The most common sorts of timber in these parts of the country is as follows : sugar maple, beech, lyn (here called basswood) oak, ash, and elm ; and the hilly parts are mostly timbered with oak. Where the sugar maple and basswood are most common, the land is generally esteemed best for grass, and probably for grain, and is experienced to be durable ; and lands which produce mostly beech timber, are considered as generally clayey, wet and cold. A considerable portion of the better part of the country is timbered with oak, and lands on which it is of a large growth are by many esteemed the most durable, although at first not productive of as good crops as maple lands, and harder in tillage. Grain is frequently put into the ground without ploughing, the ground being only broke with a heavy harrow, and often yields, with this cultivation, upwards of twenty bushels of wheat from an acre. In a considerable portion of the country a rock of limestone lies from 2 to 6 feet under the surface of the earth, and large quantities of the loose stone are sometimes found above the surface, which is manufactured to advantage, and some of the best quality is now used in building.

But although the growth of timber usually denotes the sort of soil on which it grows, yet it sometimes happens that the soil varies materially in different places where the same sort of timber grows; and it is observed in some parts that the growth of the young timber is of a different sort from the old. Lands on which the growth of timber almost entirely consists of maple, basswood, and beech, appear to be attended with a scarcity of timber most suitable for fences ; although a quantity of oak, elm, ash, &c., is usually found on land of this description, sufficient for the purpose*- of fencing and building, and basswood rails, when the bark is taken off, are tolerably durable.