SOLON ROBINSON, 1848 161 



a handful of peach kernels and throwing them into a 

 cask of water, which soon caused it to settle. Almond 

 kernels will effect the same. 



At Iberville Church, December 16th, I saw the first 

 growing cane on the estate of Dr. Pritchard,^ who came 

 here from Connecticut about 30 years ago, and after 

 much persevering toil, has finally got a very beautiful 

 residence, and an excellent plantation, which is kept in 

 admirable good order. For several miles below Dr. P., 

 the coast is lined with small planters, a few of whom try 

 to make a little crop of sugar with the old primitive horse 

 mill, which is as great a contrast to the modern steam 

 mill, as the people are to the modern class of sugar 

 planters. 



To-day, December 18th, I dined with Mr. Robert C. 

 Camp,- who keeps from 200 to 500 sheep for the purpose 

 of feeding mutton to his people, which he finds a very 

 healthy diet. The wool is quite a secondary object with 

 him, as it is with nearly all who keep sheep along the 

 banks of the Mississippi, some of whom actually give it 

 away for shearing, boarding the shearers in the bargain. 

 Mr. C. has always found his flock healthy, except the foot 

 rot. The sheep also increase very rapidly all along this 

 coast, as they breed freely at all seasons of the year. It 

 may seem surprising to the people east, that planters do 

 not raise more sheep for mutton, even if the wool is not 

 worth saving; but the fact is, mutton is altogether too 

 light a diet for negroes. They want nothing more deli- 

 cate than good, fat mess pork. 



' Dr. J. Pritchard contributed an article on "The Degeneration 



of the Sugar-Cane," to Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 

 1849, pt. 2:423-24. 



" Robert C. Camp, one of the larger sugar producers, but not an 

 employer of the most up-to-date manufacturing processes. Oper- 

 ated the Indian Camp plantation, Iberville Parish, ninety-six miles 

 above New Orleans. Champomier, Statement of the Sugar Crop 

 Made in Louisiana, 1849; Pike, Coast-Directory; map of Planta- 

 tions on the Mississippi River; "Directory of the Planters of 

 Louisiana and Mississippi," in Cohen's New Orleans Directory, 

 1855, p. 320. 



