PRAIRIE MANAGEMENT. 139 



annual fires are also no inconsiderable component, and aid in 

 giving character to the soil. Most of the subsoil is a sort 

 of hard-pan, made of clay or loam cementing together peb- 

 bles and gravel, and is found from one to three or four feet 

 below the surface, and is so tenacious as to require a pick to 

 break through it. 



" In the lowlands, both of prairies and barrens, the subsoil 

 is sometimes clay, and the soil more or less argillaceous. 

 The timber growing on the barrens will very nearly deter- 

 mine the character of the soil and subsoil. If the Burr Oak 

 is plenty, the former will be sandy, and the latter hard-pan ; 

 if black or white oak abounds, clay will be more likely to be 

 found. Besides the resistance to drought, offered in the 

 character of the soil, the roots of the wild grass run to an 

 extraordinary depth ; many of them reaching entirely through 

 the soil, however deep it may be. The grass grows in 

 stools, at distances of from three to twelve inches apart, 

 there being, in fact, where the wild grasses only are found, 

 no such thing as a surface turf, such as is formed by red-top 

 and kindred grasses. It will be seen that it requires a very 

 dry summer indeed to affect such pasture, on such a soil. 

 In the autumn of 1837, there was, in this latitude, for the 

 five months succeeding the 5th of August, not rain enough to 

 wet the ground perhaps an inch in depth ; and yet potatoes 

 and corn turned out well, and the prairies continued in ver- 

 dure about as well as usual. 



" If, however, the question is asked, — Does not the pasture 

 on the prairies fail early in autumn, so as to compel the re- 

 moval of sheep to other pasture before it is time to go into 

 winter quarters ? I answer, yes — long before. In many 

 sections the prairies afford no adequate pasture for dairy 

 purposes after the first of September. In other localities 

 such pasture will continue in some vigor till as late as the 

 first or even middle of October ; this is the case with lands 

 lying within thirty miles of Chicago ; but such lands will be 

 proportionably late in the spring. The wild grasses are ex- 

 tremely vigorous while they last, hut are all, without an ex- 

 ception, short-lived. This may be a habit or condition, 

 induced by the annual fires, which kill out all but those with 

 long roots ; and a prevention of fires and cultivation might, 

 after a time, change the character of some of them in this 

 respect ; but it never will. They are disappearing, a little 



