400 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



After your arrival, the flock must be in the constant 

 care of one hand and the dogs, or for lack of dogs he 

 must have a horse, as the sheep feel a constant restless 

 disposition to find the outside fence of the "big paster." 

 They must also be put up at night as near the house as 

 possible, and even then a little sneaking prairie wolf will 

 sometimes creep in and make a little mutton, — though a 

 good dog will keep them off, and they are fast growing 

 few and far between. They are easily destroyed by poi- 

 son, the best for that purpose being strychnine, which is 

 the concentrated poison of mix vomica. One grain is suf- 

 ficient to produce death in any of the canine race, or 

 other noxious "varmint." It may be administered by put- 

 ting it in pieces of meat just large enough for a mouth- 

 ful; or otherwise it is a very good way to put lumps 

 of lard upon chips, and put the poison in the centre, 

 and then place the bait around the sheep-fold fence, or 

 in any other place likely to be visited by the wolves. The 

 big wolves are not prairie settlers. Sometimes, though 

 very rarely, a sheep is bitten by the massasauger, a small 

 black rattlesnake, and then, for aught I know, you will 

 soon have a dead sheep. In my next I shall speak of win- 

 ter-quarters. 1 Solon Robinson. 



Lake Court House, la., Nov. 21th, 1844. 



Notes of Travel in the West. 



[Albany Cultivator, n. s. 2:92-94; Mar., 1845] 



[Covering January 1-11, 1845] 

 January 1, 1845 — My old acquaintances, the Editors 

 and readers of the Cultivator, I hope will be pleased to 

 see that I have risen with the sun, who shines forth this 

 morning with all the beauty and much of the warmth of 

 a May morning, not only to wish them a single "happy 

 new year," but with the intent of devoting many weeks, 



1 Robinson's second article, on winter quarters for sheep, ap- 

 peared in the February issue of the American Agriculturist 

 (4:55). It is not reprinted. 



