SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 413 



great Central Rail Road of Illinois," that was to lead 

 from Galena, crossing the Illinois at the termination of 

 the canal at Peru, to the great city of Cairo, at the mouth 

 of the Ohio. Six miles southeast of Granville, is "Mt. 

 Palatine," a Baptist settlement and school, four miles out 

 upon the wide prairie, solitary and alone, so far as re- 

 gards timber. 



Near Magnolia, which is a nourishing new town, 8 

 miles from the Illinois river, in which for the want of 

 water power, steam is used, I spent a night with a Mr. 

 Patterson from Pa.; and from his English shepherd, I 

 learnt that he esteems bran slops, the best food for sheep 

 dropping lambs in winter; and the condition of those on 

 hand went far to prove it. As some criterion of the price 

 of land in this vicinity, I learnt the sale of a 200 acre 

 farm, about 80 improved, 60 timber and balance unen- 

 closed prairie, with very moderate buildings for $2500 

 — the seller being bound for that new "Eldorado," of our 

 restless population, the Oregon territory. 



At Magnolia, I saw the first sugar maple; the timber 

 northward being mostly oak. Upon Mr. Patterson's land, 

 I also witnessed the astonishing increase of timber, when 

 kept from fire — a matter not sufficiently thought of in 

 this country — a country where tens of thousands of acres 

 of rich soil can never be fenced except by growing the 

 materials. 



From Magnolia to Washington, I passed over some 

 poor, uneven, barren, much uncultivated prairie, few and 

 poor mill streams, through the very poor county town of 

 Woodford co. (so named perhaps to indicate that the 

 county is not all prairie) to the latter town, which lies 

 about 10 miles east of Peoria, where I saw a large steam 

 mill in operation, and a very extensive pork house, and 

 other evidences of a prosperous state of things. Here 

 after many days of beautiful winter weather, I encoun- 

 tered in the afternoon of January 11th, a furious snow 

 storm with a head wind too strong to beat up against, 

 which drove me into quarters with a homesick Kentuck- 



