North America, its agriculture and climate

Front matter

NORTH AMERICA ITS AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE. NORTH AMERICA ITS AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS ON THE AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE OF CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE ISLAND OF CUBA. BY ROBERT RUSSELL, KILWniSS. EDINBURGH : ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK. MDCCCLVH ' ■/■ ri-teuiu) the ri'iht of trtimltiliv PRINTED BY R. AND R. CLASH, EDINBURGH. TO PROFESSOR JAMES P, ESPY, WASHINGTON. MY DEAR SIR, I take the liberty of dedicating this Voltfme to you, in grateful remembrance of the kindness I received from you while in Washington. During the many agreeable hours I spent in your company, the climate of North America formed the chief topic of conversation. In the last chapter of this Volume, I now give a fuller expo sition of the views sketched out in the Lectures I delivered in the Smithsonian Institution, and which you honoured with your presence.

The explanation of the laws which regulate the climate of North America may not meet with your entire approval ; but I feel sure that your zeal for the advancement of a science for which you have already done so much, will induce you to give the facts and opinions brought forward your careful consideration. Believe me, With feelings of great regard Ever faithfully yours, ROBERT RUSSELL. Kijlwhiss, 10th June 1857. CONTENTS. rage Chapter I Liverpool to Burlington, Vermont 1 Chapter II Burlington to Niagara 16 Chapter III Upper Canada 37 Chapter IV Lower Canada 55 Chapter V Osvvego to Cincinnati 76 Chapter VI Cincinnati to Chicago 90 Chapter VII. ... Chicago to Baltimore 110 Chapter VIII. ... Baltimore to Washington 133 Chapter IX Washington to Charleston 150 Chapter X Kice Culture 168 Chapter XI Tour in Cuba 186 Chapter XII. . .

Climate and Agriculture of Cuba 204 Chapter XIII. ... The Inhabitants and Social State of Cuba . . . .224 Chapter XIV. ... Havannah to Natchez, Louisiana 243 Chapter XV Excursion on the Mississippi 262 Chapter XVI. ... New Orleans to Washington 281 Chapter XVII. ... Climate of North America 303 Meteorological Registers 380 Ind.x NORTH AMERICA. ITS AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE.

Chapter I. Liverpool To Burlington, Vermont

The triumphs of steam have, in a great measure, deprived a voyage to America of its former tediousness and irregularity, and given to it much of the character of a ferry passage. This facility put it in my power to gratify a long-cherished wish ; and on the 5th August 1854, I sailed from Liverpool on board the " America," one of the Cunard line of steamers, for Boston, via Halifax. In common with the majority of landsmen, I experienced considerable discomfort during the first few days I was upon the restless ocean ; but the remainder of the voyage was rendered exceedingly agreeable by inter course with a varied company of fellow passengers. The weather was more stormy than it usually is at that season of the year ; and when we reached the lower latitudes of the American coast, it was much colder than I expected to find it.

On the eleventh day after leaving Liverpool, the coast of Nova Scotia became visible. The heated air from the vast continent cleared the atmosphere of the clout's which had almost constantly obscured it during the voyage ; and a glorious afternoon it was when we steered into the magnificent harbour of Halifax. The coast here is barren and rocky, and covered with dwarf spruce trees. There are only small patches fit for cultivation, and the grain crops were quite green. b MASSACHUSETTS. Another day and two nights' sailing after leaving Hali fax brought us at sunrise within sight of the heights of Boston ; and in a short time, after threading her way among islands, ships, and curiously shaped steamers, the " America" reached her landing at East Boston. I soon found my way to the Revere Hotel, and was greatly surprised at the extent and splendour of its accom modation.

The town is built on a peninsula. Its closely packed brick houses, and its streets thickly crowded with omnibuses, reminded me of London. The streets are narrow and irregular, which makes it difficult for a stranger to find his way. On the north side of the town there is a large and fine common, which affords ample space for the recreation of the inhabitants. Three sides of this common are occupied by the dwellings of the most wealthy inhabitants, and in front of the houses rows of American trees, consisting of the sumach, maple, and acacia, beautify this quarter, and afford a grateful shade in the sultry heats of summer. In no town in America can a stranger spend a few days more agreeably than in Boston. Here there is a numerous class who are not engrossed with the all-absorbing pursuits of commerce.

The number of public institutions that are easily accessible impress one favourably with the progress which our western brethren are making in the refinements of modern civilization. The great increase of Boston, and the limited extent of the peninsula on which it is built, have forced many of the wealthy merchants to reside in the country. For seven or eight miles out of town the country is thickly studded over with handsome villas laid out in ornamental grounds and gardens. Though the land is of the most sterile character, consisting chiefly of sand and gravel, and frequently of bare rocks, with polished surfaces, yet building sites, are worth from £200 to £300 an acre, even at the distance of ten miles from town. On first landing in America, I was struck with the small stature of the men and women, and also with the paleness of their faces.

The great extremes of temperature in the United States seem to deprive the Anglo-Saxon of that BOSTON. 3 freshness of complexion which is so common in our own cool and equable climate. The day after my arrival I attended a " fair," held on the property of the late Daniel Webster, at Marshfield, in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, the spot where the Puritans first landed. The inhabitants, from a wide circle of country, had assembled to spend a holiday. There was a bazaar for the sale of ladies' work, with a band of music, which formed the chief amusement of the day. The modest mansion where Daniel Webster was wont to reside was thrown open to the public, and was so thronged with visitors that I could hardly elbow my way through it. All were well dressed, and many of the ladies were exceedingly good looking.

At Winslow, a short distance from Marshfield, was buried the first white man born in New England. In the same retired spot are mouldering the ashes of Daniel Webster, whose memory.is fondly cherished by the people of this district. The country betwixt Marshfield and Boston, a distance of thirty-six miles, is so miserably poor that little of it is fit for cultivation. From Winslow I walked down to the sea-shore through some fields which had been in pasture for several years. The grass was so completely withered that it crisped beneath my feet, while clouds of grasshoppers rose at every step. Large boulders were thickly imbedded in it everywhere. Yet I was told this was good land, and in good condition. At first I was rather sceptical of my informant being in earnest, but subsequently I discovered that, comparatively speaking, this was not a bad soil for New England, where the granitic rocks predominate.

In the salt marshes I saw a farmer load ing a waggon with hay, which, though very coarse in" quality, cost on the spot £2 : 2s. for a ton of 2000 lbs., and was to be conveyed thirteen miles into the interior. I paid a visit to B. French, Esq., at Braintree, about six miles from Boston, where also the soil was poor. It is rather wonderful, however, that it is so well adapted for orchards, for the apple trees were bearing abundant crops. Crushed bones are found to be a very beneficial application for fruit trees". . The agriculture of this part of America is by no means interesting to one from the old country. The farms are MASSACHUSETTS. small, and the offices are usually under one roof. At Brain tree they formed a high building of three storeys, with the hay in the upper, the cattle in the middle, and the manure in the under.

The foundations were dug out of a sloping bank, and the floor of the upper storey was level with the ground on the outside. There is a great scarcity of straw in the New England states, and the cattle and horses lie on boards for the purpose of economising it. I spent a day in the manufacturing town of Lowell, which is twenty-six miles from Boston. The intervening country is still more barren, if anything could be so than what I had seen in my trip to Marshfield. The only attempts at cultivation were some crops of Indian com and market vegetables growing upon sand almost as loose as that upon the sea shore. No rain had fallen for some time, and the air felt most oppressive, — hot as if it had come from an oven, and so opaque with dust that the horizon was black all round, just as it often is before a thunder-storm.

To one newly arrived from the old country, the condition of the Lowell factory operatives is interesting, there being a great contrast in their appearance to that of the same class in our manufacturing towns. The cotton mills at Lowell belong to a corporation or joint-stock company, and furnish employment to about 10,000 hands, of whom 2000 are women earning from three to four dollars a week. These are generally the daughters of the small farmers of New England. After paying their board, they can lay aside about one-half of their earnings, which in three or four years furnish them with a little money, and it is seldom that they remain at the works for a longer period. They board together in private houses, built by the corpo ration, and let to widows and others. Each boarding house can accommodate about forty inmates, who are most comfortably lodged.

From all that I could learn, the present condition of the Lowell operatives is quite as favourable to a high state of morality as that of the middle classes in Britain. The interest taken in the welfare of the operatives in the New England factories is highly creditable to the spirit of the corporation, and it is LOWELL FACTORIES. 5 to be hoped that a system productive of such favourable results will not hereafter be broken in upon by the rude necessities of competition. I was informed by a commercial gentleman that one of the main elements in the success of the factory system, both at Lowell and at Lawrence, arose from the provident wisdom of the corporations buying the land in the neighbourhood of the sites upon which they were to build their works, and afterwards selling it at high rates for building upon.

Thus new towns speedily arose to accommodate the population drawn together by the erection of the numerous mills, and imparted a high value to ground that was otherwise com paratively worthless. The peninsula of Nahant forms a favourite retreat for the Bostonians during the heats of summer. The hotel at Nahant is still more splendid than the Revere at Boston. One night while I was there, Professor Agassiz gave an interesting lecture on the geology of the peninsula to a highly fashionable company in the large dining-room of the hotel. Spending the Sunday at this delightful spot, I attended the only church in the neighbourhood. To suit a class of hearers so miscellaneous as those who frequent the hotel or have villas in the vicinity, ministers of the various Protestant denominations officiate alternately.

A committee of laymen make the necessary arrangements for obtaining preachers from the Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Presby terian, or Unitarian bodies. A preacher of the last-men tioned denomination it fell to my lot to hear. No doctrinal peculiarities could be detected in his sermon, which was practical, and delivered with great earnestness. It is very difficult to draw lines of distinction betw Teen classes of society in New England. At the hotel I had some conversation with a person who had all the appearance and manners of a gentleman, but who was no other than a working mechanic. He had driven down his wnfe and family from a village thirteen miles inland to have a day's recreation at Nahant. This way of spending a little spare money raises the moral and social condition of those who labour with their hands, and maintains a sense of self-respect.

The MASSACHUSETTS. general diffusion of education among all classes in New Eng land has had the effect of raising them in a great measure beyond the temptation of indulging in drinking habits, which are more common where ignorance prevails, especially when combined with a high rate of wages. A Sheffield manufacturer, carrying on business both in England and the United States, informed me that in the majority of cases the high wages which he paid to his workmen in Britain did not improve their condition, as so much was squandered for spirits, whereas the educated mechanics of New England were in general a sober and industrious class of men. After travelling for some time in Massachusetts, one is impressed with the thorough diffusion of education among all classes, and with the universal politeness mingled with inde pendence which prevails.

Although American phrases are very common in ordinary conversation, yet in all the larger towns of this State the English language is spoken with great purity. The legislature is making efforts to give a free education to every one who chooses to accept of it. Boston and its environs contain a population of about 300,000, and in 1853 they assessed themselves to the amount of £60,000 for educational purposes. Leaving Boston, I took the cars to Brunswick in Maine. The country is very poor all the way, and small patches only are in cultivation. Over large portions the granitic rocks protrude, and gravels and sands are the common materials out of which the soils have been formed. Pines, elms, beech, and birch, grow vigorously in this rocky country, and here, as elsewhere in the northern parts of America, it was sur prising to see such abundant crops of apples on trees which grow in the roughest gravels.

There is much similarity in the appearance of the New England villages. There are no signs of poverty, and none of great riches. The streets are very wide and unpaved, but broad side-walks made of planks afford good walking in the worst weather. Every house stands detached with a spot of garden ground around it, which gives to the streets a straggling appearance, while the acacia trees planted in front impart a rural aspect in summer. The houses are all made of MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 7 boards painted white, and the interiors are kept remarkably clean. The school-house is always the principal building in the village, and neatly-built churches are never awanting. Under the guidance of Dr. Hitchcock I visited the Con gregational college at Brunswick, Maine. This body in America have a system of organisation similar to the Presby terian ; but though they hold stated meetings for the purpose of consultation and of giving advice, no dictation is used towards any individual church.

The students lodge in the buildings which are attached to the university. One building accommodates about thirty individuals, who have each a separate room for the half-yearly rent of twenty dollars. This plan of boarding is similar to that which the young women have at Lowell. The system of living in boarding houses, so common in all parts of the United States, evidently arises from the circumstance, that a better table and better accommodation can by that means be got for less money than by taking up house and keeping servants. Might not this system of association, in an economical point of view, be worthy of a trial in our own manufacturing towns ? The Maine liquor law was still nominally in force while I was in that State, though in many parts it seemed to be in abeyance. I asked the boy at the bar of the hotel in Bruns wick if I might have a glass of brandy.

" I guess so," was the unhesitating reply. Professor Hitchcock seemed to regard its advantages as problematical. The temperance party were loud in its praise, but there were no data to show that it had much effect either one way or other. At first the law was very rigorously carried out, but afterwards it was much relaxed. In some of the towns through which I passed it was necessary to go to the cellar to obtain liquor, but in others it was sold openly over the bar with as much freedom as if no such law was in existence. This open violation of the law I found in Newbury, Vermont, where I saw people partaking at all hours, and where the good natured landlord was laughing at the legal prohibition. There is, in truth, no executive force here to carry such a law into operation. The temperance party, therefore, had not only to make the law, MAINE. but also to become informers in order to have it put into force.

It is not to be wondered at that this state of matters did not continue long. The informers soon relaxed in their zeal after having drawn upon their own heads much ill-will, and thus, in many places, the law fell completely into abey ance, which must have a bad moral effect, and tend to weaken the reverence for all laws. But how could any other result be expected, seeing, as my worthy informant assured me, one fourth of the population were opposed to the law and were continually breaking it. It is in the other States, where the temperance party are agitating for the adoption of the liquor law, that its good effects in name are so highly extolled. The New Englanders, on the whole, are a very temperate people. But no doubt the temperate habits of the educated and well-to-do classes, the lawyers, clergymen, and merchants, have a more beneficial influence in promoting and diffusing habits of temperance among those who are beneath them in wealth than the much talked of Maine Law.

In New Eng land there is little or no drinking for the sake of sociality as is too much the case in Scotland. Indeed, it is not uncom mon to find neither wine nor spirits at dinner parties. Those, on the other hand, who are addicted to drinking in America, drink in earnest, for they begin in the morning taking a little, and continue repeating the dose at intervals throughout the day. It is almost incredible the quantity of spirits which some people consume who have habits of this kind, and who, at the same time, never appear the worse of liquor. Leaving Brunswick and returning south a few miles, I took my seat in the Atlantic Railway (connecting Portland and Montreal) as far as Gorham Station, which is within eight miles of Mount Washington, the highest mountain in the territories of the United States, east of the Mississippi.

The country was only partially cultivated for the first part of my journey. A good many small farms were seen, but the occupants must certainly derive their subsistence from other employments than that of cultivating the land. The soil appeared almost destitute of vegetable mould. There was an exceedingly small portion under cultivation, and the barn which contained all the crop and stock was seldom larger than the NEW ENGLAND FORESTS. 9 farm house. No fields were seen without numbers of granite boulders sticking out in the withered pastures. The country gradually becomes more rugged and hilly, and much of the level land in the valleys is so thickly covered with boulders as to defy all attempts at cultivation. The soil and climate of New England, however, are par ticularly genial to the growth of timber.

Fire seems to destroy wide tracts of the forest almost every year during the periods of dry weather ; but the burnt surface soon renews its covering. I wTas shown a spot which had been destroyed by fire the previous year, and which was already occupied with young thriving birch saplings. However rocky and barren the soil may be, if it is not too precipitous, it is always covered by a dense growth of timber ; and every little crevice in the rocks affords sufficient hold for some gnarled member of the forest to fix its roots in and obtain a subsistence. Before reaching Gorham Station, we entered the narrow valley of the Androscoggin. The hills are quite precipitous and thickly timbered. On a few spots of the interval land crops of Indian corn, oats, and potatoes were growing ; yellow pumpkins also, many of them a foot and a-half in length, were lying thickly over the ground among the Indian corn, which was parched and withered by the drought.

It is rather curious how the broad succulent leaves of the pumpkins obtain sufficient moisture from their long trailing vines, out of a soil consisting of little else than loose sand. When I arrived at Gorham Station, which is 800 feet above the level of the sea, I found the spacious and elegant hotel newly erected there overcrowded with visitors. Luckily, however, I immediately got a seat in a coach which was just starting for Glen House, a distance of eight miles. Six active little horses were soon dashing along a very rough road recently cut out of the primeval forest. I was struck with the wanton luxuriance of nature, not so much shown in the size of the timber as in the number of trees which the soil was supporting. In the lower valley the forest was almost an impenetrable mass of trunks in all stages of growth and decay, and under their dense shade not a blade of grass was seen.

NEW HAMPSHIRE. It appears to be a peculiarity of the primary soils of the New England States that the pine, the elm, the maple, the beech, and the spruce, grow together in social equality. In many places it would have been difficult to find out which of these varieties predominated. In height, however, the pines towered above all the others ; and in all those parts of the forest which had been somewhat recently cleared by the fires, the birch was by far the most common. The birch is a rapid grower, but it soon attains maturity or limit of growth, so that, in the long run, it cannot compete with those which ultimately rise to a greater height, and, overtopping it, shut it out from the sun's rays. Thus, in the older portions of the forest, few birch trees are seen. It is the great variety of trees in the New England forests which affords such a gorgeous spectacle when autumn tinges the leaves with so many brilliant hues.

Glen House Hotel, 1600 feet above the level of the sea, is close at the base of Mount Washington, which is 6300 feet. At this hotel, no fewer than 350 persons can be accom modated with board and lodging. The morning after my arrival I started with a party of fifteen ladies and gentlemen to ascend to the top of the mountain. The party were mounted on pomes, and though urged to follow their example, I preferred to walk up at my leisure, and I was afterwards convinced this was the more agreeable mode of ascending. Mount Washington is densely covered with trees to the height of 4500 feet. The usual varieties prevail at the base, but as you ascend there are fewer, and by and by nothing but pines are seen. These gradually diminish in size till the limit of their growth is attained, where there are some curious specimens of dwarfs less than a foot in height.

The stones which afford them shelter from the violent westerly winds regulate their height, as they cannot at a certain elevation rear their heads above the level of their protectors. In the upper part of the mountain I walked over a con siderable space wdiere the forest had been burnt down five years ago. Every trace of vegetable matter had disappeared MOUNT WASHINGTON. 11 from the surface, and the granite stones at a distance looked nearly as white as chalk. There was no appearance of any pines or vegetation coming up to cover what was wasted by the fire. The reclothing of the ground at this great eleva tion will evidently be a slow process. How different from what takes place below, where the fires seem actually to invigorate the vegetable kingdom. Like many other high mountains, the summit of Mount Washington is covered with blocks of granite of great dimensions.

A roughly built house has been erected on the top calculated to accommodate 100 visitors for a night. Od this occasion we met another party which had ascended from the opposite side of the mountain. At dinner we numbered about thirty ; some had brought up a good supply of cham pagne, which was disposed very freely among those who had made no such provision, and altogether our party was a very happy one. The view from the top was sadly marred by the quan tity of smoke which floated in the air, and which was caused by the burning of some parts of the forest. Mount Wash ington has not the wild sublimity of Ben Nevis and some of the other Scottish hills. It has, however, a grandeur of its own ; the high mountains surrounding it on all sides form magnificent ravines all densely covered with timber.

As far as the eye could reach, not a spot was in sight under cultiva tion, a prospect that afforded me some idea of the appearance which the whole country must have presented before the white man set his foot on the western continent. The blocks on the top of the mountain were covered with a light green lichen. A large lichen (Barmelia cen trifuga) was seen on some of the stones, many of the specimens being upwards of a foot in diameter. In some respects, the habits of this singular plant resemble those of the fungi, which form the fairy rings in our pastures, growing in a circle, and enlarging every year. In the larger specimens of this lichen, the vitality of the plant was confined to the outer portions, while the inner was decaying and rising from the stone ; in many cases, the centre was per fectly bare and destitute of vegetable matter.

The larger NEW HAMPSHIRE. lichens seem to live upon the smaller, and probably the larger only have the necessary conditions of growth after the smaller have taken root on the bare surface and arrived at maturity. This day (the 30th August) was remarkably warm in the valley, but the thermometer was only 60° Fahrenheit on the top of the mountain. The road to the top was simply a rough footpath, but it was amazing how the ponies made their way up, scrambling over stones and roots of trees. It took me about three hours to ascend and one to descend. The ponies were shockingly lean, and no wonder, as it was close upon the end of the season, and some of them had made their fifty-fifth ascent. Next morning I took the coach to Crawford House, a distance of thirty-five miles ; the first eight miles lay over a road made two years ago through the forest.

There were mere patches in cultivation, and that only for a small part of the way. The Indian corn was quite parched by the drought ; but in the same fields pumpkins were in great quantities. On looking into some of the small farm-houses I was glad to see so many signs of comfort. Before reaching the hotel, I passed through the valley of the Saco. The hills on both sides rose abruptly from the banks of the stream to the height of more than 2000 feet, and were covered to their summits with wood. The accommodation at Craw ford House is excellent, though it is situated in the midst of a wilderness. 1st Sept. — Took the coach to St. Johnsburgh on the Brunswick River, a branch of the Connecticut, a distance of twenty-two miles. Very little is in cultivation, the sides of the hills being densely and beautifully covered with the original forest, in which the sugar maple is abundant.

Passed a few hop gardens. The vines appeared to have fewer leaves and more fruit than those growing in England. Numbers of men and women were busy gathering them. However poor the soil might be, the orchards of apples were bearing fruit in great abundance. Oxen are used here very generally for the plough and the waggon. NEWBURV. I was amused with two passengers on the coach who used the word " guess " in almost every sentence. Both were polite and well dressed. One had been netting pigeons, which are found in great numbers in the woods at this season. The previous day he had taken one hun dred and forty at one haul of the net. For these a ready market is got in the towns of the low country at a dollar a dozen. The other had been agent for the stage-coach at Glen House, and as the season for visiting the White Mountains was now nearly over, he was on his way to the low country to find out some other employment for the winter.

One grand speculation he had just entered upon ; he had bought a large bear for the sum of five dollars. I happened to see the brute the day before ; it was black, with the exception of a cream-coloured muzzle, and measured when standing erect, as its exhibitor declared, five feet and a half in height. It had been trapped in the woods, and its former owner had cleared one hundred dollars by exhibiting it during the tourist season. My travelling companion was quite sanguine that he would make a larger sum out of this speculation. He was to take it to the low country and advertise a bear-hunt ; every one bringing a dog was to pay him half a dollar. He expected to obtain three hundred subscribers. But in addition, he was at the same time to advertise a horse-race, and offer fifty dollars as a prize, which he was quite sure of winning himself and pocket ing the entry-money.