Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/87

 to be mistaken for pasture. This growth is occasioned by the long course of hot weather, which succeeds an early harvest. It would be advantageous if clover, or some other useful herbage, were sown amongst the crops, that the farmer might not only avail himself of the propensity to vegetation, but check the dissemination of weeds so hurtful to adjoining fields, and to the succeeding pasture.

The potato crops are better than those I have seen on the coast, the plants are more vigorous, and the tubers much larger.

Land partly cleared, and with some rude buildings {58} thereon, sells at from twenty to forty dollars an acre.

The new road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is now in an advanced stage of progress.[36] Much of it is finished, and corresponding parts of the old track abandoned. Probably, by two years hence, the traveller will have a turnpike from the one city to the other. The improvement is important, but it is not one that deserves unqualified praise. In multitudes of cases, it passes through hollows, and over eminences, without regard to that minimum of declivity, which in a great measure constitutes the value of a road. In some cases, the vertical curve, formed by passing over rising grounds, is so long, that, applied laterally, the eminence surmounted, would have been altogether avoided. The road from Baltimore to Wheeling, now constructing at the expense of the government, is understood to be more judiciously laid off. Its competition must, ere long, give the proprietors of the Philadelphia line, an instructive lesson on the economical application of labour.