OCR Text |
Show 64 TRAVELS TIIROUGII NORTH AMERiCA: i1 g's TO\m, "hich l iLs about midw;1y; num crs of f.mTI hou[cs, h ow-vcr, alL [cattered over the conntry as i:ll· as the eye can reach . Thc[c touft.s arc momy buil t of flon c, and a rc about as good as thok uf1ally tmt with on an arable farm of fifty acres in a well cultivated part of England . Th~.: J:ums attac.h..:d to thcil-: houfc. contain about two hundred acres e:~ch, and arc, ' ith a few exceptions only, the property of the pcrfons ho cultivate them. In the cultivated parts of P nnfylvania the f::u-m rarl ly exceed thr c hundred acJcS ; towards the north, h ovi·eve r, where the fLttlcmcnts are but few, large tratls of land are in the hands of individu.ls, who are [peculators and land jobbers. A< o.n ing to the hou!es there is generally a peach or a1 appk orchard. With the fruit they make cycler and brandy; the pc::>plc h ave a method alfo of drying the peaches and apples) after having Diced them, in the fun, and thus cured they ]aft all the year round. They are ufed for pies and puddings, but they have a very acrid taO.e, and fcarcely any of the original flavour of the fruit. The peaches in their befi: Jl:ate are bu ind ifferent, being [mall and dry; I never eat any that were good, except inbrr iuch as were raifcd with care in panlcns. It is faid that the climate ,') is fo much a1tered that they will not grow now as they formerly di l. In April anJ May nightly fi:ofls arc very common, which were totally unknown formerly, and frequently the peaches are entirely bligh ted. Gardens are very rare in the country parts of Pennfylvania, for the farm ~ rs think the labour which they require does not afford fu fli icnt profit; in the neighbourhood of towns, howev r, they are common, ~mel the culinary Yegetables raifcd in them are equal to any of their refp cttive k ind in the world, potatoes excepted, which gene ally have an earthy unpleafant tafi:c . Though the fouth-cafi: rart of the fiate of Pennfylvania is better cultivated than any other part of Americ:1., yet the ftyle of farming is on the whole very flovenly . I venture, indeed, to aifcrt, that the farmers do not rai{e more on their two hundred acres than a fk.ilful farmer in Norfolk, Suffolk, or Eifcx, or in any well cu tivated p;-t rt of England, would do on fifty acres of good land there. The farmer alfo, who rents fifty acres of arable land in E ngland, lives far more comfortably in every refpect |