490 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



The passage being always open, and the sides of the 

 stable part being made of slat-work, gives a free circula- 

 tion of air; and for aught I coould see, this stable was 

 full as good as a "lot" enclosed with a rail fence. The 

 Col. also has a very large stable with open-work sides 

 for the field horses and mules. 



His whole farm, buildings, orchards, garden, yards, 

 quarters, shops, stock, and tools, besides ten thousand 

 little "fixings," are well worth an examination and pat- 

 terning after by his brother planters, whom I earnestly 

 wish would visit his place and learn that there is nothing 

 in the climate of Mississippi to prevent the existence of 

 thrift, order, neatness, regularity, and consequent com- 

 fort upon a cotton plantation. 



I must say that I was delighted with my visit of a day 

 to this fine plantation, and could have spent several other 

 days profitably to myself, with a man of such a character 

 for energy, enterprise, and intelligence, and whose laugh- 

 ing eye constantly tells you that there must be no "blue 

 devil-ism" here; and who has a wife of just such a char- 

 acter as I wish every other Mississippian had; and then, 

 like Col. Dunbar, he would have a home worthy the name 

 of that sacred place toward which our hearts constantly 

 yearn as we wander over the surface of this rough world. 



But I must on! on! on! "There is no rest for the 

 wicked." The day (March 6,) is most lovely, clear and 

 warm, and upon the ten miles to Washington we will 

 make no call, although there are many fine looking places 

 that would be worth our notice; yet there are several 

 others that bear the fatal mark of "gone to gulleyville," 

 and others that are rapidly going the same gate. It is a 

 most singular soil, and when a gulley once begins, it seems 

 to melt down, down, down, into a deep ditch whose sides 

 are as straight and perpendicular as though cut by a 

 spade and line. I have seen ridges standing between 

 these ditches ten feet high, and quite sharp on the top, 

 and only a foot or two thick at the base. It appears 

 never to dry and crumble down, and of course never falls 



