SOLON ROBINSON, 1848 121 



along the national road, between the Wabash and Kas- 

 kaskia River, at Vandalia, is, perhaps, the poorest of any 

 part of the state. At any rate, the people and cultivation 

 bear no comparison v^ith the northern counties. Not but 

 what there is sufficient fertility in the soil, although the 

 prairie land is very flat, and apparently wet and cold ; but 

 there is no show of "go-ahead-ative-ness." There is not a 

 good-looking, well-cultivated farm in the whole hundred 

 miles. And I saw nothing that looked like a good school 

 house. But I did see a great many whiskey shops. I am 

 sorry to write against any country, but this is a region 

 that I would not settle in myself, if in search of a new 

 home. Others may if they like it. 



Vandalia, once the capital of the state, now wears the 

 gloomy weeds of the "deserted village." The Kaskaskia, 

 which runs at the foot of the hill on which the town is 

 crumbling to decay, is the only permanent mill stream I 

 have seen since I left the Wabash. Out of this in flood 

 time, go flat boats, 300 miles by water to the Mississippi, 

 and this is the only way of getting off produce that will 

 not bear hauling sixty odd miles to St. Louis. 



The country between Vandalia and St. Louis, is far 

 better than that eastward. Yet here is a great want of 

 improvement. In Bond and Madison counties, there are 

 some good orchards, and a few good-looking farms. But 

 the traveller is surprised to see within twenty or thirty 

 miles of St. Louis, vast tracts of rich, rolling, healthy 

 prairie, lying uncultivated, and even unbought of govern- 

 ment. Even the far-famed American bottom, opposite 

 St. Louis, is not one half of it in the very rough state of 

 improvement that the other half is. 



There is a very great want of water mills in all this 

 part of the state. Page's patent circular saw mills, are 

 getting considerably into use, and are much approved. 

 Most of the grain for family use is ground with horse 

 mills. I saw two windmills, and was told that they did 

 pretty well. 



In the interior counties of the state, very little wheat 



