, wet, smoky cabin or hovel is
erected, with the floor scarcely separated from the ground, and
admitting the damp and unwholesome air. All hands that can work, are
impelled, by the father's example, to labor beyond their strength, and
more land is cleared and planted with corn than is well tended; for
over-exertion, change in the manner of living, and the influence of
other debilitating causes, which have been mentioned, bring sickness on
at least a part of the family, before the summer is half over.

"It is unnecessary for even the poorest emigrant to encounter these
causes of distress, unless seduced by the misrepresentations of some
interested landholder, or by the fantasies of his own brain, to an
unhealthy and desolate situation, where he can neither help himself, nor
be assisted by others.

"Many persons on moving into the _back woods_, who have been accustomed
to the decencies of life, think it little matter how they live, because
_no one sees them_. Thus we have known a family of some opulence to
reside for years in a cabin unfit for the abode of any human being,
because they could not find time to build a house; and whenever it
rained hard, the females were necessarily engaged in rolling the beds
from one corner of the room to another, in order to save them from the
water that poured in through the roof. This cabin was intended at first
as only a very temporary residence, and was erected on the edge of a
swamp, for the convenience of being near to a spring. How unreasonable
must such people be, if they expect health!

"Clothing for winter should be prepared in summer. It is a common, but
very incorrect practice among many farmers, both west and east of the
Alleghany mountains, to postpone wearing winter clothing until the
weather has become extremely cold: this is a fruitful source of
pulmonary diseases, of rheumatisms, and of fevers.

"With regard to providing a sufficiency of nourishing food, no specific
directions can be given, further than to recommend, what is much
neglected--particular attention to a good garden spot; and to remark,
that those who devote undivided attention to cultivating the soil,
receive more uniform supplies of suitable nourishment than the more
indolent, who spend a considerable portion of their time in hunting.

"New settlers are not unfrequently troubled with diseases of the skin,
which are often supposed to be the itch: for these eruptions they
generally use repellant external