272 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



over this vast wildorness : not a tree is to be seen, witli the exception of a 

 few poach trees, which have been planted in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the hnts." * * * * * * « - * 



" V/e now bade adieu to the region of thistles, through which we travelled 

 for upwards of one hundred miles, and which, on each side of the road, ex- 

 tended as far as the eye could reach. At this season of the year, in conse- 

 quence of these gigantic weeds being parched by the sun, the country, at 

 a distance, had the appearance of being covered with ripe corn; but the 

 scene was too monotonous to afford any agreeable impression. Madame 

 de Stae], on her journey into Tussia, remarks, [of the steppes,] "there is so 

 much space that every thing is lost—" "meme les chateaux, meme la popula- 

 tion. On diroit qii'on ti-averse un pays dnnt la nation vient de s''en aller." 

 Here, on the contrary, the traveller would say that he traverses a country 

 where the nation is yei to come ; for every thing exists as nature first formed 

 it, unimproved, uncultivated, untouched." :*:*** 



"After leaving the region of thistles before mentioned, we travelled for 

 about 120 miles through a country of more agreeable aspect, though not a 

 tree as yet appeared to our view, the whole being one vast field of rich 

 pasture. This is the true pampa of South America of which we have of 

 Jate years read and heard so much in Europe." * * * * 



"Innumerable herds of cattle, the progeny, it is said, of six cows and a 

 bull imported rather more than two centuries ago from Spain, range at 

 large over this ever verdant surface of inexhaustible luxuriance. I have 

 been credibly informed that their numbers at the present day bear no pro- 

 portion to what they were before the devastating havoc of the late civil 

 war; still they appear to a European eye in countless multitudes, and leave 

 the traveller no longer cause to wonder that such fine animals should, at 

 one time, have been slaughtered in thousands, merel}'' for their hides." * * 

 "This noble plain, entirely covered with pasture, extends many hundred 

 miles into the regions of Patagonia, where it is yet unexplored. M. Hum- 

 boldt calculated its area at 70,000 square leagues. 'This area,' he ob- 

 serves, ' of the pampas of Tucuman, Buenos Ayres, and Patagonia, (they 

 are all united,) is consequently four times as large as the area of all France.' 

 " No lawn was ever laid down with greater precision by the hand of 

 man, than this vast interminable plain has been by nature. Not a stone is 

 to be seen on its surface." — Temple's Travels. 



" In the whole of this immense region, there is not a weed to be seen. 

 The coarse grass is its sole produce, and in the summer, when it is high, it 

 is beautiful to see the effect which the wind has in passing over this wild 

 expanse of waving grass: the shades between the brown and yellow are 

 beautiful. The scene is placid beyond description : no habitation or human 

 being is to be seen, unless occasionally the wild and picturesque outline of 

 the gaucho on the horizon, his scarlet poncho or cloak streaming horizon- 

 tally behind him, his balls flying round his head, and as he bends forward 

 towards his prey, his horse straining every nerve." — Head's Rough 

 Notes, &c. 



Nature of prairie soils, so far as ascertained by chemical tests. 



After I had ascertained the truth of the novel and strange fact that 

 scarcely any soils in Virginia, or of the other Atlantic states, of which I had 



impenptrable b^iripr. Mr. Head remarks : " The sudden growth of these plants is quite 

 asfonishinji : and thoii2:h it would be an unusual misfortune in military history, yet it is 

 really possible, that an invadinjj army, unarquainted with this coiintrv, might be impri- 

 soned by these thistles, before they had time to escape from them." — Head's Notts. 



