PRAIRIE. 



The prairie is often adorned with 

 beautiful llowers in sprina;, and, in- 

 deed, throuLjhout the year. Tlie 

 grass is ol' various ivinds, some, as 

 that called tiulialo grass, being of 

 great value ; the whole is, however, 

 nutritious, and sustains oxen, horses, 

 and sheep remarkably well : there 

 are numerous species. The great 

 defect of the prairie is want of tim- 

 ber ; in some places tiiis is provided 

 on tiie islets of the rivers, or on 

 bluffs, but it is often altogether absent 

 for great distances. There is a de- 

 scription of partially timbered land, 

 called barrens, in which the trees 

 stand apart, with a tender grass grow- 

 ing between them. 



The method of breaking up the 

 prairie, and other interesting topics 

 to the emigrant, are contained in the 

 following remarks by Mr. Robinson, 

 of Indiana : 



" Breaking vp the Prairie. — Fancy 

 upon a level, smooth piece of ground, 

 free from sticks, stumps, and stones, 

 a team of four, five, or even si.x yoke 

 of oxen, hitched to a pair of cart 

 wheels, and to them hitched a plough 

 with a beam fourteen feet long, and 

 the share, &c., of which weigh from 

 sixty to one hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds, of wrought iron and steel, 

 and which cuts a furrow from sixteen 

 to twenty-four inches wide, and you 

 will figure the appearance of a ' break- 

 ing team' in operation. 



" I do believe, though, that a smaller 

 plough and less team would be bet- 

 ter for the land, though it is said it 

 would he more expensive ploughing. 

 It is true that the sod is more tough 

 than can he believed by those wiio 

 have never ploughed it. It requires 

 the plough to be kept very shar[), and 

 lor tliis [)urpose tiie ploughman is 

 always provided with a large file, with 

 which he keeps a keen edge as pos- 

 sible upon the share and coulter. 



" Such a team ploughs from one to 

 two acres a day, usually about four 

 inches deep, which is not near down 

 to tlie bottom of the roots, so tliat 

 the sod turned up affords but a scanty 

 covering for grain that is sowed upon 

 it at first, yet very tine crops of wheat 



are raised in this way. It is also a 

 common practice to break up in the 

 spring and drop corn in every second 

 or third ftiniiw, and from which 

 twenty or thirty bushel.'^ to the acre 

 are often gathered, nothing having 

 ever been done to it after planting. 

 It takes two or three years for these 

 sods to become thoroughly decom- 

 posed, and then the soil is of a light, 

 loose, i)lack, vegetable mould, very 

 easily stirred by tiie plougli, l)ut of a 

 nature that it adheres to the plougli 

 in a troublesome manner. In fact, 

 no plough has ever been found to 

 kee|) itself clear ; and the plougliman 

 is generally obliged to carry with him 

 a small wooden paddle, with which to 

 clear off the adhering mass of dirt 

 upon the mould-board. With this 

 exception, the prairie soil is gener- 

 ally one of the easiest in the world to 

 till, and of course remarkably fertile. 



" By far the greatest portion is 

 based upon a subsoil of clay, though 

 in many places the subsoil is sand 

 or gravel, and there are large tracts 

 of which the surface is of this mate- 

 rial. The streams are often broad 

 and nearly covered with vegetable 

 growth, in some instances to that 

 degree that sheets of water, many 

 rods wide, actually burn over during 

 the autumnal fires. 



" Notwithstanding the many ' in- 

 teresting accounts of burning prai- 

 ries,' the fire upon a dry prairie, in a 

 calm time, does not blaze as high as 

 it would in an old stubble field ; but 

 in the marshes, or wet prairies, it 

 sometimes rages with grandeur. 



" Enclosing. — The settlements al- 

 ready made are upon the smaller 

 prairies, the centre of which are not 

 more than four or five miles from 

 timi)er, or along the border of ' the 

 Grand IVairie,' taking care not to ex- 

 tend out beyond the reach of conve- 

 nient woodland. But there are many 

 places where the groves are barely 

 sufficient to furnisli the land most 

 contiguous, and vast tracts of prairie 

 are to be found ten or fifteen miles 

 from timl)er. That these tracts will 

 forever remain uncultivated, cannot 

 for a moment be tliought of That 



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