SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 447 



rather than sweeping, by the name of broom. Perhaps 

 you may think the floors are all carpeted — on the con- 

 trary I never saw the first one of these household com- 

 forts. 



This district is a natural "eccalobion" of swine, and 

 needs no artificial hog hatching machine to encourage the 

 natural increase of pigs. With little feeding and less 

 care, particularly when "mast" is plenty, they live, move 

 have their being, independent of their owner, but who 

 nevertheless is dependent on them for his living. 



The western district of Tennessee contains an abun- 

 dance of most excellent land, yet covered with the native 

 growth of forest trees, mostly oak, except upon creek 

 bottom land, and occasionally upon small tracts of up- 

 land; where all the kinds of timber usually found upon 

 the richest alluvial land of the west, grow in the great- 

 est luxuriance; requiring a great deal of hard toil to 

 prepare it for culture, but affording an assurance to the 

 husbandman that when once cleared, he will have a soil 

 that no judicious system of culture can ever wear out. 

 But I am sorry to say that that system however, is not 

 pursued generally, as can be seen in the fact after a few 

 years of "skinning," it becomes too poor to produce a 

 good crop of tobacco, and therefore the tobacco planter 

 is annually making additions of new land instead of try- 

 ing to keep up the fertility of that which was first cleared. 

 Tobacco is a very ameliorating crop, and leaves the land 

 in fine condition, particularly for wheat; which crop 

 however, is but little cultivated, for two reasons — first, 

 the tobacco crop in "wormy time," requires every pair 

 of hands on the plantation that is able to crush a worm, 

 at the very time too when the wheat needs an equal 

 amount of care to save it from total destruction by the 

 weevil, which often destroys the crop even after it has 

 been thrashed and cleaned and stored away. And sec- 

 ondly, the tobacco is a more certain crop in growth and 

 sale for cash, which is the grand desideratum, and which 

 will be sure to prevent the cultivator from bestowing any 



