1884.] 
AMEEIOAI^ AGBIOULTUEIST. 
109 
A SOUTHERN PLANTER’S HOME. 
traordinary descriptions. Hypochondria is a com¬ 
mon weakness of the laboring classes, black or 
white, but in the former it is exaggerated to a 
whimsical degree.—The less serious ailments were 
treated out of the medicine chest. For some com¬ 
plaints pills made of bread and mustard were 
found an effective remedy ; imagination performed 
the rest. Epsom salts was the most popular rem¬ 
edy, as the bulk of the ordinary cases simply came 
Drawn and Engraved for the .American Agriculturist. 
from overfeeding. The plantation fed its colony. 
Corn was grown for milling and for feeding the 
stock, and beef cattle and pigs raised in patriarchal 
abundance. One day a week in winter and in 
summer two were devoted to slaughtering. Ra¬ 
tions of meat were then given out, and certain tit¬ 
bits sent to the pensioners, the people too old to 
work. These were distributed under the eye of the 
mistress and with a view to securing rigid impar¬ 
tiality.—Tobacco was the commercial crop of the 
estate, for which it possessed the finest land in the 
district, and its cultivation was carried on witli 
scientific exactness. The admirable system pro¬ 
duced crops which made the grower a rich man in 
spite of the liberality which characterized all his 
relations with his people. “ It is an extravagance 
which pays,” he said; “willing hands do good work; 
if my hands are not willing ones it is not my fault.” 
