24 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



opinion, although they freely admitted his celebrity as an 

 agricultural writer. With regard to the quality of what 

 was produced on his own land, this assertion need not 

 be taken too seriously if we may judge by the grateful 

 acknowledgments of gifts of early potatoes, Indian corn, 

 apples, and peaches presented to editors ; his introduction 

 of Berkshire hogs in Lake County ; and detailed accounts 

 of his experiences in raising, slaughtering, curing, and 

 marketing hogs. On the other hand, it is certainly true 

 that owing to the diversity of his pursuits in Lake 

 County, and his long absences while traveling, he was 

 not able to farm on an extensive scale. Many of his 

 agricultural activities were of an experimental nature. 

 However, his success with what he did undertake was 

 marked, and if he had chosen to devote all his attention 

 to tilling the soil there is little doubt that he could have 

 earned his living by that occupation alone. 



The scope and variety of Robinson's experiments and 

 investigations, reported from time to time in agricultural 

 journals, is surprising. A method of curing beans, use 

 of long manure, making saleratus and pearl ash, the 

 washing and preservation of butter, grinding of corn 

 meal, curing and pressing cheese, shearing sheep, raising 

 oyster plant, development of a mammoth sunflower, 

 building of a sod fence, insects injurious to crops, rust 

 on wheat, planting of trees, farm implements, drainage, 

 cultivating blue grass, production of sugar from beets, 

 storing of grain and vegetables, innumerable recipes for 

 cooking, observations on the weather, cultivation of 

 flowers, feed for fattening cattle, home remedies for ill- 

 ness, and veterinary aids, are some subjects that may 

 be noted. 



Articles on rural architecture containing detailed plans 

 for farmhouses, barns, fences, and gates, some of which 

 represented structures built on his own land, others ob- 

 served in use in various parts of the country, and still 

 others, original with him, but untried, likewise came 

 from his pen. In one instance he disclosed an inventive 



