494 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



tation. Throughout all the heat of summer it affords 

 an abundance of most luxuriant pasturage ; and through- 

 out the winter it not only affords an inexhaustible supply 

 of food for hogs, but they will actually become fat upon 

 the nut like roots. In addition to this, it can be plowed 

 up in the fall and sowed with rye or winter oats, making 

 the same ground carry a most abundant coat of rich 

 pasturage throughout the year, excepting the few days 

 required to sow the grain and leave it to germinate. Now 

 is this the curse that it is generally accounted here? or 

 is it not rather a blessing sent to drive this cotton crazy 

 community into a system of husbandry that will produce 

 wool almost as cheap per pound as cotton? 



Other Grasses — In addition to the above grasses, there 

 are two kinds of winter grass that afford pasturage all 

 winter, to say nothing of a kind of parsley, called chick- 

 weed, that clothes the fields in one of the richest coats 

 of pasturage several of the winter months ; while no one 

 who has contended in the cotton crop with the undying 

 crab grass, as well as nimblewill, &c, &c, will dispute 

 the fact, that even without the aid of the unfailing Ber- 

 muda grass, they could find feed for sheep in summer. 



Wool in Mississippi. — Now, in this view of facts, is 

 not Mississippi as well situated for a wool growing coun- 

 try as it is for cotton growing; and instead of grum- 

 bling at low prices, cursing the cocoa where it has already 

 taken possession of the land, and looking at its onward 

 march with dread; or witnessing the yearly washing 

 away into gullies of field after field ; would it not be more 

 rational and advisable to begin in time to prepare for 

 raising another kind of staple than cotton? And now, 

 ye kind-hearted Mississippians, from whom I have re- 

 ceived so many welcomes, and derived the information 

 that has enabled and induced me to give you this advice, 

 don't forget that it is given in all good-will by your old 

 friend Solon Robinson, now at Log Hall, Hinds Co., 

 Miss. 



March 21, 1845. 



