ROTATION OP CROPS IN MASSACHUSETTS, ETC. 
119 
beech, with magnolia, oak, poplar, &c, will some day- 
be found to be most valuable land, when cleared and 
well underdrained ; for water is the great detriment 
to cultivation on much of the soil of this region. 
I passed the night with Dr. Scott, who lives on the 
river bank, six miles above Baton Rouge. He is a 
gentleman of education and intelligence, but who 
has got such an inveterate habit of looking on the 
" black side' 1 '' of everything, that he sees nothing 
but darkness in the path ahead. He says that it is 
idle for hill planters to think of going into the su- 
gar business ; for most of the sugar planters of the 
state are bound to fail. He has 40 acres of cane 
which he wishes was out of the ground again. He 
won't build a sugar house because he would have 
to become tributary 7 to the north, and the state now 
imports more than she sells, and unless she will go 
to manufacturing right soon, and in good earnest, 
she must become bankrupt, &c. He complains 
that sugar makers are ruining the country by their 
enormous consumption of wood; yet, the sale of 
wood is the principal business of this man ; and at 
a price, ($2.50 a cord,) that he would not realize 
if it were not for the great consumption of the su- 
gar works. 
December 14th, I visited Baton Rouge, and almost 
as a matter of course, General Taylor, whom, if I 
had found on a farm, instead of in a garrison, I 
should have thought a plain and very sensible old 
farmer, who loved to talk about the business of cul- 
tivation better than anything else. From the con- 
versation I had with him, I think that he is aware 
that he has got a weedy row to hoe, but that he 
will dig it through or die, and woe to the weeds 
that come in the way of his old hoe. I also made 
the acquaintance of T. B. Thorpe, from whom I 
received letters of introduction to several of the edito- 
rial family of New Orleans, that were afterwards of 
great service to me. I cannot omit here the kind 
remembrance of Mrs. Thorpe, than whom I have 
not met with a more pleasant acquaintance on my 
list. While in company with Mrs. Thorpe, the 
conversation turned upon an article lately publish- 
ed, in regard to a want of proper secretiveness in 
the Muscovy ducks about their nests. She says 
that all her experience goes to the contrary ; that 
her ducks have always been unusually secretive, 
and thinks that is their general character in this re- 
gion. I also partook of the hospitalities and kind 
offices of John R. Dufrocq, editor of the Baton- 
Rouge Gazette, Mayor of the city, &c, &c, whom 
his thousands of Michigan and Canada friends will 
delight to hear is the samehighminded nature's no- 
bleman he ever was. By his politeness and atten- 
tion, and in his company, I visited the penitentiary, 
now being transferred by the present contractors, 
McHatton, Pratt & Co., into a great cotton and 
woollen manufactory. There are at present about 
140 convicts, who are well fed, clothed, and lodged 
in solitary cells. They are now making 900 yards 
of an excellent quality of stout cotton, well wor- 
thy the attention of planters. There are a few 
shoemakers, tailors, and blacksmiths, besides car- 
rying on a great amount of brick making ; for the 
individuals having the contract for the splendid 
state house now building here. They get $12.50 a 
thousand for the bricks laid in the wall. I saw in 
the penitentiary, sixteen of the best mules I ever 
saw together. One was seventeen hands high and 
well formed ; though not so remarkably so as one 
not quite so large, and valued at $250 — none of 
them being worth less than $150 — the present value 
of the plantation mules being now from $80 to 
$125. Baton Rouge may be said to be the north- 
ern limit of oranges, and I saw here several trees 
twenty or twenty-five feet high, loaded with fruit, 
the most beautiful of all others, that grow upon 
trees. Here, at this date, many garden vegetables 
are in quite perfection, and roses fill the air with 
fragrant sweets. Mr. Dufrocq informs me that the 
misletoe is killing the live oaks, in this town; the 
streets of which are ornamented with a great many 
of these most beautiful of all the family of oaks. 
Query — is that the cause ? This town, now, or 
rather in 1850, is to be the state capital, contains 
between 2,000 or 3,000 inhabitants, on a very hand- 
some site, fifty feet above high water, although just 
at present the water well mixed with loamy earth 
is pretty high all over town. The state house is 
to be one of the finest on the Mississippi. It stands 
fronting the river as well as three streets. It will 
cost, when complete, nearly half a million of dollars. 
Immediately on leaving the town of Baton Rouge, 
commences the great levee of the Mississippi, a 
dam of earth extending to the mouth, and varying 
from one to ten feet high, by which man hath said 
to the mighty stream, " thus far shalt thou flow 
and no farther ;" and by which only can the great 
sugar plantations of Louisiana be cultivated. But, 
before entering upon these, let us have another 
month's rest; for I have a great deal to write, some 
of which, I have every confidence in my ability to 
make interesting to my readers. That the present 
chapter is not more so, I am sure that they will ex- 
cuse me 'when I tell them that it was written during 
my confinement -to my room with an attack of the 
epidemic of the present winter, that has spread 
mourning along the banks of the Mississippi, and 
had it not been for the kindness of one of whom I 
shall speak by-and-by in commensurate terms, I 
should not now have been in a condition to say 
that I still remain your old friend 
Solon Robinson. 
Point Celeste, below New Orleans, Jan. \2th, 1849. 
Rotation of Crops in Massachusetts. — At a 
late agricultural meeting in Boston, Hon. Mr. 
Brooks, of Princeton, stated that, from a series of 
experiments made by him. he had been led to adopt 
the following system in the rotation of crops : — 1st, 
potatoes ; 2d, Indian corn ; 3d, wheat ; 4th, grass, 
eight years. His potatoes averaged 225 bushels 
per acre ; his corn, 45 bushels; his wheat, 20 
bushels : and his hay a ton and a half per acre. 
It will be seen at p. 82, of our sixth volume, by 
a communication from John Brown, 2nd, of Long 
Island, Lake Winnipissiogee, that, by a similar 
rotation, he raised 300 bushels of potatoes per 
acre; 136 bushels of shelled corn; and from 30 to 
35 bushels of wheat. 
Solution, among chemists, is the complete union 
of a solid substance with a fluid so that the solid 
entirely melts and disappears, as common salt dis- 
solved in water. 
