-fcWith a more than usually productive Soil, not yet exhausted by a vicious system of cultivation ; with a temperate Climate, which was not only conducive to healthfulness, in the inhabitants, but promotive of the best interests of the farmers, in the ripening and harvesting of their crops ; with moderate Rentals for the properties held by those of them who were not Freeholders ; and with Taxes which were only nominal in amount; too far removed from the frontier to be harassed by the inroads of hostile Savages ; and near enough to the not distant City to enjoy the great advantages which it afforded, in a constant Market, at the highest prices, for all the surplus products of their farms which they should desire to sell, and, at the lowest prices, for whatever, of necessities or of luxuries, the products of this or of other countries, which they should desire to buy -- in the enjoyment of all these, the farmers of Westchester-county, especially during the later Colonial period, were favored as few other purely agriculturists have been favored, then or since, in any part of the world. _*'

With rare exceptions, these Westchester-county farmers were intelligent men, sufficiently educated for all the purposes of their business and of their recreation--even among the earlier of the several Towns, those farmers included, in their Westchester-county homes, men and women of culture, whose names, and characters, and abilities, as scholars and statesmen, in several instances, are matters of history, known throughout the world ; 6 while the intelligence of those of later Colonial periods is seen in the multitude of ecclesiastical and political papers, signed by large numbers of them, and rarely disfigured by the "marks" of those signers which have always been apologetic of the illiteracy of those who have thus used them.