450 ANiSrUAL REPORT. 



and also in view of a prosperous condition of the finances of the 

 country generally, is very limited with the people in general, as 

 well in the upper as in the lower strata of society. 



Take it in general and you will find that the tendency is still 

 prevailing to extirpate the forests more and more, and establish 

 farms in their place, or to enlarge farms already established. 

 This tendency is prevailing, not only in places where the nature 

 of the soil is favorable, but also in places where the soil is very 

 unfavorable for the establishment of farms. The forests are an- 

 nihilated, not only on the plains, but also on the level ridges, for 

 the purpose of establishing or enlarging farms. Even on steep 

 ridges and in ravines of the bluffs, the axe and the fire are instru- 

 mental to divest the land of their luxuriant growth of trees to a 

 great extent. 



The method, adopted during the latter years, to decimate the 

 woods along the slopes of the bluffs by the use of the axe, the fire 

 or grazing cattle, break up the soil and jjlace the same under ag- 

 riculture, has created an entirely new, but in the highest degree 

 ruinous, system of water courses. 'Ro wonder that failure of 

 crops, injury to cultivation and to the stock of cattle, follow the 

 pernicious influence of the same, when, after every violent shower 

 of rain, the dams, built mostly or exclusively of earth, are demol- 

 ished, the bridges carried off, and the roads left|in such a miser- 

 able condition that they are impassable. This great calamity is 

 at this time predominant in the bluff regions. The in the highest 

 degree important question, how the same may be diminished, or 

 even excluded, is certainly not an untimely one. We will try 

 to answer the same in a few short passages: 



First — Leave off entirely to set the prairie on fire. 



Second -^ The cattle must be excluded from the growing, or 

 commenced to be growing, underwood. 



Third — Leave the steep declivities of the bluffs, such as are 

 absolutely unpropitious for agriculture, to the unlimited activity 

 of Nature, and in places where IsTature acts insufficiently for the 

 growth of timber, it would be well to help her by planting young 

 trees, shrubs, etc. 



Fourth — The land located on the sloi^es of the bluffs, and al- 

 ready cultivated, which may be used for other purposes than the 

 growth of timber, should be seeded down with grass plants, such 

 as are hardy and useful for feeding cattle. In such soil of our 

 bluff territory, which contains lime in profusion, the planting of 

 esparcet (^Hedysarum onobrychis) would be most excellent; the 



