Part 10

A soil like this in New Jersey, one might be led to think, could produce nothing because it is so dry and poor. Yet the maize which is planted on it grows extremely well, and we saw many fields filled with it. The earth is of that kind in which tobacco commonly succeeds, but it is not near so rich. The stalks of maize are commonly eight feet high, more or less, and are full of leaves. The maize is planted as usual in rows, in little squares, so that there is a space of five feet and six inches between each square, both in length and breadth; on each of these little hills three or four stalks come up, which were not yet cut for the cattle; each stalk again has from one to four ears, which are large and full of corn. A sandy ground could never have been better employed. In some places the ground between the maize is ploughed, and rye sown in it, so that when the maize is cut, the rye remains upon the field.

We frequently saw Asparagus growing near the enclosures, in a loose soil, on uncultivated sandy fields. It is likewise plentiful between the maize, and was at present full of berries, but I cannot tell whether the seeds are carried by the wind to the places where I saw them; it is however certain, that I have likewise seen it growing wild in other parts of America.

The Worm-seed, is likewise plentiful on the roads, in a sandy ground such as that near the ferry opposite to Philadelphia. I have already mentioned that it is given to children, as a remedy to carry off the worms. It is then put into brandy, and when it has been in it for one hour, it is taken out again, dried and given to the children, either in beer sweetened with treacle, or in any other liquor. Its effects talked of differently. Some people say it kills the worms, others again pretend that it forwards their encrease. But I know by my own experience, that this wormseed has had very good effects upon children.

The Purslain, which we cultivate in our gardens, grows wild in great abundance in the loose soil amongst the maize. It was there creeping on the ground, and its stalks were pretty thick and succulent; which circumstance very justly gave reason to wonder from whence it could get juice sufficient to supply it in such a dry ground. It is to be found plentiful in such soil, in other places of this country.

The Bidens bipinnata, is here called Spanish Needles. It grows single about farm houses, near roads, pales and along the hedges. It was yet partly in flower; but for the greatest part it was already out of blossom. When its seeds are ripe it is very disagreeable walking where it grows. For they stick to the cloaths and make them black; and it is difficult to discharge the black spots which they occasion. Each seed has three spines at its extremity; and each of these again is full of numerous little hooks, by which the seed fastens itself to the cloaths.

In the woods and along the hedges in this neighbourhood, some single red Ants, (Formica rubra) crept about, and their antennæ or feel-horns were as long as their bodies.

Towards night we returned to Philadelphia.

October the 8th. The shore of Pensylvania has a great quantity of the finest oysters. About this time the people began to bring them to Philadelphia for sale. They come from that part of the shore, which is near the mouth of the river Delaware. They are reckoned as good as the New York oysters, of which I shall make more particular mention afterwards. However I thought that this latter sort of oysters was generally larger, fatter and more palatable. It is remarkable that they commonly became palatable at the time when the agues had left off their fury. Some men went with whole carts full of oysters, crying them about the streets; this is unusual here when any thing else is to be sold, but in London it is very common. The oyster shells are thrown away, though formerly a lime was burnt from them, which has been found unnecessary, there being stones for burning of lime in this neighbourhood, and the lime of oyster shells not being as good as this other lime. The people shewed me some of houses in this town which were built of stone, and to the mason work of which the lime of oyster shells had been employed. The walls of these houses were always so wet two or three days before a rain, that great drops of water could plainly be perceived on them; and thus they were as good as Hygrometers. [27] Several people who had lived in this kind of houses complained of these inconveniences.

October the 9th. Pease are not much cultivated in Pensylvania at present, though formerly, according to the accounts of some old Swedes, every farmer had a little field with pease. In New Jersey and the southern parts of New York, pease are likewise not so much cultivated as they used to be. But in the northern parts of New York, or about Albany, and in all the parts of Canada which are inhabited by the French, the people sow great quantities, and have a plentiful crop. In the former colonies, a little despicable insect has obliged the people to give up so useful a part of agriculture. This little insect was formerly little known, but a few years ago it multiplied excessively. It couples in summer, about the time when the pease are in blossom, and then deposites an egg into almost every one of the little pease. When the pease are ripe, their outward appearance does not discover the worm, which, however, is found within, when it is cut. This worm lies in the pea, if it is not stirred during all the winter, and part of the spring, and in that space of time consumes the greatest part of the inside of the pea: In spring therefore little more than the mere thin outward skin is left. This worm at last changes into an insect, of the coleoptera class, and in that state creeps through a hole of its own making in the husk, and flies off, in order to look for new fields of pease, in which it may couple with its cogeneric insects, and provide food sufficient for its posterity.

This noxious insect has spread from Pensylvania to the north. For the country of New York, where it is common at present, has not been plagued with it above twelve or fifteen years ago; and before that time the people sowed pease every year without any inconvenience, and had excellent crops. But by degrees these little enemies came in such numbers, that the inhabitants were forced to leave off sowing of pease. The people complained of this in several places. The country people about Albany have yet the pleasure to see their fields of pease not infected by these beetles, but are always afraid of their approach; as it has been observed they come every year nearer to that province.

I know not whether this insect would live in Europe, and I should think our Swedish winters must kill the worm, even if it be ever so deeply inclosed in the pea; notwithstanding it is often as cold in New York (where this insect is so abundant) as in our country, yet it continues to multiply here every year, and proceeds always farther to the north. I was very near bringing some of these vermin into Europe, without knowing of it. At my departure from America, I took some sweet peas with me in a paper, and they were at that time quite fresh and green. But on opening the paper after my arrival at Stockholm, on August the 1st. 1751; I found all the peas hollow, and the head of an infect peeping out of each. Some of these insects even crept out, in order to try the weather of this new climate; but I made haste, to shut the paper again, in order to prevent the spreading of this noxious insect. [28] I own, that when I first perceived them, I was more frightened than I should have been at the sight of a viper. For I at once had a full view of the whole damage, which my dear country would have suffered, if only two or three of these noxious insects had escaped me. The posterity of many families, and even the inhabitants of whole provinces, would have had sufficient reason to detest me as the cause of so great a calamity. I afterwards sent some of them, though well secured, to count Tessin, and to Dr. Linnæus, together with an account of their destructive qualities. Dr. Linnæus has already inserted a description of them in an Academical Dissertation, which has been drawn up under his presidency, and treats of the damages made by insects. [29] He there calls this insect the Bruchus of North-America. [30] It was very peculiar that every pea in the paper was eaten without exception.

When the inhabitants of Pensylvania sow pease procured from abroad, they are not commonly attacked by these insects for the first year; but in the next they take possession of the pea. It is greatly to be wished that none of the ships which annually depart from New York or Pensylvania, may bring them into the European countries. From hence the power of a single despicable insect will plainly appear; as also, that the study of the œconomy and of the qualities of insects, is not to be looked upon as a mere pastime and useless employment. [31]

The Rhus radicans is a shrub or tree which grows abundantly in this country, and has in common with the ivy, called Hedera arborea, the quality of not growing without the support either of a tree, a wall, or a hedge. I have seen it climbing to the very top of high trees in the woods, and its branches shoot out every where little roots, which fasten upon the tree and as it were enter into it. When the stem is cut, it emits a pale brown sap of a disagreeable scent. This sap is so sharp that the letters and characters made upon linnen with it, cannot be got out again, but grow blacker the more the cloath is washed. Boys commonly marked their names on their linnen with this juice. If you write with it on paper, the letters never go out, but grow blacker from time to time.

This species of Sumach has the same noxious qualities as the poisonous sumach, or Poison-tree, which I have above described, being poisonous to some people, though not to every one. Therefore all that has been said of the poison tree is likewise applicable to this; excepting that the former has the stronger poison. However I have seen people who have been as much swelled from the noxious exhalations of the latter, as they could have been from those of the former. I likewise know that of two sisters, the one could manage the tree without being affected by its venom, though the other immediately felt it as soon as the exhalations of the tree came near her, or when ever she came a yard too near the tree, and even when she stood in the way of the wind, which blew directly from this shrub. But upon me this species of sumach has never exherted its power, though I made above a hundred experiments upon myself with the greatest stems, and the juice once squirted into my eye, without doing me any harm. On another person’s hand which I had covered very thick with it, the skin a few hours after became as hard as a piece of tanned leather, and peeled off in the following days, as if little scales fell from it.

October the 10th. In the morning I accompanied Mr. Cock to his country seat, which is about nine miles from Philadelphia to the north.

Though the woods of Pensylvania afford many oaks, and more species of them than are found further north, yet they do not build so many ships in this province as they do in the northern ones, and especially in New England. But experience has taught the people that the same kind of trees is more durable the further it grows to the north, and that this advantage decreases the more it grows in warm climates. It is likewise plain that the trees in the south grow more every year, and form thicker ringlets than those in the north. The former have likewise much greater tubes for the circulation of the sap than the latter. And for this reason they do not build so many ships in Pensylvania, as they do in New England, though more than in Virginia and Maryland; but Carolina builds very few, and its merchants get all their ships from New England. Those which are here made of the best oak, hardly are serviceable above ten, or at most twelve years; for then they are so rotten, that no body ventures to go to sea in them, Many captains of ships come over from England to North-America, in order to get ships built. But most of them choose New England, that being the most northerly province; and if they even come over in ships which are bound for Philadelphia, they frequently on their arrival set out from Pensylvania for New England. The Spaniards in the West Indies are said to build their ships of a peculiar sort of cedar, which holds out against putrefaction and wet; but it is not to be met with on the continent in the English provinces. Here are above nine different sorts of oak, but not one of them is comparable to the single species we have in Sweden, with regard to its goodness. And therefore a ship of European oak costs a great deal more than one made of American oak.

Many people who chiefly employed themselves in gardening, had found in a succession of years, that the red Beet, which grew out of the seed which was got from New York, became very sweet and had a very fine taste; but that it every year lost part of its goodness, if it was cultivated from seeds which were got here. The people were therefore obliged to get as many seeds of red beet every year from New York, as were wanted in their gardens. It has likewise been generally observed, that the plants which are produced from English seeds are always much better and more agreeable, than those which come from seeds of this country.

In the garden of Mr. Cock was a raddish which was in the loose soil, grown so big as to be seven inches in diameter. Every body that saw it, owned it was uncommon to see them of such a size.

That species of Convolvulus which is commonly called Batatas, has here the name of Bermudian potatoes. The common people, and the gentry without distinction planted them in their gardens. This is done in the same manner as with the common potatoes. Some people made little hillocks, into which they put these potatoes; but others only planted them in flat beds. The soil must be a mixture of sand and earth, and neither too rich, nor too poor. When they are going to plant them, they cut them, as the common potatoes, taking care however that a bud or two be left upon each piece which is intended to be planted. Their colour is commonly red without, and yellow within. They are bigger than the common sort, and have a sweet and very agreeable taste, which I cannot find in the other potatoes, in artichokes or in any other root, and they almost melt in the mouth. It is not long since they have been planted here. They are dressed in the same manner as common potatoes, and eaten either along with them, or by themselves. They grow very fast and very well here; but the greatest difficulty consists in keeping them over winter, for they will bear neither cold, nor a great heat, nor wet. They must therefore be kept during winter in a box with sand in a warm room. In Pensylvania where they have no valves in their chimnies, they are put in such a box with sand, at some distance from the fire, and there they are secured both against frost and against over great heat. It will not answer the purpose to put them into dry sand in a cellar, as is commonly done with the common sort of potatoes. For the moisture which is always in cellars, penetrates the sand, and makes them putrefy. It would probably be very easy to keep them in Sweden in warm rooms, during the cold season. But the difficulty lies wholly in bringing them over to Sweden. I carried a considerable number of them with me on leaving America, and took all possible care in preserving them. But we had a very violent storm at sea, by which the ship was so greatly damaged, that the water got in every where, and wetted our cloaths, beds and other moveables so much, that we could wring the water out of them. It is therefore no wonder that my Bermuda potatoes were rotten; but as they are now cultivated in Portugal and Spain, nay even in England, it will be easy to bring them into Sweden. The drink which the Spaniards prepare from these potatoes in their American possessions is not usual in Pensylvania. [32]

Mr. Cock had a paper mill, on a little brook, and all the coarser sorts of paper are manufactured in it. It is now annually rented for fifty pounds Pensylvania currency.

October the 11th. I have already mentioned, that every countryman has a greater or lesser number of apple trees planted round his farm-house, from whence he gets great quantities of fruit, part of which he sells, part he makes cyder of, and part he uses in his own family for pyes, tarts, and the like. However he cannot expect an equal quantity of fruit every year. And I was told, that this year had not by far afforded such a great quantity of apples as the preceding; the cause of which they told me, was the continual and great drought in the month of May, which had hurt all the blossoms of the apple trees, and made them wither. The heat had been so great as to dry up all the plants, and the grass in the fields.

The Polytrichum commune, a species of moss, grew plentifully on wet and low meadows between the woods, and in several places quite covered them, as our mosses cover the meadows in Sweden. It was likewise very plentiful on hills.

Agriculture was in a very bad state hereabouts. When a person had bought a piece of land, which perhaps had never been ploughed since the creation, he cut down part of the wood, tore up the roots, ploughed the ground, sowed corn on it, and the first time got a plentiful crop. But the same land being tilled for several years successively, without being manured, it at last must of course lose its fertility. Its possessor therefore leaves it fallow, and proceeds to another part of his ground, which he treats in the same manner. Thus he goes on till he has changed a great part of his possessions into corn-fields, and by that means deprives the ground of its fertility. He then returns to the first field, which now is pretty well recovered; this he again tills as long as it will afford him a good crop, but when its fertility is exhausted, he leaves it fallow again, and proceeds to the rest as before.

It being customary here, to let the cattle go about the fields and in the woods both day and night, the people cannot collect much dung for manure. But by leaving the land fallow for several years together, a great quantity of weeds spring up in it, and get such strength, that it requires a considerable time to extirpate them. From hence it likewise comes, that the corn is always so much mixed with weeds. The great richness of the soil, which the first European colonists found here, and which had never been ploughed before, has given rise to this neglect of agriculture, which is still observed by many of the inhabitants. But they do not consider, that when the earth is quite exhausted, a great space of time, and an infinite deal of labour is necessary to bring it again into good order; especially in these countries which are almost every summer so scorched up by the excessive heat and drought. The soil of the corn-fields consisted of a thin mould, greatly mixed with a brick coloured clay, and a quantity of small particles of glimmer. This latter came from the stones which are here almost every where to be met with at the depth of a foot or thereabouts. These little pieces of glimmer made the ground sparkle, when the sun shone upon it.

Almost all the houses hereabouts were built either of stone or bricks; but those of stone were more numerous. Germantown, which is about two English miles long, had no other houses, and the country houses thereabouts, were all built of stone. But there are several varieties of that stone which is commonly made use of in building. Sometimes it consisted of a black or grey glimmer, running in undulated veins, the spaces between their bendings being filled up with a grey, loose, small-grained limestone, which was easily friable. Some transparent particles of quartz were scattered in the mass, of which the glimmer made the greatest part. It was very easy to be cut, and with proper tools could readily be shaped into any form. Sometimes however the pieces consisted of a black, small-grained glimmer, a white small-grained sandstone, and some particles of quartz, and the several constituent parts were well mixed together. Sometimes the stone had broad stripes of the white limestone without any addition of glimmer. But most commonly they were much blended together, and of a grey colour. Sometimes this stone was found to consist of quite fine and black pieces of glimmer, and a grey, loose and very small-grained limestone. This was likewise very easy to be cut, being loose.

These varieties of the stone are commonly found close together. They were every where to be met with, at a little depth, but not in equal quantity and goodness; and not always easy to be broken. When therefore a person intended to build a house, he enquired where the best stone could be met with. It is to be found on corn-fields and meadows, at a depth which varies from two to six feet. The pieces were different as to size. Some were eight or ten feet long, two broad, and one thick. Sometimes they were still bigger, but frequently much less. Hereabouts they lay in strata one above another, the thickness of each stratum being about a foot. The length and breadth were different, but commonly such as I have before mentioned. They must commonly dig three or four feet before they reach the first stratum. The loose ground above that stratum, is full of little pieces of this stone. This ground is the common brick coloured soil, which is universal here, and consists of sand and clay, though the former is more plentiful. The loose pieces of glimmer which shine so much in it, seem to have been broken off from the great strata of stone.

It must be observed that when the people build with this stone, they take care to turn the flat side of it outwards. But as that cannot always be done, the stone being frequently rough on all sides, it is easily cut smooth with tools, since it is soft, and not very difficult to be broken. The stones however are unequal in thickness, and therefore by putting them together they cannot be kept in such straight lines as bricks. It sometimes likewise happens that pieces break off when they are cut, and leave holes on the outside of the wall. But in order to fill up these holes, the little pieces of stone which cannot be made use of are pounded, mixed with mortar, and put into the holes; the places thus filled up, are afterwards smoothed, and when they are dry, they are hardly distinguishable from the rest at some distance. At last they draw on the outside of the wall, strokes of mortar, which cross each other perpendicularly, so that it looks as if the wall consisted wholly of equal, square stones, and as if the white strokes were the places where they were joined with mortar. The inside of the wall is made smooth, covered with mortar and whitewashed. It has not been observed that this kind of stone attracts the moisture in a rainy or wet season. In Philadelphia and its environs, you find several houses built of this kind of stone.

The houses here are commonly built in the English manner.

One of Mr. Cock’s negroes showed me the skin of a badger (Ursus Meles) which he had killed a few days ago, and which convinced me that the American badger is the same with the Swedish one. It was here called Ground Hog.

Towards night I returned to Philadelphia.