A tour through North America : Together with a comprehensive view of the…
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"A tour through North America" by Patrick Shirreff is a travel narrative and agricultural emigration guide written in the early 19th century. Focused on the prospects for British farmers abroad, it blends first-hand travel observations with practical evaluations of soils, crops, labor, prices, and settlement conditions in the Canadas and the United States, with frequent comparisons to British practice. It is aimed especially at would‑be emigrants seeking clear, experience-based advice. At the
start of this travelogue, Shirreff dedicates the work to a fellow East Lothian farmer and explains he traveled not on commission but to judge North America for a younger brother considering emigration; he outlines his method (trust what he sees, measure by nature’s tests), notes possible bias toward Illinois, explains local currencies, and divides the work into a tour followed by an evaluative guide. He then recounts the trip from Scotland to Liverpool, selects the packet Napoleon, remarks on Sabbath travel and poor farming he observes, and visits Liverpool’s cemetery. The Atlantic passage brings prolonged seasickness, a birth at sea, a diligent American captain, and a clear, beautiful approach to New York, followed by a smooth customs experience and hotel life. Early New York chapters mix theatre-going (including a pointed public response to indecorum), a tightly controlled Long Island racecourse, a dawn glimpse of dairy routines, and concise notes on local rotations, wages, and tools. A short circuit to Philadelphia via steamer and rail adds scenes of militia muster, funerals, hotel manners good and bad, the Fair Mount waterworks, and profiles of notable residents, before a return through New Jersey’s poor sands and back to richer Pennsylvania farms with detailed labor and feeding practices. He sketches New York’s growth, a bustling manufactory, the parallel celebrity tours of President Jackson and Black Hawk, and a Hudson River trip to Hyde Park, where he criticizes American landscape taste and questions the fit of certain British breeds. Reaching Albany, he notes hurried dining customs and occasional female field labor, and as he turns toward Boston he passes Shaker country and Pittsfield, deplores road “repairs,” delights in forests bright with rhododendron and kalmia, and challenges glowing guidebook claims about Northampton. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Shirreff, Patrick, 1791-1876 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 01027889 |
| Title | A tour through North America : Together with a comprehensive view of the Canadas and the United States, as adapted for agricultural emigration |
| Original Publication | Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1835. |
| Credits | Richard Tonsing, Tim Miller, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | E151: History: America: United States |
| LoC Class | F1001: North America local history: Canada |
| Subject | United States -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Canada -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Agriculture -- United States |
| Subject | Agriculture -- Canada |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77303 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-77303-2 |
| Release Date | Nov 23, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 355 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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