Speaking generally as to the capacity and sure future destiny of that
plain and prairie area (larger than any European kingdom) it is the
inexhaustible land of wheat, maize, wool, flax, coal, iron, beef and
pork, butter and cheese, apples and grapes--land of ten million virgin
farms--to the eye at present wild and unproductive--yet experts say
that upon it when irrigated may easily be grown enough wheat to feed the
world. Then as to scenery (giving my own thought and feeling,) while
I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara falls, the upper
Yellowstone and the like, afford the greatest natural shows, I am not
so sure but the Prairies and the Plains, while less stunning at first
sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the
rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape.
Indeed through the whole of this journey, with all its shows and
varieties, what most impress'd me, and will longest remain with me, are
these same prairies. Day after day, and night after night, to my eyes,
to all my senses--the esthetic one most of all--they silently and
broadly unfolded. Even their simplest statistics are sublime.