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AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND WEST. NO. 3. 
AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND WEST.— NO. 3. 
I think in my last communication, I parted with 
my readers at Dr. Philips'. The day I left there, 
T had a conversation with Mr. Watson, a neighbor 
of the Doctor's, about the loss of stock on pea 
fields. Mr. W. has lost fourteen head of cattle 
this fall, (mostly fat heifers,) among which are two 
working oxen and one beeve. 
These cattle were turned into the fields from the 
woods, while the peas were fresh and green, and in a 
day on two after, he was told that one of the herd was 
dead. He rode out directly to examine, and found 
two more dead, having dropped down suddenly, 
and without showing any symptoms of disease : 
and on opening them while still warm, he found no 
signs of inflammation. They were all very fat. 
The only signs of being affected by this mysterious 
cause of death, as he subsequently observed, was 
in the discharge of dung, which had a dark grum- 
ous appearance, more like blue clay mixed with 
dirty water and very soft. On being turned out 
into the woods again, they hecame healthy until 
some weeks after, when on being admitted to the 
field were again attacked, and several died. The 
same result followed the same course at a later 
period, when the peavines had all been killed by 
frost. 
Hogs, that are affected hy eating peas, show sick- 
ness before dying and on being opened present the 
same appearance as when dying of kidney worm, 
and a thick, glutinous matter stops the neck of the 
hladder. Mr. Watson cures hogs, when seen in 
time, by feeding large quantities of warm, greasy 
slop, very salt. To prevent their being affected, 
they should be fed liberally with corn, and well 
salted, both before turning into pea fields, and while 
they are in. 
One of the good results of making good chan- 
nels of communication between town and country, 
is seen along the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad. 
The cutting and sending wood to the river for 15 or 
20 miles back is found more profitable than a cot- 
ton crop. Dr. E. H. Bryon, at whose place I spent 
a night in Havre county, has found this particu- 
larly so. And as the banks of the Mississippi 
are becoming rapidly denuded of their forest 
growth, the time is near when wood from the inte- 
rior lands will have to be sent in to supply the al- 
most inconceivable enormous consumption by steam- 
boats, and sugar making. Wood has been already 
profitably sent in flat boats from Green River, Ken- 
tucky, to New Orleans. 
Profitable Culture of Havana Tobacco in Missis- 
sippi. — Mr. R. Y. Rogers, who lives among those 
interminable and almost inaccessible hills back 
of Vicksburg, raised on one eighth of an acre, the 
last season, a crop of tobacco, which, although only 
once cut, has brought him $121, cash, leaving nine 
hundred cigars on hand and tobacco enough, except 
wrappers, to make three thousand more. The cigars 
readily bring him $20 a thousand. Mr. R. is a 
small farmer and market gardener, 1 and a gentle- 
man of great enterprise, whose income from the 
amount invested, I presume is a greater percen- 
tage than any cotton planter in the state. In com- 
pany with friend Rogers, we took saddle horses 
and rode over to Dr. George Smith's plantation, as 
the inconceivable unevenness of the surface, pre- 
vented our travelling in a carriage. It would ut- 
terly surprise any one from the most hilly region 
of New England, to see the steep side hills here in 
cultivation. The plowing is done on the "level 
system," and the crop often has to be carried down 
by hand, as no cart can be driven up and down or 
round about, except as is sometimes done by attach- 
ing a rope to a stake on top of the hill, which 
prevents the cart from upsetting as it circles 
round, keeping the rope taught. We found on Dr. 
Smith's place a sample of economy often seen in 
other places besides Mississippi. He had about 
one hundred hogs, which, by dogs and traps, had 
been caught from the woods and shut up in square 
rail pens, eight to fifteen in a pen, to be fattened. 
I do not think that when killed they will average 
100 lbs. each. The corn is shelled and boiled, and 
fed in troughs. The bottoms of the pens are rails 
— no shelter nor bed — wood, water, and corn, hauled 
half a mile. Now this corn, is worth 40 to 50 cts. 
a bushel in Vicksburg, and six miles to haul. The 
pork will be worth from 3 to 5 cts. Query — which 
would be the best economy, to shoot the hogs and 
sell the corn and buy pork, or feed it, with the hope 
of making it of such hogs — many of them now 
being two years old 1 The Doctor's corn is of a 
superior quality, and made this year a good crop. 
Not so with cotton. 
I left Vicksburg, November 28th, on my way 
towards New Orleans, by land. A beautiful warm 
sunny day, and although the paddles yesterday 
morning showed a good covering of ice, the cold 
was not severe enough to dim the blushing beau- 
ties of ten thousand roses in the gardens by the way- 
side. The road to-day, lying over the most uneven 
surface ever cultivated, passed much land "worn 
out" and abandoned to the washings of the rains 
that fills the whole surface of an old field, in a few 
years, with impassable gullies. On the road side, 
a few miles before reaching Port Gibson, there is a 
gully big enough to bury a small town. These 
hills are all composed of an alluvial deposit, with 
nothing to prevent washing. As soon as the roots 
are decayed they dissolve with greater rapidity than 
though composed of salt. Near Port Gibson, I 
passed a Cherokee rose hedge which I saw planted, 
four years since. It is not yet a sufficient fence, 
though I believe that four years does often produce 
that result. 
November 30th, I shall have reason to remember, 
as I came very near losing myself, horses, and car- 
riage, in one of those remarkable quicksand creeks 
of this country. This one being well known to 
many an unfortunate traveller on the " old Ken- 
tucky trace," by the name of Cole's Creek. I am 
precluded from giving a full account, but suffice it 
to say that I came out on the same side that I went 
in, and by help of negroes and oxen, got the car- 
riage out, without any serious damage, though I 
had a very unpleasant job of two or three days in 
getting dry and waiting for a fall of water, &c. 
Fortunately, I met with kind female sympathy in 
the wife of a Mr. Mackey, by whose assistance 
I got my wardrobe again in wearing order. The 
only way of crossing these quicksands with horses, 
after a time of high water, is to drive cattle across 
to settle the sand. Horses, when they get in, often 
become frightened and getting their feet fast, will 
