SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 453 



My curiosity was excited; my toilsome evening's ride 

 was not forgotten, but looked back upon with pleasure. 

 I had at length found an "old acquaintance," and I did 

 not hesitate to ask him "who he took me for?" And 

 when I assured him that I was the very individual he 

 had guessed I was, I have never met with a warmer re- 

 ception or apparently given more pleasure by a visit to 

 any real old acquaintance in my life. Somewhere along 

 toward the last end of the night I laid down to take a 

 nap, and in the morning after breakfast, saddle horses 

 were brought to the door, upon one of which I spent the 

 forenoon in looking over the plantation and examining 

 the first specimens I had seen of "side hill ditching," and 

 "horizontal plowing," of which I shall speak further 

 hereafer. 



Mr. Hardiman has discovered a fact that the former 

 proprietor of the place was not aware of, and I speak 

 of it here because there are a great many others who 

 have not yet discovered it. And that is, that land lying 

 at the foot of the hills, that receives all the soil that is 

 worked down from them, if once cleared of timber and 

 brush and brought into cultivation, will actually produce 

 cotton. True, it does require a little more labor to clear 

 it than it does the thin timbered and thinner soiled hills ; 

 and another thing, it wont wear out, and give the owner 

 an excuse to migrate. When Mr. Hardiman first com- 

 menced, he was laughed at by some of his neighbors for 

 trying to cultivate a swamp. But a few ditches to 

 straighten the branches and lead off the standing water, 

 soon proved how much more valuable this kind of neg- 

 lected land is, than the poor washing hills. Here I saw 

 another curiosity. Hands employed scraping every hole 

 and corner around the buildings and yards for manure. 



The food for the field hands is all cooked at the kitchen, 

 and dealt out with out weight or measure, and they have 

 all the bacon, corn bread, and vegetables that they need. 



At dinner to-day, Feb. 15, I feasted upon some of the 

 largest and best heads of lettuce I ever saw, grown in 



