AGRICULTURAL OBSERVATIONS 271 



that I purchased a ticket from Chicago at a re- 

 duced rate as a " land-looker; " he followed me up, 

 bought the land for a thousand dollars cash and 

 before I got home sold it at an advance of about 

 four thousand. 



You can imagine my chagrin when I received 

 this news; but Professor Gulley wrote me comfort- 

 ingly, that there were plenty of just as good bar- 

 gains almost anywhere in the State. In this he 

 was mistaken, however, for this particular tract 

 was rich, virgin soil while most of the other lands 

 had been depleted by many crops of cotton. A few 

 months later he wrote me that he had found 1,140 

 acres of level land without fences or buildings on 

 it which had laid out to commons ever since the 

 opposing armies had skirmished over it in 1863. 

 As a matter of fact, my son afterwards ploughed 

 up cannonballs in several places on it. It was 

 situated about six miles from Canton, the County 

 Seat, and three miles from a little railway station 

 Walkerton and sixteen miles north of Jack- 

 son, the Capitol of the State. 



Dr. James Law, Professor F. A. Gulley and my- 

 self formed " The Mississippi Land and Cattle 

 Company, Limited " and bought the land at two 

 dollars per acre, the owner receiving $1.50 and 



