56 



The essential elements and the results are similar in either case. 

 Let no immigrant settle on bottom land. It is an interesting ques- 

 tion how far the influence of the bottom lands extends. I am sorry 

 I have no means of difinitively determining a question of this sort. 

 The general impression is, that the Mississippi is no barrier to their 

 pestilential influence, and that a prevalent wind may waft the miasma 

 to the inhabitants on the opposite bank. It would be hard to convince 

 the old inhabitants of Burlington, that the bottom opposite to us, was 

 not the focus of many of our diseases How far on the hills the 

 same influence may extend must depend on contiguous timber, or prev- 

 alent winds . The estimate of Dr. Horr, is, I think, 600 feet; but this 

 must be modified by the circumstances above mentioned. 



2d. The timberlands are generally intermediate between the bot- 

 tom lands, or water courses, and the prairie lands; they are generally 

 broken, rough lands, with deep clay foundations ; in point of produc- 

 tiveness, they are commonly inferior to the prairie lands. They are 

 almost uniformly well drained. So far as health is concerned, the 

 concurrent testimony of my correspondents is, that they are more sa- 

 lubrious than either prairie or bottom lands. The diseases may be 

 the same, but there are fewer cases, and they are more manageable ; 

 such is my own observation, 



3d. The prairie lands are the highest lands in their respective neigh- 

 borhoods. They are indeed the table lands of our country. In them 

 originate all the water courses, and they are generally dry, or suscep- 

 tible of drainage. Indeed, Dr. Sales thinks there is not, in Jones 

 county, wet land enough for meadows. The same would seem to be 

 true of Cedar and Dubuque counties. They are by universal con- 

 sent admitted to be as healthful as any new country ever was. An 

 extensive and simultaneous breaking up of prairie, rarely fails to gen- 

 erate bilious disease ; but in a year or two all decaying roots, <fec. hav- 

 ing commingled with the earth, all is right again. 



A prairie farm is a delightful one. The pure, enlarged atmosphere 

 braces the form, and makes us luxuriate in the enjoyments of health. 

 And the farmer is prosperous ; he builds good houses, good barns, 

 plants orchards, and if any winds, for instance a northwester, is par- 

 ticularly troublesome, he plants a grove of young forest trees, and they 

 lift the wind from the earth, and it passes harmless over his head. 

 The influence of artificial groves in thus protecting houses and stock 

 and farms from destructive winds, deserves a more extensive consid- 

 eration than I have space to bestow on it. Its bearing on health is 

 very direct, and so far as I know, it is the only means by which man 

 can control the angry element in which he lives. There seems to be 



