Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/128

 masses of granite lie over strata of secondary limestone; and has conjectured that they have been brought from the primitive country north of the lakes, by the agency of water passing from north to south. This hypothesis is countenanced by the vast quantities of alluvial soil which lie far above the level of the present river, and by the almost total absence of primitive rocks, between the eastern side of the Allegany ridge, and the sources of the Missouri. The only exception known is the tract between Lakes Ontario and Champlain,—a field so narrow that we cannot view it as the probable source of fragments profusely scattered over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

In this part of Ohio State, first and second rate lands sell at four or five dollars per acre. The richest ground is in bottoms: the hilly has many {98} parts not accessible to the plough. Buildings are most commonly erected on rising grounds. Such situations are believed to be most salubrious, and abound most in good springs.

Farming establishments are small. Most cultivators do every thing for themselves, even to the fabrication of their agricultural implements. Few hire others permanently, it being difficult and expensive to keep labourers for any great length of time. They are not servants, all are hired hands: Females are averse to dairy, or menial employments. The daughters of the most numerous families continue with their parents. There is only one way of removing them. This disposition is said to prevail over almost the whole of the United States. A manufacturer at Philadelphia told me, that he had no difficulty in finding females to be employed in his work-shop; but a girl for house-work he could not procure for less than twice the manufacturing wages. Some of the children of