the obscurity of colonies into the rank of independent states; governed by a constitution altogether novel in the present times, but which, whatever defects it may contain, has proved the source of all their prosperity. The people of England are too apt to hold the character of the Americans in trifling estimation; but, when it is known that their country is fast approaching to importancethat their imports and exports already amount to one half of those of Great Britain, while their annual expenditure is not a twentieth, and their national debt not a fortieth part of ours, we cannot avoid giving them our meed of admiration." Most fervently do we hope that the two nations, so closely allied by language and by blood, will henceforth cease to indulge blind and acrimonious prejudices against each other, and will endeavour to cultivate the blessings of peace, instead of standing constantly in the frowning attitude of mutual jealousy.

Our observations on the United States will present themselves under the following heads: viz. 1. Agriculture; 2. Manufactures; 3. Commerce; and, 4. Internal Navigation, Roads, and Bridges.

1. Agriculture.-From the immense extent of country which they embrace, extending at least thirteen hundred miles in one direction, and upwards of fourteen hundred in another, the United States comprise almost every variety of climate, soil, and productions. And hence it is, that while the native plants of burning Africa flourish in the sandy soils of the South, the plants and animals of Lapland are found on the mossy hills of the northern districts.

Not less than three fourths of the American population are engaged in agriculture, who, in the Northern and Middle States, pursue, with some local modifications, the various methods of cultivation employed by our British farmers. Some districts, as New England and Vermont, are best adapted for grazing; while others, as in Pennsylvania, are equally adapted to the plough and the pail. In the last-mentioned state, great care is bestowed on the formation of meadows; the soil of which, being alluvial, yields very abundant crops of grass, without any other manure than that which is dropped by the cattle grazing on them. The meadows on the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, are stated to be not surpassed by any in the world for the luxuriancy of their indigenous grasses. The formation of societies for the promotion of agriculture has greatly contributed to improve that of the United States; and the societies established at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other places, have particularly distinguished themselves by the utility of their publications.

The number of native grasses is great; and their nourishing qualities are evinced by the size and number of the cattle which are annually brought from the thickly timbered forests of the new

land. The most remarkable of these are the following:-In the Northern and Middle States the poa viridis, or green sward-grass, is particularly valued for its abundance and succulence. It is nearly allied to the poa angustifolia of Linnæus; and such is its tendency to take possession of rich ground, that, if the meadows on the Delaware be ploughed and sown with grain and clover seeds, the green grass will smother the clover after the first year. In the inexhaustible mellow soil of the peninsula between the Delaware and Schuylkill, and on the banks of those rivers, three crops of this grass may be cut every year, and from two to three tons per acre may be obtained at each cutting: further, it has this peculiar quality, that it continues unaffected by frost, so that, after the artificial grasses are killed for the season, this excellent grass continues to flourish, and even to acquire a new relish by the operation of the cold. Cattle, therefore, continue to fatten upon it, while those who depend upon clover and other artificial grasses, are obliged either to kill their stock, or to resort to the expensive measure of keeping them on hay to prevent their falling off. For a long time it was supposed to be peculiar to low soils; but for some years past it has been successfully cultivated on upland soils, which, when duly prepared, are found perfectly congenial to it. As the culture of this species of natural grass has greatly contributed, among other causes, to enrich the state of Pennsylvania, we conceive it might be advantageously introduced into our own country, especially as the climates of the two regions are so nearly alike.

The herd-grass (the agrostis stricta of Wildenow) is particularly adapted to wet low grounds; it mats and consolidates the surface, and continues in the ground for many years, excluding every other grass and all weeds. Many worthless swampy spots in the low parts of the state of New Jersey have been rendered valuable grazing grounds by this grass; loaded waggons having passed over places which, a few years before it was sown on them, would scarcely admit an animal to walk over them without sinking. It produces excellent hay, and cattle are said to prefer it to that made either of clover or timothy grass. Four tons per acre are a common crop; it does not, however, yield a second crop, but affords excellent late and early pasture.

Fiorin, of which an ample account was given in a former volume of our Review *, has been successfully introduced into America. We have not observed any material facts in the volumes before us, that furnish any information in addition to that which we have already communicated; but all the American experiments in its culture tend to prove its prolific qualities and abundant produce. White clover is, undoubtedly, a native plant of the United States:

→ See British Review, vol, i. p. 145–160,

in every part of America the ground is spontaneously covered with this grass, which frequently grows with a luxuriance that art can rarely equal in Europe. The Southern States of the Union are not less favoured by Providence with excellent native grasses. The principal of these are the crab-grass and the water-oat.

The crab-grass or crop-grass (Syntherisma præcox, serotina, et villosa) promises to be a valuable acquisition to our West India Islands: it bears one or two cuttings during the season, and attains the height of two or three feet. It makes its appearance in the latter end of April and the beginning of May, with the crops which are then advancing, and does not mature itself until the latter end of the summer, about the time the crops are made. Hence it was called crop-grass, and, by adulteration, crab-grass. In good high land, or where it has been manured, this grass comes up thickly without being sown; and from the little attention it requires, as well as from the excellence of its fodder, it is the grass most extensively cultivated in Carolina. To the southern planter it is stated to be "a real blessing:" the quantity it produces on good ground is truly astonishing; and in one of the volumes now under consideration, a well authenticated instance is given, in which one man cut off so much of this grass per acre, that, with all the advantages of a warm sun, the hay could not be made on the ground which had produced it *.

The water-oat (Zizania aquatica) grows on the borders of fresh water rivers where tides flow, and makes an excellent fodder when cut green. The Indians of Canada, it is well known, carefully collect the seeds of this plant, which they make into bread. In South Carolina and Georgia, the appearance of the water-oat is always indicative of good land. Some experiments, we believe, have been made by the venerable President of the Royal Society, in the rearing of this grass; the introduction of which was strenuously recommended a few years since, particularly for Ireland, where there are many extensive lakes that appear well suited for the purpose. As a substitute for rice in our new settlements in the southern hemisphere, where the climate is too cold for that grain, it should seem to be a very desirable acquisition; and might be sown in the morasses and swamps that always abound in thinly inhabited countries, and which require more labour to drain than new establishments can afford.

Among the artificial grasses reared in the United States, we find all those usually cultivated in this country; but red clover is the most important of all. It was introduced into Pennsylvania nearly seventy years since, but excited little attention until twenty years afterwards, when its vegetative power was discovered to be

* Geological Account of the United States, p. 222.

increased to an almost incredible degree by the apparently magical effects of gypsum*. Since that time it has become an essential article in the rotation of crops of the last-mentioned state, and has diffused more substantial wealth than would have resulted from the discovery of a gold mine. The cultivation of this grass is spreading through the neighbouring states; though it does not appear to be a favourite among the planters of Maryland and Virginia, who prefer raising the precarious tobacco-plant, or repeated crops of wheat or Indian corn.

For the varieties of grain, the United States are indebted to the other quarters of the world, with the exception of the wateroat. But though they cannot boast of originating those necessary articles, we may justly assign to them the praise of having improved the qualities of those kinds which have been introduced, and of producing from them varieties superior, perhaps, in point of quality, to any in the known world +. The excellency of American flour has long been acknowledged; and the rice of the Southern States will bear a comparison with any in the world. Tobacco is a staple article of Virginia, as cotton is of the Southern States. At one time, a considerable quantity of silk was raised in South Carolina and Georgia; but it has since given place to the more lucrative productions of cotton and rice. The soil and climate of those states are allowed to be well adapted to the raising of silk. Mulberry trees grow spontaneously in various places; and native silk worms, producing well-formed cocoons, are often found in the woods.

The following information relative to the varieties of cotton

* Immense quantities of this valuable manure have for many years been imported into the United States from the Bay of Fundy. It is, however, found in various parts of the country in considerable abundance, but especially on the eastern bank of the Cayuga Lake, where there is a bed thirteen miles in extent, and at the termination of the rapids of the outlet of Lake Seneca, whence it is transported by land and water carriage over a very extensive tract of country. In the third volume of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society's Memoirs, Sir H. Davy's account of this vaJuable manure is pretty severely criticised by one of its members, Judge Peters.

+ In the Appendix to Vol. I. of the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Səciety is an interesting paper, by Mr. Joseph Cooper, entitled "Change of Seed not necessary to prevent degeneracy." Although this communication is stated to have been already published in the United States and in Europe," yet it has not before occurred to us: it is, indeed, so curious and important, that we regret that we cannot insert it entire. Let it suffice to state that, from forty years experience, Mr. Cooper combats the generally received opinion, that change of seed is necessary to prevent it from degenerating. Could this be fairly established, it would be most desirable information to the husbandman; and though Mr. Cooper's assertions are unquestionably contrary to agricultural experience, at least in this country, yet we cannot but admit that his recommendation to the farmer, "to select seeds or roots for planting or sowing, from such vegetables as come to the greatest perfec tion, in the soil which he cultivates," is a probable, if not the sure means, of attainIng the end desired. Mem. of Phil. Soc. Vol. I, Appendix, pp. 12-17.

eultivated in the United States, is new to us, and will probably be equally novel to our readers.

"The cotton of the United States may be ranged in three classes, viz. nankeen, green seed, and black seed cotton. Nankeen cotton is principally grown in the middle and upper country for family use. It is so called from the wool resembling the colour of nankeen or nankin cloth, which it retains as long as it is worn: it is not in much demand, the white cotton having engrossed the public attention. Were it encouraged, however, cloths might be manufactured from it, perhaps not inferior to those imported from China, it being probable that the cotton is of the same kind; as, from experiments which have been made, nankeens have been manufactured in South Carolina State, of good colour and very strong texture.

"Green seed cotton produces a good white wool, adhering much to the seed, and of course with difficulty ginned. Its produce is greater, and its maturity is sooner than the black seed, for which reason it is principally cultivated in the upper and middle country; as the seasons of those districts are shorter by several weeks than those of the lower country, and the frosts are more severe.

"Black seed cotton is that which is grown in the lower country, and` on the sea islands, producing a fine white cotton of silky appearance, very strong, and of good staple. The mode of culture is the same with all these species; and rich high land is the soil on which they are generally planted. In the middle country, however, the high swamp lands produce the green seed in great abundance; and some tide lands and salt water marshes (after being reclaimed) in the lower country, have also made excellent crops of this valuable article."-(Geological Account of the United States, pp. 232, 233.)

It is a singular fact with respect to this plant, that the sea air is essential to the preservation of the black colour of the seed, as well as to the length and fine quality of the staple; repeated experiments having shown that the seed becomes green, and the quality of the wool diminished when cotton is planted in the upper country. The cotton of the sea coast, especially of South Carolina and Georgia, is the most highly valued, and produces the best prices at the market. The quantity of black seed cotton produced on an acre of land, in a Georgia sea island, is stated to be about 200 lbs.; in Carolina from 130 to 150 lbs. ; and an acre of upland will yield upwards of 300 lbs. of green seed cotton.

The Southern States have been greatly enriched by the cultivation of this important article, which has been raised to its present extent only within the last twenty years, and succeeded to the unprofitable and unhealthy culture and preparation of indigo; as the planters found, that after their land had ceased to produce a sufficient crop of that plant, the same land would yield an abundant crop of cotton, thus affording them an useful lesson with