86 
MARSH-LANDS.—ICE-CREAM.—WISKONSAN AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
Mr. McCaughan proposes to do those on the Bi¬ 
loxi bay. But the best, and indeed the only way 
to accomplish this, has been with the shovel and 
spade. No machine has yet been invented that 
could do the work as cheaply or as well as by hand 
labor; nor have we ever heard of anything in Eu¬ 
rope. The steam-plow in England did not work 
well, and it cost more to turn the land with it, 
than by the usual method of plowing with horses 
or cattle. If there be a machine of recent inven¬ 
tion, calculated to assist in ditching or embanking, 
and any of our readers can give us the information 
where it is to be found, we shall feel quite obliged 
by the intelligence. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
DITCHING AND EMBANKING MARSH-LANDS. 
Mississippi City , March 28 th, 1843. 
Mr. A. B. Allen, Dear Sir : I am about be¬ 
ginning to ditch and embank 300 to 500 acres of 
beautiful salt marsh. It is just level with ordina¬ 
ry tides, at the head of Biloxi bay, and I shall have 
a levee 6 feet high, 20 feet base, and 9 feet wide 
on top to secure it from being broken in our sever¬ 
est storms. Seven hundred rods of levee will en¬ 
close 500 acres. It lies 15 miles from the mouth 
of the bay, and at the mouth of a small fresh wa¬ 
ter river, and is covered with a rich coat of native 
grass. I do not think it has salt enough in it to 
hurt it. We have no experience about the value 
of such lands, and I have but little idea of what 
will be their product when prepared for cultivation; 
they are the lands Dr. Cartwright thinks would be 
so valuable stocked in the Herba Spagna of Italy. 
I would now be willing to give 200 acres of the 
land to have it all leveed and ditched, which I 
think can be done for $1,500 at farthest. If you 
can give me any information on this particular 
subject, I will esteem it a very special favor; also 
the cost of a steam-plow on a small scale, as this 
is the land such a plow would be best adapted to. 
Is there such a thing as a steam-machine for ditch¬ 
ing and embanking ? This marsh being perfectly 
level, smooth, and free from roots, it must be well 
adapted to the use of such machinery. Yours truly, 
John J. McCaughan. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
ICE-CREAM. 
To two quarts of milk, add three beaten eggs, 
stir them together, and place over a fire till brought 
by stirring and a gentle heat to the consistence of 
cream. When warm, add a table-spoonful of di¬ 
luted arrow-root or starch; then sweeten and fla¬ 
vor to your taste with lemon, peach-leaves, or va¬ 
nilla, and set by to cool. When cold, pour the 
cream into a small pail, which insert in a larger 
one, well covered on the bottom with ice, and 
sprinkled with salt. Put ice in the space between 
the pails, and add salt to it as before. As the 
mixture freezes, stir it occasionally, till all is equal¬ 
ly frozen. The above is improved by using half 
cream. If you flavor with peach-leaves or cinna¬ 
mon, put them over to warm (not boil) with the 
milk, and then strain before adding the sugar. 
The ice must be put into the form after it is thor¬ 
oughly congealed. 
A Lady. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
WISKONSAN AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
Manitou-woc, Wiskonsan Ter., April, 1843. 
A. B. Allen, Esq., Sir :— 
Having had the pleasure of seeing some of the 
numbers of your Agricultural paper in this region, and 
thinking a short notice of some things here might be 
interesting to a portion of your readers, I shall venture 
to trouble you with a short epistle. The name of my 
present resting place, above, may seem strange to 
many of your readers, but not stranger than the Pe- 
quot, Mohegan, and Narragansett, of the northeast, 
and Choctaw and Chickasaw of the southwest. The 
definition, like most of the Indian names, is full of sig¬ 
nificance and beauty; Manitou meaning their great 
Spirit, and woe his place or dwelling. 
But where is it, is the next inquiry ? It is somewhat 
diffusely located, it being the name of a river, county, 
harbor, and county seat; but all lying between two 
lovely sheets of water, Lake Winnebago on the west, 
and Michigan on the east. The country is delightfully 
situated, having a surface gently undulating, with hill 
and dale, and streams as pure, as well out of the gra¬ 
nite hills of the north. This is the country of wood¬ 
land and forest, yielding some of the finest timber, in 
great abundance. The prairies commence about 35 
miles west of the lake shore in this latitude, and thence 
extend, with slight interruptions, I believe to the Pocky 
Mountains. The principal growth is Sugar Maple, 
Beech, Pine, and Oak intermixed. I have seen the 
most beautiful and extensive orchards of the first, 
stretching for miles over a clear grass sod, which would 
laugh to scorn all the feeble embellishments of art, 
around which were located, at convenient distances, 
the wigwams of the red man. These, during the sugar 
season, are always occupied by their owners, for the 
purpose of securing their annual supply of sugar. 
In the spring of 1836, I was threading my way 
through this, at that time, totally unoccupied country, 
taking the route from Milwaukie to Green Bay, on 
horseback, in company with a western missionary, and 
a half breed mail-carrier as our guide. After camping 
out in the woods the first night of our journey, we 
came upon an extensive sugar ground towards evening, 
having passed several during the day, and making our 
way near the centre of it, we espied two large, snug, 
well-constructed wigwams, where we concluded to put 
up for the night. We unhorsed, tethered our beasts, 
and at the request of the inmates, went in and prepared 
for our lodging. We found large rooms, piled up with 
the crystallized juice on two or three sides, part of it 
in large cakes, and another portion handsomely grained 
in large bireh-bark mo-koks (if our orthography does 
not suit our occidentalist readers, they have my full 
permission to improve it), weighing from 25 to 40 lbs, 
each. Such a sugary I never before witnessed; and 
it was all accomplished by an old man, some 90 years 
of age, three or four well-favored, neat, comely-looking 
squaws, and the children. It was the season of trap¬ 
ping, too, and the men could not forego their harvest 
of peltry, and left this duty to be performed by those 
who could not be of service elsewhere. What added 
to their difficulties, was the total destitution of food, 
except what was afforded by the sugar, some wild 
