146 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



and the lands unappropriated and unfenced, the cattle of the 

 neighboring settler make their summer range, finding the 

 most abundant and the sweetest pastures. At the end of 

 their summer feeding these cattle are all good beef without 

 any stall feeding ; and the butter is the most delicious in the 

 world. During a residence of six years in Iowa, the writer 

 scarcely ever ate butter that was not superior to the choicest 

 butter to be purchased in any of the eastern cities. The 

 prairie grass is also cut by the farmer for his winter feeding, 

 and supplies a coarse but sweet and excellent hay. In most 

 places in the new settlements it is the only hay used. In a 

 few years' mowing, however, the weeds succeed to the grass, 

 and it becomes necessary to go further for the hay, or to 

 introduce the English hay upon the farmer's ow^n grounds. 



The cost of breaking the prairie is from $1,50 to $2 per 

 acre, at this time, in the older parts of Iowa, and other places 

 where settlements have been made ten or fifteen years. In 

 the newer settlements, it is always higher ; and all expenses 

 of living, and the price of labor, are greater. In the first 

 settlement of Iowa, as high as $5 an acre was paid for 

 breaking. The wages of a farming hand was then from $25 

 to $30 a month; now, it is about $8 to $10. Provisions 

 then bore about the same proportion to the present prices. 



The cost of making a prairie farm at this time in the river 

 counties, or in the parts of Iowa known as Scott's purchase, 

 comprising all the country to which the Indian title was 

 extinguished prior to the treaty of 1842, is subjoined : 



