Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/122

 being able to spare the dollars. Eight horses or oxen, therefore, tread out the grain, 100 bushels a day. The machine was knocked to pieces, and the proprietor set off, a poor pedestrian, to New Orleans, walking to and fro, up and down the Ohio and Mississipi, and that, without spending any money save his earnings, of which he brought 10 dollars home. He thus travelled 4,000 miles, to see, hear, and know what he could of the western wilds, and their towns and cities, where he could earn only three dollars a week, (but slaves, six dollars,) and that not constantly. Slaves are preferred all over the west. While with his machine, he worked hard, many days with his shirt off, under a roasting sun. As I have his western journal, he may hereafter speak for himself. Both these young men, as well as the Chamberses, lived freely, and acted imprudently. They dressed in stile, and would have dinners, which cost four dollars a week. Much less beer is here made from the same quantity of malt than in England; about one half less.

14th.—Met Mr. Cocken, late of Lincolnshire, who came to this city with money, and has increased it. "As good farms and farmers as any in England, are," he says, "to be found in this {105} state of Maryland. My son a few years ago only, purchased and began with 500l., and has now made it 5,000l. If I were a young man now, I would begin on the poor worn-out land round this city, which is to be bought low, and may soon be regenerated by plaster of Paris, one bushel to the acre, from the port of Alexandria, whence it is plentifully imported and prepared for sowing. The English system is wanted. I have seen fine red clover, two or three tons on an acre, foolishly spoiled by depasturing and stocking hard, whereas it ought to have been cut and used after the soiling