human
Oh! father, cried little Benny, as the vast prairie burst on his sight,
gpt
And the fences, apple, peach, and pear trees?
human
It is not a farm; it's a big pasture kept on purpose to feed buffaloes and deer in,
gpt
You are all wrong, retorted Lewis,
human
You, too, are wrong, Lewis, said Mr. Duncan.
gpt
Though it is true trees will not grow on the prairie now, yet it was not always so. Geologists tell us that the vegetable growth, some thousand years ago was, in many respects, different from what now covers the solid surface of our earth. Changes of temperature and constituents of soil are going on from age to age, and correspondent changes take place in the vegetable kingdom. Over large tracks, once green with ferns, stately trees have succeeded, followed in their turn, in the course of ages, by grosser and other herbaceous plants.
human
According to that theory, after a regular course of time has elapsed, these rank grasses will be succeeded by some ether form of vegetable growth,
gpt
Certainly, replied Mr. Duncan.
human
When one class of trees has exhausted the soil of appropriate pabulum, and filled it with an excrement which, in time, it came to loathe, another of a different class sprang up in its place, luxuriated on the excrement and decay of its predecessor, and in time has given way to a successor destined to the same ultimate fate. Thus, one after another, the stately tribes of the forest have arisen, flourished, and fell, until the soil has become exhausted of the proper food for trees, and become fitted for the growth of herbaceous plants.