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Show 12+ TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: confiderable length of tim , for the people would never go to the expence of building them, without being tolerably ccr.tain ~ha.t ~hey would be u Cc ful. On the eafl:crn fide of the Blue Ridge, 111 V1rgmHl, not one ()[ thefe carri;1ges is to be met with. It has already been mentioned, that the predominant foil to the eaO:- ward of the Blue Ridge is a red earth, and that it is always a matter of fome difl-iculty to lay down a piece of land in grafs, on account of the rai ns, which are apt to wa{h away the feed , tcgether with the mould on the iurface. In Bottetourt County, on the contrary, the foil confiO:s chiefly of a rich brown mould, and throws up white clover fpontan eoufiy. To have a rich meadow, it is only nece!fary to leave a piece of ground to the hand of nature for one year. Again, on the ea!l:ern fide of the Blue Mountains, fcarccly any limcO:one is to be met with; on the oppoiitc one, a bed of it runs entirely through the country, fo that by fome it is emphatically called the limdlone county. In .!inking wells, they l1 ave always to dig fifteen or twenty feet through a folid rock to get at the water. Another circumfiance may alfo be mentioned, as maR.ing a material difference between the country on one fide of the lllue Ridge and that on the other, namely, that behind the mountains the weevil is unknown. The weevil is a [mall infetl: of the moth kind, which depofits its eggs in the cavity of the grain, and particularly in that of wheat; and if the crops are {b.cked or laid up in the barn in £heaves, theie eggs are there hatched, and the grain is in confequence totally de!l:royed. To guard againfl: this in the lower parts of Virginia, and the other fl:'ates where the weevil is common, they always threlh out the grain as foon as the crops are brought in, and leave it in the chaff, which creates a degree of heat fuflicient to ddhoy the infetl:,'_at the fame time that it does not inj urc the wheat. This infetl: has been known in Americ;a but a very few years ; according to the general opinion, it originated on the eaftern fhore of Maryland, where a perfon, in expetl:ation of a great rife in the price of wheat, kept over all his crops for the fpace of fix years, when they were found full of thefe infetl:s; from thence they have fpread gradually over different parts of the country. For a confiderable time BOTTETOURT C 0 UN T Y. time the Patowmac R iver formed a b a rri~ r to their progrefs, and while the crops were entirely defl royed in Maryland, they remained fecurc in Virginia ; but thefe infetl:s at btl: found their way acrofs the river. The Blue Mountains at prefcn t fcrve as a barrier, and fccurc the country to the wefl ward from their depredations *. Bottctourt County is entirely furroundcd by mountains; it is alfo crofi(;cl by various ridges of mountains in different dircCl:ions, a circum!l::wce which renders the climate particularly agreeable. It appears to me, th at there is no part of America where the climate would be more congen ial to the confiitution of a native of Great Britain or Ireland. The fi·oft in winter is more regular, but not feverer th an commonly takes place in thofe iflands. In fummer the h eat is, perh aps, fomewbat greater; but there is not a night in the year that a blanket is not found very comfortable. Before ten o'clock jn the morning the h eat is g reate fl:; at that hour a breeze generally fprings up from the mountains, and renders the air agreeable the whde day. I• ever and ague are diforders unknown here, and the air is fo falu brious, that perfons who come hither affiitl:ed with it from the low country, towards the fea, get rid of it in a very fhort time. In the wefiern part of the county arc fevcral m dicinal fprings·, whereto numbers of people refort towards the htter end of fummcr ' as much for the fake of cfcaping the h eat in the low country, as for drinking the waters. Thofe mofl: fi·equcntcd arc called the fweet • There is another infect, which in a fimilar manner made its ap pearance, and aftcrwa rJs fpread through a great part bf the country, very injurious alfo to the crops. J t is call~d the Hcffian lly, from having been brought ove r, as is fuppofcd, in fome forage belongi ng Lo the Belli an t roops, during the war. This infctl. lodges itfclf in different pa rts of th Halk, while green, ami makes fuch rapid devallations, that :t uop which appears in the bell poffible fl::ttc will, pcrhap , be totally dcllroyed in the courfe of two or three days. In Maryland, they f.1y, that if th Janel i, very highly manured, the Il cllian, Ay never attacks the grain; they alfo fay, that crops rai(ed upon land that has been wockcd for a long time arc much lcfs cxpofctl to injury from thcfc infects than the crops rai(l·d upon J\CW land. j f this is rc~lly the cafe, the appearance of the Ilcllian Ay Owultl be conticlcrcd as a circumnancc rather beneficial than otherwifc to the c untry, as it will induce the inhabitan ts to n:linqnilh tint ru inous pratlicc of working the f:unc piece of ground year after year ull it is entir~l · worn out, and then leaving it watlc, inflcad o · Liking (ome pains tO improve it by mn urc. '!'his Ay is not known at preli·nt fouth of the Patowmac Hi ver, nor behind dtc lll uc Ridge. fprings |