AND HORTICULTUItAL REGISTER. 



^ 



voii.xvm.j 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NOKTH MARKET STREET, (Agbicultubal WAttEHOUsB.) 

 BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 17, 1840. 



two. 50. 



N. E . FARMER, 



WANDERINGS IN THE WEST IN 1839. 



No. IV. 



{Continued from page 412.) 



Clinton is a town recently laid out, contains ten 

 or twelve houses, and is ihe seut of De Witt coun- 

 ty : put the two together and wn have De Witt 

 Clinton. It is ncedli-ss to say that the projectors 

 are Yorkers, and have displayed a rare specimen 

 of American ingenuity in naming towns and coun- 

 ties. Proceeding north, the prairie becomes more 

 rolling and the road better. We passed through 

 two or three belts of limber, in one of which I saw 

 a quantity of stable manure placed along in the 

 road, as we in the east would use gravel, probably 

 because it was less labor to put it there than to cart 

 it out upon the prairi'\ ."Vt the end of 2r> miles 

 we came to Bloominslon, the seat of McLean coun- 

 ty, situated on the edge of the prairie on the north 

 side of Blooniing Grove. This is a pleasant, thriv- 

 iug town, containing several good buildings : it 

 has three steam mil's, a number of stores, two tav- 

 erns, and there is tht; appearance of a good deal of 

 business: lots in town are held at high prices, and 

 timber land in the grove is valued at from twenty 

 to thirty dollars an acre. Many of the inhabitants 

 are from New England. We spent the remainder 

 of the day and the night at Bloomington, and the 

 next day took the road towards Peoria. We found 

 a very good road through a fine tract of country'-^ 

 rolling prairie and timber alternating, and a pleas- 

 ant ride of twenlyfive miles brought us to the vil- 

 lage of Macinaw. While there we had a heavy 

 shower, and after crossing Macinaw river we were 

 overtaken by another hard rain, which compelled 

 us to stop at the first house we came to. I speak 

 of houses, though properly speaking there is very 

 seldom any thing but a log cabin in the country, 

 except in the towns, and there even the greater 

 number of buildings are often cabins. The shelter 

 we obtained this night was in fact a cabin of the 

 "worst kind," but our situation made it as accepta- 

 ble as a palace would have been in other circum- 

 stances. The ne.Kt morning was cloudy, cold, and 

 uncomfortable: we resumed our journey and three 

 miles brought us in view of Tremont, the seat of 

 Tazewell county. We passed the town at the dis- 

 tancs of about a mile, and I regretted that we did 

 not take the rou! through it. After we crossed 

 the Macinaw we began to discover gravel in the 

 hills ; the road is Hoiierally better, and the water is 

 more palatable than that which wo found before. 

 The groves in this vicinity are chiefly white oak 

 and hickory, and as we came near the Illinois river 

 we found a good deal of clay: the roiid down the 

 bluff is very steep and dangerous. We crossed 

 the river about one o'clock and entered Peoria. 



Peoria is beautifully situated on the west side of 

 the river, which at that place makes a bend to the 

 eastward, something less than a semicircle : the 

 bluff comes near to the river, and is covered, as is 

 the narrow strip of bottom land, with a thick growth 



of timber: on the west side the ground rises grad- 

 ually to the second bottom, an elevation of twenty 

 or thirty feet, and the town is principally built up- 

 on this ascent: the second bottom extends back 

 to the bluff something more than a quarter of a 

 mile: there are a few scattering trees on the face 

 of the blutr, and on the top of it are a few houses 

 commanding a fine prospect of the town, ten or 

 twelve miles of the river, and the surrounding coun- 

 try. The prairie stretches back from the blulf a 

 mile perhaps to a belt of timber. On the whole it 

 is the finest site for a town that I ever saw. Peo- 

 ria contains 1200 inhabitants, ."J taverns, 25 stores, 

 1 printing office, and Mr Huntoon, favorably known 

 at the east, has established a school there which 

 succeeds well, but though the place is pleasant, it 

 is very imhcaithy. 



After a sojourn of two days we took leave of Pe- 

 oria, and recrossed the river four miles above the 

 town, into Tazewell county. Soon after a hard 

 rain set in, and we got most thoroughly wet again, 

 and we found no stopping place until we got to a 

 place called Partridge Ridgo, 12 miles from Peo- 

 ria. Here we found comfortable accommodations, 

 and concluded to stop a i'ew days and look about 

 the country. Accordingly the next day we rode 

 around the neighborhood some ten or dozen miles, 

 and called at several farms, among others at that of 

 Mr Buckingham, who had been in the country sev- 

 en years, has a very large estate, keeps about 100 

 head of cattle, besides many horses and hogs. He 

 bad in his cribs from 1000 to 2000 bushels of corn, 

 for which he said he could find no sale even at the 

 low price of 18 3-4 cents. Winter wheat does not 

 succeed well in this neighborhood ; spring grain 

 does well, but corn is their principal crop, and cattle 

 and hogs are their only resource to obtain money. 

 Farming is done in a slovenly manner, labor is 

 high and not easily obtained: female labor hardly 

 to be gotten at any rate. There are no public 

 schools and private schools are rare. 



We made another excursion across the prairie 

 eastward to Walnut lirove. On the prairie we 

 passed half a dozen houses which had a desolate 

 appearance and upon inquiry I found that it is the 

 town of Hanover, which contains not a single in- 

 habitant — the last family having moved but .some 

 months before, and the post office which had been 

 established there was removed about three mi;e3 to 

 a sawmill in the grove, because there was no per- 

 son left in town to serve as postmaster. At wal- 

 nut grove we called at the house of a Mr ('urtis 

 and went over his farm. I saw there several pie- 

 ces of English grass, or as it is called in the west, 

 tame grass, and I observed that some of it looked 

 better than the rest, and Mr Curtis's told me that it 

 had been manured. He uses manure upon all crops, 

 although his prairie is of the best kind, and I saw a 

 great difference between the crops that were ma- 

 nured and those that were not. The prairie will 

 not produce good crops of grass without manure, 

 and Mr Buckingham told me the same. 



A heavy rain kept us within doors on the third 

 day, and the next we rode to Mr Buckingham's 

 and tarried over night : our fare here was simple 



but abundant, and we were treated with genuine 

 hospitality. The evenino; was passed in pleasant 

 conversation before a bright fire, which blazed 

 cheerfully in the huge stone chimney. .\ltliough 

 it was near the last of June, there had been scarce- 

 ly an evunino when a fire was not agreeable, al- 

 though the day might have been very hot. In the 

 morning we left our host and travelled in the di- 

 rection of Peru. The country about Crow CroeW, 

 which we passed in the forenoon, is very fine: the 

 land IS rolling, alternate prairie and barrens, afford- 

 ing some splendid views: the bed of the creek is 

 of pebbles and the water is clear and sparkling.-^- 

 Oxbow praiiie is also very pleasant: we saw there 

 plenty of apples and peaches. North of the Ox- 

 bow praicie we came to a little town called Magno- 

 lia, containing about twenty houses. About a mile 

 from town we stopped fur the night at the house oV 

 a Mr Hawes, who was the first settler in this part 

 of the country. He is located in the edge of the 

 timber near a fine brook, and is the wealthiest man 

 in ths neighborhood. 



Our route the next day was over prairie about 

 fourteen miles. We then came to barrens, where 

 we had a bad winding road down to the river, which 

 we crossed with difficulty and entered Peru. 



Peru is at present a small town of about 300 iii- 

 habitant.-j. It is built principally upon one street 

 at the foot of the biutT, but being at the head of 

 navigation at low water, and the termination of the 

 canal from Chicago and of the railroad to Dixon'» 

 ferry, its prs^spfcl for future prosperity is flattering. 

 Leaving Peru we followed a deep ravine in the 

 bluff and came upon the prairie back of the tow ri, 

 w>i<-,-e we lost our way, and darkness overtook us 

 ■upon the open prairie, whore we were obliged to 

 pass the night without provisions or a bed ; and 

 wi*h bad lodgi.igs, empiy stomachs, and luusquitoe.s 

 withal, we had an uncomforta'ile night enough. 



At daybreak we discovered that our horses were 

 gone, and it was not until sunrise that wo reco^er'- 

 ed them and got ready to start, and after wanderia;; 

 some time we got upon the right track and rode to 

 Homer, 10 miles from Pern. Homer is a small 

 town near the Little Vermillion river, in La Salle 

 county ; the day was extremely hot, and we stopp- 

 ed awhile and then rode on four miles to Troy 

 grove. The country around the Little Vermillion 

 is very beautiful, the soil is first rate, and the water 

 good ; but yet I was told that it is unhealthy. 



'I he next morning we left Troy grove and enter- 

 ed upon the wide prairie, where wood and water 

 are seldom found: — eight miles brought us to Four 

 mile grove, where wc found an excellent spring; 

 thence to Pawpaw grove is six miles. The prairie 

 here is quite high and rolling, even hilly — and the 

 subsoil is gravel ; the grove.s on the contrary arc 

 low and flat, occupying the lowest places where 

 tiiere is water, and are heavily timbered. 



Between Pawpaw and Koiir-inile groves we en- 

 joyed the most extensive view that 1 ever saw up- 

 on land : towards the N, \V., S. E. and N. E. in the 

 direction of ('hicago, there is nothing to intercept 

 the sight for a distance of perhaps from 40 to CO 

 miles ; indeed as far as the sight can extend, noth- 



