Buch 
North America: its agriculture and climate : containing observations on the agriculture and climate of Canada, the United States, and the island of Cuba / by Robert Russell
Entstehung
Seite
89
JPEG-Download
 

PASTURES.

89

leaves of the cane furnished food much relished by cattle, andthe cropping of them in summer had the effect of extirpatingthe cane. As it disappeared, fine grasses took possession ofthe soil, and afford what is known in Kentucky as woodpastures. The powerful rays of the American sun renderthe grasses under trees not only nutritious, but palatable tocattle. I was also told by Lieut. Maury that the tramplingof the ground in pasturing it with cattle had the effect ofextirpating some kinds of trees in the wood pastures, fur-nishing an illustration of the influence of the physical condi-tions of soil in determining the growth of trees.

Cincinnati has increased its manufactures very much of lateyears. There are several cotton and tobacco factories, andalso of cloth and furniture upon a large scale, besides upwardsof forty iron foundries with machine shops. The curingof bacon is also carried on to an enormous extent. Asthe slaying or packing season was just commencing when Ileft town, the whole country in Southern Ohio seemed tobe swarming with pigs, and long trains of trucks filled withthem were pouring into the Porkopolis, where upwards ofhalf a million are slaughtered in the autumn. The porktrade is now a large one in almost every town in the southernpart of the State.

When I was in Cincinnati there was a run for gold onseveral of the banks, and the excitement was great, as threeor four had already suspended payment. While a friend wentinto one to draw some money, I intended to remain on thesteps of the door with another gentleman, until he should joinus. But one of the clerks of the establishment came andtold us to come in, if we required any money, and get it, butnot to stand about the door, as one or two might be the meansof collecting a crowd,and causing a run upon them. This Ithought revealed a deal of weakness, and at once I left the stepsas if the walls of the house were about to fall. A few daysafter leaving town, I learned that all the banks in Cincinnatihad suspended payment. During the time I was in Ohio,I met several parties who had been severe sufferers from thesefailures. Others, again, were rejoicing at the crisis, and blamingthe democracy for the disgraceful state of the currency laws.