Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/119

 said to be 90 miles in length, contains an invaluable body of land, and, where sufficiently drained, which is pretty generally the case, except during the rains of winter, would produce most species of grain in abundance. As a pasture it is truly inexhaustible, though in the hottest months of summer occasionally deprived of water.

The cattle throughout this country are generally left to provide for themselves, and suffered to range at large, excepting such as are in domestic use. That they may not become entirely irreclaimable, they are now and then enticed to come up to the fold by a handful of salt, or a few ears of corn. No hay is provided for fodder, nor does it indeed appear necessary, except to assist in fattening for the stall, but this piece of economy, like almost every thing else which might promise comfort, is neglected, and the cattle are killed just as they are hunted up from the prairie or the cane-brake. It is from the prevalence of the cane, and the shave-rush (Equisetum hiemale), that the cattle are kept in tolerable condition, and often even fat, through the severest part of the winter. Indeed, at {79} this early, but perhaps uncommonly advanced season of the year (not yet the middle of February), there was already a few inches of green herbage, and only one night during this month have I seen any ice. The thermometer, towards noon, rises to 70°, and the peach and plum-trees, almost equally naturalized, have nearly finished blooming. The fig, however, unprotected by the shelter of a wall, though sufficiently vigorous, appears every year to die down nearly to the ground. Grapes succeed so as to promise wine, but without the advantage of cellars it soon becomes subjected to the acetous fermentation.

The sweet gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua), which