of fettler.

Agriculture, &c. in Pennsylvania.

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years, to the third and last species toils of harvest. The last object of his industry is to build a dwellinghoufe. This houfe is fometimes effected in the course of his life, but is oftener bequeathed to his fon, or the inheritor of his plantation: and hence we have a common faying among our best farmers, " that a fon fhould always begin where his father left off;" that is, he fhould begin his improvements, by building a commodious dwelling houfe, fuited to the improvements and value of the plantation. This dwelling-houfe is generally built of ftone; it is large, convenient, and filled with ufeful and fubftantial furniture: it fometimes adjoins the houfe of the fecond fettler, but is frequently placed at a little diftance from it. The horses and cattle of this fpecies of fettler bear marks, in their ftrength, fat, and fruitfulness, of their being plentifully fed and carefully kept. His table abounds with a variety of the beft provifions; his very kitchen flows with milk and honey; beer, cyder, and wine are the ufual drinks of his family: the greatest part of the cloathing of his family is manufactured by his wife and daughters. In proportion as he increases in wealth, he values the protection of laws: hence he punctually pays his taxes towards the fupport of government. Schools and churches likewife, as the means of promoting order and happiness in foclety, derive a due fupport from him for benevolence and public fpirit, as to thefe objects, are the natural offspring of affluence and independence. Of this clafs of fettlers are two thirds of the farmers of Pennfylvania: thefe are the men to whom Pennfylvania owes her ancient fame and confequence, If they poffefs lefs refinement than their fouthern neighbours, who cultivate their lands with flaves, they poffefs more republican virtue. It was from the farms cultivated by thefe men, that the American and N

This fpecies of fettler is commonly a man of property and good character: fometimes he is the fon of a wealthy farmer in one of the interior and ancient counties of the State. His firft object is to convert every fpot of ground, over which he is able to draw water, into meadow: where this cannot be done, he felects the most fertile spot on the farm, and devotes it by manure to that purpose. His next object is to build a barn, which he prefers of ftone. This building is, in fome instances, 100 feet in front, and 40 in depth it is made very compact, fo as to fhut out the cold in winter; for our farmers find that their horfes and cattle, when kept warm, do not require near as much food as when they are exposed to the cold. He ufes œconomy, likewise, in the confumption of his wood. Hence he keeps himself warm in winter by means of stoves, which fave an immenfe deal of labour to himself and his horfes, in cutting and hauling wood in cold and wet weather. His fences are every where repaired, fo as to fecure his grain from his own and his neighbour's cattle. But further, he increases the number of the articles of his cultivation; and instead of raising corn, wheat, and rye alone, he raifes oats, buckwheat, (the fagopyrum of Linnæus) and fpelts. Near his house he allots an acre or two of ground for a garden, in which he railes a large quantity of cabbage and potatoes. His newIy-cleared fields afford him every year a large increase of turnips. Over the fpring which fupplies him with water he builds a milk-house; he likewife adds to the number, and improves the quantity of his fruittrees: His fons work by his fide all the year, and his wife and daughters forfake the dairy and the fpinning-wheel to fhare with him in the VOL. VI. N° 32.

:

French

French armies were fed chiefly with bread during the late revolution: and it was from the produce of thefe farms, that thofe millions of dollars were obtained from the Havánna, after the year 1780, which laid the foundation of the bank of North America, and which fed and cloathed the American army till the glorious Peace of Paris. This is a fhort ac count of the happiness of a Pennfylvanian farmer. To this happiness our State invites men of every religion and country. We do not pretend to offer emigrants the pleasures of Arcadia: it is enough if affluence, independence, and happiness, are infured to patience, industry, and Jabour. The moderate price of land*, the credit which arifes from prudence, and the fafety from our courts of law, of every fpecies of property, render the bleffings which I have described objects within the reach of every man.

From a review of the three different fpecies of fettlers, it appears, that there are certain regular ftages which mark the progrefs from the favage to civilized life. The first fettler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners: in the fecond, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third fpecies of fettlers only that we behold civilization completed it is only to the third

fpecies of fettlers that it is proper to apply the term of farmers. While we record the vices of the first and fecond fettlers, it is but just to mention their virtues likewife. Their mutual wants produce mutual dependence; hence they are kind and friendly to each other: their folitary fituation makes vifitors agreeable to them; hence they are hofpitable to ftrangers: their want of money, (for they raife but little more than is neceffary to fupport their families) has made it neceflary for them to affociate for the purposes of building houfes, cutting their grain, and the like. This they do in turns for each other, without any other pay than the pleasures which ufually attend a country frolic. Perhaps what I have called virtues are rather qualities, arifing from neceffity, and the peculiar ftate of fociety in which these people live. Virtue fhould, in all cafes, be the offspring of Principle.

I do not pretend to fay that this mode of fettling farms in Pennfylvania is univerfal: I have known fome inftances where the first fettler has performed the improvements of the fecond, and yielded to the third. I have known a few inftances likewife of men of enterprizing fpirits, who have fettled in the wilderness, and who in the course of a single life have advanced through all the

inter

The unoccupied lands are fold by the State for about fix guineas, inclufive of all charges, per hundred acres. But as most of the lands that are fettled, are procured from perfons who had purchased them from the State, they are fold to the first fettler at a much higher price. The quality of the foil; its vicinity to mills, court-houses, places of worship, and navigable water; the distance of land-carriage to the fea-ports of Philadelphia or Baltimore, and the nature of the roads, all influence the price of land to the first fettler. The quantity of cleared land, and the nature of the improvements, added to all the above circumstances, influence the price of farms to the fecond and third settlers. Hence the price of land to the firft fettler is from a quarter of a guinea to two guineas per acre; and the price of farms is from one guinea to ten guineas per acre, to the fecond and third fettlers, according as the land is varied by the before-mentioned circumftances. When the first fettler is unable to purchase, he often takes a tract of land for seven years on a lease, and contracts, instead of paying a rent in cafh, to clear 50 acres of land, to build a log cabbin and a barn, and to plant an orchard on it. The tract, after the expiration of this leafe, fells or rents for a confiderable profit.

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Agriculture, &c. in Pennsylvania.

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intermediate ftages of improvement 75 to 300 acres, there will be a languor in population, as foon as farmers multiply beyond the number of farms of the above dimenfions. To remove this languor, which is kept up alike by the increafe of the price and the divifion of farms, a migration of part of the community becomes abfolutely neceffary. And as this part of the community often confifts of the idie and extravagant, who eat without working; their removal, by increafing the facility of fubfiftence to the frugal and induftricus who remain behind, naturally increafes the num. ber of people, juft as the cutting off the fuckers of an apple tree increases the fize of the tree, and the quantity of the fruit.

that I have mentioned, and produ ced all thofe conveniences which have been afcribed to the third fpecies of fettlers; thereby refembling,, in their exploits, not only the pioneers and light-infantry, but the main body of an army. There are inftances, like wife, where the first fettlement has been improved by the fame family, in, hereditary fucceffion, till it has reached the third stage of cultiva tion. There are many Ipacious ftonehouses, and highly-cultivated farms in the neighbouring counties of the city of Philadelphia, which are poffeffed by the grand fons and greatgrandfons of men who accompanied William Penn across the ocean, and who laid the foundation of the prefent improvements of their pofteri. ty in fuch cabbins as have been defcribed..

I dare fay this paffion for migra tion which I have defcribed will appear ftrange to an European. To fee men turn their backs upon the houfes in which they drew their first breath; upon the church in which they were dedicated to God; upon the graves of their ancestors; upon the friends and companions of their youth; and upon all the pleasures of cultivated fociety; and expofing themselves to all the hardships and accidents of fubduing the earth, and thereby eftablishing fettlements in a wilderness, muft ftrike a philofopher on your fide the water as a picture of human nature, that runs counter to the ufual habits and principles of action in man. But this paffion, ftrange and new as it appears, is wifely calculated for the extenfion of population in America: And this it does, not only by promoting the increafe of the human fpecies in new fettlements, but in the old fettlements likewife. While the degrees of industry and know. ledge in agriculture; in our country, are proportioned to farms of from

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I have only to add upon this fubject, that the migrants from Pennfylvania always travel to the fouthward. The foil and climate of the western parts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, afford a more eafy fupport to lazy farmers, than the ftubborn but durable foll of Pennfylvania. Here, our ground requires deep and repeated ploughing to render it fruitful; there, fcratching the ground once or twice affords tolerable crops. In Pennfylvania, the length and coldness of the winter make it neceffary for the farmers to beftow a large fhare of their labour in providing for, and feeding their cattle; but in the fouthern States, cattle find pasture during the greatest part of the winter, in the fields or woods. For thefe reafons, the greatéft part of the western counties of the States that have been mentioned, are fettled by original inhabitants of Pennfylvania. During the late war, the militia of Orange county, in NorthCarolina; were enrolled, and their number amounted to 3500, every man of whom had migrated from Pennfylvania. From this you will fee, that our State is the great

out-port for the United States for Europeans; and that, after performing the office of a fieve, by detaining all those people who poffefs the ftamina of industry and virtue, it allows a paffage to the reft, to thofe States which are accommodated to their habits of indolence and vice.

I fhall conclude this letter by remarking, that in the mode of extending population and agriculture, which I have defcribed, we behold a new fpecies of war. The third fettler may be viewed as a conqueror. The weapons with which he atchieves his conquefts are the imple

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Logic.-Natural Philofophy.

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