cabins, except that they are placed on logs, so as to stand hollow for
some distance from the earth; the bottom is made of cleft pieces, laid
pretty close. They are built of different lengths and widths, but about
six feet on the inside is deemed wide enough, as corn will dry in them
better than if wider. The roof is only drawn in on one side, which two
lengths of boards will cover. As they lay the top pretty flat, they
most times take off the greater part, or the whole of the boards, when
filling them with Indian corn ears, as they only gather the ears. When
full, or the whole growth of the year is put in, the boards are put
on, and the weight poles again laid on. Should a heavy {175} shower,
or even a set rain, come on whilst the corn-crib is filling, as the
bottom and sides are not close, not being mudded, it will soon dry out
again without damaging the corn. I had one built, for 15 dollars, that
will hold upwards of 600 bushels of corn in the ear. I suppose, it
would hold near 1000 bushels of cleared corn. The Americans never shell
theirs till it is wanted for use or market; but most of what is sold,
is in the cob or ear. They measure it by barrels; that is, they fill an
old flour-barrel, then shell and measure it, and from the produce of it
they calculate on the whole number of barrels sold.
Cow and pig pens, with cart and waggon lodges, are yet scarce. When
pigs are shut up for fatting, it is common to make a fence for them
of rails, in the same manner as for fields; sometimes one corner is
covered over for a lodging place for them, but it is more common for
them to be left to the mercy of the winds and weather. But as they
are hardy animals, and accustomed {176} to hard living and lodging,
it does not appear to hurt them. There are but few cattle-yards and
sheds; and the cattle are mostly left abroad in winter, with no shelter
but what the leafless trees afford. I have seen no barn in any part of
the English settlement, although several of our American neighbours
grew some wheat last year. A person at Birks' Prairie has built a
threshing-floor, to which he purposes adding a barn. Mr. Birkbeck, Mr.
Flower, and other wheat-growers of this year, have put up their wheat,
in the fields where it grew, in very small stacks, with little or no
covering; this I think hazardous to the wheat, but the Americans say
no: but they do not stand on trifles; however, time will show.
I have seen barns at a distance from the English settlement, that
would hold, perhaps, six loads of wheat, (forty bushels to the load,)
in the straw, supposing it to yield tolerably well; with a large
threshing-floor, for threshing or treading out the {177} grain with
horses. One similar to these might be built for a hundred dollars
(twenty-two pounds ten shillings).
There are no granaries or store-houses except corn-cribs, a few
poultry-houses, mostly built the same as the cabins; as are stables
also, but they are sometimes carried higher, to allow room for a
hay-loft; some have a rack, but this is not common among the Americans,
as, generally, they only have a manger, which is frequently made out of
a hollow tree, the ends being stopped with wood or clay.
I shall now proceed to give a short description of the domestic and
wild animals. Most of the horses are of Spanish origin; they are light
and clean, but not very handsome; their coats are fine, when kept
up and well cleaned, but this is seldom the case; active, but not
good in the collar, being too light for heavy draught. I have bought
three since my arrival, for two hundred and ten dollars (forty-seven
pounds five shillings): the first {178} was six years old, for which
I gave seventy dollars; the second eight years, sixty dollars; and
the last four years old, eighty dollars. The first and the last very
good bargains, but the other a very indifferent one, as she has given
me much trouble, for she will leap any rail-fence like a greyhound
dog. Times being dull, horses are getting cheaper; but still they
are much dearer than any other kind of stock. Oxen and cows are now
more plentiful, but hitherto they have been fetched from the states
of Indiana and Kentucky. They are of various sorts, but on the whole
pretty good; some of them are handsome, and with a little care and
expense an excellent breed might be raised. The price of beef from four
to six cents a pound; it is now selling at five cents, but expected
to be soon cheaper. Calves are not often killed. Cows are generally
suffered to run in the woods, and return to their calves mornings
and evenings, when they are partly milked, and the calves have the
remainder of the milk. If {179} calves are killed or die, the cows
often go dry for the remainder of the season, as it is very difficult
to get the cows to come home to be milked; and as many of them take a
long range, it is troublesome to find them. The price of veal nearly
the same as beef. A good cow and calf may be had for from sixteen to
twenty dollars.
Besides the cows and calves I bought of Mr. Collins, I purchased nine
beasts of a drover from Kentucky, for eighty-four dollars and a half
(2_l._ 2_s._ 3_d._ each); my stock now consists of sixteen beasts, of
different ages, and three calves. I shall not increase my number till
we get water in the fall, as new cattle are apt to stray for want of
it. We often give them salt; a handful will do for twelve or fifteen.
If given twice a-week, it is said to be wholesome for stock of all
kinds, and I concur in this opinion. The reason I have heard why stock
require salt in this country, is, that being at so great a distance
from the ocean, there is no salt in the air, as in countries nearer
the sea. I {180} believe they give their beasts salt on the shores
of the Atlantic; and as it is there said to be serviceable to them,
perhaps salt is beneficial to cattle in all situations, at least in
hot climates. Beasts are much lighter here than in England, as their
flesh is not so firm as in a colder country; the difference, perhaps,
one-sixth or one-seventh part, in two beasts of the same size.
No great quantity of butter, and but little cheese, has been made in
this settlement. Mr. Birkbeck has lately begun a dairy of twenty cows;
he intends to make cheese; the dairy is managed by a woman from the
New England States. He has weaned fourteen or sixteen of his calves,
and his cows appear to keep well together. As Mr. Birkbeck has much
land under fence, and some of it sown with timothy grass, and several
good wells, and some creeks running through his enclosures, I hope he
will soon establish a good cheese-dairy. The present price of butter is
twelve cents and a half; but during the {181} winter it was twenty-five
cents, and difficult to be procured. Cheese is now sixteen cents.
Beasts, sheep, and pigs are all marked in their ears, by cutting and
notching them, in all possible directions and forms, to the great
disfigurement of many of them; yet these marks are absolutely necessary
in this wild country, where every person's stock run at large; and they
are not sometimes seen by their owners for several months, so that
without some lasting mark it would be utterly impossible to know them
again. Most people enter their marks with the clerk of the county in
which they reside, and no person is then allowed to use the same marks,
if living in the same county, and within five miles of the person who
has previously entered the same marks. The county clerk's fee for
entering a mark is twelve cents and a half. And no person is allowed to
dispute his marks with another of the same marks, unless his are also
entered at some county office.
{182} The sheep of this country, and indeed of the whole of America,
as far as I have seen, are mean, when compared to those of England.
They are of different sorts, but much mixed. If I can judge of their
origin, I think the Lincolnshire and Welsh sheep are the nearest to
their original breeds; but many of them have had a little Merino blood
mixed with them of late years. I have seen no sign of the South-down
sheep. There are but few sheep at the prairies, and the greater part
of them are very mean ones. But there a few good Merinoes, and some
few others tolerable; but in general they are coarse, with very hollow
coarse wool; and there are some that have a hairy kind of wool. Nor do
I think sheep will be of much service in this part of the country, till
more land is brought into culture, and laid down in cultivated grasses,
as prairie grass is of a coarse nature, and will not bear much feeding,
as it is apt to die if eaten down very bare.
Few of the American flocks exceed {183} twenty; but most of those who
keep a few, shut them up at night to protect them from the wolves.
Bears, I believe, never destroy sheep, at least I never heard of it.
The Americans keep sheep for the sake of their wool, which is
manufactured into various articles of clothing; and at most of their
cabins you may see carding, spinning, and weaving going forward; for to
give the American women their due, many of them are truly industrious,
as they manufacture most parts of their dress; and as they grow the
cotton, flax, and wool, it comes reasonable.
These Americans hold mutton in the utmost contempt, and I have heard
them say, people who eat it belong to the family of wolves. And many
of them, who in the summer are sometimes short of meat, when their
bacon is exhausted, would live on corn-bread for a month, rather than
eat an ounce of mutton, veal, rabbit, goose, or duck. Their dislike
arises from prejudice, {184} as many of them have never tasted these
things. But I have heard a few of them say they like mutton; but even
if fond of it, they will never purchase it, for fear of the scoffs of
their neighbours. I do not intend to keep any sheep till I am better
prepared for them. Wool sells, on a small scale, for half a dollar a
lb., without much regard to its fineness, which is the reason why sheep
are higher than mutton, as a sheep of fifty lbs. weight will fetch from
two dollars fifty cents to three dollars; whereas, at five cents per
lb., the very top price for mutton, the same sheep would only fetch two
dollars fifty cents. Very few sheep are therefore killed here, as the
butcher cannot afford to sell for five cents per lb., the same as beef,
as their skins are of little or no value. Fat for candles sells high,
ten cents a lb., twice the price of meat.
Pigs are numerous, being easily raised: they are of various sorts; but
many of them {185} are of a sandy colour, and some with wattles; that
is, a piece of flesh, about two inches long and half an inch thick,
growing out on their cheeks. They are of middling size, but from very
hard keep, they do not rise to much weight. It is not uncommon for one
person to have from sixty to a hundred running in the woods, and left
to shift for themselves, except giving them now and then a little salt.
During the summer, when grass and herbs are dry, and before the masts
begin to fall, it is almost impossible to describe how excessively
poor they are. Most of them run till they are two, and sometimes three
years old, before they are killed; and, in general, they have but
little fattening. Some years, when there is a large quantity of acorns,
hiccory-nuts, &c., they are said to get good pork. A hog of two hundred
lbs. weight is here called a _fine chunk of a fellow_, and few exceed
that weight; though many, if well kept and made fat, would weigh three
hundred lbs. weight, {186} and some of them are large enough to weigh
four hundred lbs. weight. They do not, in general, produce many at a
time; I do not recollect I ever saw more than nine, and this number is
very unusual. We frequently lose some, as the bears and wild cats make
free with them. Many of the Americans tie a bell round the neck of one
of their old hogs, to keep the gang, as they call it, together. It is
also common to bell horses and cows, when running at large. The price
of pigs varies very much: it is generally very low; but much dearer
in September and October than in any other part of the year, as the
masts are then near falling. Pork last year from four to five dollars
per hundred lbs. weight, which, on an average, is less than two-pence
halfpenny a lb.; and in Indiana it was cheaper than with us. Pigs are
generally killed by the seller, and after they are scalded, they are
carried to the buyer, as it is very difficult to drive wild pigs in a
country like this. And as to the fattening bestowed on them, it only
{187} enables them to run much faster than ever they could before.
A farrier and cow-leech are here nearly unknown, as most people doctor
their own horses and cattle; they are subject to many disorders unknown
in England, particularly to sore mouths; it first comes in the tongue,
and proceeds towards the throat. The first mare I purchased was taken
with it soon after I had her; I was on a journey; I found it first by
her foaming much at the mouth; I examined her tongue, and found it was
getting a little sore. I had heard of a remedy for this complaint, and
I determined to apply it as soon as possible. I called on Mr. Slocum,
whom I knew, and procured some alum and copperas, and pounding a small
quantity of each, I tied it in a rag round the bit of my bridle, and
when I got home I renewed the application. As horses with this disease
can seldom eat corn, I tied mine up out of doors on a piece of timothy
grass, and gave her as many pompions as {188} she would eat. Once a-day
I put on her bridle, as before, and kept it on an hour. She soon got
well, without losing any flesh; but many horses that have had it have
been reduced almost to skeletons before they were cured, and some have
died of it. I think it is a very dangerous disorder if neglected at
first; and it is catching, by horses eating at the same manger. Some
cows and pigs have caught it by eating the remainder of the corn left
by horses. Some geese likewise had it. The fret is sometimes fatal.
I have not seen one broken-winded, and but very few blind horses in
America.
The poultry are--fowls, geese, and ducks; I have seen but few turkeys
or guinea-fowls. Fowls are in very great abundance, and now sell for
12½ cents, (6¾ _d._) A dozen of eggs is, generally, the price of
one chicken. Geese and ducks are kept by the Americans for the sake
of their feathers, and not for sale or to eat. They pick them six or
eight times in a year, nearly naked {189} except their wings; they look
extremely bad for some time after they are picked, but, in the summer,
they get full feathered in about a month. I last year saw some very
naked late in November. We have not picked ours, at which the Americans
express much surprise, as the feathers are their only motive for
keeping them. The geese are, I think, finer flavoured than in England,
as they are not so strong tasted.
Fowl-feathers the Americans do not save, but scald their fowls to fetch
them off. Geese and duck feathers are 50 cents per pound. We brought
several beds with us, and we have purchased three since we have been
here; they cost us 5_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._ each; it is, therefore, cheaper
to buy them here than to bring them from England; but a person might,
perhaps, have some time to wait before any could be procured, as, I
believe, not ten beds have been offered for sale, in this settlement,
since September last.
I have now given an account of all the {190} live stock, with the
exception of dogs and cats; the latter we find very useful, having
plenty of mice; and as to dogs we have a numerous collection of every
size, sort, and colour, lap-dogs, I believe, only excepted; and as we
have no dog-tax in this country, we much miss that useful thing.
The woods and prairies contain the following wild animals (but
there are but few of those that are most dangerous);--viz. bears,
wolves, panthers, wild-cats, foxes, opossums, racoons, ground-hogs,
ground-squirrels, tree or common squirrels, deer, buffaloes, elks,
beavers, otters, and rabbits. Bears and wolves are not numerous; but
the latter, sometimes, kill pigs and sheep; a person at Birks' Prairie
lately lost several sheep by the wolves. I have never heard of a wolf
being killed, but I have frequently heard them howl of a night, and
sometimes near us. Parties are frequently formed to hunt the bears, and
some are often killed; yet I have never seen one, except that one in
the Ohio. Their skins sell from one to two {191} dollars. Of panthers
I have seen nothing, and heard but little; a noted hunter told me, he
had followed hunting steadily (an American phrase) for twenty years,
and had never seen one; but that others, who had hunted but little, had
sometimes killed one. It is said to be a very fierce animal.
Wild cats are often destructive to young pigs; it is a bold animal,
about twice the size of the common cat. Foxes are very scarce; I saw
one near Robertson's Mill, it was much like an English fox. Racoons are
numerous, and frequently destroy poultry; my sons have killed several;
they are larger than a large cat; their skins, when good, sell for 25
cents each. Opossums are plentiful, and also destructive to poultry.
They are easily taken, as they will not run away; but they are hard to
kill, and often get away after they are left for dead.
The pole-cat is an offensive animal, and some dogs will not touch
them, and those that do are frequently obliged to put their noses into
the earth to get rid of the scent; {192} they are not so numerous as
the two last mentioned. Ground-hogs are scarcer; I have seen but one;
it was larger than a large cat; it had a large head, that a little
resembled the head of a pig; in colour like an English badger; the
legs very short, with long strong claws. It was fat, and said to be
good eating; the person who had it did not eat it, but stripped it for
the sake of its skin, which he was going to tan, to make shoes for his
wife. He put it into some very strong lye, to take off the hair, and
afterwards he intended to put it into a vat with some oak-bark. I have
seen several of the Americans tanning hides and skins, in a trough made
from a large tree, the inside hollowed out, and the skins put in and
covered with some small pieces of oak-bark and water. These troughs are
covered to keep off the sun and rain. I do not know how long they are
in tanning their skins, but I have not, any where in America, seen any
good leather of their own manufacturing.
{193} Ground-squirrels are handsome little animals, mostly running on
the earth, fallen trees, and rails, and are as mischievous as rats.
Tree-squirrels are of two or more sorts, and are eaten here. A party of
eight Americans, in May this year, had a squirrel hunt, for a trifling
wager. They were equally divided, and started at day-light with their
rifles; and that party which produced most squirrels by the middle of
the next day, was to win the wager. They each took a different ground
to hunt on, each had a man to attend him to see all was fair. Three of
them hunted on and near my land. I knew them all; and I saw one of them
several times during the hunt; he was of the winning side, he killed
41; the whole number killed by his party was 152; by the other, 141;
total 293. Although more than 100 squirrels were killed on my farm and
near it, it did not appear greatly to lessen them.
Deer are not very numerous. I suppose, I have seen about 100, but never
more than {194} five or six together. I bought several in the winter,
the greater part without their skins, at one dollar each, but one or
two higher; one weighed more than 100 lb. weight. They generally weigh
from 60 lb. to 100 lb. A good skin is worth 50 cents: their horns,
though large, are of no value here.
To the north of us there are buffaloes and elks; also beavers and
otters on the rivers.
Rabbits are tolerably plentiful, smaller than the English rabbit; their
skins are weaker, and their flesh is not so white, but it is more moist
and tender. They do not burrow in the earth, but when hunted run into
the hollow trees, so that an axe is necessary in rabbit hunting. The
weakness of their claws is, I suppose, the reason they do not burrow in
the earth.
I before mentioned picking up a land-tortoise in my journey to the
Prairies, but tortoises are not numerous by any means. I have never
seen one more than seven {195} inches over. Their shells are hard,
strong, and beautifully clouded. I kept one several days in a tub; it
had a young one, about an inch over; but somebody overturned the tub,
and I lost my tortoises. There are a few moles, much like the English.
We have the following reptiles; namely, rattle-snakes, copper-heads,
black, garter, and water-snakes; and a great quantity of frogs in wet
places, and they make a great noise in a warm evening, but in a dry
season we see or hear but little of them.
A few rattle-snakes and copper-heads are sometimes seen, but I have not
heard of any person or animal being hurt by them.
The black, water, and garter-snakes, all said to be harmless: the
black snakes are often six feet long. I have heard of their twining
themselves round a man's leg so hard that he could scarcely move. I
have seen many of them, and two dead rattle-snakes. But wild beasts
and reptiles are but little more thought of or dreaded than in England.
{196} The birds are turkeys, turkey-buzzards, prairie-fowls, quails,
pigeons, doves, wild-geese, wild-ducks, wood-cocks, snipes, blackbirds,
mocking-birds, red-birds, yellow-birds, humming-birds, wipperwills,
blue-jays, paroquets, larks, wood-peckers, black-martins, and a few
other small birds. But birds are not so numerous as in England; some
of them have very beautiful plumage, but not many of them are birds of
song.
Turkeys are of a large size; we bought many during the winter for 25
cents each. At that time they were, in general, thin, but in the spring
they get very fat; we bought one in April that weighed more than 20 lb.
for 1_s._ 8¼ _d._ Prairie-fowls visit us in cold weather, but go to
the north in the summer. They are nearly as large as a pheasant, and
quite as heavy; they are short legged, their colour brown, with some
feathers that look like ears. They are sometimes difficult to get near,
but in severe weather they are very dull; their flesh is dark, but
extremely palatable: they are a kind of grouse.
{197} Quails are here called partridges; they are small, and uncommonly
fine flavoured. Pigeons are sometimes in immense flocks, smaller than
the wild pigeons, but larger than the tame ones of England. A great
number of doves, much like turtle doves.
Wild geese frequent the Prairies in a wet season; they much resemble
some I saw at the Earl of Egremont's, at Petworth, in Sussex. Wild
ducks also, in a wet season, larger than English wild-ducks. There are
woodcocks and snipes on the creeks.
Blackbirds,--often seen in large flocks, much like starlings.
Mocking-birds;--all I know of them is, they mock the notes of others.
Red-bird,--a most beautiful scarlet bird, the size of a blackbird.
Yellow-bird,--a handsome yellow bird with dark wings. Humming-birds are
scarce; I mentioned one on our journey. Wipperwill, or whip-poor-will,
or wippervill,--a brown bird that is named from the cry it makes, of
"whip-poor-will;" it is generally heard of an evening in spring and
summer.
{198} Paroquets are the same as are seen in cages in England,--a
mischievous bird.[146] Blue-jays are a very noisy busy bird. The larks
are much larger than those of England; but the most common birds are
wood-peckers, of many sorts.
[146] See Cuming's _Tour_, volume iv of our series, note 108.--ED.
The Americans frequently fix boxes on poles, or on the cabin, in which
the black-martins build. I have seen them begin their nests in a few
minutes after the boxes were fixt up.
Having given a short account of the animal, I shall now proceed
to the vegetable, productions of this country; and, first, begin
with the different sorts of natural grasses. Prairie-grass,--a very
coarse strong grass; cattle are fond of it, but feeding or mowing it
soon destroys it. Nimble-will,--a kind of fiorin-grass, or running
couch-grass; it springs up in land that is fed bare of prairie-grass;
cattle do not much like it.
Crab-grass comes on ground that is cultivated, (a soft kind of
meadow-grass,) {199} likely to succeed as a meadow-grass for hay.