6 8 FENCES. PAXA. 



in the work of fencing, one boring, one driving in the posts, 

 and the others sorting and nailing on the rails. 



The "snake" fence, which is common in all the timbered 

 parts of America, is seldom met with on the prairie, and there 

 only in the neighbourhood of a timber grove. It is a very sub- 

 stantial and excellent fence, but consumes too much timber in 

 any country where that article is somewhat scarce. 



In this day's ride, all the older settlers with whom we met, 

 complained of the wheat crop as a failure this season, but the 

 Indian corn was pretty good. One man who had settled here 

 two years ago on good land, for which he then paid 305. an 

 acre, offered to sell it to us, with his " improvements " as they 

 are called, viz. his house and a little bit of enclosure which he 

 had made, at 62s. Qd. an acre. He was a considerable distance 

 from a railway station. 



My next stop was at Pana, about thirty miles farther south, 

 where a junction is made with a line of railway which leads to 

 the Mississippi, opposite St. Louis. From this point I traversed 

 the country some fifty or sixty miles, and found the prairie in 

 many districts almost unbroken. Here and there patches of 

 unenclosed corn are seen, and sometimes incipient towns. The 

 face of the country is generally beautifully undulated, with 

 groves of timber in sight : the soil of blackish colour on a grey 

 subsoil. It seemed a very desirable locality, and commands the 

 market of St. Louis as well as that of Chicago. A French gen- 

 tleman, a sugar planter in Louisiana, three years ago bought a 

 large tract in this quarter, of about 25,000 acres, at 46s. an 

 acre, which he is settling with a colony of French Canadians. 

 He brought 400 people the first year, and nearly as many more 

 the next. He sells to them in small lots at 665. an acre, and 

 it is said that the settlement is likely to succeed. The differ- 

 ence in price is not all profit, as he incurs sundry outlays in 

 starting the settlers. 



