SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 443 



ried past the town, and out to a farm house, where I felt 

 much more comfortable. Here I found plenty of corn, 

 and about 40 head of horses to consume it, and of a 

 breed very common in this part of the State, which I 

 wish I could give you an accurate idea of. They are 

 generally light sorrel, with white face and feet, about 

 15 hands high, with legs bigger than a deer, that sup- 

 port a body in proportion to the legs. In winter they 

 run in "the lot," and eat corn out of a hollow log, and in 

 summer they run wherever they can to get away from 

 the hordes of flies and musquitoes that infest the swamp 

 where they are sent to "range for themselves." The cat- 

 tle in this part of the State are of the same order, and 

 kept in the same manner. Now corn is an excellent rich 

 grain to make pork, but if it is suitable food to mana- 

 facture bone and muscle from for young stock, then Pro- 

 fessor Johnston 1 and many others know nothing about 

 science. It is however a fact that where the most corn 

 is fed and little else, there I find the "scrub breed" in 

 the highest state of scrubbiness. 



At this last stopping place, I found some excellent 

 sweet potatoes, the first vegetable that I have seen upon 

 the table since I left St. Louis; and the owner assures me 

 that the whole secret in keeping sweet potatoes is to keep 

 them dry and ivarm. Mind, warm — not hot. He packs 

 them in sun dried sand. This section of country still 

 shows the marks of the earthquakes of 1811. In fact, 

 there have been slight shocks every winter since — some- 

 times the earth cracks open and blows out quantities of 

 sand. 



Feb. 2, which, bear in mind, was the first Sunday, was 

 a mild, clear, pleasant day, here in Missouri, a few miles 

 west of the mouth of the Ohio river. How was it with 

 you, reader? 



This day in a 20 mile drive over mostly poor sandy 



1 Professor James F. W. Johnston, of Edinburgh, Scotland. Dis- 

 tinguished agricultural chemist. Author and traveler. Lectured 

 in the United States in 1849-50. 



