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to 40 bushels of wheat an acre; on the latter poor land from two to five bushels: he averages 25. He is satisfied with five bushels for the first few years. The poor land he {151} bought at six dollars an acre, but is sure of greatly increasing its value, although he shall gain nothing but rather lose by cultivation, for on 500 acres he could not support his family. Mr. Hillery is a man of large capital, enterprizing habits, and great industry; being always in the mill or the field, at work from sun-rise to sun-set. He is one of a large family of sons, who are all settled in a similar way: their father, in great agricultural riches and eminence, is still living. A poor man, (he says,) must never buy poor land; he must go to the west; but he is convinced that the east is the best for the present employment of capital, which cannot be invested with advantage in the west, unless the farmer is a trader also. Then he may succeed, but not by cultivating alone; there being no market there except New Orleans, where, if produce can be sold, it is found not to be worth raising. He has seen several who have returned, preferring the eastern states: he never felt any desire to emigrate, but means to visit the west for the purpose of seeing and judging, and buying estates for each of his children, in such parts as are likely to become the most inviting to, and lie in the channel of emigration. The poor man, if any body, must be the pioneer in the western regions. He showed me what he called his fine large ears of wheat, which are of the white and red bearded species, not half the length of the English, nor so fine and large in the kernel and {152} quality. Mr. Hillery thinks well of plaster, but by experience proves that it will not act beneficially on poor, worn-out land without manure. Its good effects are evident enough in suitable land, so as to