156 



HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER NOTES ON ST. LOUIS. 



It is about seventy miles in length, and of 

 an average width of about five miles, and 

 contains nearly a quarter of a million of 

 acres — the surface heavily laden with rank 

 vegetation, or cut up by lagoons, bays, coves 

 and creeks. The bluff which bounds it on 

 the east, contains bituminous coal as well 

 as limestone. Some of the ridges along that 

 bluff are sandy. On both sides of the river 

 are found mounds or tumuli, supposed to 

 have been raised by the Indians as monu- 

 ments of their dead. Some of the prettiest 

 of these are near the river, on the highest 

 natural elevation in the present city of St. 

 Louis. The surface of the ground near St. 

 Louis is otherwise uneven, and sometimes 

 rough, and in many places perforated by 

 sink-holes of a tunnel-shape, through which 

 the water drains into caves or fissures in the 

 rocks below. Several of these caves, on 

 account of their low temperature, are used 

 by Germans for storing beer. When the 

 outlets of these sinkholes are stopped, ponds 

 are formed in them. Several fossils, some 

 of them new varieties, have been found in 

 the limestone. A greyish marble, beauti- 

 fully variegated, and susceptible of fine 

 polish, exists in the city ; and I can point to 

 my parlor chimney pieces, made of it, proud 

 of a domestic production, superior in my 

 estimation to the Italian. Bituminous coal 

 exists in abundance, not only in the bluffs 

 east of the " American Bottom," but at va- 

 rious depths within three miles of the city 

 west, and also upon the Missouri river. 

 Springs are sometimes found of excellent 

 water, but they are not abundant. My farm, 

 however, is blessed with five of them — hence 

 its name. 



The soil of the level grounds, prairies and 

 bottoms, is a black and deep vegetable mould 

 of great and enduring fertility. Upon the 

 uneven surface the soil is thin. The clayey 



friable, and with the application of manure, 

 productive. It, however, dries quickly by 

 sun and wind, and sometimes bakes and 

 cracks. 



The climate does not correspond with 

 that of the same latitude on the sea-coast. 

 It differs in respect to the prevalency of cer- 

 tain winds, in variableness, and in being, 

 perhaps not hotter, but drier in summer. 

 Our spring seasons are often wet ; our sum- 

 mers frequently dry. The autumn is often 

 a perpetual " Indian summer," delightful as 

 can be imagined. Yet frost appears some- 

 times in October, and November may bring 

 severely cold weather. The consequences 

 upon vegetation of a dry summer, succeed- 

 ed by a fine and late-growing autumn, we 

 may have occasion to advert to. The win- 

 ters are generally mild. The average mean 

 temperature of the winter months, for seven 

 years being, for example, about 30°. Snow 

 sometimes falls in various depths under 12 

 inches, but rapidly disappears. It not un- 

 frequently happens that we can plough in 

 every winter month, and for weeks together 

 artificial heat is not required in our green- 

 houses. Two winters ago, ice was not 

 formed in sufficient quantities to supply our 

 ice houses. Yet I have heard it said, that 

 the Mississippi has been known to be frozen 

 over below the mouth of the Ohio. Last 

 winter that river was firmly closed above 

 and more than sixty miles below this city 

 for more than a month. In the mean time 

 there were many warm and sunny days. 

 The month of February often tempts all 

 vegetation by its genial warmth, and the 

 horticulturist has to lament the premature 

 swelling of his fruit buds, doomed, alas ! to 

 repeated and killing frosts in March and 

 even in April. Indeed the month of Janua- 

 ry is sometimes as mild here as the month 

 of March generally is in Philadelphia. For 



subsoil exposed to the air, soon becomes 1 example, the mean temperature of that 



