* * * * *

_Philadelphia, March 12th, 1794._

Dear Friend,

The price of labour in this country is very great, owing to the prospect
an industrious man has of procuring an independance by cultivating a tract
of the waste lands; many millions of acres of which are how on sale by
government; to say nothing of those held by individuals. The money arising
from the sale of the former is appropriated to the discharge of the
national debt.

During my residence in Jersey, I was at no little pains to inform myself
of the difficulties attending a back settler. We will suppose a person
making such an attempt to possess one hundred pounds, though many have
been successful with a much less sum: his first care is to purchase about
three hundred acres of land, which, if it is in a remote western
settlement, he will procure for about nineteen pounds sterling: he may
know the quality of the land by the trees, with which it is entirely
covered. The hickory and the walnut are an infallible sign of a rich, and
every species of fir, of a barren, sandy, and unprofitable soil. When his
land is properly registered, his next care is to provide himself with a
horse, a plough, and other implements of agriculture; a rifle, a fowling
piece, some ammunition, and a large dog of the blood-hound breed, to hunt
deer. We will suppose him arrived at the place of his destination in
spring, as soon as the ground is clear of frost. No sooner is the arrival
of a new settler circulated, than, for many miles round, his neighbours
flock to him: they all assist in erecting his hut; this is done with logs;
a bricklayer is only wanting to make his chimney and oven. He then clears