Should the inhabitants of the immense flats on the Genesee River and the adjacent country turn their attention to the cultivation of hemp, and the manufacturing of it into cordage, which may be sent, with very trifling land carriage, either to Quebec or Ballimore, both of which are advantageous markets, it is not possible to calculate what may hereafter be the value of this country.

1798. The number of families that came into this country last winter far exceeded any former year. Not less than three thousand people are supposed to have come into the counties of Ontario and Steuben in the course of six weeks last winter; and this spring families w^ere coming in the moment the navigation was free from ice. A Mr. Thayer, witli a number of families, moved into a new settlement on a tract of land south of Braddock's Bay. As a necessary measure, and to follow the footsteps of others, they are already building their mills, having brought with them all the materials.

Another settlement of Germans, from Pennsylvania, was this season begun at the south-west extremity of Steuben county, where they have a rich, unequal country, but well watered. These lands, being remote from the roads leading into the country, have heretofore been undervalued ; but the opening of a communication from that quarter to Pennsylvania, which is already partly efl'ected, will make it a commodious situation.

The rapid progress of this new country, in every comfort and convenience has not only caused the emigration of vast numbers of s\ibstantial farmers, but also of men of liberal education, who find here, a society not inferior to that in the oldest country settlements in America. The schools are far from being indifferent, and even the foundations of public libraries are already laid. The gentleman fond of a rural life, or the amusements of the field, may here o-ratify himself ; he may find a situation for a country-seat, that will please the most romantic fancy : the excellence of the climate and soil will afford him every certainty of a great return for his trouble and expense as a farmer, and with little trouble his garden may equal any gentleman's in England.* Indeed, with