
 open fields or on small waters, and are shot. 
 
 There are many instances of a single goose stopping on her way 
 to lay her eggs ; the gander with whom she is paired, abandons the 
 flock to remain with her ; they pitch upon some small lake, pool, or 
 creek. I have known the farmers to discover their nests on the 
 borders of these waters, and take their eggs, and have them hatched 
 under a tame goose ; the brood will continue till the ensuing spring ; 
 towards that season, unless the owner has had care to clip their 
 wings, they will prefer the savage state, and take their flight with 
 the first wild flock they descry, and whose noise in the air excites 
 their native passion for wandering. 
 
 The partridge, or as it is called with us, the pheasant, is in 
 abundance. The quail follows the settlements, and is not plenty, 
 but the woodcock, snipe, and plover are. The wild pigeon is 
 extremely common, and its squab is much preferred to the young of 
 the tame species, being equally fat, and of a higher game flavor ; 
 they breed in groves of small trees, their nests are coarsely made, 
 and form a close neighborhood, so that sometimes thousands of 
 them will be found together. Amongst the luxurious delicacies 
 which the wilderness offers to the sensualist, the principal are these 
 young squabs, taken very early; the moose's nose, the beaver's 
 tail, and the brook trout. 
 
 The eagle is scarce, breeding seldom, but living to a great age. 
 
 The hawks are of various kinds, they are in all parts of the 
 country, and in the new settlements are destructive to the poultry, 
 but after a few years are generally hunted out. The owl is also 
 destructive, and ravages the hen-roost in the night 
 
 In the autumn, the crow, blackbird, and jay destroy the farmer's 
 
37 
 
 crop. I might, in speaking of the squirrels, have observed, that 
 some of them play an active part also in this mischief, the small red 
 and striped kind particularly. 
 
 The wood-mouse eats the seed in the spring ; many means have 
 been tried of destroying these little animals, but none have been 
 found so efficacious as the keeping a number of cats ; they will 
 completely banish them. 
 
 Venomous serpents are but rare, and are confined to a few rocky 
 spots. The rattle-snake is very poisonous, as every body knows, 
 but it seldom bites, and never without warning by the rattling of 
 its tail ; the noise it makes is not much unlike the sound of the 
 locust. Its extraordinary power of fascination is not only fatal to 
 the wood-birds, but is exercised equally on the tame poultry and th^ 
 squirrels. It is as difficult to describe the effects as to conceive the 
 cause of this phenomenon ; but it is curious to observe the progress 
 of so strange an affection through ail its gradations, from the first 
 fluttering transports, to the moments of panting agony, and the last 
 crisis of fatal crispation, whenthe victim falls breathless and motion- 
 less at the mercy of its devourer. The eyes of the serpent, whilst 
 intent upon its victim,. project and shine with unusual animation ; 
 his body exhibits various shades of burnished brightness ; he gener- 
 ally remains coiled, with his crest erect, but motionless ; but no 
 sooner has he swallowed his prey than his brilliancy fades, and all 
 his splendid and luxuriant coloring is succeeded by a mixture of 
 dusky black and yellow. These snakes, however, are very rare, 
 little feared by men, and soon disappear from a settled country ; 
 their bite, however j- is attended with acute pain, the parts round the 
 wound become swelled and spotted, and fever and delirium ensue ; 
 but I have known few to be bitten, and no one to die in consequence. 
 I once had a surveyor's chain-bearer bitten, but an application 
 being made of pounded water-pepper,* (or arsesmart,) he was relieved 
 in a few hours time. 
 
 The same herb produced a cure as speedy upon an ox, which had 
 received a bite on the side of his head, and was greatly swollen in 
 consequence ; a poultice being tied on the part affected, in two hours 
 time a complete cure was operated ; this fact happened near Schohola. 
 Both these instances took place under my own eyes. I learned the 
 virtues of this useful herb from an Indian trader, and it is worthy of 
 remark that it is generally to be found among the loose rocks where 
 the rattle snakes haunt. 
 
 Having mentioned those animals which fall within our present 
 
 *Persicaria, 
 
38 
 
 sphere of inquiry, that is, such as may be considered useful or noxi- 
 ous to the settler, I leave the others, of which there is an endless 
 variety, to be treated of by the curious. 
 
 As to objects of natural history, or scientific research, whether 
 vegetable or mineral, they have never been my pursuit, and if I have 
 departed from the course of mere practical information, it has only 
 been when I had reason to know, or strongly to believe, that those 
 who had undertal<en to announce to the world certain facts and 
 opinions, were themselves mistaken or misled ; and have shortly 
 noted them as matters which you or others so disposed may bestow 
 their attention in examining. One indeed who took delight in the 
 study of nature, and was qualified to pursue her through her wonder- 
 ful variety, might find in this tract of country a rich and ample field, 
 and abundant matter for beautiful and useful description. 
 
 The oil skimmed from the surface of the springs and waters in 
 the Allegany hills, and Seneca lake, and called Seneca oil, is well 
 known to possess strong medical virtues. The many other medical 
 waters, so various in their qualities and combinations, and the salt 
 springs which supply the country with that precious article, are 
 objects worthy of the philosopher's research. 
 
 The remains of field-works, apparently erected by ancient and 
 powerful Indian nations, but at a period so remote that tradition 
 does not reach it ; vast fortresses or intrenched camps, sometimes 
 covering ten acres in space, surrounded by ditches and guarded by 
 pit-falls, artfully contrived for the destruction of an enemy; the 
 many stone-axes, leaden pipes, spears of flint, vessels of pottery, the 
 gritty stones on which the ancient inhabitants have sharpened their 
 implements of labor or of war, before the use of iron had perfected 
 the arts either of destruction or convenience ; all those are still to be 
 seen, and seem irresistibly to prove that it has been with men as with 
 the brute creation, and that with one as with the other, in the lapse 
 of ages, distinct races have passed away and been forgotten. 
 
 The great fall of Niagara is at once, the most sublime and inter- 
 esting scene of nature. On leaving New York for that place, you 
 first sail one hundred and sixty miles up the noble river of the 
 Hudson, whose banks present to the eye a rich variety of landscape, 
 and an admirable contrast between the frowning terrors of forest- 
 crowned precipices, and the cultivated abodes of industry and peace. 
 In the course of this passage, hundreds of merchant vessels are to be 
 seen gliding in every direction, and intersecting each other's track. 
 The remainder of the journey is westward by land about three 
 hundred and fifty miles. The road lies through a champaign country, 
 rich and improved. From the number of heavy wagons, strong 
 
39 
 
 teams, and valuable loadings passing to market, an idea may be 
 formed of the wealth of the country and the prosperity of its inhabi- 
 tants. From the Black-rock, near Buffalo creek, an outlet of lake 
 Erie, you pass the straights of Niagara, in good boats, to the 
 Canadian shore, and then proceed down the river's bank by a smooth 
 and well-made road, through an improved and beautiful country. 
 About fifteen miles before you arrive at the falls, the scene opens to 
 view, and the tremendous roaring of the waters strike the ear ; 
 sometimes when the wind and the state of the atmosphere are 
 favorable, they are heard at a much greater distance ; the spray 
 rises like a misty cloud towards the sky, and refracting the vivid 
 beams of the sun, presents to the delighted spectator all the rich and 
 luxuriant colors of the rainbow. 
 
 At the town of Chippaway the rapids begin, and the current 
 becomes accelerated, descending with an inclination of about six 
 degrees, for about three-quarters of a mile ; wedge-formed rocks rise 
 from the surface and break the smoothness of the waters. Hence 
 the indignant foam and angry roaring which strike the senses of the 
 traveler, and prepare his mind for the still sublimer scenes which 
 they announce. In vain is the strength and fury of unmeasurable 
 waters wasted upon these sturdy mounds ; in vain the unremitting 
 conflict, the destinies of nature are fulfdled. The fugitive waters 
 pursue their vagrant course, the unshaken rocks remain emblems of 
 that great power whose laws have made them fixed; yet time will 
 come when they must undergo the fate of matter, and when those 
 billows which they now dash from their sides in harmless froth 
 shall mine their strong foundations and precipitate them from -their 
 ancient holds. 
 
 Next is the Grand-pitch — before this majestic image of eternal 
 power the soul is fixed in awe and reverence — the voice of a com- 
 panion is irksome— self is forgot— full of the idea of Almighty power 
 —though terrible, delightful— sense dwells upon the image— thought 
 wanders obscurely after something which it cannot grasp, and the 
 beholder is lost in ecstacy as I am in description ! 
 
 TAXES. 
 
 Our taxes are so light that a rich man will readily spend more in 
 one or two entertainments, than the amount of all his taxes ; and 
 generally his voluntary donations for benevolent and useful insti- 
 
30 
 
 tutions, are ten times more than the law exacts of him ; and the poor 
 man will spend as much, unnecessarily in taverns, as the law 
 , demands of him for every public purpose. The fair average tax for 
 a well seated farmer, on an hundred acres, is about the produce of 
 one-sixth of an acre per annum. Large tracts of forest lands pay 
 about twelve cents per hundred acres, more or less, according to the 
 situation, the soil, and the wants of the country. The clergy are 
 supported without any establishment of law, and live with decency ; 
 and the people show a great willingness to support religious institu- 
 tions and generally attend places of public worship, which convinces 
 me that neither the interference of laws nor the excitement of 
 persecution, nor of controversy, are necessary to stimulate men to 
 that which seems more a principle of their nature than a matter of 
 regulation or convention. 
 
 I have often witnessed the beneficial effects of this religious dis- 
 position, and of the institutions growing out of it. The settlement 
 of Cooperstown, as 1 have before stated, was made by the poorest 
 order of men ; they labored hard all the week, but on Sunday they 
 either went a hunting or fishing, or else collected in taverns, and 
 loitered away the day, careless of their dress or actions— the sons 
 caught the manners of the fathers, and for the first ten years before 
 any religious establishmentwas formed, the want of it was manifest. 
 We then turned our attention to remedy this evil, and our pains were 
 rewarded ; for since that time new and better morals and manners 
 have prevailed, and it is now become a matter of honest pride, and 
 as it were, a fashion to be orderly and correct. If any still follow 
 the ancient practice of fishing and hunting on a Sunday they no 
 longer go openly and publicly, but privately and unseen. The 
 people now appear in decent clothing ; they are taught to love each 
 other, and the pastor mixing among them, promotes by his influence 
 and persuasion a happy spirit of union and good will. When neigh- 
 bors quarrel he interposes, sooths their angry passions, gently chides 
 the froward, points out the mischiefs that accompany contention, 
 and exhorts them by the love of a religion, whose spirit is peace ; 
 the respect they bear his person gives weight to his reasons ; they 
 soon feel in the quiet and satisfied state of their minds the benefit of 
 his counsels ; they listen to him not as a master but a friend, and 
 pay him a willing obedience beyond what the authority of magis- 
 trates or the power of government ever could enforce. 
 
 You have asked me what was my motive for first settling in the 
 Wilderness ; it is pretty clearly shown in my answer to your first 
 inquiry, to have been for the sole purpose of promoting my interest ; 
 but I may also add, that after having been employed for twenty 
 
31 
 
 years in the same pursuit of improving lands, I am now by liabit so 
 attached to it, that it is the principal source which remains to me of 
 pleasure and recreation. 
 
 Why I have succeeded where many others have failed, is also 
 simple and easy to explain ; they have followed plans quite opposite 
 to mine, and fallen into all the errors I have above detailed ; they 
 have reserved favorite tracts, retained mill-sites in their own hands ; 
 they have opened expensive roads, and built costly bridges at their 
 own charge. They have too early insisted with rigor upon pay- 
 ment, and forced the purchaser to surrender a part or the whole of 
 his possession. The reserved tracts seem to proclaim that the 
 settlement is not becoming populous or thriving. The withholding 
 a mill-place, is depriving the people of a convenience, which they 
 cannot want, instead of encouraging people to gather together and 
 to undertake for their own common advantage, by their common 
 labor, those works which their necessities first point out. When 
 the landlord undertakes to construct buildings, bridges, and roads, 
 and the people labor for hire, each man strives to get the most he 
 can for the least services, so that at the end of ten or fifteen years 
 the first cost advances, and interest upon them calculated, will leave 
 little or no profit, and disgust and discouragement ensue. 
 
 JWy advice then is to fill the land with people, whether rich or 
 poor ; call them together when occasion requires to undertake some 
 general work, where every one feels his own particular interest, and 
 a few quarts of liquor cheerfully bestowed, will open a road or build 
 a bridge, which would cost if done by contract, hundreds of dollars. 
 Sell the mill-place to a man that can build upon it, or if you' 
 should sell it to one who has not the means, furnish them to him, 
 and make him debtor to you for the advances. He will work- better 
 and cheaper for hiniself than for you ; you will not then be cheated, 
 and you will have a good profit in the convenience and advantage 
 which your settlement will derive from it. 
 
 Europeans are too apt to conceive that coming from an older and 
 more highly improved country, their own opinions must be prefer- 
 able to those of the native Americans, and they follow, without 
 consulting the lights of experience, the practice of their own country ; 
 they first injudiciously spend the capital they brought with them, 
 then draw for more, and after sowing much and reaping little, 
 abandon the pursuit as hopeless. Such men, it is true, do good, but 
 not to themselves ; they leave money behind them, of which others 
 reap the advantage ; but they seldom improve their own interest as 
 they would in a business they had understood. To have a great 
 capital is not so necessary as to know how to manage a small one. 
 
and never to be without a little. The people will not only join in 
 works beneficial to themselves, but they will find their own provi- 
 sions ; the landlord has but to appear with his keg of rum to treat 
 them, and more manual labor will be accomplished in one day by 
 men thus collected, than by double the number of hirelings. For all 
 these purposes therefore it is not large funds that are wanted, but a 
 cpnstant supply, like a small stream that never dries. 
 
 You will probably expect from me some calculations of the cost 
 of clearing new lands, but this is so variable, and depends upon so 
 many accidental circumstances, that any scale of that kind would 
 tend rather to mislead than to direct a stranger ; it is, however, good 
 to observe, that a man who is careful of his ashes, and profits by the 
 advantage which new clear lands afford, that of raising his first crop 
 without the expense of either ploughing or weeding, is rather a 
 gainer by the wood which he has to cut down. 
 
 If a farmer hires choppers to clear his land, it will cost him about 
 three pounds per acre, that is, seven dollars and a half ; for this 
 money he will have the trees felled and cut into logs of fourteen feet 
 in length, and the branches thrown together in heaps, ready for 
 burning. If he contracts to have the whole fenced as well as cleared, 
 the common price is ten pounds (twenty-five dollars) per acre, the 
 farmer reserving the ashes to himself— some will get their lands 
 cleared for the ashes and the first crop ; I have, myself, given the 
 three first crops to have the land well inclosed and fitted for the 
 scythe ; but the most usual way is to hire a farmer by the month, 
 and for the farmer and his sons to labor with him, and then a large 
 fallow is prepared. The ashes and the first crop, as I have stated, 
 being thus obtained without trouble or tillage, will produce a better 
 profit than could be obtained from the tillage of a lean soil in an old 
 improved farm ; the labor, it is true, is greater, but the profit bears 
 a greater proportion to the labor, and richly compensates for it; 
 and it is a general observation, that a man's profits are never greater 
 \han at the time of clearing his lands. But in every stage of the 
 business, one dollar, in the hands of a thorough practical man, will 
 reproduce more than ten under the management of a theorist ; there- 
 fore, the European would do well, instead of following his own 
 whims, or acting upon plans, however prudent in his own country, 
 impracticable here, to hire a capable and experienced person for six 
 months' time, and be governed by him in his mode of clearing, 
 planting, sowing, and gathering his crops. It is to be observed also, 
 that one American will clear more in a day than three Europeans. 
 The Irish laborer excels with the spade and the flail, but is not a 
 match for the American at other country-work : the Scotch succeed 
 
in the woods as elsewhere, being frugal, cautious in their bargains, 
 living within their means, and punctual in their engagements ; if a 
 Scotchman kills a calf he will tal<e the best part of it to market, and 
 husband up the price of it ; if he consumes any part at home, it will 
 be the coarsest and the cheapest; the American will eat the best 
 part himself, and if he sells any, will lay out the money upon some 
 article of show ; the odds are, that when the Scotchman buys a cow, 
 he pays ready money, and has her for a lower price ; the American 
 pays with his note, gives more, and is often sued for the payment ; 
 when this happens, his cause comes to be tried before the squire, 
 and six jurors impanelled. Here much pettifogging skill is dis- 
 played ; if the defendant has address enough to procure a note, bond 
 or other matter to be offered in set-off, he perhaps involves his 
 adversary in costs to the amount of three or four dollars, and gains 
 celebrity for his dexterity and finesse. This cunning talent, which 
 they call outwitting, ^ives him such reputation and lead, that he 
 stands fair to be chosen a petty town officer. 
 
 It is to be regretted that so mischievous a spirit of litigation 
 should be encouraged by some of the justices, who, for the sake of 
 a paltry fee, forget the great duty of their office, that of preserving 
 peace ; and that it should have increased as it has done of late years, 
 to a shameful extent. I have known more than one hundred precepts 
 issued in one day by some of those squires. A magistrate who 
 becomes so ready an instrument of contention may be considered a 
 living calamity. Some, however, I have known of a quite different 
 stamp, who have- carried the spirit of peace-making and benevolence 
 so far, as to leave their own business and travel miles for the sake 
 of reconciling parties, and putting an end to quarrels, and who 
 sought for no other reward than the satisfaction of doing good. 
 
 Sometimes proclamations are to be seen posted up in the Country 
 inns, that by virtue of an execution issued out of the office of A. B., 
 Esq., the cow of John, or the bed of Peter is to be sold on such a 
 day. These notices serve at the same time to advertise the people 
 where the office of this trader in justice is, and bring him in more 
 practice, and more custom to the tavern ; for when the day of the 
 sale arrives, eating and drinking are of course. There those who 
 have not money go on credit — payment is demanded — another dis- 
 pute arises, and another suit is commenced — and time and money 
 are spent, which if well employed would have added to the comfort 
 of the family, and increased the stock of the farm. 
 
 Where religious establishments prevail there is more forbearance, 
 and more accommodation. The magistrate catches the tone and 
 temper of the society, and is a useful member of it. Upon such 
 
34 
 
 institutions then depends in a great measure the correction of the 
 above destructive vice ; and it will be the certain result of those 
 establishments, unless the spirit of party should run too high, and 
 prevent the election of men in authority whose motives will be the 
 honest pride of character and the feeling of conscience and duty. 
 
 LANDS. 
 
 It is difficult to point out any general rule, for the direction of a 
 stranger in our country, as to the choice of lands. There are some, 
 it is true, that will stand the test of experience, but the application 
 of them cannot be easy, as they must be combined with so many 
 circumstances of situation, climate, etc., which if not well under- 
 stood and attended to, would render them deceitful and contradictory. 
 For instance, in the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, the chestnut 
 indicates a lean soil ; whereas in the western counties of New York 
 it is found on rich and generous land, suited entirely to the growth 
 of wheat. 
 
 Where the bass-wood, the butter-nut, the sugar-maple, white- 
 ash, elm, and tall red-beech is the prevailing timber, you may be 
 certain of a good soil both for grain and grass. If it is interspersed 
 with hemlock it is not the worse. The black-walnut is never found 
 but in strong and durable ground. 
 
 The large topped, short mossy-beech denotes ungenerous land. 
 The poplar in our climate promises good wheat. 
 
 The pitch-pine uniformly bespeaks a thin sandy land. 
 
 The white-pine is found in all sorts of ground ; when it grows 
 on a plain, the soil is apt to be quick and very kindly ; but the stump 
 being two or three feet in diameter will take more time to decay than 
 the tree took to grow, owing to its resinous nature. Notwithstanding 
 this, however, such tracts will be among the most valuable on 
 account of the timber as I have before stated. 
 
 The alder-bush is a sign of good grass. 
 
 The many kinds of oak grow on as many kinds of soil ; but the 
 large smooth-barked black-oak is never found but on a good soil, 
 the large, tall white-oak never but on a clay bottom. 
 
 The hickory where it is tall and thriving is a favorable symptom. 
 
 Those lands which produce spontaneously the birch and the 
 spruce are the last taken up. 
 
35 
 
 The lime-stone is the truest of ail indications, and that which 
 never will deceive the man who is in quest of a profitable farm. 
 Lime-stone land is good in all situations. 
 
 The gray-stone is generally a good token, but wherever it is 
 round, oval, and smooth, like what is called the cobbler's lap-stone, 
 apparently water-worn, that soil will be sterile. 
 
 To an attentive and practiced observer, the running waters will 
 afford instruction. If the course of the little brook is lively, and the 
 water in time of freshets, or the sediment deposited by them be of a 
 light chocolate color, loose and loamy, it proves that that water 
 has passed through a good tract of country. Whereas if the water 
 wear a whitish appearance, and there be many large round stones, 
 that brook must have had its course through a poor tract. If it 
 appears black, it heads in a tamarack or spruce swamp, but may 
 pass through much good land, which can always be discovered by 
 the little banks and shoals formed by its deposits as above mentioned. 
 
 Those tracts of country which hold the water on their surface, 
 are neither so healthy for man, nor so sure for crops as a free and 
 loamy soil. 
 
 When a great tree is cut down in the poor clay-ground, and 
 happens to fall upon smaller ones, if they break under its weight, it 
 is a proof that the ground is hard and poor ; or if instead of breaking 
 they be forced up by the roots, the roots will be found large and 
 much earth will adhere to them. But where the tree turns up a 
 small root, there the ground is loose and good. 
 
 These observations only apply to that soil where there is, a little 
 below the surface, a stratum of cold or metallic concretion : for there 
 are some clays which will at all times yield the heaviest crops of 
 wheat, particularly in a drisly or dripping season. These clays will 
 hold manure longer than any other soil. But the clay, generally 
 speaking, fails in a dry season. 
 
 The three ingredients which when they combine form the most 
 productive of all soils, are the lime-stone, the chocolate-loam, and 
 dark-brown sand. Ground so composed will bear rain and drought ; 
 is certain and durable. 
 
 There is a kind of clay which approaches very near to marble, ' 
 and IS common in the Genesee country, the counties of, Seneca, 
 Cayuga, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence, and the west part of Clinton; 
 it is of a loose quality, plants take good root in it, and grow of a 
 darker green than in ordinary soils. The wheat raised on those 
 lands has less bran, and makes whiter flour than that raised on the^ 
 mere'loam. 
 
 Stony land is less agreeable to cultivate, but there are some 
 
36 
 
 stony tracts that turn out very advantageous ; and the nature of 
 the stone as above stated may be a guide to the choice. 
 
 There is an advantage in having the stone, when necessary, for 
 fencing and building ; and as the stony land retains the moisture, it 
 is better for grass and for fruit-trees. 
 
 Wherever land produces good natural grass, it will not be easily 
 worn out in tillage. The natural grass of the country we are treating 
 of, is white clover, or honey-suckle, which shows itself spontane- 
 ously very soon after the sun beams have been let to shine upon 
 the earth. It is the bed of pasture, but not profitable to mow in a 
 rough bottom, which all new lands must have. The farmer there- 
 fore prefers timothy, and clover which grows as high as three feet : 
 then though the scythe should leave a stubble of six inches, a 
 plentiful crop is still gathered in. After the land has been ploughed 
 and leveled the white clover can be mown, and is the best hay. 
 
 HOME MANUFACTURES, AND RAW MATERIALS. 
 
 Throughout this tract of country the wife and daughter of the 
 farmer spin and weave their own bed clothing, and common wearing 
 apparel. The cloth they make is about three-quarters of a yard 
 wide, and very stout. They comb part of the wool, and manufacture 
 a worsted cloth for petticoats and gowns. They also make a strong 
 durable checkered cloth for aprons. When the fleeces are shorn, 
 about the twentieth of May, the mistress sets apart the best for 
 stockings, and the next best for the clothing of her husband and 
 sons ; the rougher wool is made into blankets. The quality of the 
 fleeces depends much, as you must know, upon the keeping of the 
 sheep, and the care bestowed upon them. The average quantity 
 is about three pounds when washed ; though some sheep will yield 
 seven, and some, but very rarely, as much as ten. 
 
 We produce a partial supply of iron for our own consumption. 
 The ore is found in many places, but from want of knowledge in 
 working our mines, few attempts have yet been made in that most 
 important of all manufactures, and the Western country is obliged 
 to pay large sums annually for a material with which it abounds. 
 No article meets with a more rapid sale, and no establishment is so 
 much wanted, or so ardently desired as that of iron-foundries. In 
 Nobleborough and Arthurborough there are specimens of the richest 
 ore found in the close vicinity of populous and flourishing settle- 
 
37 
 
 ments, with constant streams and plentiful falls, and inviting 
 situations for mills of every kind. 
 
 In most of the Western counties, however, are made the best of 
 scythes, hoes, and some other implements of husbandry, adapted to 
 the purposes of the country for which they are intended. Those 
 imported from England are useless here, and therefore no person 
 coming from your country with a view to settle, should bring wifh 
 him any farming utensils, or mechanics' tools, except those which 
 I shall now specify: let him bring cross-cut saws, hand-saws, 
 hand-mill saws, planes of all kinds, chisels, turning tools, and 
 trace chains. It is true we can make all these, but as yet we do not 
 make them either so cheap or so good as those that come from 
 Europe. 
 
 The manufactures of leather, wool, fur-hats, and common earthen- 
 ware are all flourishing. That of leather, where bark is so plenty, 
 ought of course to prosper, but as the cattle are mostly driven to 
 the sea ports, the hides are lost to the country manufacturer. If the 
 beef was barreled and salted in the country this inconvenience 
 would be remedied, and the encouragement would be greater, and 
 the profit would be more to the farmer, but these things are never to 
 be forced. And in a part of the world where the minds of men are 
 so unshackled, and where they are not certainly dull-sighted to their 
 own interest, there is little fear that they will not find it out. The 
 facility of carriage by the increase of turnpike-roads, and inland 
 navigations will operate to that end, and the increasing wealth and 
 prosperity of the country will complete it. 
 
 The manufacture of window-glass near Albany is already suffi- 
 cient for the consumption of the country, and comes as cheap, and is 
 as good as the British. 
 
 Oil is made from flax-seed in most of the Western counties. 
 
 ABSURDITIES. 
 
 You have desired to know the causes of so many failures by 
 enterprisers in new lands, and I have, under their respective divisions, 
 pointed out several. 1 shall now take a more general view of that 
 subject, and conclude my correspondence with a relation of the 
 principal absurdities which have fallen under my observation, and 
 which have been the causes of bad success. 
 
 An Irish gentleman, of fortune, purchased a large tract. Full of 
 
ideal superiority, and high-minded enterprise, he cast his eyes around 
 him, and interpreted all he saw into proofs of the weakness of our 
 uncultivated minds. His plans were instantaneously formed, and 
 he enjoyed, by confident anticipation, the pleasure of self-aggrandize- 
 ment ; the glory of rescuing a people from the empire of ignorance, 
 and, 1 dare say, the generous pride of doing good. He sent home for 
 such objects as he conceived instrumental to his success ; he got a 
 supply of tackles, blocks, windlasses, and capstans, with other 
 mechanical auxiliaries. With these, and a number of men, he went 
 to work — he pulled down the trees by force of men and machines — 
 some he broke, some he overturned by the roots ; but in order to 
 effect this, he often spent five times more labor, independent of his 
 mechanic powers, in barely chopping through the spreading roots, 
 than would have served at first to have hewn down the tree. His 
 pride forbade him to recede, and he succeeded in clearing a few acres 
 at an enormous expense. 1 foresee that you will applaud him at 
 least for having got rid of those stumps and roots which encumber, 
 and in the eye of a European, so much disfigure the face of the soil : 
 but I can assure you, that the deep caverns made by this violence, 
 and the great quantities of cold and barren earth which these roots 
 brought up with them, burying and impoverishing the rich laye'r of 
 mould and ashes which are the encouraging reward of the settlers' 
 first toils, were a much greater evil than all the stumps and roots, if 
 suffered to remain ; besides it is next to impossibility to roll those 
 monstrous roots together, so as to be consumed by fire, damp as 
 they must be, and covered with masses of earth. You are more 
 puzzled how to get quit of them, after laboring to bring them above 
 ground, than you were before to dispose of the whole tree ; and that 
 especially in a country where the poorest laborer will, in the 
 shortest day, receive half a dollar for his work, over and^ above his 
 provisions. At length this gentleman found out that it was one 
 thing to dress his pleasure grounds in Ireland, and another to clear 
 the Wilderness in America, and finished by admitting that in 
 matters of husbandry experience was a better guide than either 
 fancy or philosophy, and that none were more capable than those 
 whom practice had made proficients. 
 
 Another Irish gentleman purchased a larger tract, and brought 
 with him a number of his own tenants— his patent kitchen, his 
 huntsmen, his hounds, his fishing apparatus, with workmen, and 
 all that he supposed fit provision for founding a large establishment. 
 He did not forget hampers of good claret, so necessary to give wisdom 
 to a young beginner ; perhaps, sir, this latter failing is not that for 
 which you will be inclined to censure him too severely. During 
 
39 
 
 three summers he toiled in this manner, and never raised ten bushels 
 of grain, nor one hundred weight of hay ; but he expended in the 
 country about twelve hundred pounds of Irish money and then bid 
 adieu to his farm, and to the Western hemisphere. 
 
 An Englishman by the name of Ockley purchased a farm of me 
 — he scoffed at our Yankee mode of clearing away the trees— he also 
 sent for his ropes, his tackle-falls, and his pulleys ; he sent moreover 
 for leathern girdles, with buckles and straps, and furnished his 
 workmen with mallets and polished chisels. Either he or his man 
 would climb to the top of the highest tree and there fix his purchase ; 
 then another man below girded himself round with a girth that had 
 stirrup-leathers and stirrups attached to it, and was hoisted up by a 
 rope ; to this rope was also fixed a basket of tools, and the work- 
 man and his tools were thus pulled up about a hundred feet high.i 
 There he began his operations by sawing off the top of the tree above 
 the seizing of his block ; this done he was lowered down from limb 
 to limb, sawing away branch after branch. When, however, the 
 branches encumbered each other, so that his saw would not work, 
 he took out his mallet and chisel, stood up in his stirrups and 
 chiseled away. So he proceeded for one entire summer, and during 
 the time that the heat was on him it would have been impertinent, 
 if not dangerous, to advise him. He had come from a country dis- 
 tinguished for agricultural improvement, and could not look but 
 with disdain upon our infant arts. Our counsels he considered as 
 the lessons of a school-boy to his preceptor. He did not break his 
 neck, but he destroyed his fortune, and bade farewell to the woods, 
 leaving no other representatives behind than thousands of bare poles, 
 resembling nothing so much as the masts of dismantled shipping in 
 a harbor. 
 
 There was another English gentleman who would not condescend 
 to cut down a tree but with an English axe, nor plough but with a 
 heavy English plough. He would not sow seed till every stump 
 was first grubbed up ; and it seemed his chief maxim to do nothing 
 as the Americans did ; of this he was so punctilious an observer 
 that he shocked his wheat with the heads downward, because, he 
 said, the ground would take the rankness out of the grain. The 
 crop of several acres stood in shock, in wet weather, during ten or 
 twelve days, and in that position began to grow, more to the amuse- 
 ment of his neighbors, than to his profit, and he remains to this 
 day obstinate and poor. 
 
 Whilst I make free with the errors of others, let me not be sup- 
 posed to glorify in myself. I have committed follies which I have 
 not forgot. When 1 went first into the woods I was as bigoted to 
 
40 
 
 the methods I had been used to observe in Pennsylvania, as these 
 Europeans were to theirs. I would not sow till the saplings were 
 first grubbed up, and I ploughed the ground for the first crop, not 
 considering that the immense quantity of timber to be burned con- 
 sumed all the small roots and of itself prepared the ground for seed ; 
 and I thought that those who did otherwise must do so from 
 ignorance. I found fault with their fences— I caviled at the con- 
 struction of their wagons, and their gear — I condemned their tools 
 and farming implements — I talked much and to little purpose— they 
 continued their own practices, and I found, after sometime, that 1 
 had nothing better to do than to conform ; and am every day more 
 convinced, that wherever men's minds are uncontrolled they will 
 in a short time discover what is for their interest better than strangers 
 can instruct them ; and that in countries where their actions are free, 
 what is most in use will be found to be pretty nearly what is best ; 
 and chiefly in what concerns husbandry, and all its instruments. I 
 can say little of other countries, having not been a traveler in them, 
 but my own practice and observation have taught me that the people 
 without the aid of philosophers and projectors understand their 
 business pretty well. 
 
 Gradual improvements are made, and will grow out of experience, 
 and certainly I am not an enemy to ingenious speculations, nor even 
 to theories, provided they be the result of long and attentive obser- 
 vation, and grounded upon facts well ascertained. I only mean to 
 say that, within the scope of my observation, I never could see 
 that the practical farmer had derived much advantage from the 
 meditations of the closet; and whatever experiments it may be 
 thought useful by the learned to make, I should not wish them made 
 at the expense of any one whose bread depended on their success. 
 As yet I think it safer that the philosopher should learn from the 
 farmer, than the farmer from the philosopher. 
 
 Your remarks upon those authors who have treated of the 
 agriculture of our country are probably well founded, and were 1 to 
 judge from the few specimens 1 have happened to see, I should say 
 they were very just. Before a man attempts the history of any 
 subject, he ought to know it well ; and those who undertake to 
 write upon the economy of a country would do well to wait till they 
 had been long enough in one place to forget the many prejudices 
 they had brought with them ; and if their object be truly to instruct, 
 they should endeavor to do it by example, which is the strongest 
 lesson ; and they will be readily followed if they can once show to 
 those in whose interest they take concern, that they have known 
 how to manage their own. 
 
41 
 
 As to those western counties of New York, which I have been 
 describing, they are chiefly peopled from the New England states, 
 where the people are civil, well-informed, and very sagacious ; so 
 that a wise stranger would be much apter to conform at once to 
 their usages than to begin by teaching them better. 
 
 W. C.