128 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



without manure, or even returning the cotton seed as 

 manure to the soil, has so worn out much of the land, 

 that it hardly pays for cultivating. 



Doctor Philips (by birth a South Carolinian), though 

 educated as a physician, does not practice. He is one of 

 that small class in the south, sneeringly called "book 

 farmers." He has about 300 acres of land under fence, 

 of which 200 acres are cultivated. Much of this still 

 bears the deadened forest trees, showing its late reclama- 

 tion from the wilderness. He works ten field hands, and 

 makes 80 to 90 bales of cotton a year, together with all 

 his corn and meat. He has a small flock of sheep, from 

 which he gets his negro clothing ; he has also a large herd 

 of cattle. Of course he eats "home-made butter," and of 

 an excellent quality it is, too. His cattle are the best in 

 the vicinity. His large stock of hogs is a mixture of Berk- 

 shire and grazier, about fifty of which are now fatting in 

 the corn field upon waste corn and peas. These will weigh 

 from 150 to 250 lbs. He has this year 90 odd acres of 

 cotton ; 80 acres of corn, and 15 of oats. By the by, he is 

 now sowing oats. These will afford winter pasturage and 

 make a crop ready to harvest the middle of June. These 

 oats are sown upon cotton ground of the present season. 



None of my eastern readers can imagine the troubles 

 of plowing down cotton stalks. They are about as big as 

 thrifty peach trees a year old, and almost as strong. [We 

 have seen a cotton stock at least three inches in diameter, 

 as hard, and having the appearance of wood.] Add to 

 this, as is sometimes the case, a good coat of crab grass, 

 thrifty stalks of which I have measured four feet long, 

 and plow makers may see why high beams are required 

 to their plows. 



Dr. P. planted this season a quantity of eastern corn 

 an eight-rowed, white-flint variety, in rows three feet 

 apart, and hills with two stalks one foot apart, which 

 grew to perfection ; but was attacked with "the rot" after 

 it had got ripe, and nearly all went to decay in the field. 

 His other crop of corn, planted late and owing to much 



