SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 243 



were too young, or badly put up, or something. At all 

 events, it was a very unlucky piece of business for all 

 parties concerned, and has tended to put back the im- 

 provement in hogs here for several years. From expe- 

 rience, I am bound to advise all my friends to order no 

 pigs shipped to the west in the fall of the year, and to 

 take none at any time less than 8 or 10 weeks old. It 

 is charged against the dealers in Berkshires that they 

 make sale of every living pig, and under the reputation 

 of selling their own stock, that they buy up and send off 

 some very inferior pigs. Such conduct is highly criminal, 

 and I mention it here publicly, that if any person knows 

 of such conduct, that he come out under his own name 

 and state the facts. And on the other hand, that the 

 breeders may be aware of the charges. Hogs are the 

 first and most easy stock to improve, and I think the most 

 important, particularly in this great corn country. 



The crop of corn here this year will be much injured 

 by a great drouth, which I am told, however, is much 

 more severe farther south. Wheat is only raised for 

 home consumption, as at present there is no outlet for it. 

 Probably in the course of next year, the canal will be 

 open to Lake Erie, when you will have the whole Wabash 

 Valley in competition in the wheat market. Success 

 attend it. It can be profitably raised here at 50 cents a 

 bushel. Oats are much injured by the drouth. There 

 will not be over half a crop. Hay is not much injured, 

 because it is not much cultivated. 



But I must not dwell too long on the way. So adieu 

 to-day. 



Solon Robinson. 



Traveling Memoranda — No. 3. 



[Albany Cultivator, 8:163-64; Oct., 1841] 



Madison, (la.) Aug. 12, 1841. 

 Editors of Cultivator — The road from Logansport to 

 Indianapolis, 70 miles, lies through a country of mostly 

 level clay land, covered with a great growth of timber 



