148 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



set down, and with the addition of a httle farm stock,* a far 

 mer makes himself comfortable, nay, independent, for life. 

 He has, it is true, a rough dwelling, but warm, and his table 

 is abundantly supplied wqth all that is produced on the soil, 

 and generally with the necessaries from the stores. He can 

 have his bread, and potatoes, and beef, and pork, almost 

 without a thought. He knows nothing of the toil, cost and 

 skill requisite to manage a farm east of the mountains. His 

 cattle range the richest pasture in the world, and his hogs 

 find their food in the abundant mast of the groves. His 

 plough merely turns the sod, and no artificial garden mould 

 can be made to rival the fertility and easy tillage of his 

 fields. The only thing that can be suggested unfavorable to 

 the soil of this country is, that its very great productiveness 

 may not be propitious to habits of industry in the cultivator. 

 Standing upon the bluff of the great river, and casting 

 around the eyes of the mind over the transvisual and into the 

 future, I behold, at no distant point of time, but in clear and 

 close prospect, a vast plain, and beautiful more than vast, 

 surpassing in fertility and easy culture the most favored 

 regions of the earth, stretching westward from the Missisippi 

 to the Upper Missouri, and eastward to Michigan ; and from 

 the mouths of Illinois and Missouri northw^ard to 45°, to St. 

 Peter's, and the Coteau des Prairies, covered with a hardy 

 and industrious population, — one great magnificent garden — 

 clothed in green and gold ; smiling with a harvest, the boun- 

 tiful supply to the inhabitants of the whole world. This 

 tract covers six degrees of latitude, comprising about 150,- 

 000 square miles, or 100,000,000 acres. So very trifling is 

 the unproductive land, that, with a reservation of the neces- 

 sary wood-land and the portion devoted to the support of the 



* Horses are worth from #40 to $60, cows $10 to $12. These are the 

 best prices when they are put in market. 



