SOLON ROBINSON, 1848 165 



This good yield they attribute to subsoil plowing, which 

 Mr. James McCatchon told me was worth thousands of 

 dollars a year to them. Another thing, they never bum 

 trash, (cane tops and leaves,) but plow all in and let 

 it rot. 



To give some idea of the enormous amount of ditching 

 upon a sugar plantation, I will state some items. There 

 are upon this place near 100 miles of leading and cross 

 ditches. The water of these is taken up by three leading 

 canals, some three miles long, and large enough for a con- 

 siderable boat, that lead the water back through the 

 swamp to a bayou, and thence into Amite River and Lake 

 Maurepas. Then, there is the levee and public road, a 

 mile and a half long, with a ditch on each side, and about 

 25 miles of plantation roads and two hundred bridges, all 

 to be kept in order. The leading ditches, running from 

 the levee in straight lines back to the swamp, are about 

 three feet deep, and 80 to 100 feet apart, and all have to 

 be cleaned out once or twice a year. The cross ditches 

 are not so deep nor so near together. If you should object 

 to the amount of ground taken up by roads and ditches, 

 you will be told that it is no loss to the cane crop, as it 

 needs the circulation of the air that these spaces give. The 

 roads are ditched on each side and handsomely graded, 

 and when smooth and dry, form most delightful drives. 

 The ground occupied by roads is not lost for a crop. Upon 

 many of them, as soon after the "rolling season" is over, 

 as they can be smoothed off and ditches cleaned out, a 

 crop of oats is sown, which are mowed for hay, and after- 

 wards a crop of crab grass is harvested upon all the 

 roads, ditch banks, and open spots, which makes very 

 good hay, a large quantity of which is required, although 

 there is really little or no winter to prevent cultivated 

 grasses from growing; yet, they are not growing, be- 

 cause, as it is said, the summer sun kills them. The only 

 winter grass of any consequence in the fore part of the 

 winter months is white clover ; and the only pasture land 

 is the levee, road, and "batture" in front. In some places 



