SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 445 



sundry very uninteresting goose ponds. And from New 

 Madrid down on the Arkansas side to opposite Memphis, 

 there is "no road nor nothing." The only good highway 

 — high enough some times — in the country, is the Mis- 

 souri, but not a very good carriage road. 



Notes of Travel in the Southwest — No. V. 



[Albany Cultivator, n. s. 2:239-40; Aug., 1845 1 ] 



[Covering February 4-12, 1845] 



On the 4th Feb. Mr. R, crossed the Misssissippi, at the 

 "Iron Banks," marked on the maps as Columbus, Ken- 

 tucky, built between the river and a hill some 200 feet 

 high, composed of clay, lead and iron stone, and up which 

 the road leads to an entire change of soil and descrip- 

 tion of country from that on the opposite side of the 

 river. Here the face of the country is quite broken ; soil 

 rich clay; timber, beach, sugar, poplar, oaks, hickory, 

 dog-wood, &c. — all of which indicate a good strong soil, 

 and good grass land; yet it is not here, notwithstanding 

 this is the blue grass state. 



But here is not to be found the same kind of popula- 

 tion that is to be found in the blue grass and stock rais- 

 ing part of Ky. The crops here are corn enough to eat 

 and feed through the winter, and tobacco enough to sell 

 to buy the few necessaries required. The farms are 

 small and houses generally poor, and here as in Missouri, 

 always something out of order — stables without doors — 

 farms without gates — and whole neighborhoods without 

 a good head of cattle, horses, hogs or sheep. There is in 

 this part of Ky., an abundance of most excellent land, 

 tolerably heavy timbered, that can be had for about $2 

 an acre, out of which excellent farms could be made. 



On the 5th, Mr. R. passed into Tennessee — the land 

 similar to that described yesterday. The best buildings 

 are the towering tobacco houses, in which the crop is 



Reprinted in Nashville Agriculturist, 6:129-30 (September, 

 1845). 



