AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND WEST. NO. 
51 
In the loft floor, there are two scuttles, about 3 
by 5 feet each, one over the passage way for 
throwing down hay, and the other over the stable 
through which is dropped the straw ; these also 
serve for ventilating the passage way and stables. 
At the south of the stable, there is a paddock, or 
yard, about 54 by 100 feet, but not large enough, 
either way, to get up a run, where the horses are 
usually turned out after coming in from a drive, 
to roll in, and let off the fumes of their bodies, in- 
stead of filling the stable with foul air. 
Captain Ingersoll has spared no pains in culti- 
vating his lands, having tried several experiments 
with marked success. The past season, he applied 
a quantity of guano, the effects of which I detail 
below, with the view of encouraging others to fol- 
low his example, and it is hoped they will make 
known their results. 
To an underdrained meadow, containing 3k 
acres, which was considered as run out of grass, 
not yielding one fourth part of a crop in the sum- 
mer of 1847, he applied broadcast, on the 4th of 
April last, 300 lbs. of Peruvian guano, per acre, 
mixed with an equal weight of plaster. The result 
was wonderful. On the loth of June, he began to 
cut his hay, and the Timothy was as thick as a 
good mower could move steadily through. 
Samuel Allen. 
New York, Jan. 1 0th, 1849. 
AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND iWEST. 
WO. 2. 
I think the close of my last letter left us at St. 
Louis. The importance of the trade of this wes- 
tern town may be imagined from a view of the 
quay. For nearly a mile, the shore is crowded 
with large steamboats, lying so thickly that only 
bows reach the shore. At this season, most of the 
New-Orleans boats go down with decks crowded 
with fat cattle, cows, calves, sheep, hogs, fowls, 
and horses, and with holds full of flour and grain, 
while every space on the decks- and guards, is piled 
up with bags of corn, oats, and wheat. 
The freight of cattle from St. Louis to New Or- 
leans is $6 a head. Among the hundreds that I 
saw shipped for beef, I did not see one that would 
have sold for that purpose at one fourth the usual 
price, in the New- York market, except, perhaps, 
some young steers. The sheep were better; some 
of them really good mutton, though all of them of 
a small size. I do not think I saw any that would 
exceed twenty pounds to the quarter ; generally 
not fifteen pounds. 
From St. Louis to Vicksburg, my place of de- 
barkation, there is but very little to interest the 
traveller. The weather was gloomy, and a great 
portion of the shores of the Mississippi River are 
still in a wilderness condition, or in a most primi- 
tive state of cultivation. Between St. Louis and 
the mouth of the Ohio River, there are miles of 
rocky shore, towering in beatling cliffs high in the 
air, and in places almost perpendicular from the 
shore. But below the mouth of that river, no rocks 
nor high lands are seen, except in four or five places 
down to the gulf. Memphis, Vicksburg, and 
Natchez are the most prominent of these points. 
It is in consequence of this liability to overflow, 
that we see but few villages on the banks of the 
river, and nearly all the residences are very primi- 
tive-looking log cabins, with farms to match. 
Most of the settlements were made for the purpose 
of cutting wood for steamboats ; the price of which 
is from $1.50 to $2.25 a cord ; and is mostly cot- 
ton wood. The price of chopping, splitting, and 
cording, from fifty to seventy-five cents. Owing 
to the vast number of snags, few boats venture to 
run nights, except in bright moonlight. 
On the loth of November, below Memphis, the 
green foliage began to tell that we were rapidly 
getting into a warmer latitude. One of my travel- 
ling acquaintances of this passage was an intelligenl 
gentleman of the name of Weston, who had suenj 
two years in the Rocky Mountains and New Mexi- 
co, for his health. He passed seven months with a 
"mountain man," who took a lot of tame goats, so 
trained as to follow the mules, into the mountains, 
for the purpose of catching lambs of the Rocky- 
Mountain sheep. He succeeded in catching quite 
a number, which he reared with his goats ; carry- 
ing them while small, in hampers on mules' backs. 
His design was to bring them into the United 
States ; but Mr. Weston subsequently learned that 
all of them died before they came to maturity. 
These animals, though called sheep, are very un- 
like our domestic animals of that name. They 
have horns which give them the name of " big 
horns," and they are covered with long hair instead 
of wool. Though Mr. W. tells me, that in winter, 
they have a thick coat of fur, something like the 
Cashmere goat, which he thinks would be valuable. 
The meat is very delicious. Mr. W. speaks of 
the New-Mexican sheep as a very inferior kind. 
There is, also, a mongrel race, of hybrids, between 
sheep and goats (?), which are a worthless race. 
Nearly all the New-Mexican sheep have horns, 
and some of the rams, as many as five, sometimes 
three feet long. 
He thinks not more than one tenth of New Mexi- 
co is cultivatable, and none of it without irrigation. 
Some of the isolated valleys of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, he speaks of as delightful places for the 
dwelling of civilization. The most extensive, by 
far, is that of the Great Salt Lake, which is suffi- 
cient to form a small state within itself. It is in 
the north part of this valley, that the Mormons are 
now settling. From two of them on the boat, I 
learned many facts in relation to that settlement ; 
but I must not occupy space to repeat it. Though 
I doubt not the account of the trip of one of them, 
who went with General Kearney, to California, and 
returned through Oregon and the Salt Lake Valley, 
would be highly interesting to the readers of the 
Agriculturist. 
On the boat, I made the acquaintance of Dr. W. 
J. Polk, a relative of the president, who related to 
me an anecdote of a planter on the Arkansas, that 
is so practical, that I will repeat it. It is his man- 
ner of punishing negroes, and he finds it more 
effectual than the whip. 
Every Sunday, he gives an excellent dinner in a 
large room provided for that purpose, where he re- 
quires every negro to attend, neatly washed, and 
dressed, and after listening to a sermon, or the read- 
ing of some good discourse, all are seated at ta- 
ble, except those who are on the "punishment 
list j" and these are obliged to wait on the others. 
