November 21. I made an excursion into the woods. A few deer and wild turkeys remain. Squirrels are very numerous. They are of the grey and black varieties: also of the striped or ground species. The two former are much larger than the English squirrel, and are ate in America. Some people esteem them as equal to chickens. Quails are abundant: they are smaller than partridges, and are so tame that the report of a gun, and the destruction of a part of the covey, do not always make them take flight. It is a common practice to drive whole families of them into nets. Rabbits are not plentiful; they lodge in the hollows of fallen trees; and are not understood to burrow in the ground. The only fox that I have seen, was of a small size, and of a light grey colour. It does not require a thick population to exterminate bears, deer, and turkeys. The beaver is destroyed by the first hunters who invade the forests; and the buffalo retreats into more remote solitudes, almost on the first approach of white men.
The woods are principally composed of Quercus, (Alba,) White Oak; (Tinctoria,) Black Oak; (Coccinea,) Red Oak; (Primus accuminata,) Chesnut Oak; Platanus, (Occidentalis,) Sycamore; Fagus, (Ferruginea,) Beech; Acer, (Saccharinum,) {97} Maple, (sugar tree;) Fraxinus, (Americana,) Ash; Juglans, (Nigra,) Walnut, (black;) (Alba ovata,) Hickory; Laurus, (Sassafras,) Sassafras; Cornus (Florida,) Dogwood; Fagus, (Castanea,) Chesnut; Liriodendron, (Tulipefera,) Poplar; Ulmus, (Americana,) Slippery Elm; (Mollifolia,) White Elm; Vitus, (Labrusea,) Fall Grape; (Serotina,) Winter Grape.
Amongst the shrubs, or underwood, the following may be noticed as prevalent:
Rhus, (Glabrum,) Sumach; Laurus, (Benzoin,) Spicewood; Rubus, (Fructicosus,) Blackberry; (Hispidus,) Running do.; Annona, (Glabra,) Papaw.
The prevalent strata are of slate clay, bituminous shale, and sandstone. Coal is not known, and probably has not been sought after. Rolled pieces of the latter mineral, and of granite, gneiss, quartz, and flint slate, are mixed with the sandy gravel of the streams. Dr. Drake[61] has pointed out a situation in this State, where large detached masses of granite lie over strata of secondary limestone; and has conjectured that they have been brought from the primitive country north of the lakes, by the agency of water passing from north to south. This hypothesis is countenanced by the vast quantities of alluvial soil which lie far above the level of the present river, and by the almost total absence of primitive rocks, between the eastern side of the Allegany ridge, and the sources of the Missouri. The only exception known is the tract between Lakes Ontario and Champlain,—a field so narrow that we cannot view it as the probable source of fragments profusely scattered over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.
In this part of Ohio State, first and second rate lands sell at four or five dollars per acre. The richest ground is in bottoms: the hilly has many {98} parts not accessible to the plough. Buildings are most commonly erected on rising grounds. Such situations are believed to be most salubrious, and abound most in good springs.
Farming establishments are small. Most cultivators do every thing for themselves, even to the fabrication of their agricultural implements. Few hire others permanently, it being difficult and expensive to keep labourers for any great length of time. They are not servants, all are hired hands: Females are averse to dairy, or menial employments. The daughters of the most numerous families continue with their parents. There is only one way of removing them. This disposition is said to prevail over almost the whole of the United States. A manufacturer at Philadelphia told me, that he had no difficulty in finding females to be employed in his work-shop; but a girl for house-work he could not procure for less than twice the manufacturing wages. Some of the children of the more necessitous families are bound out to labour for other people. The Scotch family, recently mentioned, have a boy and a girl living with them in this way. The indenture of the boy expires when he is twenty-one years of age; that of the girl at eighteen. They are clothed and educated at the expense of the employer. The boy, at the expiry of his contract, is to have a horse and saddle, of value at least 100 dollars; and the girl at the end of her engagement, is to have a bedding of clothes. It is said, that a law of the State of Ohio, forbids females to live in the houses of unmarried men.
The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plough is short, clumsy, and not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The harrow is triangular; and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that it may be less apt to take hold {99} of the stumps of trees in the way. Light articles are carried on horseback, heavy ones by a coarse sledge, by a cart, or by a waggon. The smaller implements are the axe, the pick-axe, and the cradle-scythe; by far the most commendable of back wood apparatus.
The figure [page [125]] is descriptive of the cradle scythe. AEGB is the shaft. In working, it is held by the left hand with the thumb upward, near A; while the right hand holds the cross handle at H. BD is a post, making an angle of about 78 degrees with the straight line AB. Into this post the five wooden ribs, or fingers, MN, OP, QR, ST, and UV, are fixed. These are round pieces of tough wood, of a curvature resembling that of the back of the blade, as nearly as possible. They are upwards of half an inch in diameter; and are pointed at the extremities MOQSU. FG is another post, fixed in the shaft, parallel to BD, and about seven inches distant from it. ED is a thin piece of wood, let into the shaft at E, for retaining the posts BD, FG, in their positions. IK is a small round post that passes through the fingers at the distance of ten inches from the post BD. This small post passes through broad parts of the fingers, which are left so for the sake of strength, and its lower ends stands on the blade at K. The blade is such as is used in cutting hay; but the point is allowed to stand about nine inches farther out from the handle than the grass scythe. At L is a small iron bolt, rivetted into the blade, near its back; the top of this bolt passes through the lower finger, and is furnished with a hand-screw, which holds the finger down, so that its point shall remain within about half an inch of the blade. The points of the fingers MOQSU are in a straight line, but recline backward, so that the upper finger is about five inches shorter than the under one. Between {100} the posts IK, and FG, are five small connecting stays of iron. Figure 2 is a separate plan of one of the iron stays, shewing the manner in which it is fixed to the upright bars or posts. AB is a part of the finger; C the hole through which the small post (IK of the former figure) passes; and D is the post FG of the former figure. EF is the iron stay; it is about one-sixth of an inch in diameter; and it is thin and crooked near the end E, where it is fastened to the finger by two small nails. From G to F the stay is a small screw. At K, is a female hand-screw that bears against D. At H, is a nut, also bearing against the post D. By this screw the finger is firmly kept in its proper place. The fingers are five inches apart, measuring from the centre of the one to that of the other. The shaft of the scythe is five feet long, and the whole of the parts are as light as is consistent with strength.
{101} November 22. About a mile distant from the house where I lodged, the woods were on fire. It was supposed that the conflagration had been begun by some mischievous person, who had kindled the dry leaves, now strewed over the ground. In the evening, the glare of light extending along a ridge for a mile and a half, was astonishingly grand. Large decayed trees were converted into luminous columns of fire; when these fell the crashing noise was heard within doors. Fires in the woods usually excite alarm in their neighbourhood. People watch them by night, their rail fences and wooden habitations being in danger.