Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/50

40 great: the American farmer scarcely knows any thing of the utility of manure; he makes but little use of it, and is ignorant how to vary it, or accommodate it to the quality and circumstances of the ground. Hence it is, in part, that he prefers the clearing up of new lands, to the amelioration of those which, because they are not manured, he regards as worn out or sterile. Thus he is continually changing his abode, and abandoning one piece of land, for another which appears to be better, without employing on any, with perseverance, those means and labours, which its quality demands, that it may answer his expectations.

The principal productions of the territory of the United States, are wheat, corn, rye, barley, maize, oats, rice and potatoes. It produces also some hemp, flax, cotton, indigo, sugar cane and tobacco, as well as a variety of plants and forest and garden fruits. But these productions differ according to climate and quality of soil: some are peculiar to one State, and some to another. It may be said, that the principal production in the Northern States is Indian corn: in those of the South, cotton and rice; and in the middle States wheat and tobacco. The cotton which is raised near the sea coast is of the best quality, and much esteemed in the markets of England. The tobacco is very inferior to that of our Americas; and can only stand in competition with that of the island of St. Domingo.