138 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



conditions of horticulture and community life, 

 came later dynasties of willow twigs, ben da- 

 vises, winesaps, northern spies and roman stems. 

 Discussion of the relative merits of favorite kinds 

 of winter apples made one stock subject for fire- 

 side mnter conversation. 



In the late seventies and early eighties, buffalo 

 robes were sold in Grinnell for from $5.00 to 

 $15.00. It was a poor farmer who did not possess 

 his buffalo robe and his buffalo coat, a poor ''liv- 

 ery rig" sent out in cold weather without liberal 

 supply of shaggy furs. No woven stuffs, no other 

 furs can ever replace, for fancy, these old-time 

 comforters. In those days the herds still lingered 

 in the Missouri Valley, the widely scattered har- 

 vest of bones had not been gathered from the Da- 

 kota prairies, and schoolboys had not ceased to 

 write essays on ''The American Bison." Black 

 Hawk tells us he wore the buffalo robe after the 

 death of his children, but for us let it remain in 

 memory, now that its material form has departed, 

 a thing of joy forever. ^^ 



Lawrence, Kansas, November 30, 1907. 

 Today the campus pasturing closed, the cattle 

 standing at the homeward bars in blissful ignor- 

 ance of that fact. November is more distinctly 

 and habitually an autumn month here than in cen- 



26 See Appendix, Note 21. 



