142 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



give it a most beautiful appearance, specimens of which 

 were frequently to be seen to-day, (December 6th,) below 

 Natchez. 



In travelling along any public road in this country, a 

 stranger might wonder where the inhabitants were, as 

 he may not see a house for many miles. As for instance, 

 just at dusk on the evening I left Natchez, I opened the 

 gate that led from the road apparently into a cotton field 

 or a woodland pasture, and pursuing the road over a 

 little run, up a hill, through the grove and another gate, 

 about half or three fourths of a mile, there opens upon 

 the view a large fine mansion, and all the appurtenences, 

 of a rich and flourishing cotton plantation. This is the 

 residence of Dr. Metcalf,^ a very estimable and enter- 

 prising gentleman, formerly from Kentucky. The Doc- 

 tor, not being contented with a very good house, is now 

 exercising his fine taste and love of building, in a very 

 large addition to his residence, which is one of the best 

 built houses that I have seen in the state — a plan and 

 description of which I hope to give hereafter. Dr. M. 

 thinks the use of cistern water far more healthy than 

 that of springs or wells, though he has one 50 feet deep 

 of clear and cool, but hard water. 



Bitter coco is one of the greatest pests that the planters 

 have to contend with, several of whom, in this vicinity, 

 having abandoned the culture of cotton on account of the 

 spread of this grass, which defies the art of men to ex- 

 terminate. Nothing but freezing will kill it. Dr. M. 

 penned and fatted a lot of hogs upon a patch of it, and 

 they rooted down three or four feet after the nuts, which 

 are about the size of large beans, black color, and strung 

 upon a small tough black root, a dozen in a string; and 

 he fully believed that the hogs had destroyed it; but lo! 

 in the spring it started up thicker and faster than ever. 

 It grows a small single blade of pale green grass, never 

 growing high, is good for pasture, particularly for sheep, 

 but is killed by the slightest frost. The smallest fibre of 



' Possibly Dr. Asa B. Metcalf, who is mentioned in Biographical 

 and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, 2:586. 



