How valuable would the great oaks and gigantic pines be on an estate in England; while here they are as little thought of as saplings would be at home.  Some years hence the timbers that are now burned up will be regretted.  Yet it is impossible to preserve them; they would prove a great encumbrance to the farmer.  The oaks are desirable for splitting, as they make the most durable fences; pine, cedar, and white ash are also used for rail-cuts; maple and dry beech are the best sorts of wood for fires:  white ash burns well.  In making ley for soap, care is taken to use none but the ashes of hard wood, as oak, ash, maple, beech; any of the resinous trees are bad for the purpose, and the ley will not mingle with the fat.  In boiling, to the great mortification of the uninitiated soap-boiler, who, by being made acquainted with this simple fact, might have been spared much useless trouble and waste of material, after months of careful saving.

An American settler’s wife told me this, and bade me be careful not to make use of any of the pine-wood ashes in running the ley.  And here I must observe, that of all people the Yankees, as they are termed, are the most industrious and ingenious; they are never at a loss for an expedient:  if one thing fails them they adopt another, with a quickness of thought that surprises me, while to them it seems only a matter of course.  They seem to possess a sort of innate presence of mind, and instead of wasting their energies in words, they act.  The old settlers that have been long among them seem to acquire the same sort of habits, insomuch that it is difficult to distinguish them.  I have heard the Americans called a loquacious boasting people; now, as far as my limited acquaintance with them goes, I consider they are almost laconic, and if I dislike them it is for a certain cold brevity of manner that seems to place a barrier between you and them.

I was somewhat struck with a remark made by a travelling clock-maker, a native of the state of Ohio.  After speaking of the superior climate of Ohio, in answer to some questions of my husband, he said, he was surprised that gentlemen should prefer the Canadas, especially the bush, where for many years they must want all the comforts and luxuries of life, to the rich, highly cultivated, and fruitful state of Ohio, where land was much cheaper, both cleared and wild.

To this we replied that, in the first place, British subjects preferred the British government; and, besides, they were averse to the manners of his countrymen.  He candidly admitted the first objection; and in reply to the last observed, that the Americans at large ought not to be judged by the specimens to be found in the British colonies, as they were, for the most part, persons of no reputation, many of whom had fled to the Canadas to escape from debt, or other disgraceful conduct; and added, “It would be hard if the English were to be judged as a nation by the convicts of Botany Bay.”