TREES IN KANSAS. 37

shall be a succession of farms, the fields enclosed with stone walls or
hedges as the proprietors please, and its bluffs of every imaginable
form of grace and beauty shall be clad in vines, as they will be, it will
probably be the most enchanting valley on this planet.

For more than two hundred miles the Union Pacific Railway passes
through the midst of this paradisiacal scene, which hardly for a moment
is hid from view in all its amplitude and grandeur, Why, it will be
worth a journey from Pennsylvania just to see it.

The cedar grows well here. In the valleys beyond Fort Harker it
is indigenous and in placesabundant. The black walnut abounds from
the mouth of the Kansas as far as I can hear anything about. Every
farmer knows what kind of soil that indicates.

From my own observation, and from conversations with others, I
am satisfied that the only thing that prevented these vast prairies
from being wooded are the annual fires that sweep through the dry
grass. Where they have been stopped even for a year or two, young
trees spring up spontaneously. This I have seen in many places; and
hence I believe that in twenty years there will be far more wood here
than there is now. But it is not as scarce now as many people sup-
pose. The other day I went to visit a woollen factory in this city —
of which I shall have something to say in another place. The pro-.
prietor with whom I rode pointed out a range of several hundred
cords of good wood, which he told me he laid in last winter at four
dollars a cord. One fact like this is worth more than a page of ab-
stract terms expressive of abundance or scarcity.

In some places I observed that sumach was springing up and over-
spreading the ground with great rapidity. To the mere farmer this
is a pest; but the richness of this shrub in the tannin principle may
render it a source of wealth.

So much for the trees and fruits and the shrubs of this extraordinary
State. I shall, I know, be pardoned for dwelling so long upon them;
for to the practical man who may have thoughts of emigrating,
nothing can be more interesting.

 

LETTER IX.— Mineral Resources of Kansas—Magnesian Limestone, its
abundance and its excellence as a Building Material — Other Varieties
of Stone — Marble. — General Remarks.

Sr. Louis, June 25, 1867.
I aRRIVED in this city on Saturday morning from Kansas, and here I
intend to remain for a few days. In some respects this is a better