Prairies and Barrens of the West. 119 



various dimensions, and of every figure which the imagination 

 can conceive, with here and there a gentle rise of ground, 

 decked with a ievf scattering trees or a thick cluster of them, 

 and bearing a tall, coarse grass, which is thin on the rises, but on 

 the lower grounds thick and luxuriant ; imagine, also, a rill of 

 a reddish colour scarcely meandering through ground a little 

 lower than the surrounding plain, and you will have a very 

 correct idea of the appearance of these barrens. They are 

 generally (not always) found on what, in our western dialect, 

 is called second bottom, and not on a level with any streams of 

 magnitude, but rather at their sources. To mention all the 

 counties of this State where these prairies and barrens are 

 found* would be too tedious, and illy comport with the object 

 which we have in view. We shall therefore content ourselves 

 with describing those found in the north half of Fayette county, 

 and the adjoining county of Madison, which may be said to be 

 almost entirely one great barren of more than forty miles 

 extent from north to south, and generally half as much in 

 breadth from east to west. The great barren in Fayette, 

 Madison, and, we may add, in the counties still north of them, 

 is on land elevated from fifty to one hundred feet above the 

 level of the Scioto river, into which the streams that have 

 their sources in this tract of country generally run. This 

 land lies so level that the waters stand on it too long for grrjn 

 to thrive equally with grass, unless, indeed, the farmer should 

 dig a long drain, which is easily effected by the plough, with 

 a little assistance from the hoe and the spade. But as nature 

 aeems to have intended this tract of country for the raising of 

 cattle instead of grain, the husbandman has listened to the sug- 

 gestion, and in this great barren are found some thousands of 

 the finest cattle which the State affords. Here the horse, the 

 ox, and the swine feed, thrive, and fatten with little expense to 

 their owner ; but sheep do not, and never will, thrive on 

 prairie grass, or wet grounds. Fruit-trees, the peach, the 

 apple, the plum, &.c. do very well when planted on the gently 

 rising grounds, where the hickory or the oak had once stood. 

 Fruit-trees, such as have been named, thrive very well also 

 on th» dry prairies. On the eastern side of the Allegany 



