1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



829 



There was good reason to believe that other 

 plants mentioned as growing on these lands, as clo- 

 ver, vetches, &c. indicated a calcareous soil — but 

 here is one mentioned, which alone is a positive and 

 sufficient proof. JEsparcette, which is stated as one 

 of the natural grasses of some of the steppes, is 

 the French name of sainfoin — and the fact of its 

 growth, alone,proves as well as any chemical anal- 

 ysis could, that all the soils bearing it are highly 

 calcareous. Sainibin not only delights in calca- 

 reous soils, but it will scarcely live, and cannot 

 thrive, on any other. It is a valuable grass on 

 chalk soils in England, which would be almost 

 barren under grain tillage; and it has never been 

 raised in Virginia, and indeed will scarcely pro- 

 duce a few feeble and scattering stalks on our best 

 lands. The bald and least productive prairies of 

 our western country would be the proper place for 

 this grass. 



"All the meadows may be reduced to these four 

 kinds: 1. Fine productive meads that have a good 

 black, but somewhat moist soil: these yield the 

 greatest crops, of hay; to them belong the luchten 

 [overflowed land.] 2. Dry, whereof the soil is fit 

 for agriculture, and at times is so employed; they 

 commonly yield a short but very nutritious hay. 

 3. Watery and marshy; these do not produce the 

 best, but give a, very serviceable hay in cases of 

 scarcity in parching summers and dry places. 4. 

 Fat steppes, where the grass in some parts grows 

 to the height of a man: they are seldom mown." 



"Steppes. — This term does not properly denote 

 low and watery places, or morasses, but dry, ele- 

 vated, extensive, and for the most part uninhabited 

 plains. Some of them being destitute of wood 

 and water, are therefore uninhabitable; others have 

 shrubs growing on them, and are watered by 

 streams, at least have springs or wells, though 

 they are void of inhabitants; yet in these, nomadic 

 people wander about with their herds and flocks, 

 and thus make them, if not their constant, yet 

 their summer residence. In many of them are 

 seen villages. Some occupy a very large space: 

 thus it is calculated that the steppe between Sama- 

 ra and the town of Uralsk* amounts in length to 

 upwards of 700 versts; but, as every twenty or 

 thirty versts we come to a lake or river, the Ural- 

 kozaks traverse them when they fetch their meal 

 from Samara. Probably hereafter several of these 

 steppes, at least in some places, will be cultivated, 

 if they wish to raise forests upon them. 



"In regard to the soil an extreme variety pre- 

 vails, either being very fruitful and proper ibr ag- 

 riculture or for meadow-land, or indiscriminately 

 for both. Accordingly in the steppe about the 

 Don, the Kozaks of those parts employ them- 

 selves in agriculture, as Avell as in the breeding of 

 cattle. Some of them furnish excellent pasture 

 by their fine herbage, as the southern tract of the 

 Isetskoi province, and the steppe of the middle 

 horde of the Kirghistzi.f Or the soil is unfruitful: 

 whether it be the sand, the salt, or the stone it 

 contains that is the cause of it. Among these are 

 to be reckoned the sandy steppe on the Irtish near 

 Omsk; in general we find about the mountains up 

 the Irtish pure arid steppes, and therefore no vil- 



* Formerly Yaik. 

 Vol. Ill — 42 



| Pallas, vol. ii. p. 75. 



lages. Also the Krasno-ufimskoi, between the 

 rivers Belaia, Kama, and Tchussovaia, towards 

 the Ural-chain, is mostly sandy; and that on the 

 Argoun towards the borders of China, is of a still 

 worse soil, consisting of rocky particles and flint. 

 The whole of the steppe along the river Kushum, 

 towards the town of Uralsk, is described by Prof. 

 Pallas* as dry, poor, saline, and unfit for any kind 

 of agriculture, for the breed of cattle, and even for 

 permanent inhabitants; there is not even a solitary 

 shrub to be seen, much less any wood. In gene- 

 ral saline spots are not unfrequent in the steppes; 

 and here and there we also meet with salt-lakes: 

 however, such districts may invite to camel-pas- 

 ture."— pp. 81, 83. 



"The steppes are frequently fired, either by the 

 negligence of travellers, or on purpose by the 

 herdsmen, in order to forward the crops of grassj 

 or, it may be, out of* malice, as some years since 

 the Kozaks of the Yaik did; when, having risen in 

 rebellion, a small corps of Russian troops advancing 

 against them, they saw themselves all at once al- 

 most entirely surrounded by the high grass on fire. 

 Such a catastrophe often occasions great mischief; 

 ihe flames spread themselves far and wide, put the 

 dwellings of the inhabitants in imminent danger, 

 consume the corn on the ground, and even seize 

 on the forests. Many prohibitions under severe 

 penalties have accordingly been issued against this 

 practice, but they seldom have any effect.! All 

 the steppes may be considered as a sort of common 

 land."— p. 84. 



"The steppe of the Don and the Volga com- 

 prises the whole space between the Don, Ihe Vol- 

 ga, and the Kuban, and is a large, very arid 

 steppe, altogether destitute of wood and water; it 

 has few inhabitants, and contains several salt- 

 lakes and salt-plots." "Within the confines of 



this steppe lies what is called the Kuman steppe" 

 — —"this, it is said, has all the appearance of a 

 dried-up sea: it is a sandy, part clayey salt plain, 

 without trees. Many circumstances render it pro- 

 bable that it might really have been the sea bot- 

 tom, as the flat shores of the Caspian and Azof 

 Seas, the shallowness of their coasts, the low sit- 

 uation of the steppe, the saline lakes, and the sea 

 shells" &fc. — Hees'' Cyclopaedia. 



Of the extensive Kamyk steppe, it is said in the 

 same work, that "the soil consists of sand, marie, 

 and clay, often mixed with sea shells." 



The latter passages include under the general 

 name of steppes, steril deserts of altogether a dif- 

 ferent character. In like manner, some great 

 tracts of naked sand in South America, are called 

 pampas — and some of what are called prairiea 

 west of the Arka'nsas territory, are of somewhat 

 similar general character to those described above. 

 These are mentioned here to avoid the appearance 

 of omitting what might be considered as opposing 

 my positions. But these regions are altogether 

 different from the lands properly called prairies or 

 steppes — and have no more connection with our 

 subject than if they had been more properly called 

 sandy, stony, or salt deserts. 



"Pampas, a province in South America in the 



* Travels, vol. iii. p. 525. 

 | See Pallas, vol. h. p. 378. 



