The
Windsor, or broad-bean, will not do well there; Mr. Bullock had
them in his garden, where they were cultivated with much care;
they grew about a foot high and blossomed, but the pod never
ripened. All the fruit I saw exposed for sale in Cincinnati was
most miserable. I passed two summers there, but never tasted a
peach worth eating. Of apricots and nectarines I saw none;
strawberries very small, raspberries much worse; gooseberries
very few, and quite uneatable; currants about half the size of
ours, and about double the price; grapes too sour for tarts;
apples abundant, but very indifferent, none that would be thought
good enough for an English table; pears, cherries, and plums most
miserably bad. The flowers of these regions were at least
equally inferior: whether this proceeds from want of cultivation
or from peculiarity of soil I know not, but after leaving
Cincinnati, I was told by a gentleman who appeared to understand
the subject, that the state of Ohio had no indigenous flowers or
fruits. The water-melons, which in that warm climate furnish a
delightful refreshment, were abundant and cheap; but all other
melons very inferior to those of France, or even of England, when
ripened in a common hot-bed.
From the almost total want of pasturage near the city, it is
difficult for a stranger to divine how milk is furnished for its
supply, but we soon learnt that there are more ways than one of
keeping a cow. A large proportion of the families in the town,
particularly of the poorer class, have one, though apparently
without any accommodation whatever for it.
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