The common depth of the soil is from two to three feet; but along the Wabash, in forming wells, it was found to be 22 feet, and underneath a stratum of fine white sand was discovered....The state is watered by the rivers Ohio and Wabash, and their numerous branches...The soil is well adapted to maize, wheat, oats, rye, hemp, and tobacco. On the best lands the average produce of Indian corn is said to be from fifty to sixty bushels per acre; that of wheat about fifty, the bushel weighing fifty-eight pounds. In many places, the land is too rich for this grain, which, though it does not become smutty, is not so good as in the state of New York...The country is admirably fitted for rearing cattle and swine, having great abundance of acorns and roots on which they feed.
Edmund Dana also reports:
Instead, it has been esteemed by intelligent men, who have often traversed it, in all directions, in point of rural scenery, a copious supply of pure water, fertility of soil and security to health, equal to any part of the western country...The surface in this part of the tract is delightfully variegated by gentle undulations...The production of Indiana in corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans, peas, Irish, sweet potatoes, and garden vegetables of every description, are abundant.
Matthew Foster of Pike County writes on his first five years of farming in Indiana:
When we came here, there was not a tree cut down. Now we have ten acres in corn (maize) five acres in wheat, 5 acres in oats, two acres in grass. We have got a house, barn, stables, and cattle sheds, but they are all built of logs...We have 13 cattle, nearly a hundred hogs. The hogs and cows get fat in the woods, never feed them only in winter. We have two excellent horses and a wagon and other farming utensils.
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