the fall of 1837, while our State was attached to Wisconsin, yet subject to Michigan in judicial matters.

On the 4th of July, 1838, Iowa was separated from Wisconsin by Act of Congress, passed June 12th, 1838.

In 1839, the General Assembly located the Seat of Government on the Iowa River, and called the place the "City of Iowa."

In 1843, the Territorial Legislature petitioned Congress for authority to adopt a State Constitution; which was granted at the next session; and on the 7th of October, 1844, the Convention assembled and adopted a Constitution, which was not approved by Congress. A second Convention was held in 1846, the limits restricted, an amended Constitution adopted; this was submitted to Congress and approved; and in December, 1846, the "State of Iowa" was admitted and christened as one of the glorious Confederacy.

The State of Iowa is situated between 40° 30′ and 43° 30′ north latitude, and between 90° 20′ and 97° 40′ west longitude; is bounded on the north by Minnesota Territory, east by the Mississippi River (which separates it from Wisconsin and Illinois), south by Missouri, and west by the Missouri River (which separates it from Nebraska Territory). The State contains an area of 56,000 square miles; being upwards of 200 miles wide from north to south, and upwards of 300 long from east to west. The State is divided into one hundred counties; eighty-five of which have been surveyed, and seventy regularly organized.

CHAPTER II.

THE CLIMATE.

WE have, generally, an unbroken winter from the middle of November till January, when we are almost invariably visited with a "January thaw;" after which the weather is generally mild, and gradually merges into spring. We are free from the sudden changes of New-England, and from the long drizzling rains and foggy weather of portions of the Middle States. But Iowa, in common with other States, must except the prolonged intense cold weather of last winter.

This State is located in the healthiest latitude of our continent; reaching only to latitude 43° 30' on its northern boundary. Its winters are comparatively mild and pleasant, and its summers free from the long scorching rays of a southern sun and the epidemics so common in such climates.* By the medical journals, Iowa is ranked as

* Dr. Updegraff, a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer, thus alludes to our climate, &c. :

"Of all other considerations respecting a new country, the most important is as to its healthiness.

"In this respect, Iowa has the advantage of most new countries. An open prairie country, almost universally rolling, or even hilly, it is more favorable to health than flat prairie or level woodland. The streams are mostly fresh running water, with sandy or gravel beds. The scarcity of timber-land, and the annual fires that pass over the prairies, prevent, to a great degree,

second only in point of health; and no doubt it will be first, when she has a settled and acclimated population, as free from toil, privations, and exposure as other states.

One of the peculiarities of this climate is the dryness of its summers and autumns. A drought often commences in August, which, with the exception of a few showers towards the close of that month, continues, with little interruption, throughout the fall season. The autumnal months are almost invariably clear, warm, and dry. The immense mass of vegetation with which this fertile soil loads itself during the summer is suddenly withered, and the whole earth is covered with combustible materials. This is especially true of those portions where grass grows from two to ten feet high, and is exposed to sun and wind, becoming thoroughly dried. A single spark of fire, falling upon the prairie at such a time, instantly kindles a blaze that spreads on every side, and continues its destructive course as long as it finds fuel. These fires sweep along with great power and rapidity, and frequently extend across a wide prairie and advance in a long line. No sight can be more sublime than a stream of fire, beheld at night, several miles in

the decomposition of vegetable matter; which is, in most new countries, the great source of disease. With some local exceptions, there does not seem to be any natural reason why this State, even in its early settlement, should not enjoy as high an average of healthiness as Ohio now does. Such I believe to be the fact, after making proper deductions for change of climate, mode of life, exposure, and unusual exertion. To observe the exertion and exposure, often reckless and unnecessary, to which most new settlers subject themselves, it becomes a matter of surprise that disease and mortality are not much more usual than they are."

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breadth, advancing across the plains, leaving behind it a background of dense black smoke, throwing before it a vivid glare, which lights up the whole landscape for miles. with the brilliancy of noonday. These fires are so thorough in their progress, that they destroy every combustible before them. The roots of the prairie-grass, and several species of flowers, however, by some peculiar adaptation of nature, are spared.

A narrow strip of bare ground, or a beaten road, the width of a common wagon-track, will prevent the fire from extending beyond it; yet careless, thoughtless farmers, sometimes suffer tall grass to connect their fields of corn and fences with the wild prairie, and forfeit their year's toil as a penalty for their slothfulness!

CHAPTER III.

THE SOIL.

Ir is well known to the scientific farmer, that the land best suited to wheat and most small grains, and in which the earthy, saline, and organic matters are distributed in the proportion best adapted to impart fertility and durability, is generally a soil based on the calcareous and magnesio-calcareous rocks. This condition particularly characterizes the country bordering on the Mississippi and its tributaries, between the 41st and 45th degrees of latitude, which has an

average width of 20 to 30 miles west of the line of that river. In this State, it includes the Dubuque District, the country watered by the Des Moines, and the two Iowas. In Owen's Geological Report, we find the following:

"The prairie country, based on rocks belonging to the Devonian and carboniferous systems, extending up the valley of the Red Cedar, Iowa, and Des Moines, as high as latitude 42° 31′, presents a body of arable land which, taken as a whole, for richness and organic elements, for amount of saline matter, and due admixture of earthy silicates, affords a combination that belongs only to the most fertile upland plains. Throughout this district the general levelness of the surface, interrupted only by gentle swells and moderate undulations, offers facilities for the introduction of all those aids which machinery is daily adding to diminish the labor of cultivation, and render easy and expeditious the collection of an abundant harvest.”

Again, in speaking of the physical and agricultural character of the State, bordering on the Mississippi, Owen says:

"The carboniferous rocks of Iowa occupy a region of country which, taken as a whole, is one of the most fertile in the United States. No country can present to the farmer greater facilities for subduing, in a short time, wild land. Its native prairies are fields, almost ready made to his hands. Its rich, black soil, scarcely less productive than that of the Cedar Valley, returns him reward for his labor a hundred fold. The only drawback to its productiveness is that, on some of the higher grounds, the soil, partaking