The fields are large, many
containing eighty acres, and some one hundred and sixty; most of
them being in wheat. We saw several of this size in that grain.
Farm-houses dotted the surface, with barns, and the other
accessories of rural life. In the centre of the prairie is an
"island" of forest, containing some five or six hundred acres of the
noblest native trees we remember ever to have seen. In the centre of
this wood is a little lake, circular in shape, and exceeding a
quarter of a mile in diameter. The walk in this wood-which is not an
Opening, but an old-fashioned virgin forest--we found delightful of
a warm summer's day. One thing that we saw in it was characteristic
of the country. Some of the nearest farmers had drawn their manure
into it, where it lay in large piles, in order to get it out of the
way of doing any mischief. Its effect on the land, it was thought,
would be to bring too much straw!
On one side of this island of wood lies the little village or large
hamlet of Schoolcraft. Here we were most cordially welcomed by
General Boden, and all of his fine descendants. The head of this
family is approaching seventy, but is still hale and hearty.
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