454 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



the open air, and a greater variety of vegetables than I 

 have seen since I left St. Louis, one of which was 

 the Jerusalem artichoke, which, boiled and mashed up 

 like turneps, makes an excellent dish. I presume many 

 of your eastern readers do not understand that the 

 Jerusalem artichoke is a kind of vegetable that they 

 have long been acquainted with, and which can be found 

 in some by-corner on half the New England farms. They 

 are a valuable crop, being raised for hogs. Mr. Hardi- 

 man has raised Irish potatoes from the same seed, for 

 eight years, and thereby proved that it is not necessary 

 to get new seed from the North every year, " 'cause it 

 runs out." He plants in November, and they ripen in 

 May, but he lets them remain through the summer in 

 the hills. 



One fact in regard to his management of negroes might 

 be pursued by parents toward children, as well as mas- 

 ters towards servants. He keeps them at home; and he 

 very rarely has occasion to punish. 



Having learned that the name of the post-office here 

 was "Okachickama," I found by reference to a memo- 

 randum, that I was in the neighborhood of another old 

 acquaintance, John T. Leigh, Esq., 1 and in the afternoon 

 we rode over to his house, and found him reading the 

 S. W. Farmer, where he had just discovered that I was 

 on my way to Mississippi, and expressing his regret to 

 his family that he should not probably meet with me, as 

 he lived off of any leading road. His astonishment and 

 pleasure may be "guessed" at, when Mr. Hardiman in- 

 troduced the very individual whose name was then upon 

 his lips. 



I had only come for a short call. / stayed two nights. 

 Who ever escaped Virginia hospitality in less time. How 

 these meetings and joyous welcomes, and show of re- 

 spect from every member of a family, do sink into the 



1 John T. Leigh and his wife, Martha Townes Lee, are mentioned 

 in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, 1:117 (Chi- 

 cago, 1891). 



