AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND WEST. NO. 3. 
91 
lay down and make no exertions to get out. This 
kind of stream abounds in this country, and the 
people s<zy, they cannot be bridged. 1 think Yan- 
kee enterprise would try. Though I will acknowl- 
edge that the extreme unstable nature of the banks 
would make it difficult. 
Visit to Mr. Affleck. — It is entirely superfluous 
to say that I met with a most gratifying reception 
from this old acquaintance of yours and mine, as 
well as from his most amiable wife. There are no 
brighter spots in life, than these meetings of old 
friends. I found Mr. A. as full of despondency 
at the result of the last cotton crop, as I have a 
hundred others within a few days, who complain 
with good reason of short crops and low prices. 
But as hope is the " sheet anchor of the soul," I 
found him full of that, upon the subject of a new 
business which he is now about entering upon. 
His little place of 47 acres, at Washington, Missis- 
sippi, he is now engaged in laying down into a 
nursery of fruits, shrubs, flowers, and plants — 
both out doors, in hot houses, and forcii.g beds, 
with the intention of supplying that region, as well 
as the New-Orleans market with such articles. He 
has an accomplished gardener, Mr. Drummond, 
from Scotland, and brother of him who gave the 
name to Phlox drummondi ; and he has now on 
the way from Mr. Rivers, of London, a great as- 
sortment of bulbs and plants, as well as all that he 
can obtain in this country. I hope his success 
may be commensurate with his industry. Mr. A. 
can exhibit some of the advantages of underdraw- 
ing in his garden and nursery grounds. This he is 
doing with joints of large reed canes. He thinks 
that they will last many years, and when decayed, 
that the hole in the clay will still afford drainage for 
many more years. At any rate, it is a cheap experi- 
ment. He has a Cherokee-rose hedge, now three 
years old, that will, in another year, be a good 
fence. 
Bermuda Grass. — This grass is much objected to 
in many places, on account of its tenacity of life, 
but Mr. A. assu r es me that he finds no difficulty in 
killing or smothering it down by crops of the cow 
pea. This easily-managed and most valuable grass 
cannot be the same kind that is so much anathe- 
matised in Georgia. 
Here, for the first time, I saw the " cholera among 
the turkeys," — a disease that is at least as unac- 
countable as that of the same name in the human 
system ; and which has slain its thousands among 
that branch of the poultry-yard family, within a 
few months, in this region. They drop from the 
roost frequently, and usually quite fat. The most 
beautiful tenents of Mrs. Affleck's yard, and in fact 
that I ever saw, was a couple of domesticated wood 
ducks. China and African geese, thrive here as 
though it was their native home. One of the great 
pests of the poultry yard and garden are the rats, 
which are only kept in check by a number of ex- 
cellent terriers. Yet we see a hundred curs and 
bounds in the country to one of these valuable lit- 
tle dogs. 
It is a wonder where wood is scarce and dear as 
it is here, and where the China tree grows so rapid- 
ly, and makes such good fuel, that plantations are 
not made for that purpose, upon some of the old 
fields hereabouts, that are unfit for any thing else. 
Mrs. Isaac Dunbar, Mrs. A's mother, and who 
manages the " home place," has some of the finest 
hedges of Louri-mundi, that I have seen ; and al- 
though they are not good fence, they are highly 
ornamental. The plants are easily grown from 
seed. She is now burning vast quantities of fuel 
cut from the China trees, as well as locust, in the 
yard. On the night of December 5th, the weather 
was so warm, that sleeping under a sheet only, and 
with doors and windows open, was uncomfortable. 
Let readers compare notes upon this. 
The roads in the vicinity of Natchez are in just 
such a condition as may be imagined by those who 
have seen the hundreds of wagon loads of cotton 
constantly drawn over a loose, soft soil by four or 
five yoke of oxen to each, during a six-weeks' 
" rainy spell." And particularly when it is taken 
into account that labor upon roads, is almost un- 
known. It is one of the most common things, 
after toiling up a very steep hill, that you find the 
apex so sharp that the forward wheels of a wagon 
begin to descend the other side before the hind ones 
are up. In some countries, such ridges would be 
dug down. I have travelled many miles of road in 
different places in Mississippi, worn down into 
ditches from four to twenty feet deep, and barely 
wide enough for two wagons to pass ; and these 
continually undergoing the gullying operation, that 
sometimes render travelling anything but safe or 
pleasant, to say nothing of the bridgeless streams 
before mentioned. The Scuppernong grape is 
grown successfully in the vicinity of Natchez. 
On the road between Natchez and Woodville, 
there are many miles of Cherokee-rose hedge, often 
spreading twenty feet or more wide and as many 
high. It is an objection to this plant, that it is 
very difficult to keep it within any reasonable 
bounds, as a hedge. Careless planting and tending, 
too, often shows gaps. It is also an immense har- 
bor for rats and rabbits, and sometimes it gets so 
full of dead wood, as not only to be unsightly but 
in danger of taking fire and destroying a line of 
fence in a few hours. On the other hand, if well 
tended, it makes a handsome hedge, being ever- 
green, and in spring it is covered with a profusion 
of single white roses, that give it a most beautiful 
appearance, specimens of which were frequently 
to be seen to-day, (December 6th,) below Natchez. 
In travelling along any public road in this coun- 
try, a stranger might wonder where the inhabitants 
were, as he may not see a house for many miles. 
As for instance, just at dusk on the evening 1 left 
Natchez. I opened a gate that led from the road 
apparently into a cotton field or a woodland pas- 
ture, and pursuing the road over a little run, up a 
hill, through the grove and another gate, about half 
or three fourths of a mile, there opens upon the 
view a large fine mansion, and all the appurte- 
nences, of a rich and flourishing cotton plantation. 
This is the residence of Dr. Metcalf, a very estima- 
ble and enterprising gentleman, formerly from Ken- 
tucky. The Doctor, not being contented with a 
very good house, is now exercising his fine taste 
and love of building, in a very large addition to his 
residence, which is one of the best built houses 
that I have seen in the state — a plan and descrip- 
tion of which I hope to give hereafter. Dr. M. 
thinks the use of cistern water far more healthy 
