THE CULTIVATOR. 
125 
quality. Mr. G. is trying a hedge of native thorn; and will give the 
result when ascertained. Like all well educated gentlemen of his 
profession, he takes an active interest hi agricultural improvement, 
and uses his influence to extend the circulation of agricultural pa¬ 
pers. By his advice, I called upon one of his neighbors, upon a 
farm upon which he keeps 100 head of cattle, and a “ right smart 
chance” of hogs, but they are dying with the kidney worm, and he 
made a “ bad crap ; it was so powerful wet in the spring that the 
crap got right smartly in the grass! and then again it got dreadful 
dry,” and so with all these misfortunes, he felt too poor to subscribe 
for a paper. I hinted that if he had taken one, he would have found 
a receipt to cure the kidney worm, and thus have saved fifty dollars 
worth of hogs. But “ he reckoned these ere papers told a heap of 
liesand so to save the poor man’s conscience as well as hogs, I 
told him to give the latter sulphur, which if I had given him the me¬ 
dicine as well as advice, perhaps he would have done. 
After leaving this fair specimen of a large majority of the settlers 
of this country, I entered just at sundown, upon a 20 mile prairie, in¬ 
tending to drive five miles to the first and only house, and spend the 
night; but as I approached, one unacquainted with such scenes, 
might have fancied that instead of a country tavern, he was nearing 
an army encampment; as it required no great stretch of fancy to 
convert a score of white wagon covers into tents, and the noise of a 
dozen families of emigrants, into that of a small detachment of “ la 
grand armie.” Indeed, such scenes in the west are by no means 
uncommon. There is one of the roads that enter Chicago, upon 
which I have seen 300 wagons pass in a day, and that not a rare 
sight, but one often seen. 
Finding in the present case, that if I remained I must content my¬ 
self with a very small portion of a bed, and my horses with a birth 
by the side of a rail fence, I soon concluded to “ put out” and brave 
the terrors of a threatening snow storm upon a prairie 15 miles 
across, as upon the other side lay the town of Carlinsville, the seat 
of justice in Macoupin county. I am of opinion that if that fellow 
who is astonishing the “ down easters,” fiddling the “ solitude of the 
prairie,” had been with me this evening, that he would have been 
able to play the tune in much greater perfection. Perhaps he might 
add, 
“ Oh solitude, where are the charms 
That emigrants see in this place; 
Better stay on their own little farms, 
Than own all this horrible waste.” 
And he might add another stanza to a lone tree standing solitary 
and alone in the midst of this ocean of land, like a sentinel watching 
alone over the solitude of the prairie, which is more profound than 
the solitude of the darkest forest. 
No doubt many of my eastern readers would have hesitated long, 
and rather put up with lodging “ three in a bed,” sooner than under¬ 
take the passage of such a prairie in the night. But we soon get 
used to it, and as in the present instance, get through it in good or¬ 
der, and by contrast are able to reap double enjoyment by the side 
of a good fire in a good inn. The town of Carlinsville, like many 
others in the west that grew up like Jonah’s gourd, when men for¬ 
sook the cultivation of the soil to grow suddenly rich in town lot 
speculation, now shows in the dilapidated appearance of tenantless 
houses, that it would have been better for many if they had been 
content to pursue a steady, though slow, yet certain road to com¬ 
fortable independence which surely attends the careful cultivation of 
a good soil. 
During this day’s drive, after leaving Carlinsville, I witnessed the 
rapid increase of timber that is every where taking place in the 
prairie country, where protected from fire. Though during the past 
fall, in consequence of the great drouth that followed the great flood, 
immense damage, not only to the young timber, but in the destruc¬ 
tion of fences, has been done throughout the whole of my journey. 
And this drouth still continues, so much so that the few mills that 
are to be found in this part of the State, are almost useless, and set¬ 
tlers complain of “long trips to mill.” The roads, even iu the beds 
of streams that are sometimes impassible, (where bridges are not, 
and that is every where when it is possible to “ get along” without 
them,) are dusty, and the land in fine order for plowing, though I 
perceive but little of it doing. And would you know why ? Why, 
is it not winter? And who ever heard of plowing in the winter, in 
a country where we are above such vulgar business as working 
when we are not obliged to. And another reason is that most of the 
cultivated land is every year in corn, and much of that is not yei 
gathered, and besides the stalk fields are the main dependance of 
half the farmers in the country for wintering the stock. And under 
such circumstances, notwithstanding the favorable nature of the 
weather for plowing, if they even had a disposition to do it, they 
oannot avail themselves of the opportunity. But you will say they 
might be otherwise employed; getting up wood for instance. Beg 
pardon, but you don’t know ‘ r our folks,”—they are waiting for 
sledding. 
But there are many exceptions to this waiting kind of population, 
one of which I witnessed at Chesterfield in this county of Macoupin. 
There were not only orchards and barns, but beautiful groves of lo¬ 
cust around the comfortable houses, at one of which I found a dairy 
©f 70 cows; and at almost every house a file of the Cultivator or 
Prairie Farmer, a paper in high credit in this State. And reader, 
where do you think this intelligent and enterprising population were 
'rom : I shall not tell, but if you are a yankec, you can easily 
1 guess.” I found one of them busily engaged building a new barn, 
which he assured me he was incited to by reading my remarks up¬ 
on the subject of the want of this indispensible farm building in the 
west. I hope my remarks, and the contrast that I shall exhibit to 
them between good and bad farmers, that I meet with upon my pre¬ 
sent tour, will also excite many others to make improvements. 
And here is one example by way of contrast—I spent the night in 
the cabin of one who had become familiar with my name in the 
Cultivator, and felt great pleasure in extending a warm welcome to 
the best he had, to one he had long looked upon as an old acquain¬ 
tance and friend. He is a physician, whose practice required him to 
keep two horses, and where do you think he kept them during the 
inclemency of a wintry storm ? in the stable, do you say. Well, it 
was in a large one, then, which nature alone had any hand in buil¬ 
ding. For no other had he, and therefore in the morning, I had no 
scruples of conscience against bringing my horses out of the corner 
of the fence where they had spent the night, and hitching on to the 
carriage for a 14 mile drive over a bleak prairie, facing a south-east 
snow storm, to a little town in the same .county called Woodburn. 
where I spent the balance of the Sabbath in very comfortable q; ar- 
ters for both man and beast. Now, I shall not mention the name 
of this really good man, though to us he has an odd way of showing 
his goodness to the good creatures created for his use, but that is all 
owing to his “ brought’n up” in a section of the United States that 
“ I reckon” you will not wish me to tell you lies south of that cele¬ 
brated line of Mason and Dixon. 
I found my host, (Dr. Grimsted,) a very intelligent Englishman, 
who, together with many of his countrymen of the same stamp, 
| have settled in and about this place, which is located upon good 
prairie, scarce of timber, inconvenient to mills, and possesses rather 
| too great a share of that kind of “ go-day, come-day” population, 
which fill the southern part of Illinois with a class of men that are 
content to live not only without stables, but without many of the 
other comforts that constantly surround the cabin of the eastern em- 
! igrant; the contrast between which and their own, will do more to 
| urge them forward to do likewise, than all the agricultural papers in 
I the world; for them they never read. 
I Three miles from Woodburn, is the village or rather settlement 
of “ Bunker hill;” where I found a monument as noble and endu¬ 
ring as that which overlooks the city o’f Boston. It is a monument 
! of industry, enterprise and yankee perseverence that has within a 
■ few short years converted a wide tract of .rich rolling prairie, al- 
i though not very convenient to timber or mills, into one of the most 
j flourishing communities and highly improved farms that I have seen 
| in the State. The location is undoubtedly a healthy one, well water 
convenient and good, but stock water upon the surface, I judge not 
[so. There is more grass, more fruit trees, more barns, more good 
houses, more scholars at school, and more readers of agricultural pa- 
jpers in this eight year old settlement, than there is in some of the 
oldest settlements in the State, where the population is double. 
I took dinner with Moses True, who is a worthy follower of his 
[great namesake, in regard to perseverance, and whom I wish I 
could induce some thousands of his fellow-citizens to take as a pat¬ 
tern of the True way to acquire a comfortable independence in the 
! cultivation of the soil. He showed me a flock of 200 wedder sheep 
[fattening for the St. Louis market, 40 miles distant. He intends fat- 
| tening about this number every year, as he finds it one of the most 
[profitable of his farming operations. His flock consists of about SCO 
| at this time. I have also noticed several other flocks to-day, and al- 
!so a disease called the sore mouth, which is affecting several flocks. 
[If you will publish a cure if known, it will oblige many in this part 
! of the country. In the course of a two hours drive after leaving this 
j place, where everything looked as though created but yesterday, 
[one might suppose that he had indulged in an unconscious nap, and 
[awaked in “ the old settlemeets,” so great is the change. For here 
[we are amid old buildings, old farms and orchards of old trees, one 
[of which, containing 1200 bearing trees, (owned by Gershom Flagg, 
jEsq., brother of your Comptroller of State,) upon a large and ex- 
|cellent farm in Madison county, 30 miles from St. Louis, where he 
[has resided 27 years, 25 of which in the same log cabins, which are 
I his castles still, and in which I met a kind of welcome not to be 
[measured by outside appearances. He has about 500 acres in cult¬ 
ivation, and is still adding more ; and keeps about 100 head of cattle, 
with horses and hogs to match. His orchard of excellent grafted 
fruit brings him in some $2,000 a year, most of the fruit of which he- 
[sends to New-Orleans. He keeps 10 or 15 yokes of steers at work, 
[which, as soon as he gets well broke, are offered for sale, and bring 
remunerating prices. He is reputed so, and is undoubtedly rich, 
! and I will also add, proud. But it is proud of living so long in a 
j house that has been of so little expense to him. All of his out-build- 
| mgs, and they are very extensive and convenient, are of the same 
primitive description. Indeed, he says that he has never used a 
brick or shingle upon the place, but if I may judge from appearan¬ 
ces, he is now preparing to do so shortly. He is not waiting for 
sledding. Every thing around him is on the go-ahead principle, ex¬ 
cept the house, and that is going to decay. And when we look 
abroad over the towns, cities and farms extending hundreds of miles 
away to ihe north, and think that this very house when built, was 
the “ frontier settlement,” the very outpost of civilization, it is easy 
to imagine that it is time for it to pass away. At the time Mr. 
Flagg settled here, he was looked upon by his neighbors in the 
“ thick woods,” as little better than a crazy man to undertake to 
cultivate the prairie, when it was evident it would not produce crops, 
otherwise it would have produced timber. 
Over a rough uncultivated tract, mostly timbered, I went to the 
somewhat famous town of Alton, or rather towns, for there are three 
of them, Upper, Middle and Lower ; and all covering as rough and 
[uneven a surface, extending up mountain sides, and back a mile or 
more over other mountain sides, from the river, that part being Up¬ 
per Alton. Hefe is the college, several good churches and fine 
dwellings, but no mercantile business. Middle town is a collection 
of good dwellings, mostly occupied by men doing business in the 
lower town. Here I noticed a dwelling surrounded with a garden 
in high cultivation, a plain indication of the owner’s mind, who I 
found on acquaintance, though engaged in other pursuits, highly in¬ 
terested in agricultural improvement, and whose name. Moses G 
Atwood, will call to the mind of Mr. Tucker, reminiscences of the 
days when they were both sticking type away down in New-Hamp 
shire. 
At the lower town is the Illinois penitentiary, several fine church¬ 
es, one busy business street—there is no room for a second one— 
and a tavern, the Franklin House, that is worthy of patronage From 
