158 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
are likewise usually placed in the yard, that hands 
may be called on at any moment if needed, the gene- 
ral range of huts being out of sight and hearing of 
the house. Little black children, stark naked, from 
a few weeks old to six or seven years, at which 
age they go out to the field, play, or grovel about 
the yard, or lie stretched in the glaring sunbeams, 
the elder ones professedly taking care of the 
younger or more helpless. Here of course they 
are early inured, by kicks and cuffs, to bear the 
sevete inflictions of the lash, &c., which await 
them in after life. The pigs and fowls entertain 
very little respect for the negro children, with 
whom there is a perpetual squabbling ; and what 
with the scolding of the youngsters, the squealing 
of the pigs, the cackling of the guinea-fowls, the 
gobbling of the turkeys, and the quacking of the 
Muscovy ducks, the yard does not lack noise. Of 
these last (Anas moschata) there is always a troop of 
all ages and sizes; it is the only patronised ^ the 
English duck,” as our common ^species is called, 
being kept only as a curiosity. The greater size of 
the former, approaching to that of the goose, is a 
recommendation, but it is far inferior in beauty, and, 
in my opinion, in flavour, to the common kind. 
A very great ornament, indeed a sine qua non in 
a planter’s yard, is the Pride of China, commonly 
called the China tree {Melia azedarach). It is 
deservedly a favourite, for it possesses many claims 
to admiration ; the leaves are pinnate, like those of 
the ash and laburnum, with many leaflets of a beau- 
tiful deep green hue ; in spring the pretty lilac or 
pink flowers appear in racemes, having a delicate 
odour, and these are succeeded by round green 
berries, which in autumn turn of a bright yellow, and 
