Indian corn planted in it. The feafon for planting this grain is about the 20th of May -lt grows gencrally on new ground, with but little cultivation, and yields in the month of October following, from 40 to 50 bufhels per acre. After the first of September it affords a good deal of nourish. ment to his family, in its green or unripe flate, in the form of what is called routing ears. His family is fed during the fummer by a fmall quantity of grain, which he carries with him, and by fish and game. His cows and horfes feed upon wild grafs, or the fucculent twigs of the woods. For the firft year he endures a great deal of diftrefs from hunger -cold-and a variety of accidental caufes, but he feldom complains or finks under them. As he lives in the neighbourhood of Indians, he foon acquires a ftrong tincture of their manners. His exertions, while they continue, are violent; but they are fucceeded by long intervals of reft, His pleatures confift chiefly in fifhing and hunting. He loves fpirituous liquors, and he eats, drinks and fleeps in dirt and rags in his little cabbin. In his intercourfe with the world he manifefts all the art which characterize the Indians of our country. In this fituation he paffes two or three years. In proportion as population incrcafes around him, he becomes uneafy and dilatisfied. Formerly his cattle ranged at large, but now his neighbours call upon him to confine them within fences, to prevent their trefpaffing upon their fields of grain. Formerly he fed his family with wild animals, but thefe, which fly from the face of man, now ceafe to afford him an eafy fubfiftence, and he is compelled to raife domeftic animals for the fupport of his family. Above all, he revolts against the operation of laws. He cannot bear to furrender up a fingle natural right for all the benefits of government; and therefore he abandons his little fettlement, and feeks a retreat in the woods, where he again fubmits to all the toils which have been mentioned. There are inftances of many men who have broken ground on bare creation, not lefs than four different times in this way, in different and more advanced parts of the flate. It has been remarked, that the flight of this clafs of people is always inercafed by the preaching of the gospel. This will not furprize us when we confider how oppolite its precepts are to their licentious manner of living. If our first fettler was the owner of the spot of land which he began to cultivate, he fells it at a confiderable profit to his fucceffor; but if (as is oftener the cafe) he was a tenant to fome rich landholder, he abandons it in debt; however, the fmall improvements he leaves behind him, generally make it an object of immediate demand to a fecond fpecies of fettler.

This fpecies of fettler is generally a man of fome property; he pays one third or one fourth part in cafh for his plantation, which confits of three or four hundred acres, and the reft in gales or inftalments, as it is called here; that is, a certain fum yearly, without intereft, till the whole is paid. The first object of this fettler is to build an addition to his cab bin; this is done with hewed logs: and as faw mills generally follow fettlements, his floors are made of boards; his roof is made of what are called clapboards, which are a kind of coarfe fhingles, fplit out of fhort oak logs. This houfe is divided by two floors, on each of which are two rooms: under the whole is a cellar walled with ftone. The cabbin ferves as a kitchen to this houfe, His uext object is to clear a little mea

dow

dow ground, and plant an orchard of two or three hundred apple-trees. His flable is likewife enlarged; and, in the courfe of a year or two, he builds a large log barn, the roof of which is commonly thatched with rye ftraw: he moreover encreases the quantity of his arable land; and, inftead of cultivating Indian corn alone, he raifes a quantity of wheat and rye: the latter is cultivated chiefly for the purpose of being distilled into wifkey. This fpecies of fettler by no means extracts all from the earth, which it is able and willing to give. His fields yield but a feanty increafe, owing to the ground not being fufficiently ploughed. The hopes of the year are often blafted by his cattle breaking through his half-made fences, and deftroying his grain. His horfes perform but half the labour that might be expected from them, if they were better fed; and his cattle often die in the fpring from the want of provifion, and the delay of grafs. His houfe, as well as his farm, bear many marks of a weak tone of mind. His windows are unglazed, or, if they have had glafs in them, the ruins of it are fupplied with old hats or pillows. This fpecies of fettler is feldom a good member of civil or religious fociety: with a large portion of an hereditary mechanical kind of religion, he neglects to contribute fufficiently towards building a church, or maintaining a regular adminiftration of the ordinances of the gofpel: he is equally indif pofed to fupport civil government: with high ideas of liberty, he refufes to bear his proportion of the debt contracted by its eftablishment in our country: he delights chiefly in company-fometimes drinks fpirituous liquors to excefs will spend a day or two in every week, in attending political meetings; and thus he contracts debts, which, (if he cannot discharge in a depreciated paper currency) compel him to fell his plantation, generally in the courfe of a few years, to the third and laft Ipecies of fettler.

This fpecies of fettler is commonly a man of property and good character; fometimes he is the fon of a wealthy farmer in one of the interior and ancient counties of the ftate. His first object is to convert every fpot of ground, over which he is able to draw water, into meadow: where this cannot be done, he felects the moft fertile fpots on the farm, and devotes it by manure to that purpofe. His next object is to build a barn, which he prefers of ftone. This building is, in fome inftances, one hundred feet in front, and forty in depth: it is made very compact, fo as to fhut out the cold in winter; for our farmers find that their horfes and cattle, when kept warm, do not require near as much food, as when they are exposed to the cold. He ufes economy, likewife, in the confumption of his wood. Hence he keeps himself warm in winter, by means of ftoves, which fave an immenfe deal of labour to himself and his horfes, in cutting and hawling wood in cold and wet weather. His fences are every where repaired, fo as to fecure his grain from his own and his neighbour's cattle. But further, he increases the number of the articles of his cultivation, and, inftead of raifing corn, wheat, and rye alone, he raifes oats, buck-wheat (the fagopyrum of Linnæus) and fpeits. Near his houfe, he allots an acre or two of ground for a garden, in which he raifes a large quantity of cabbage and potatoes. His newly cleared fields afford him every year a large increafe of turnips. Over the fpring which fupplies him with water, he builds a milk-houfe: hẹ

likewife

likewife adds to the number, and improves the quality of his fruit-treeshis fons work by his fide all the year, and his wife and daughters forfake the dairy and the spinning-wheel, to fhare with him in the toils of harvest. The laft object of his induftry is to build a dwelling-houfe. This bufiness is sometimes effected in the course of his life, but is oftener bequeathed to his fon, or the inheritor of his plantation; and hence we have a common faying among our beft farmers, that a fon fhould always begin where his father left off; that is, he fhould begin his improvements, by building a commodious dwelling-houfe, fuited to the improvements and value of the plantation. This dwelling-houfe is generally built of ftone; it is large, convenient, and filled with ufeful and fubftantial furniture; it fometimes adjoins the houfe of the second settler, but is frequently placed at a little diftance from it. The horfes and cattle of this fpecies of fettler, bear marks in their strength, fat, and fruitfulnefs of their being plentifully fed and carefully kept. His table abounds with a variety of the beft provifions; his very kitchen flows with milk and honey; beer, cyder, and wine are the ufual drinks of his family: the greatest part of the cloathing of his family is manufactured by his wife and daughters. In proportion as he increases in wealth, he values the protection of laws: hence he punctually pays his taxes towards the fupport of government. Schools and churches likewife, as the means of promoting order and happiness in fociety, derive a due fupport from him: for benevolence and publice fpirit, as to these objects, are the natural offspring of affluence and independence. Of this clafs of fettlers are two thirds of the farmers of Fennsylvania: thefe are the men to whom Pennfylvania owes her ancient fame and confequence. If they poffefs lefs refinement than their fouthern neighbours, who cultivate their lands with flaves, they poffefs more republican virtue. It was from the farms cultivated by these men, that the American and French armies were fed chiefly with bread during the late revolution: and it was from the produce of these farms, that thofe millions of dollars were obtained from the Havanna after the year 1780, which laid the foundation of the bank of North America, and which fed and cloathed the American army, till the glorious peace of Paris.

This is a fhort account of the happiness of a Pennsylvania farmer; to this happiness our ftate invites men of every religion and country. We do not pretend to offer emigrants the pleasure of Arcadia; it is enough if affluence, independence, and happinefs are infured to patience, induftry, and labour. The moderate price of land *, the credit which

arifes

*The unoccupied lands are fold by the fiate for about fix guineas, inclufive of all charges, per hundred acres. But as most of the lands that are fettled, are procured from perfons who had purchased them from the flate, they are fold to the first fettler for a much higher price. The quality of the foil; its vicimity to mills, court-houfes, places of worship, and navigable water: the distance of land carriage to the fea ports of Philadelphia or Baltimore, and the nature of the roads, all influence the price of land to the first fettler. The quantity of cleared land, and the nature of the improvements, added to all the above circumftances, influence the price of farms to the fecond and third fettlers. Hence the

9

price

arifes from prudence, and the fafety from our courts of law, of every fpecies of property, render the bleffings which I have defcribed, objects within the reach of every man.

From a review of the three different fpecies of fettlers, it appears, that there are certain regular ftages which mark the progrefs from the favage to civilized life. The firft fettler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners. In the fecond, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third fpecies of fettlers only, that we behold civilization completed. It is to the third fpecies of fettlers only, that it is proper to apply the term of farmers.

While we record the vices of the first and fecond fettlers, it is but juft to mention their virtues likewife. Their mutual wants produce mutual dependence: hence they are kind and friendly to each other-their folitary fituation makes vifitors agreeable to them; hence they are hofpitable to ftrangers; their want of money (for they raife but little more than is neceffary to fupport their families) has made it neceffary for them to affociate for the purposes of building houses, cutting their grain, and the like. This they do in turns for each other, without any other pay than the pleafures which usually attend a country frolic. Perhaps, what I have called virtues, are rather qualities arifing from neceffity, and the peculiar ftate of fociety in which these people live. Virtue should, in all cafes, be the offspring of principle.

I do not pretend to fay, that this mode of fettling farms in Pennfylvania is univerfal. I have known fome inftances where the first fettler has performed the improvements of the second, and yielded to the third. I have known a few inftances likewife, of men of enterprizing fpirits, who have settled in the wildernefs, and who, in the courfe of a single life, have advanced through all the intermediate ftages of improvement that I have mentioned, and produced all thofe conveniencies which have been afcribed to the third fpecies of fettlers; thereby refembling, in their exploits, not only the pioneers and light-infantry, but the main body of an army. There are inftances, likewife, where the first fettlement has been improved by the fame family, in hereditary fucceffion, till it has reached the third stage of cultivation. There are many fpacious stone houfes, and highly cultivated farms in the neighbouring counties of the city of Philadelphia, which are poffeffed by the grandfons and greatgrandfons of men who accompanied William Penn across the ocean, and who laid the foundation of the prefent improvements of their pofterity, in fuch cabins as have been described.

price of land to the first fettler is from a quarter of a guinea to trvo guineas per acre; and the price of farms is from one guinea to ten guineas per acre, to the fecond and third fettlers, according as the land is varied by the beforementioned circumflances. When the firft jettler is unable to purchase, he often takes a tract of land for feven years on a leafe, and contracts, instead of paying a rent in caf, to clear fifty acres of land, to build a log cabin, and a barn, and to plant an orchard on it. This tract, after the expiration of this leafe, fells or rents for a confiderable profit.

This

This paffion, frange and new as it may appear to an European, is wifely calculated for the extenfion of population in America: and this it does, not only by promoting the increase of the human fpecies in new fettlements, but in the old fettlement likewife. While the degrees of induftry and knowledge in agriculture, in our country, are proportioned to farms of from 75 to 300 acres, there will be a languor in population, as foon as farmers multiply beyond the number of farms of the above dimenfrons. To remove this languor, which is kept up alike by the increase of the price, and the divifion of farms, a migration of part of the community becomes abfolutely neceffary. And as this part of the community often confifts of the idle and extravagant, who eat without working, their removal, by increafing the facility of fubfiftence to the frugal and induftrious who remain behind, naturally increases the number of people, juft as the cutting off the fuckers of an apple-tree increases the fize of the tree and the quantity of fruit.

I have only to add upon this fubject, that the migrants from Pennsylvania always travel to the fouthward. The foil and climate of the western parts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, afford a more eafy fupport to lazy farmers, than the ftubborn but durable foil of Pennfylvania. Here our ground requires deep and repeated ploughing to render it fruitful; there fcratching the ground once or twice affords tolerable crops. In Pennfylvania, the length and coldnefs of the winter makes it neceffary for the farmers to beftow a large fhare of their labour in providing for, and feeding their cattle; but in the fouthern ftates, cattle find pafture during the greateft part of the winter in the fields or woods. For thefe reafons, the greatest part of the western counties of the ftates that have been mentioned, are fettled by original inhabitants of Pennfylvania. During the late war, the militia of Orange county, in North Carolina, were enrolled, and their number amounted to 3500, every man of whom had migrated from Pennfylvania. From this you will fee, that our flate is the great outport of the United States for Europeans; and that, after performing the office of a fieve, by detaining all thofe people who poffefs the ftamina of industry and virtue, it allows a paffage to the reft, to those states which are accommodated to their habits of indolence and vice.

I fhall conclude this letter by remarking, that in the mode of extending population and agriculture, which I have defcribed, we behold a new fpecies of war. The third fettler may be viewed as a conqueror. The weapons with which he atchieves his conquefts, are the implements of husbandry and the virtues which direct them, are induftry and economy. Idlenefs, extravagance and ignorance fly before him. Happy would it be for mankind, if the kings of Europe would adopt this mode of extending their territories: it would foon put an end to the dreadful connection, which has exifted in every age, between war and poverty, and between conqueft and defolation *.'

Thefe obfervations are equally applicable to the progress of the settlements in all new countries.

* See Col. Mag. Vol. I. p. 117.

Religion.