SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 195 



and yesterday forenoon was clear and cold. I was on 

 board a steamer below Baton Rouge, in the afternoon. 

 About sundown, it commenced a severe storm of rain, 

 sleet, hail, and snow. It continued at intervals till mid- 

 night. In the morning, the decks were coated with ice, 

 and the ground whitened with snow; the trees glittering 

 in the sunshine, and roses and oranges all encased in ice. 

 Oh ! what a brilliant scene ! But it is a scene of distress. 

 Early corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, &c., &c., that 

 were growing so finely, are all killed. 



Since arriving in the city, I find now, (5 o'clock in the 

 evening,) snow and ice still upon shaded roofs and yards. 

 It will freeze again to night. This is another calamity to 

 this already overburthened land. The river never was 

 known so high at this season of the year. In several 

 places above us, the levee is broken and towns and plan- 

 tations are overflowed. New Orleans is about a little, as 

 yet, safe from the overflow. Many places have not six 

 inches of levee to spare. Solon Robinson. 



Neiv Orleans, Feb. 16th, 1849. 



Mr. Robinson's Tour. — No. 10. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 8:314-16; Oct., 1849] 



[February ?, 1849] 



Using Bagasse for Manure. — Mr. Lapice, whom my 

 readers will recollect we parted with last month, has 

 found great advantage in using bagasse as manure. He 

 grinds it through a second mill, which makes it dry and 

 fine, and it is then spread directly upon cane stubble, 

 where it is suffered to lie a year, and then plowed in, to- 

 gether with a pea crop which he plants upon the ridges, 

 in May, and from which he derives great advantage not 

 only as a manure, but by the shade, which greatly assists 

 to kill the coco. 



Upon Col. Manning's place, five miles below Donald- 

 sonville, Mr. Havvin, his overseer, told me that he ma- 

 nured 75 acres last year, with rotten bagasse, which dou- 



