144 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



as the General Assembly may provide, shall be inviolably 

 appropriated to the support of common schools throughout 



the State. 



"3. The General Assembly shall provide for a system 

 of common schools, by which a school shall be kept up and 

 supported in each school district at least three months in 

 every year ; and any school district neglecting to keep up 

 and support such a school, may be deprived of its proportion 

 of the interest of the public fund during such neglect. 



"4. The money which shall be paid by persons as an 

 equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear 

 proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for any 

 breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied in the 

 several counties in which such money is paid or fine collect- 

 ed, among the several school districts of said counties, in the 

 proportion of the number of inhabitants in such districts, to 

 the support of common schools, or the establishment of 

 libraries, as the General Assembly may from time to time 

 provide by law." 



The principal employments here must always be those 

 connected with agriculture. The soil, greatly superior as it 

 is to all other within the United States, cannot fail to invite a 

 crowd of laborers to the harvest. But it is better even for 

 grazing than for tillage. The grasses, in several varieties, 

 grow with astonishing luxuriance. Some of the bottoms bear 

 a grass from eight to nine feet high. 



The prairies have been mentioned and partially described 

 already. The geological structure of these lands was ex- 

 hibited, and the general appearance of their surface indicated 

 in speaking of the physical geography of the Upper Missisip- 

 pi. The prairie lands are similar on both sides of the Mis- 

 sisippi. Conjecture is at fault in endeavors to account for 

 their origin. Two circumstances unite to retain them in 



