[[70]]

We visited several Swedes, who were settled here, and were at present in very good circumstances. One of them was called Andrew Rambo; he had a fine house built of stone, two stories high, and a great orchard near it. We were every where well received, and stayed over night with the above-mentioned countryman. We saw no other marks of autumn, than that several fruits of this season were already ripe. For besides this all the trees were yet as green, and the ground still as much covered with flowers, as in our summer. Thousands of frogs croaked all the night long in the marshes and brooks. The locusts and grasshoppers made likewise such a great noise, that it was hardly possible for one person to understand another. The trees too, were full of all sorts of birds, which by the variety of their fine plumage, delighted the eye, while the infinite variety of their tunes were continually re-echoed.

The orchards, along which we passed to-day, were only enclosed by hurdles. But they contained all kinds of fine fruit. We wondered at first very much when our leader leaped over the hedge into the orchards, and gathered some agreeable fruit for us. But our astonishment was still greater, when we saw that the people in the garden were [[71]]so little concerned at it, as not even to look at us. But our companion told us, that the people here were not so exact in regard to a few fruits, as they are in other countries where the soil is not so fruitful in them. We afterwards found very frequently that the country people in Sweden and Finland guarded their turneps more carefully, than the people here do the most exquisite fruits.

September the 19th. As I walked this morning into the fields, I observed that a copious dew was fallen; for the grass was as wet as if it had rained. The leaves of the plants and trees, had contracted so much moisture, that the drops ran down. I found on this occasion that the dew was not only on the superior, but likewise on the inferior side of the leaves. I therefore carefully considered many leaves both of trees and of other plants; both of those which are more above, and of those which are nearer to the ground. But I found in all of them, that both sides of the leaves were equally bedewed, except those of the Verbascum Thapsus, or great Mullein, which though their superior side was pretty well covered with the dew, yet their inferior had but a little.

Every countryman, even a common peasant, has commonly an orchard near [[72]]his house, in which all sorts of fruit, such as peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and others, are in plenty. The peaches were now almost ripe. They are rare in Europe, particularly in Sweden, for in that country hardly any people besides the rich taste them. But here every countryman had an orchard full of peach trees, which were covered with such quantities of fruit, that we could scarcely walk in the orchard, without treading upon those peaches which were fallen off; many of which were always left on the ground, and only part of them was sold in town, and the rest was consumed by the family and strangers; for every one that passed by, was at liberty to go into the orchard, and to gather as many of them as he wanted. Nay, this fine fruit was frequently given to the swine.

This fruit is however sometimes kept for winter use, and for this purpose they are prepared in the following manner. The fruit is cut into four parts, the stone thrown away, and the fruit put upon a thread, on which they are exposed to the sunshine in the open air, till they are sufficiently dry. They are then put into a vessel for winter. But this manner of drying them is not very good, because the rain of this season very easily spoils and putrifies [[73]]them, whilst they hang in the open air. For this reason a different method is followed by others, which is by far the most eligible. The peaches are as before cut into four parts, are then either put upon a thread, or laid upon a board, and so hung up in the air when the sun shines. Being dried in some measure, or having lost their juice by this means, they are put into an oven, out of which the bread has but just been taken, and are left in it for a while. But they are soon taken out and brought into the fresh air; and after that they are again put into the oven, and this is repeated several times till they are as dry as they ought to be. For if they were dried up at once in the oven, they would shrivel up too much, and lose part of their flavour. They are then put up and kept for the winter. They are either baked into tarts and pyes, or boiled and prepared as dried apples and pears are in Sweden. Several people here dry and preserve their apples in the same manner as their peaches.

The peach trees, have, as I am told, been first planted here by the Europeans. But at present they succeed very well, and require even less care, than our apple and pear trees.

The orchards have seldom other fruit [[74]]than apples and peaches. Pear trees are scarce in this province, and those that had any of them, had planted them in their orchards. They likewise have cherry trees in the orchards, but commonly on the sides of them towards the house, or along the enclosures. Mulberry trees are planted on some hillocks near the house, and sometimes even in the court yards of the house. The black walnut trees, or Juglans nigra, grow partly on hills, and in fields near the farm-houses, and partly along the enclosures; but most commonly in the forests. No other trees of this kind, are made use of here. The chesnuts are left in the fields; here and there is one in a dry field or in a wood.

The Hibiscus esculentus, or Okra,[9] is a plant which grows wild in the West Indies, but is planted in the gardens here. The fruit, which is a long pod, is cut whilst it is green, and boiled in soups, which thereby become as thick as pulse. This dish is reckoned a dainty by some people, and especially by the negroes.