140 SHEEP OF THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AMERICA. 



more slowly, but as surely as the Indians, before the plough- 

 share and march of cultivation. 



" ' Does the Prairie grass conform in habit to any of the 

 English grasses V 



" This question has been already pretty well answered. 

 There are a large number of wild grasses here. The dif- 

 ferent plants which go to make up the foliage of the prairies, 

 in any township of land, are very numerous. I have heard 

 them estimated by those who had paid attention to the sub- 

 ject, at tw^o or three hundred. Of these, though but an infe- 

 rior proportion are, strictly speaking, grasses ; yet they all, 

 or nearly all, aflbrd herbage fit to be eaten by animals. An 

 individual has but to cross any prairie, which has not been 

 fed or mown, in a tolerably wet season, and note the endless 

 prospect of blossoms, mingled with green, which wave un- 

 der the wind like the surges of a sea of flowers ; observe 

 the ever-changing colors of the swells, as they come and 

 go, to be sensible that there is variety enough. These flow- 

 ers change throughout the season, a dozen or two varieties 

 being in bloom at once, and continue in the fall long after 

 the prairies are fit for pasture, the rear being brought up by 

 blue and yellow weeds. These flowering plants diminish 

 in number at once from feeding or mowing, and soon almost 

 entirely, with the exception of the coarser ones, disappear. 



" ' What length of time is foddering necessary in Northern 

 Illinois V 



" The seasons have been extremely variable since my resi- 

 dence here — now nearly nine years. The winter of 1842 

 and '43 was the severest one since the settlement of the 

 State, and the foddering season lasted from the middle of 

 October to the middle of April. The winter of 1843 and 

 '44 and the present one would require foddering for a less 

 time, by full two months. This is on the supposition, how- 

 ever, that good artificial pasturage is provided. If the wild 

 prairies alone are relied on for pasture and hay, full two 

 months must be added to the foddering season ; and stock 

 would barely get through at that ; and I think that sheep, in 

 multitudes of instances, would perish. In this latitude, 

 with timothy, red-top, and clover pastures, the average time 

 would be from four and a half to five months. If a good 

 blue grass pasture were provided, in such winters as the 

 last and the present, it might be reduced to two months ; 

 and I am told, that some so provided for, one hundred miles 



