42 NEW TEACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA. 



shoots, biitj wMlo shedding their coats in the spring, pull dovni 

 quantities of trees along the riyer banks. Colonel Greenwood, 

 who has up to this point suryeycd most of the railroad, 

 complained terribly of these animals knocking down his 

 guide stakes along the track in this way, so that miles of the 

 road had to be re-staked. 



When the young plants can be protected from the fires and 

 the buffiilo, there is no doubt but that the settler in this 

 section of coimtry, just as well as on the prairies of Indiana 

 and Illinois, can grow as many trees as he likes, and cover 

 his garden with refreshing shade. 



Almost the only tree to be found here is the cotton- wood 

 (Pojjiilus momli/era), so called from its white downy seeds. It 

 belongs to the same family as the willow and poplar, grows 

 rapidly to a large size, and gives a beautiful shade ; but the 

 wood is the worst possible, rotting rapidly if exposed to the 

 weather, and forming a most fertile nest for insects if used for 

 in-door purposes. Close following the cotton-wood from the 

 East, as settlement advances, come the alder and ash; and, 

 some distance behind, may be surely expected the heavier and 

 liarder timbers of Missouri. Both the soil and climate are 

 most favoui-able to the cultivation of neach and fig trees, and 



that of apr 



the two latter 



are foimd wild in the greatest abundance in many places 

 along the streams. 



The short delicate bufi'alo-grass {Buchloe dacti/loides, Eng.), 

 beautiful as it is with its bunches of pink stamens, and cuiious 

 clusters of pistillate flowers, is by no means the most desirable 

 grass, as far as the land is concerned. Its close, thickly-matted 

 fibres keep the ground very dry, by preventing the rain from 

 penetrating into it. I have noticed, times and again, after a 

 sudden thunder shower, how rapidly the rain flowed off into 



I 



1 



1 

 I 



