234 On the AppUcatio7i of Manures. 



ing with a ridge or tract so entirely destitute of vegetation as 

 to afford no combustible matter to maintain it. 



Hence those vast plains that lie to the west of the Mississippi, 

 not being intersected by any barren range of hills, nor yet tra- 

 versed by large rivers, have in the course of years been converted 

 into prairies, the growth of timber being from time to time pre- 

 vented by the cause assigned, until the luxuriant herbage at 

 length so pre-occupies the soil as itself to stifle all other kind of 

 vegetation ; whereas, over a wide tract extending along either 

 side of that great stream, the numerous tributaries that pour 

 their waters into it oppose a limit to the progress of such fires 

 as may occur, and thus enable the forests to maintain their as- 

 cendency. 



Be this however as it may, we can at least assure ourselves 

 that the absence of timber in the prairie country is by no means 

 an evidence of sterility — on the contrary, the immense accumu- 

 lation of decayed vegetable matter, which has resulted from the 

 growth of herbaceous plants during so many centuries, is found 

 to constitute a soil of almost unrivalled productiveness. 



The colonist, therefore, in first settling down in such a region, 

 has little room for the exertion of any extraordinary skill or in- 

 dustry, having around him an unlimited extent of land, which 

 in its actual condition affords the richest pasturage for his flocks 

 and herds, and which, whenever he takes the trouble of turning 

 it up, and scattering seed over it, will generally repay him largely 

 for the labour expended. 



Harder indeed is the lot of him who takes up his abode with- 

 in the precincts of the primeval forests of the western world, 

 since, before he can reap any advantage from the land he calls 

 his own, he must undertake the severe task of clearing it of the 

 timber with which it is encumbered. 



This, however, being accomplished, it is seldom that he is dis- 

 appointed in the quality of the soil that lies underneath ; and for 

 the most part his rude and imperfect methods of culture afford 

 him for several years as ample a return as the utmost exertion 

 of skill and experience can secure in the older countries from 

 which he has migrated. 



" Aut unde iratus silvam devexit arator, 

 Et nemora evertit multos iguava per annos, 

 Antiquasque domos avium cum stirpil)us imis 

 Eruit: illae altum uidis petiere relictis, 

 At rudis eiiituit impulso vomere campus." 



And this was even the case in parts of the Union which are by 

 no means remarkable for their fertility at present, as for instance 

 in the States of New England. 



*'When the tract on the green mountains in Massachusetts 



