THE CULTIVATOR. 
31 
showed us last summer, a part of his farm which has 
been mowed annually lor fifty years, yielding on an 
average three tons per acre, (cut twice in a season,) and 
had received no other dressing during that time than 
two bushels of plaster per acre each year—one bushel 
being sown in the spring and the other in August. The 
soil seemed to be quite a stiff clay—too stiff for culti¬ 
vation. It is a stratum which crops out in many places 
on the bank or terrace which divides the alluvion 
of the Connecticut river from the sandy plain east 
of Springfield. The effect of plaster on some other 
parts of Mr. Chapin’s farm, is favorable, but nowhere 
so remarkable as on the soil mentioned. This case, and 
many others which might be cited, indicates that the 
effect of plaster is much effected by the nature of the 
soil on which it is applied. Perhaps there is no better 
way for the farmer to ascertain whether plaster can be 
profitably used, than to first try it in different ways, but 
in such an exact manner that its effect may be easily 
known. An experiment which would involve no risk 
or expense, to any extent, might settle points of great 
consequence. 
A MISSISSIPPI PLANTATION. 
From the last number of our traveling correspond¬ 
ent’s “Notes in the Southwest,” we give the following 
account of his visit to Col. J. Dunbar, who has one 
of the best plantation* in that state, situate in Jefferson 
county, 16 miles east of Natchez. Mr. Robinson says: 
He is a very fine hearty man, 61 years old, and was 
born near Natchez, and came upon the place where he 
lives now, when the whole country was covered so thick 
with cane that it was almost impossible to get through 
it, and commenced with his own hands to clear away a 
little spot upon which to build his cabin. He was then 
possessed of a good strong pair of hands, and a wife 
willing and able to assist him. He has both yet; and 
he also has upon the “home plantation,” 600 acres in 
cultivation, and works 50 field-hands, and 40 horses and 
mules, and ten yoke of oxen. He also has two black¬ 
smiths constantly at work, as well as carpenters, wagon 
and plowmakers, shoemakers, &c. 
The whole number of negroes upon the plantation 
exceeds 150, having several supernumerary, old and 
young, from another plantation that he owns. 
He lias about an hundred head of horses and mules, 
among which are some very fine blooded animals, par¬ 
ticularly three breeding mares. He has also a noble 
jack, 14 hands high, and heavy built. His cattle are not 
only uncounted, but unaccountable fine—having among 
them, both Durhams and Ayrshires of good quality. 
He has a good flock of sheep, and has kept them for 30 
years or more, without perceiving any unhealthiness or 
deterioration. He has now both South Down and Bake- 
well rams which he bought for full bloods, but in which 
I think he was cheated, but not by a Yankee. 
He also has, he dont know how many hogs, and I am 
sure I dont; but he raises corn enough “to do him,” 
and make pork enough to supply the plantation, and 
every year has some bacon and lard to sell. He also 
raises large quantities of oats, peas and potatoes, and 
some as good tobacco from Havanna seed, as ever the 
lover of a good cigar or long stem pipe, puffed into 
sweet perfume. He cultivates winter oats, clover, Ber¬ 
muda, blue-grass and rye for pasture, and all of his 
stock look as though they knew it. The land is very 
hilly, and was once covered entirely with cane and a 
growth of white, black and water oak, poplar, ash, 
hickory, black walnut, dogwood, sassafras, holly, beach, 
magnolia. 
Col. D. has a steam saw-mill, and he assures me that 
he saved more than the cost of it, in getting lumber for 
his own buildings. No wonder, for he has a small 
world of them. His “negro quarters ” look like a neat 
New-England village; and the interior of the dwell¬ 
ings has as much the air of comfort as the exterior. 
The negroes’ food is all cooked in a very large and neat 
kitchen, immediately under the eye of overseers or 
owner. There is a large, airy, and excellent building 
j for a hospital. It is also used for the “Christmas Ball ” 
! which he gives his negroes every year, accompanied 
j with a feast that many a white man would be glad oi a 
j chance to partake of. It is generally contrived to have 
a few pair of weddings on hand at the same lime. 
Bjrths appear to be “ in order ” at all seasons. 
He has a large fine house, and beautiful garden, and 
good assortment of fruit and flowers, for which the good 
taste and judicious management of one of the best house¬ 
wives in Mississippi must have the credit. I was 
pleased to see Mrs. D. take pride in showing us her neat 
dairy room, and long row of barrels of the sweetest 
lard, besides tallow, and two year old soap; all pre¬ 
pared and put up under her own personal superintend¬ 
ence—and this in Mississippi too—by the wife of a 
planter worm—well I don t know how much money, 
but this I do know, that him and his good wife are 
worth a most comfortable and cheerful disposition that 
makes all happy around them, and if they have not quiet 
consciences, I don’t know who can have them. Unfor¬ 
tunately they have not a child in the world: but I dare 
say they won’t lack heirs. 
Col. D. is satisfied that Spanish tobacco upon such 
rich, warm land as his, could be made a very profitable 
crop, if they could only once “ kick themselves clear 
of the traces” that bind them to the cotton-sacks, 
whether making or losing. And Col. D. assured me 
that at present prices, he did not make 5 per cent on his 
capital. And yet, in addition to what I have mention¬ 
ed, he makes about eight bales to the hand. He puts 
up his cotton in bagging made of his refuse cotton at 
the factory in Natchez. A few years ago he sent a crop 
to market put up in thin boards bound round with ropes 
like common baling. The cotton bagging is much 
handsomer and tighter than hemp, but a little more lia¬ 
ble to be torn by handling; by the constant use of those 
abominable cotton hooks, which open great rents in the 
bags, through which another kind of hooks contrive to 
hook a kind of rent, though they themselves are all 
anti-renters. But if cotton planters understood their 
own interest, they never would use any other than bag¬ 
ging made of cotton that will hardly pay for sending- to 
market. To do this, they must have manufactories, 
right in their midst. 
I have visited noplace in the south where everything 
wore so much the appearance of a well ordered “ No. 
1, Yankee farm,” as does every thing about this place. 
There is but one important thing lacking, and that is a 
complete system of side-hill ditching. 
By way of contrast to the manner of stabling horses 
last described, I annex a description of Col. Dunbar’s 
carriage house and stable, that will suit other latitudes. 
B 
A 
C 
E 
H 
F 
G 
1 | 1 | 1 | 
I | ! 1 | 1 | 1 | I | I 
K j K j K j 
1 ! ! | ■ 
K | K | K J K j K | K | K 
. J 
Carnage House and Stable — Fig■ 12. 
