140 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



the greatest prospect of a great wheat crop that you ever 

 saw. But that short month has been a succession of 

 warm showers and hot sun, and the most universal blight 

 has fallen upon us that I ever saw or heard of. It is not 

 a piece here and there, but it is everywhere. Thousands 

 of acres will never be cut, and such as will be, will barely 

 pay the cost. Some fields are already rotten and stink- 

 ing. It is only here and there a field can be found that 

 will afford seed. There is yet much old wheat in the 

 country, or the prospect would be still more gloomy than 

 it is. 



All other crops hereabouts look well. We must eat 

 corn dodger and potatoes, and drink "hard cider," and 

 have hard times one year more. 



In haste, I am your friend, 



Solon Robinson. 

 Lake C. H. la. July 13, 1840. 



To Western Emigrants. 1 



[Albany Cultivator, 7:162; Oct., 1840] 



[August 20, 1840] 

 Messrs. Editors — If many of the intelligent persons 

 who emigrate from the Eastern States to the "Great 

 West," could look a few years only into futurity, they 

 would greatly profit by it, not only to themselves, but 

 to the country. Will 'any of those who intend in future 

 to emigrate, profit by the kind hint of a friend? 



Instead, then, of bringing with you many cumbrous 

 articles of furniture that will be almost useless in such 

 a residence as you must necessarily inhabit in a new 

 country; or at any rate, such as you can well dispense 



1 The Emigrant's Complete Guide to the United States . . ., 72 

 (London: William Strange; Leeds: Alice Mann, 1850), contains the 

 following note: "Another excellent book on Prairie Farming is 

 published by Solon Robinson, of Indiana, and also may be had at 

 New York, on landing. It is entitled, The Prairie Farmer." No 

 copy of this work by Robinson has been located. It is likely that 

 it consisted of reprints or a resume of articles like the one pub- 

 lished here, which first appeared in agricultural periodicals. 



