SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 263 



Thus I have gone through with your inquiries, and in- 

 stead of considering it burthensome, I have done it with 

 great pleasure ; and did not the business I have on hand 

 crowd upon me, I should feel disposed to go on at con- 

 siderable length with remarks upon the western country. 



Permit me, however, to say, that it is an open door, 

 through which every industrious man may walk into the 

 temple of wealth, honor and fame. There is yet a vast 

 quantity of the richest kind of soil to be had of Govern- 

 ment at $1,25 an acre, in the State of Indiana, and with- 

 out prejudice on account of my own residence there, I 

 cannot but believe it is the best western State or Terri- 

 tory for the eastern emigrant to settle in. Our laws are 

 uniform and good; our climate mild and healthy, and 

 even without our system of internal improvements, which 

 is only suspended for a short period, we have great 

 facilities of navigation to send off our surplus produce. 

 But above all, you may see that upon the great prairies 

 that abound in the northwestern quarter of the State, 

 cattle can be raised to maturity at a very low rate, and 

 they could then be driven to the eastward to market on 

 foot, for an expense, say from $2 to $5 per head. 



In answer to the question which your friend asked me 

 yesterday, "what would I advise a person owning a large 

 tract of land in Indiana to do with it?" I will answer, I 

 would advise him to procure some honest, industrious 

 poor man with a family, build him a house, and fence 

 his land, if prairie, or if timbered land, "make a deaden- 

 ing," and stock it with cattle, and as fast as they tramped 

 the soil, sow it with cultivated grasses. The growth of 

 his stock would soon pay for the improvement on the 

 land, and that improvement would double its value, and 

 make it more saleable, because it would be in a state 

 ready for the work of the emigrant upon his coming into 

 the country. 



There is another way that land owners might do, and 

 which would be beneficial to themselves and their fellow 

 creatures. Let them unite together, and put one half 



19—50109 



