hey are
taken, 'tis odds but their grease is melted, or else being old, they are
so sullen, that they can't be tamed.

Sec. 95. The inhabitants are very courteous to travelers, who need no other
recommendation, but the being human creatures. A stranger has no more to
do, but to enquire upon the road, where any gentleman or good
housekeeper lives, and there he may depend upon being received with
hospitality. This good nature is so general among their people, that the
gentry, when they go abroad, order their principal servant to entertain
all visitors, with everything the plantation affords. And the poor
planters, who have but one bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a
form or couch all night, to make room for a weary traveler, to repose
himself after his journey.

If there happen to be a churl, that either out of covetousness, or ill
nature, won't comply with this generous custom, he has a mark of infamy
set upon him, and is abhorred by all.

CHAPTER XXII.

OF THE NATURAL PRODUCTS OF VIRGINIA, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THEIR
HUSBANDRY.

Sec. 96. The extreme fruitfulness of that country, has been sufficiently
shown in the second book, and I think we may justly add, that in that
particular it is not exceeded by any other. No seed is sown there, but
it thrives; and most of the northern plants are improved, by being
transplanted thither. And yet there's very little improvement made among
them, seldom anything used in traffic but tobacco.

Besides all the natural productions mentioned in the second book, you
may take notice that apples from the seed never degenerate into crabs
there, but produce as good or perhaps better fruit than the mother tree,
(which is not so in England,) and are wonderfully improved by grafting
and managing; yet there are very few planters that graft at all, end
much fewer that take any care to get choice fruits.

The fruit trees are wonderfully quick of growth; so that in six or seven
years time from the planting, a man may bring an orchard to bear in
great plenty, from which he may make store of good cider, or distill
great quantities of brandy; for the cider is very strong, and yields
abundance of spirit. Yet they have very few, that take any care at all
for an orchard; nay, many that have good orchards are so negligent of
them as to let them go to ruin, and expose the trees to be torn and
barked by the cattle.

Peaches, nectarines, and apricots, as well as plumbs and cherries, g