52 
AGRICULTURAL TOUR SOUTH AND WEST.——NO. 2. 
and see them feast, without tasting a mouthful 
themselves. I would commend this course to 
others of my southern friends. 
I landed at Vicksburg, November 17th, and found 
as fine a lot of mud in the streets of that hill-side 
town, as one could wish for. I spent the night 
with my hospitable friend, Daniel Swett, and in the 
morning saw a show of Mississippi ice. Mr. 
Swett has been for several years engaged in the in¬ 
troduction of improved agricultural implements, into 
this part of the country, without hitherto meeting 
with much success. One difficulty, hitherto expe¬ 
rienced with eastern plows, is found in the low 
beams, (a) 
Nov. 18th .—I rode out to the plantation of Dr. 
M. W. Philips, whose name has long been known to 
the readers of the Agriculturist. He lives some 15 
miles east of Vicksburg. The intervening land, 
(Warren county), being the most uneven surface 
that I ever saw cultivated. It may be said that 
there are no hills; but the whole face of the coun¬ 
try is sunken into hollows, from one to one hun¬ 
dred feet deep, just as thick as they can lie side by 
side of one another. The soil is a light alluvion, 
without grit, and very deep. It is very liable to 
gully, and yet the perpendicular cut banks of the 
railroad, are standing with the ten-year-old spade 
marks still as plain as when first made. Many a 
hill side in this county is cultivated by the hoe, 
where it is so steep that a mule cannot pull a plow. 
It used to be celebrated as one of the best cotton¬ 
growing counties in the state; but a continued 
cropping of the land, without manure, or even re¬ 
turning the cotton seed as manure to the soil, has 
so worn out much of the land, that it hardly pays 
for cultivating. 
Doctor Philips (by birth a South Carolinian), 
though educated as a physician, does not practice. 
He is one of that small class in the south, sneer- 
ingly called “book farmers.” He has about 300 
acres of land under fence, of which 200 acres are 
cultivated. Much of this still bears the deaden¬ 
ed forest trees, showing its late reclamation from 
the wilderness. He works ten field hands, and 
makes 80 to 90 bales of cotton a year, together with 
all his corn and meat. He has a small flock of 
sheep, from which he gets his negro clothing; he 
has also a large herd of cattle. Of course he eats 
“home-made butter,” and of an excellent quality it 
is, too. His cattle are the best in the vicinity. His 
large stock of hogs is a mixture of Berkshire and 
grazier, about fifty of which are now fatting in the 
corn field upon waste corn and peas. These will 
weigh from 150 to 250 lbs. tie has this year 90 
odd acres of cotton; 80 acres of corn, and 15 of 
oats. By the by, he is now sowing oats. These 
will afford winter pasturage and make a crop ready 
to harvest the middle of June. These oats are sown 
upon cotton ground of the present season. 
None of my eastern readers can imagine the 
troubles of plowing down cotton stalks. They are 
about as big as thrifty peach trees a year old, and 
almost as strong. [We have seen a cotton stalk 
at least three inches in diameter, as hard, and hav¬ 
ing the appearance of wood.] Add to this, as is 
sometimes the case, a. good coat of crab grass, thrifty i 
6talks of which I hav^e measured four feet long, and 
plow makers may see why high beams are required 
to their plows. 
Dr. P. planted this season a quantity of eastern 
corn an eight-rowed, white-flint variety, in rows 
three feet apart, and hills with two stalks one foot 
apart, which grew to perfection; but was attacked 
with “ the rot” after it had got ripe, and nearly all 
went to decay in the field. His other crop of corn, 
planted late and owing to much wet weather, be¬ 
came very grassy, he estimates at about 35 bushels 
to the acre. The cotton crop of this vicinity was 
much shortened by early frosts. 
A medium crop of cotton is 1,000 lbs. of seed 
cotton per acre. This will produce 290 to 300 lbs. 
of ginned cotton, and about 30 bushels of seed, 
weighing about 22 lbs. a bushel. If 100 bushels 
of cotton seed per acre is used as manure, it will 
increase the crop about one fifth. About a quart 
of cotton seed to a hill of corn, scattered around the 
hill of young corn, it is thought will increase the crop 
about one fourth. Yet vast quantities of this valuable 
article are wasted. Perhaps it would be useful in¬ 
formation to some of your readers to learn that 
cotton seed is about the size, and has somewhat the 
appearance, when free entirely from the lint, of 
large sunflower seed, and is equally oleaginous. 
Dr. P. having a rather extra quality of Petit 
Gulf and sugar-loaf variety of seed, is putting up 
some hundred bushels for sale. He is sending a 
large quantity to South Carolina, and realizes a 
dollar a bushel, exclusive of pay for sacks. 
There is a new kind of seed in this neighborhood 
called the “ Hogan seed,” selling for $10 a bushel. 
Last year, it was sold at $1,000 per bushel, or a 
dime a seed! It is said to be a very large and pro¬ 
ductive variety, though not anything like so large as 
the mastodon, which, frequently in rich land, grows 
8 or 10 feet high, with corresponding-sized 
branches. 
Dr. P. is quite an amateur orchardist. He has 
about 40 acres set with trees, among which, he has 
70 kinds of apples, some of which are now coming 
into bearing. And 140 pears,—150 named varie¬ 
ties of peaches, besides a host of unnamed—26 kinds 
of plums, 13 apricots, 5 or 6 of figs, and several 
nectarines. Early harvest apples ripen here the 
last of June. Early York and rareripe peaches 
ripen about June 20th. Snow peaches, July 1st, and 
some of them eight and a half inches round. Early 
Tilletson, ripen about 30th June, and are a very 
rich peach. Figs ripen here July 1st. Strawber¬ 
ries, April 10th, and continue about six weeks. 
Peaches bloom about the middle of February, and 
quinces the middle of March. 
I have never seen a more ihrifty-looking orchard 
than the doctor’s. But few of the trees are yet in 
bearing. Mr. S. Montgomery, his brother-in-law, 
who also has a good orchard, is of opinion that 
summer apples will do well here; but has great 
doubts about success with winter varieties. At his 
place, we were treated with some very fine apples, 
just plucked from the trees. Certainly, if my 
wishes for success in raising fruit could insure it, 
such gentlemen as these would meet with a great 
share of it. I noticed on Mr. M.’s table, a well- 
read copy of Browne's Trees of America, and a 
i full set of the bound volumes of the Agriculturist. 
