248 tHE CHICKASAW PLUM.— “SOLICITING SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 
THR CHTCASAW PLUM TREE. 
lake form the best natural harbor to be found on its 
western shore. A large sha^e of the timber is rock or 
6Ugar maple, hickory, beech, oak, poplar, elm, linden, 
and many beautiful groves of pines ; the latter reach¬ 
ing from 80 to 150 feet in height. The soil is emi¬ 
nently adapted to every species of agriculture, wheat, 
and all the cereal grains, grass, roots, &c., &c. The 
more open prairie country on the south has received 
a large share of the emigration, hitherto; but as the 
choicest lands have already been taken there, these emi¬ 
grants are gradually wending their way northward ; 
and settlements are fast forming throughout the forests, 
hitherto unreclaimed since the flood, except by occa¬ 
sional patches of the Indian cornfields, which are now 
grown up to young poplars. Many of the settlers 
on the open lands farther south, having become 
wearied of the monotony of prairie life, or doubting 
their permanent fertility, have abandoned those natu¬ 
ral meadows, and sought their homes among the 
woods at the north, where they are surrounded by the 
dense forests, or more open woodlands, which are 
more in harmony with their early associations, and 
the general character of American scenery. 
Governors Tallmadge and Doty are settled near 
Lake Winnebago, about 35 miles west of Manitou- 
woc, and after the busy scenes of a political career, 
in which few have been more active or conspicuous, 
have retired to those peaceful occupations of rural 
life, where refined and cultivated taste must ever 
find its purest enjoyments. 
The great number of pure streams furnished by 
innumerable springs, which everywhere yield water 
power in abundance, the varied surface and fertile 
soil, the perfect healthfulness of the climate, together 
with its proximity to the daily steamboat route on 
the great lakes, must soon render the country around 
Manitouwoc, among the most densely populated re¬ 
gions of the great west. 
Returning to Cleveland, we made an excursion of 
some 60 miles in the interior. But this is now an 
old settled country, and already nearly filled; and 
being familiarly known, description would be super¬ 
fluous. But “ the oldest inhabitant” has probably 
never before seen the northern third of Ohio, includ¬ 
ing nearly all the Western Reserve, in so sad a plight 
as*it exhibits this season. Nearly all the fruits are 
destroyed ; apples, peaches, pears, and plums, by the 
late severe frosts; and from the same cause, accom¬ 
panied by an almost unprecedented drought, the 
wheat, oats, and grass, will hardly pay for harvest¬ 
ing. Great suffering must be experienced among the 
stock, unless a prolonged autumn and mild winter 
tempers the severity of the early harvests. In the 
best wheat counties of northern Ohio, wheat now 
brings the price at the lake ports, with the addition 
of carriage to the interior. Happily, other parts of 
the west and south teem with abundant harvests, 
which effectually remove all apprehensions of suffer¬ 
ing to the inhabitants. 
Ohio, and the whole west, seem in the most 
healthy state of progression, and are fast approxi¬ 
mating to that state of improvement and prosperity, 
which characterize their elder sisters at the east. In¬ 
telligence, industry, economy, and anti-repudiation , 
with the gradual introduction of domestic manufac¬ 
tures, will be sufficient to place them, ere long, at the 
summit of every reasonably ambitious aspiration. 
Buffalo , July 8, 1845. R. L. A. 
Prunus Chic as a, Torry and Gray; Prunier 
des Chicasas, of the French; Chicasa Pflaumen- 
baum, of the Germans. 
The Chicasaw plum tree, in its natural state, is a 
thorny shrub, growing from three to six feet in 
height, and when cultivated, to more than double that 
elevation. It is indigenous to Arkansas, Western 
Louisiana, and Texas, and is naturalized -east of the 
Mississippi, as far north as Virginia. According to 
Michaux, it was brought to the Atlantic Southern 
States, and cultivated by the Chicasaw Indians ; and 
hence it is commonly called the Chicasaw plum. It 
was introduced into Britain in 1806, and plants of it 
are growing in many of the European collections, as 
well as in American gardens and nurseries. 
There is a tree of this species on the estate of Rev. 
E. M. Johnson, of Brooklyn, New York, which 
has attained a height of about twenty feet, with a 
trunk ten inches in diameter, is perfectly hardy, and 
matures its fruit every year. 
The flowers of the Chicasaw plum, which put 
forth in April and May, are succeeded by a yellow, 
or yellowish-red fruit, nearly destitute of bloom, of a 
roundish form, half an inch or more in diameter, 
having a thin skin, a tender pulp, and is usually of 
an agreeeble flavor; but, like all the species of the 
genus, it varies in its quality, sometimes being quite 
astringent and sour. This tree may be propagated 
from seed, by grafting, or inoculation, in a similar 
manner as the common plum. D’J ay Browne. 
New York, July 12, 1845. 
Soliciting Subscriptions for Agricultural 
Papers. —On this subject one of our travelling agents 
thus graphically writes us: A few things I have 
learned since I commenced asking subscriptions for 
your paper. First, not to call at a house where I 
see the fences, bars, and gates prostrate ; barns and 
sheds wanting repairs; cattle standing about the 
house and way-side ; wood-pile wanting; and glass 
broken from the windows. However good the soil, 
or rich the owner may be in acres, I am sure he is 
too sluggish and slovenly to read, or care to know 
much that does not comport with his notions of per¬ 
sonal ease. 
