d pastures;
and the dairy industry has been carried on with constant fertilizing of
the lands; so that the great fields, heaping up one upon another, high
above the valley, and plunging down in steep slopes so suddenly that the
falling land is lost from view and the valley below seems to hang
unattached, are covered with a brilliancy of coloring and a variety of
those rich tints of green and orange which spell to the eye abundance,
and arouse a keen delight, like that of possessing and enjoying.

There is also a large dignity in the outlines of every scene, which
constantly expands the sensations and gives, on every hand, a sense of
exhilaration and a pleasurable excitement to the emotions, which seems
in experience to have something to do with the industry and application
characteristic of Quaker Hill.

With this the atmosphere has had much to do, no doubt, being dry and
soft. The first sensation of one alighting from a train in the town is
one of lightness and exhilaration. This sensation continues through the
first hours of one's stay on the Hill.[6] After the first day of
exhilaration come a day or more of drowsiness, with nights of profound
sleep. In some persons a heightened nervousness is experienced, but in
most cases the Hill has the effect upon those who reside there of a
steady nervous arousal, a pleasure in activity, and a keen interest in
life and work.

Whether the early settlers, in selecting the highest ground in this
region, had a sense of this excellence of the climatic effect we do not
know; but their descendants believe that such was their reason for
settling the highest arable land on the Hill before the valleys or the
lower slopes were cleared.

It is the common tradition that they settled on the Hill first, and on
its highest parts, in order to avoid the malaria of the lowlands; as
well as because they thought the hill lands to be more fertile.

The excellence of the climate is witnessed in the long lives of its
residents. There were living in 1903, in a population of four hundred,
five persons, each of whom was at least ninety years of age; and
fifteen, each of whom was more than seventy-five years of age.

[3] Mr. James Wood, in his Bicentennial Address in 1895, thus
described the Oblong:

The eastern side of the country had been settled by Presbyterians from
Connecticut, and the western side along the Hudson River by the Dutch.
The feeling between them was far from friendly. Their dis