‘From this source it has arisen that all the unburnt new lands in the northern, middle, southern, and western states, have been, and still are, uniformly valued beyond their real worth. When the tract on the mountains in Massachusetts was first settled, the same luxuriant fertility was attributed to it which has since characterized Kentucky. About the same time it was ascribed to the Valley of Housatonic, in the county of Berkshire. From these tracts it was transferred to the lands in New Hampshire and Vermont, on the Connecticut; and from thence to those in Vermont, on the western side of the Green Mountains. From these regions the paradise has travelled to the western part of the state of New York, to New Connecticut, to Upper Canada, to the countries on the Ohio, to the south-western territory, and is now making its progress over the Mississippi into the newly purchased regions of Louisiana. The accounts given of all these countries, successively, were extensively true, but the conclusions which were deduced from them were, in a great measure, erroneous. So long as this mould remains, the produce will be regularly great, and that with very imperfect cultivation,――for the mould in its native state is so soft and light, as scarcely to need the aid of the plough. But this mould, after a length of time, will be dissipated. Where lands are continually ploughed, it is soon lost; on those which are covered with grass from the beginning, it is preserved through a considerable period. At length, however, every appearance of its efficacy, and even of its existence, vanishes.