ts, and take the produce of a given
neighborhood down to New Orleans for shipment to the West Indies.
[Footnote: Clay MSS., Seitz & Lowan to Garret Darling, Lexington,
January 23, 1797; agreement of George Nicholas, October 10, 1796, etc.
This was an agreement on the part of Nicholas to furnish Seitz & Lowan
with all the flour manufactured at his mill during the season of 1797
for exportation, the flour to be delivered by him in Kentucky. He was to
receive $5.50 a barrel up to the receipt of $1500; after that it was to
depend upon the price of wheat. Six bushels of wheat were reckoned to a
barrel of flour, and the price of a bushel was put at four shillings; in
reality it ranged from three to six.] They were also always engaged in
efforts to improve the breed of their horses and cattle, and to
introduce new kinds of agriculture, notably the culture of the vine.
[Footnote: _Do._, "Minutes of meeting of the Directors of the Vineyard
Society," June 27, 1800.] They speedily settled themselves definitely in
the new country, and began to make ready for their children to inherit
their homes after them; though they retained enough of the restless
spirit which had made them cross the Alleghanies to be always on the
lookout for any fresh region of exceptional advantages, such as many of
them considered the lands along the lower Mississippi. They led a life
which appealed to them strongly, for it was passed much in the open air,
in a beautiful region and lovely climate, with horses and hounds, and
the management of their estates and their interest in politics to occupy
their time; while their neighbors were men of cultivation, at least by
their own standards, so that they had the society for which they most
cared. [Footnote: _Do._, James Brown to Thomas Hart, Lexington, April 3,
1804.] In spite of their willingness to embark in commercial ventures
and to build mills, rope-walks, and similar manufactures,--for which
they had the greatest difficulty in procuring skilled laborers, whether
foreign or native, from the Northeastern States [Footnote: _Do._, J.
Brown to Thomas Hart, Philadelphia, February 11, 1797. This letter was
brought out to Hart by a workman, David Dodge, whom Brown had at last
succeeded in engaging. Dodge had been working in New York at a
rope-walk, where he received $500 a year without board. From Hart he
bargained to receive $350 with board. It proved impossible to engage
other journeymen workers, Brown expressing h