O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint,
Agricolas!
Virg. Georgic.
I have been led to these reflections, which may perhaps seem foreign to my purpose, by the bad and neglected state of agriculture in every part of this continent. I likewise intended to shew the reason why this journal is so thinly stocked with œconomical advantages in the several branches of husbandry. I do not however deny, that I have sometimes found [[196]]one or two skilful œconomists, but they were very scarce.
Birds of prey which pursue the poultry are found in abundance here, and if possible more plentiful than in Sweden. They enjoy great liberty here, as there are still great forests in many places, from whence they can come unawares upon chickens and ducks. To the birds of prey it is quite indifferent whether the woods consist of good or bad trees, provided they are in shade. At night the owls, which are very numerous, endanger the safety of the tame fowls. They live chiefly in marshes, give a disagreeable shriek at night, and attack the chickens, which commonly roost at night in the apple-trees, peach-trees, and cherry-trees, in the garden. But since they are very busy in clearing this country of woods, as we are in Sweden and Finland, it may be of use for exposing the birds of prey, more than they are now, and for depriving them of the opportunities of doing mischief with so much ease.
The thick forests of America contain numbers of stags; they do not seem to be a different species from the European stags. An Englishman was possessed of a tame hind. It is observable that though these creatures are very shy when wild in the [[197]]woods and the cedar swamps, which are very much frequented by them, yet they can be tamed to such a degree, if taken young, that they will come of their own accord to people, and even to strangers: This hind was caught when it was but very little; the colour of the whole body was a dirty reddish brown, the belly and the under side of the tail excepted, which were white; the ears were grey; the head, towards the snout, was very narrow, but upon the whole the creature looked very fine. The hair lay close together, and was quite short; the tail reached almost to the bend of the knee, near which, on the inside of each hind-foot, was a knob or callus. The possessor of the hind said, that he had tamed several stags, by catching them whilst they were very young. It was now big with young ones. It had a little bell hung about its neck, that by walking in the woods, the people might know it to be tame, and take care not to shoot it. It was at liberty to go where it pleased, and to keep it confined would have been a pretty hard task, as it could leap over the highest enclosures. Sometimes it went far into the woods, and frequently staid away a night or two, but afterwards returned home like other cattle. [[198]]When it went into the woods, it was often accompanied by wild stags, and decoyed them even into the very houses, especially in rutting time, giving its master numerous opportunities of shooting the wild stags, almost at his door. Its scent was excellent, and when it was turned towards the wind, I often saw it rising and looking towards that part, though I did not see any people on the road, but they commonly appeared about an hour after. As soon as the wild stags have the scent of a man, they make off. In winter the man fed the hind with corn and hay; but in summer it went out into the woods and meadows, seeking its own food, eating both grass and other plants: it was now kept in a meadow; it did chiefly eat clover, the leaves of hiccory, of the Andromeda paniculata, and the Geranium maculatum. It was likewise contented with the leaves of the common plantane, or Plantaga, grasses, and several other plants. The possessor of this hind sold stags to people in Philadelphia, who sent them as curiosities to other places. He got twenty-five, thirty, and forty shillings a-piece for them. The food of the wild stags in summer is grass and several plants; but in winter, when they are not to be got, they eat the shoots and young [[199]]sprigs of branches. I have already mentioned[50] that they eat without any danger the spoon-tree, or Kalmia latifolia, which is poison to other animals. In the long and severe winter, which commenced here upon the tenth of December, 1740, and continued to the thirteenth of March, old stile, during the course of which there fell a great quantity of snow, the stags were found dead in the snow, but chiefly higher up the country, where the snow was deeper. Nobody could determine whether their death was the consequence of the great quantity and depth of snow, which hindered their getting out, or whether the frost had been too severe, and of too long duration, or whether they were short of food. The old people likewise relate, that vast numbers of stags came down in the year 1705, when there was a heavy fall of snow, near a yard deep, and that they were afterwards found dead in the woods, in great numbers, because the snow was deeper than they could pass through. Numbers of birds were likewise found dead at that time. In that same winter, a stag came to Matsong into the stables, and ate hay together with the cattle. It was so pinched by hunger, that it grew tame immediately, and did not run away [[200]]from people. It afterwards continued in the house, as another tame creature. All aged persons asserted, that formerly this country abounded more with stags than it does at present. It was formerly not uncommon to see thirty or forty of them in a flock together. The reason of their decrease is chiefly owing to the increase of population, the destruction of the woods, and the number of people who kill and frighten the stags at present. However, high up in the country, in great forests and desarts, there are yet great numbers of them. Among their enemies is the Lynx of this country, which is the same with the Swedish one[51]. They climb up the trees, and when the stags pass by, they dart down upon him, get fast hold, bite, and suck the blood, and never give over till they have killed it.
I saw several holes in the ground, both on hills and on fields, and fallow grounds; they were round, and commonly [[201]]about an inch wide; they went almost perpendicularly into the earth, and were made by dung-beetles, or by great worms, which are made use of for angling. The dung-beetles had dug very deep into the ground, thro’ horse-dung, tho’ it lay on the hardest road, so that a great heap of earth lay near it. These holes were afterwards occupied by other insects, especially grasshoppers, (Grylli) and Cicadæ; for by digging these holes up, I commonly found one or more young ones of these insects, which had not yet got their perfect size.
May the 19th. This morning I left Raccoon, a parish in the country called New Sweden, and which is yet chiefly inhabited by Swedes, in order to proceed in my travels to the North. I first intended to set out with the beginning of April, but for several reasons this was not adviseble. No leaves were come out at that time, and hardly any flowers appeared. I did not know what flowers grew here in spring; for the autumnal plants are different from the vernal ones. The Swedes had this winter told me the œconomical and medical uses of many plants, to which they gave names unknown to me: they could not then shew me those plants on account of the season, and by their deficient and erroneous descriptions, [[202]]I was not able to guess what plants they meant. By going away so early as the beginning of April, I would have remained in uncertainty in regard to these things. It was therefore fit, that I should spend a part of the spring at Raccoon, especially as I had still time enough left for my tour to the North.
On the road we saw a Black Snake, which we killed, and found just five foot long. Catesby has described it and its qualities, and also drawn it[52]. The full-grown Black Snakes are commonly about five feet long, but very slender; the thickest I ever saw was in the broadest part hardly three inches thick; the back is black, shining, and smooth; the chin white and smooth; the belly whitish turning into blue, shining, and very smooth; I believe there are some varieties of this snake. One which was nineteen inches long, had a hundred and eighty-six scales on the belly, (Scuta Abdominalia) and ninety-two half scales on the tail (Squamæ subcaudales), which I found to be true, by a repeated counting of the scales. Another, which was seventeen inches and a half in length, had a hundred and eighty-four scales on the belly, and only sixty-four half scales on the tail; this [[203]]I likewise assured myself of, by counting the scales over again. It is possible that the end of this last snake’s tail was cut off, and the wound healed up again[53].
The country abounds with Black Snakes. They are among the first that come out in spring, and often appear very early if warm weather happens; but if it grows cold again after that, they are quite frozen, and lie stiff and torpid on the ground or on the ice; when taken in this state and put before a fire, they revive in less than an hour’s time. It has sometimes happened, when the beginning of January is very warm, that they come out of their winter habitations. They commonly appear about the end of March, old style. [[204]]