SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 201 



ing horses and mules all together into "the lot," to eat 

 corn and fodder all from one trough, and at the same 

 time keep up a constant fight over it. For it is the truth 

 that many a plantation has not a stable upon it. This is 

 perhaps more the case in Mississippi than in Louisiana. 

 But there are plenty of planters in both states who might 

 profit by a visit to Mr. Thomas Pugh. 



Mr. Robinson's Tour. — No. 11. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 8:337-38; Nov., 1849] 



[February ?, 1849] 



Visit to the Plantation of Bishop Polk? — This is sit- 

 uated upon the right bank of the bayou Lafourche, about 

 a mile above Thibodaux, and contains 2,500 arpents, 

 1,000 or 1,100 of which are in cultivation, and a portion 

 of the rest cultivable. Of this, 600 arpents were in cane 

 last year — 358 used for sugar, and balance for planting 

 cane, it being the bishop's intention, this year, to have 

 800 arpents. Whether he will succeed in getting that 

 amount in, I cannot say ; but I learn that the terrible rav- 

 ages of cholera upon his place, which carried off above 

 70 of his people, has seriously injured his growing crop. 

 From the 358 arpents last year, he made 510 hogsheads 

 of sugar, and the usual quantity of molasses. The year 

 before, he made from 470 arpents, 720 hogsheads. His 

 usual crop of corn is about 200 arpents. 



When I was on the place, Bishop P.'s people numbered 

 370 ; but the effective force of field hands was not more 

 than one third of that number, owing to the fact that the 

 stock is a very old one, and has been in the same family, 



^Leonidas Polk, born at Raleigh, North Carolina, April 10, 1806; 

 killed at Pine Mountain, June, 1864. Educated at West Point Mili- 

 tary Academy and Virginia Theological Seminary. Became bishop 

 of Louisiana, 1841. Conducted his sugar plantation with particu- 

 lar concern for welfare of slaves. Active in establishing the Uni- 

 versity of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee. Major general and 

 lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. See sketch in Dic- 

 tionary of American Biography, 15:39-40. 



