brated for excellent cattle, and numerous flocks of sheep.

219. Massachusetts is considered the best cultivated state in the Union, except Pennsylvania; and much advance has been made by means of agricultural societies, and the premiums offered by them. Connecticut has commenced a similar course of improvement.

220. The middle, or wheat region, comprises the southern and western parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the states north of the Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the neighbouring portions of Maryland and Virginia, tillage is generally conducted with skill.

222. Pennsylvania was the first state in the Union in which agricultural societies were formed, and doubtless holds the first rank in agricultural improvements. These have been chiefly made in the south-western parts, extending to the foot of the Blue Ridge. Much of the northern and western parts is still covered with forests. In this state was first introduced the practice of manuring with clover, which has so nauch enriched the soil of that and all the neighbouring states. It is raised by means of plaster of Paris in luxuriant crops, and is then ploughed into the soil.

223. In Maryland and Virginia much less attention is paid to agriculture; and lands are frequently worn out and deserted for want of care. The valley of the Shenandoah, west of the Blue Ridge, is superior in tillage to the surrounding country.

224. In the western states on the Ohio the native richness of the soil is not yet exhausted; and, without the aid of an improved system of agriculture, the crops are far superior to those of the best cultivated states on the Atlantic.

225. The wheat of the middle region is the fuest produced in the United States, and forms the third in importance among our exports. Maize is raised in great quantities, and rye, oats, and buck-wheat are abundant. Tobacco is extensively cultivated in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, and, next to cotton, is the most valuable article of export from the United States. Hemp was formerly cultivated extensively in Kentucky, but of late it has been exchanged for tobacco, as a more profitable crop.

226. In the states on the Atlantic orchards are numerous, and great quantities of cider are made. The cider of New Jersey (especially of Newark) is much celebrated, and often rivals the Champagne wine of France in sprightliness and flavour. West of the mountains, orchards are more rare, and large quantities of grain are raised for the distillation of spirituous liquors. The peach is abundant in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, the southern parts of Pennsylvania, and the western parts of New York. Extensive orchards are cultivated in Virginia, for the manufacture of peach brandy. Pears, cherries, plums, and other fruits flourish in most parts of this region. At Vevay, on the Ohio river, vineyards have been planted by a colony of Swiss, and good wine is made.

227. In New York, Pennsylvania, and New

Jersey, the grazing and fatting of cattle are important branches of agriculture; and the products of the dairy are very fine. In Virginia, and the western states, great numbers of swine are raised in the woods for provisions. Large quantities of pork are exported from the Western States; and droves of horses and cattle are sent into the Atlantic states. The winters are so mild that they usually require no shelter, and little fodder.

228. The warm or cotton region of the United States, commences in Tennessee and the southern parts of Virginia, and extends to the gulf of Mexico. In all the states lying south of Pennsylvania and the river Ohio, the land is tilled almost entirely by slaves. In consequence of this, agriculture is much more imperfect than in the northern states, where the farmer himself is usually employed in the labours of the field.

229. Cotton is the chief article of culture in this region, and yields great profit to the planter, It is raised throughout Virginia for home consumption, and has been found to flourish still farther north. Rice and maize are the principal grains of the cotton region. Maize is the principal food of the slaves in these states, and in Virginia. Rice is exported in considerable quantities. Wheat and rye are little cultivated, except in the hilly country. Barley, oats, hemp, and tobacco flourish here. Indigo has been cultivated to a great extent, especially in Georgia and South Carolina; but the profits arising from the crops of cotton now lead to the neglect of all others. The potatoe cannot be cultivated to advantage in this region; and the sweet potatoe, a plant of a different species, is generally substituted.

The

230. Peaches are abundant and fine. fig and pomegranate are also raised, and the orange and lemon grow imperfectly in South Carolina. Apples, pears, and other fruits of the temperate regions degenerate.

231. The cotton is of two kinds. The blackseed or sea-island is by far the most valuable; but it can be raised only in a few districts, and chiefly on the low islands which line the coast of the southern states. The green-seed, or upland cotton, requires so much labour to separate it from the seed, that it was not worth raising until the invention of the cotton-gin. Before this time it was an article of small importance, but now it forms one-third of the exports of the United States, exceeding in value all the other products of the field and the forest.

232. The tropical region embraces Louisiana, Florida, and the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and the Mississippi. Sugar is here an important article of culture, and an object of increasing attention. Coffee may probably be raised; but experiment has not yet been made to any extent.

234. Maize produces luxuriant crops, almost without cultivation. But the inhabitants of the whole region lying on the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, south of Kentucky, depend chiefly on the states on the Ohio river for supplies of grain, and are occupied more profitably in the culture of cotton or sugar. Great numbers of cattle and swine are raised and fattened in the woods with

very little care. The orange, lemon, and fig, are found in this region in perfection; and it is not improbable, that this tract of country may supply us hereafter with sugar and coffee, and most of the important productions of the tropical regions.

235. ROADS.-Probably no people ever made so many improvements in roads, bridges, and canals, over such an extent of country in the same time, as the inhabitants of the United States. Two centuries ago the whole tract was a wilderness, covered with forests, and traversed only by the foot-paths of the Indians. Now, there are roads constructed in every direction to connect the villages, towns, and cities, which have sprung up in rapid succession. In 1790 the extent of post-roads was only 1875 miles; in 1818 it was 51,600. The number of post-offices exceeds 4000; and the mail is transported 20,000 miles daily. To describe all the roads would require an enumeration of all the important settlements in the country. A large number are public roads, constructed and repaired by the towns through which they pass; but the great roads are usually turnpikes, constructed by the state or incorporated bodies, and supported by tolls. Only their general character, and the most important routes, can be described.

236. The northern primitive district of the United States, including New England and the northern part of New York, falls within the cold region; and generally has permanent snows during the winter, as far south as latitude fortytwo degrees, which render travelling easy, and protect the roads from injury. New England and the greater part of the middle states are intersected in every direction by roads, which are usually well constructed, and in good repair. New York and Pennsylvania have little advantage from the snow; and the rich clayey soil, which is most prevalent, renders the roads very bad during the winter. The same is true to a greater extent in Maryland. In Pennsylvania about eight millions of dollars are invested in roads and bridges.

237. In the sandy alluvial country of the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida, the roads are heavy, and not easily improved; but they rarely present the difficulties and dangers found in the roads of a rich country, after a wet season. The scattered state of population has prevented much attention to roads in the states south of Maryland, and frequent impediments are presented by the want of bridges and causeways over the streams and marshes.

238. In the western states, the richness of the soil, the want of stone and gravel, and the moisture of the winter, render the construction of good and permanent roads almost impracticable. During the wet season the difficulty of travelling is very great; and many roads are scarcely passable for wheel-carriages. The streams are so variable at different seasons, that most of them can be forded during the dry season, and bridges are rarely built. The banks are high and steep, and the difficulty of passage is often very great. During high water many of the streams become impassable, and the traveller encounters

serious difficulties and dangers. Little has yet been done to improve roads; but in all these states, except Tennessee and Kentucky, a portion of the proceeds of public lands sold by the United States, is appropriated to them, besides the usual taxes; and we may expect a rapid improvement in this respect, when these states become thickly settled. In Louisiana, the levees on the banks of the streams form excellent roads.

239. The most important post-road of the United States, is that which traverses the states on the Atlantic, a distance of 1800 miles, passing through all the principal towns, from Robbinstown in Maine, to Florida. The principal roads from the Atlantic to the western states are-the great western turnpike of New York, from Albany to Buffalo and Erie; the road from Philadelphia, through Lancaster, to Pittsburgh; and the Cumberland road, from Washington city to Wheeling on the Ohio river. The latter was constructed at the expense of the general government, and is probably the best route over the mountains. Other roads, of less importance, cross the Allegany ridge in Virginia and North Carolina; and the state of South Carolina has recently opened a road across the mountains to Tennessee.

240. A military road has been opened by General Jackson, at the expense of the United States, from Nashville in Tennessee to Madisonville on lake Ponchartrain, opposite New Orleans, which may be travelled by wagons. A branch leads from this road to Natches, through the wilderness inhabited by the Choctaw Indians. From New Orleans the traveller may continue his journey by a road which has been opened by the inhabitants of Louisiana, across the adjoining province of Texas and the desolate plains of the Rio del Norte, to the capital of Mexico. There are few obstacles to be overcome in making it a good commercial route: the ascent of the table-land in this direction is easy; and Humboldt observes, that 'public coaches will doubtless one day roll from Philadelphia and Washington to Mexico and Acapulco.' chief difficulties now existing are the want of water and habitations.

The

quality not exceeded in Sweden. New Jersey, besides the iron-stone in the north, has extensive beds of bog-ore on the coast, which are renewed some years after they have been once exhausted. Similar beds occur in other parts of the alluvial coast, south of New Jersey; but they are not extensively wrought. In Connecticut, important mines are wrought at Salisbury, and at other places in Litchfield county. Massachusetts has a number of mines; and the green mountains of Vermont contain numerous beds of ore. 243. Copper is often found in pure metallic masses, sometimes very large, on lake Superior. A single mass on the Onontagon river is estimated to exceed a ton in weight. Copper ore is found in many parts of the United States; but no mines are now wrought. That of Belleville near Newark, New Jersey, was formerly very productive.

244. The United States also contain several extensive beds of lead ore. The mine at Southampton, Massachusetts, is the principal now wrought east of the Mississippi. Lead is found, however, on the Schuylkill river; on the Great Kenhawa; at Middleton, Connecticut; and in most of the states comprised in the primary and secondary regions. The lead mines of Missouri, lying near the Mississippi river, are among the richest in the world. The ore is found abundantly, within two feet of the surface, in detached masses weighing from 1 to 1800 pounds. The annual produce is estimated at three millions of pounds. Dubuqu's lead mines, on the Mississippi, have been wrought, until recently, by the Indians, who sold the ore to the whites; and have produced 30,000 or 40,000 pounds annually.

245. Mercury has been discovered in small quantities in the form of black and red sand. It occurs on the southern shores of lakes Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, as far east as the mouth of Vermilion river. No considerable deposit has been discovered. A single mine of cobalt has also been discovered, and is now wrought on the Connecticut river, near Middleton. Slate and free-stone, and other fine building stones, are abundant and excellent in the United States. Marble is also found extensively, and often of great beauty. The quarries are chiefly wrought in a range of limestone, which extends along the edge of the secondary region, through the western parts of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Some produce fine white marble. In other quarries it is beautifully clouded. Pursuing the same directions along the Blue ridge, we find other beds of marble at Kingsbridge, in New York; and in Montgomery and Lancaster counties, in Pennsylvania, most of which are primitive. At Milford, near New Haven, Connecticut, there are quarries of yellow, and also of green variegated marble of uncommon beauty; the last resembling the celebrated verd-antique. On the Potomac river, in Maryland, there are extensive beds of a secondary breccia marble, which is finely diversified with pebbles and fragments of various sizes and colours. The columns of the capitol at Washington are composed of this marble.

246. The United States are well supplied with coal. One of the most extensive coal mines now wrought, is near Richmond, Virginia, in a bed of bituminous coal, twenty miles in length. Large quantities are exported to other states.

247. In Pennsylvania the coal beds are said to extend over one-third of the surface. Beds of anthracite, or stone-coal, without bitumen, of excellent quality, are found along the Susquehannah river at Reading, and across to the heads of the Schuylkill and Lehigh. Beds of bituminous coal extend from the mouth of the Juniata river, through all the country watered by the Susquehannah, to Pittsburgh. From this place they continue down the Ohio to Missouri; and along the valley of the Mississippi to the heads of the river Tombigbee. There are also indications of coal beds in the secondary region extending from New Haven to Middleton, Connecticut, and thence to Northampton. Rhode Island has a mine of anthracite; and another has recently been discovered in Worcester county, Massachusetts.

248. The interior is also well supplied with that mineral of the first necessity-salt. The Great Desert of North America is encrusted with salt in many places; and its waters are generally brackish in the dry season. In many parts of the western United States there are spots of ground so impregnated with it, that wild animals resort to them, and lick the surface: this has given them the name of salt-licks. There are numerous brine springs, also, found rising from beds of salt, so strongly impregnated, that it is obtained for use by evaporating their waters. They abound throughout the secondary region of the United States, particularly on the Ohio river and its branches, in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia; and near the small lakes of New York. The most extensive salt works are at Salina in New York, and on the Great Kenhawa river in Virginia.

249. Gypsum, which is so valuable for agricultural purposes, was formerly obtained exclusively from France and Nova Scotia. But within a few years extensive quarries have been discovered and wrought in the interior of the state of New York. It is known to exist in considerable quantities in other parts of the United States; and it is probable that the home supply will soon be adequate to the consumption.

250. MANUFACTURES.-With so ample a supply of raw material of easy production, it must for a long time after the settlement of a country like the United States, be most profitable to employ other nations in manufacturing. In a country so thinly settled as it still is, and affording such ready means of independent support to all classes, it will not be easy to procure labour at such a rate as to compete with the overflowing, and sometimes half-starved, population of older countries. The United States have always manufactured those coarse articles, whose bulk is a more important consideration than the labour they require. In the years 1802, 1803, and 1804, it was found that four-fifths of the manufactures consumed were produced in the United States; and the subsequent restrictions on greatly increased the amount.

commerce

and is probably adequate to every purpose, except where the nice tact of long experience is necessary. In manufactures of glass they appear to have succeeded perfectly. Their plain cottons are often excellent and beautiful fabrics; and it is stated, that they have recently brought the stamping of calicoes nearly to as great perfection as in England. Some of their manufactories produce cloths equal to the finest seen on this side of the Atlantic; but they do not usually succeed well in their dyes. For cutlery and fine metallic articles; porcelain, and the finer earthenware; muslins, silks, and many other articles, chiefly of luxury, and for which the demand increases with the progress of refinement-they are still, and long must be, indebted to Great Britain and other countries of Europe. They are probably in a great measure independent as to the articles of necessity; and very heavy duties have recently been imposed on foreign manufactures, with the view of encouraging this branch of national industry still farther. Whether the results will be favourable admits of question.

257. COMMERCE.-The exports of the United States are distinguished in the official statements into, 1. produce of the forest; 2. produce of the field; 3. produce of the sea; 4. of manufactured articles; and 5. of foreign articles re-exported.

258. From the abundance of forests it is obvious that there can be no limit to the amount of the first, except the demand. They consist of lumber of all kinds-naval stores, or the tar, pitch, turpentine, and resin, obtained from the pine-forests; pot and pearl-ashes, procured by the burning of the timber in clearing the land; oak bark, and other dyes; ginseng, and the

Ditto, in 1816 Pot and pearl-ashes in 1816 Oak and other bark and wood for for? 225,000

tanning and dyeing, 1803 Ginseng, chiefly to China, 1806 Skins and furs, 1804 to 1807, annually

139,000 900,000

259. The products of agriculture form the most important and valuable portion of the exports of the United States. Cotton is the first of these in importance; it constitutes one-fourth of the whole exports, and forms the staple of all the states south of 37° latitude. Next in value are wheat, maize, and rye, raised chiefly in the northern and middle states, and forming, in some years, nearly as large a part of the value of exports as cotton. Tobacco is the great staple of Virginia and Maryland, and has an importance among the articles of export which we should by no means anticipate, amounting often to 10,000,000 dollars in a year. Rice, which is found in the same parts of the country as cotton, is next to tobacco, but is now less attended to than formerly, in consequence of the superior value of cotton. Indigo, which was formerly an export of some value, has been abandoned for the same

reason.

260. The following table shows the relative proportion of the different articles which were exported at several periods:

261. The products of the sea are derived chiefly from the cod and whale fisheries. Both are carried on almost exclusively from the eastern states and New York; and a large proportion of the tonnage employed belongs to the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The amount of this branch of exports is much less than either of the preceding, as the home market requires a large supply of such articles; but the produce of this branch of national industry, compared with the capital invested, is very considerable. The whole amount of exports of the produce of the sea has not generally equalled the single article of rice, varying from one to three millions of dollars. The manufactured articles of export are made both from foreign and domestic materials, and are equivalent in value to the products of the sea on the average. Soap and tallow, distilled spirits, and furniture, coaches, and

other manufactures of wood, are the most important articles of this class.

262. A very important branch of the commerce of the United States consists in the importation of foreign manufactures and produce, and their re-exportation to the West Indies and South America, usually called the carrying trade. It. has in some years exceeded in value the trade in domestic articles, producing great increase of public revenue, as well as of private wealth and commercial tonnage. Sugar and coffee are the principal articles in amount. The duties in this case are paid by the foreign consumers, forming a clear gain to the country, which, in some years, amounts to one-ninth of the whole revenue from the customs. In the years 1806 and 1807 the freight of the sugars imported and re-exported amounted to three or four millions of dollars, and must of course have been paid in