SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 461 



with level cultivation, the fertility of the land may be 

 maintained forever. Even deep plowing, that is, plowing 

 with two light mules only, and subsoiling with a common 

 bull-tongue plow, with one mule, as lately practiced by 

 Major Ward,^ so mellows the land and gives such an op- 

 portunity for the water to soak into it, that the washing 

 is nearly all prevented. By a good system of cultivation, 

 the land never can be worn out, and in time, would be- 

 come one of the garden spots of the earth. It is anything 

 but that now. The average quantity of land tilled to the 

 hand, is twelve acres of cotton and eight acres of corn, 

 besides, oats, rye, and potatoes. The average yield is 

 probably something over 600 pounds of seed cotton to the 

 acre, or about six bales to the hand, as it does not turn 

 out quite one third the weight in clean cotton. The aver- 

 age yield of corn is not over fifteen bushels, some say not 

 over ten, to the acre. Corn is liable to a disease here, 

 called "Frenching," that is new to me. It is only affected 

 in small sections of the field; when about half grown, it 

 Vv^ithers and turns white, and never comes to maturity. 

 The cause is unknown. Most planters make sufficient corn 

 for food and feed, but do not make pork for the people. 

 That comes from New York or New Orleans. Cattle and 

 sheep are plenty, and just as mean as could be desired. 

 They are worthless to a cotton planter, causing him to 

 build a great deal of fence and affording no profit. There 

 is a great deal of land besides the red land, not generally 

 esteemed ; yet, some of it that seems to be composed of 



early state developments. Vice-president of the National Agricul- 

 tural Society, 1841-1842. Died, 1864. Letter from Kathryn T. Abbey, 

 Florida State College for Women, to Herbert A. Kellar, May Ifi, 

 1936. 



' Major George T. Ward, prominent lawyer and Whig politician 

 of Leon County. Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1838 

 at St. Joseph. Territorial delegate to Congi-ess, 1841, 1843. As a 

 member of the Secession Convention in 1861, led the fight against 

 im.mediate and separate state action, but signed the Ordinance of 

 Secession. Became a colonel in the 2nd Florida Infantry and was 

 killed in action at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. Ibid. 



