SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 285 



fore. You would feel as I once did, when for the first 

 time I stood upon the edge of the prairie upon which I 

 now reside. "It was about noon of a beautiful October 

 day, when we emerged from the wood, and for miles 

 around stretched forth one broad expanse of clear, open 

 land. I stood alone, wrapt up in that peculiar sensation 

 that man only feels when beholding a broad rolling 

 prairie for the first time — an indescribable delightful 

 feeling. Oh, what a rich mine of wealth lay outstretched 

 before me." 



And although that was seven years ago, yet almost the 

 whole of that mine of wealth still holds its hidden and 

 unsought for treasures. No plough or spade has broken 

 the sod of ages ; no magician has appeared with the hus- 

 bandman's magic wand and said to the coarse and use- 

 less grass that has grown for centuries, "Presto, be 

 gone," give place to the lovely Ceres with her golden 

 sheaves. 



And here, methinks I hear some reader exclaim, "Well 

 now, I guess it an't so plaguy rich a'ter all, or it would'nt 

 lay there uncultivated." Little does he know or think as 

 he digs in the corn among the stones of New England, 

 what vast quantities of such land lie waste in the West, 

 and how few there are there to improve them ; and what 

 is worse, how indolent a great portion of that few are. 

 Talk of the country being sickly, why the worst epidemic 

 that ever raged in any country, is that idleness which 

 fixes itself, incubus like, upon the whole population of 

 an extraordinary fertile soil. 



I am sorry that I am not able to answer the second 

 question, even satisfactorily to myself. But who that 

 ever undertook, ever satisfied his inquirers as to how a 

 prairie looks, while in a state of nature. The reason is 

 that there is nothing analogous, to which one can com- 

 pare it, in a thickly settled country. But suppose that 

 the reader fancies the country with which he is best ac- 

 quainted in an old settled country, entirely destitute of 

 buildings or fences, or in fact any mark of civilization, 



