378 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



to the drouth, the stalks were short, but well linted, and 

 prove as heavy as an average Kentucky crop, and af- 

 forded him a much greater profit than wheat. And he 

 also assured me that he was raised in a hemp field, and 

 had tried it here so as to be satisfied that it was a much 

 more certain crop than wheat, corn or oats. 



And the most of us who have been several years in 

 this country, are pretty well satisfied that the wheat crop 

 in northern Indiana and northern Illinois, is not quite so 

 certain as some other things are in this life — particularly 

 the certainty of the end of it. 



But I have come to the conclusion that a few more 

 failures of the wheat crop will not prove lastingly inju- 

 rious to the West, for it will at length drive us to learn 

 the fact that there is a great deal of grass burnt up, that 

 might just as well be eat up, and if eaten by the right 

 kind of animals, it would exhibit to us one of the wonders 

 of nature — prairie grass turned into Wool. And what is 

 so very remarkable, that but few have as yet discovered 

 it, this very wool will make just as warm cloth as that 

 which grows in Vermont. And another remarkable won- 

 der will in time be discovered here; and that is, that 

 water in this country is just as good to turn a wheel to 

 spin wool and weave cloth, as it is in New England, and 

 that the wool will work just as well without taking a 

 trip round the lakes, and I suppose that we could just as 

 well find the spinners and weavers in "hog and hom- 

 mony" here as there ; and although it is said that rum is 

 better for a sea voyage, I don't know that flour and pork 

 are very much improved by that operation. 



But we have run after strange idols. Idols of wheat, 

 corn and pork. For years we have thought of sending 

 nothing else to the eastern market, since we have quit 

 sending town lots there for sale. And what hath it prof- 

 ited us? While we have been selling our wheat and pork, 

 we have been buying our leather: yes, for we send our 

 hides "down East" to be tanned. Our wool, and that 

 manufactured even into stockings — for knitting is not 



