Some spots which I passed over I thought desirable,
particularly Ramsay's farm; and he deserves a good spot, for he is a civil,
sober, industrious man.
Besides his corn land, he has a well laid out
little garden, in which I found him and his wife busily at work.
He praised her industry to me; and said he did not doubt of succeeding.
It is not often seen that sailors make good farmers; but this man I think
bids fair to contradict the observation. The gentleman of no trade
(his own words to me) will, I apprehend, at the conclusion of the time
when victualling from the store is to cease, have the honour of returning
to drag a timber or brick cart for his maintenance. The little maize
he has planted is done in so slovenly a style as to promise a very poor crop.
He who looks forward to eat grapes from his own vine, and to sit
under the shade of his own fig-tree, must labour in every country.
He must exert more than ordinary activity. The attorney's clerk
I also thought out of his province. I dare believe that he finds cultivating
his own land not half so easy a task as he formerly found that of
stringing together volumes of tautology to encumber, or convey away,
that of his neighbour. Hubbard's farm, and Kelly's also, deserve regard,
from being better managed than most of the others. The people here
complain sadly of a destructive grub which destroys the young plants of maize.
Many of the settlers have been obliged to plant twice, nay thrice,
on the same land, from the depredations of these reptiles.
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