Wednesday, 25th.—Warm and clear. Thermometer 83, with fine air.
Long drive. The roads very dusty, but the wind was in our favor, and it is such a busy time with the farmers, that there was little movement on the highway. In the course of a drive of several hours, we only saw three or four wagons.
The farms look very rich with the ripening grains, but rain is much wanted. The Indian corn, and hops, and potatoes, have had more sun than they need. The grass also is much drier than usual in this part of the country; but the trees are in great beauty, luxuriantly green, showing as yet no evil effects from this dry season. The maize is thought to have suffered most; the farmers say the ears are not filling as they ought to do; but the plants themselves look well, and the yellow flowers of the pumpkin-vines lying on the ground help, as usual, to make the corn-fields among the handsomest on the farms.
Vines like the pumpkin, and melon, and cucumber, bearing heavy fruits, show little inclination for climbing; it is well they do not attempt to raise themselves from the earth, since, if they did so, they could not support their own fruit. The fact that they do not seek to climb is a pleasing instance of that beautiful fitness and unity of character so striking in the vegetable world generally; the position in which they are content to lie is the one best calculated to mature their large, heavy gourds; the reflected heat of the earth aiding the sun in the task, while the moisture from the ground does not injure the thick rind, as would be the case with fruits of a more delicate covering.
Thursday, 26th.—Lowering, cloudy morning, with strong breeze from the south-east; one of those skies which promise rain every
