p. 5

-653- 1848

Again, the broad level prairies and the high rolling
prairies, with their islands, capes and promontories of woodland
are not without their charms. It is true, one soon grows tired of
their sameness; but Wisconsin is not so abundantly supplied with
this kind of scenery as to become wearisome to the traveler. The
prairies should be visited [visited] at different seasons of the year to
enable us to appreciate all their beauties. Nothing can exceed
the loveliness of the rich green carpet spread over them in early
spring, bespangled with the bright hues of the vernal flowers.
There again in the autumn the whole scene is colored with the
golden yellow of the flowers peculiar to that "crowning season of
the year."

Shall we of Wisconsin remain ignorant of facts like these
so interesting in themselves and so full of instruction and grati-
fication to us? Rather let us turn our attention to the things
around us, learn to profit by them and then be able to gratify our
friends by imparting to them a portion of the gratification we have
received.

I have spoken of the beauty of the prairies, but it must
not be forgotten that although they are beautiful and highly at-
tractive at first sight, they are not, after all, exactly the
places for the new settler to fix upon for his future home, unless
indeed he can find, what is rarely to be found, a tract of land
half covered with timbered and half prairie. Upon the first settle-
ment of the country, much search was made for such farms and a
few were so fortunate as to find them. But in general it was as-
certained that the line of separation between the prairies and the
timber was rather an indefinite one. Nature here as in most other