108 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



monly in "thick timber;" but it is found covering very 

 large tracts of land called "barrens," an intermedium be- 

 tween prairie and timber ; after growing so isolated as to 

 have the appearance of a scattering orchard and having 

 a strong resemblance to the work of man. You may 

 travel miles before the country is settled, through these 

 "barrens" with a carriage, without any obstruction. In 

 these barrens the trees never grow large — the soil being 

 deep, the roots are situate so far below the surface that 

 they offer no obstruction to the plough, and these barrens 

 are often ploughed without removing the timber. I re- 

 main your friend truly. Solon Robinson. 



how to increase the circulation of agricultural 

 Papers — Subscribers' Duties. 



[Albany Cultivator, 6:121; Aug. 15, 1839] 



Lake C. H. la. July 18, 1839. 

 My Friend — This is to you — I see you about to pass 

 over and not read this article — you don't like the title! 

 It an't interesting to you, do you say? Look again — 

 look at the signature, — did you ever see my name to an 

 article in this paper that did not interest you? There 

 now, you see I am an old acquaintance. No. Well, then 

 you did not take the last volume of the Cultivator. The 

 more's the pity. Thousands who read that, will remem- 

 ber me right well. They will expect something interest- 

 ing as soon as they see this article is from their old 

 friend. I beg of them, as well as of the publisher, a 

 thousand pardons that I have neglected them so long. 

 My conscience has not been easy for months. I knew 

 I had not done my duty. For when a man, particularly 

 a friend to agricultural improvement, knows that he has 

 a talent to be useful and interesting in his writing ; that 

 by a little light labor of his pen, that he can lighten the 

 labor of his fellow laborers, he neglects his duty if he 

 neglects to do it. You need not call me an egotist, be- 

 cause I say that I know I have that faculty. Thousands 



