THE‘CULTIVATOR. 
239 
inches a week till injured by a freeze. The frost dots 
not injure it. 
It is first cut or topped as high as the leaves are dry 
say under the green leaf, and the top is thrown upon the 
ground as useless, or is often winrowed or put up foi 
plants where plants are scarce. The leaves are stripped 
from the cane already topped, and the cane is then cut 
with a cane knife close to the ground, put in carts and 
carried to the mills. ■ The cane is then usually placed 
upon a carrier, made of two endless chains, connected 
to each other by wooden lats, forming a band of from two 
to four feet in width, forming an inclined plane; carrying 
the cane up to the mill, and dropping it in the hopper, 
just as fast as the mill, which is somewhat similar to a 
rolling mill, rolls the cane, and thereby expresses the 
juice, which runs into receivers; and the sooner it is put 
in the kettles, boiled, skimmed, and concentrated to 
syrup or the striking point, the better. 
As it is presumed no one will undertake to make cane 
sugar without first seeing the operation or procuring the 
assistance of one who is experienced, I deem any further 
information unnecessary. 
In conclusion, permit me to say, scarcely any two 
think alike on the subject. 
Respectfully yours, S. Tillotson. 
New River, La., May 23, 1845. 
NOTES OF TRAVEL IN THE SOUTHWEST—No. V- 
BY SOLON ROBINSON. 
On the 4th Feb. Mr. R. crossed the Misssissippi, at the 
“Iron Banks,” marked on the maps as Columbus, Ken¬ 
tucky, built between the river and a hill some 200 feet 
high, composed of clay, lead and iron stone, and up 
which the road leads to an entire change of soil and de¬ 
scription of country from that on the opposite side of the 
river. Here the face of the country is quite broken; 
soil rich clay; timber, beach, sugar, poplar, oaks, hicko¬ 
ry, dog-wood, &c.—all of which indicate a good strong 
soil, and good grass land; yet it is not here, notwith¬ 
standing this is the blue grass state. 
But here is not to be found the same kind of p filia¬ 
tion that is to be found in the blue grass and stock rais¬ 
ing part of Ky. The crops here are corn enough to 
eat and feed through the winter, and tobacco enough to 
sell to buy the few necessaries required. The farms are 
small and houses generally poor, and here as in Missouri, 
always something out of order—stables without doors— 
farms without gates—and whole neighborhoods without 
a good head of cattle, horses, hogs or sheep. There is 
in this part of Ky., an abundance of most excellent land, 
tolerably heavy limbered, that can be had for about $2 
an acre, out of which excellent farms could be made. 
On the 5th, Mr. R. passed into Tennessee—the land 
similar to that described yesterday. The best buildings 
are the towering tobacco houses, in which the crop is 
hung up, as soon as it is cut and wilted, where it hangsj 
to dry, and is then “ fired.” 
The great pest in the cultivation of this crop, are the 
worms that prey upon the leaves, and unless destroyed, 
will destroy the crop. The eggs are deposited by a 
miller almost as large as the humming bird, and very 
much resembling it in movements, upon the upper and 
under side of the tobacco leaves, from the time it is 
about half grown till it matures. These hatch and grow 
“ powerful quick,” and eat “ powerfully,” and have all 
to be picked off by hand; though some have trained 
turkeys to perform a part of the work. In cutting up 
the crop, the laborer seizes the stalk with one hand, and 
splits the stalk nearly to the ground with a stout butcher 
knife, then cuts it off and throws it in piles to wilt, 
which it will do in a few hours, when it is hauled to 
the house and hung across sticks in the upper tier and so 
down till the beams are full; when it is sufficiently dry, 
large fires are built on the ground so as to give as much 
heat as possible with little blaze or smoke. This is a 
dangerous operation and accidents often happen. After 
it is thus cured, it hangs till a wet spell moistens it so 
that it can be handled to strip, or if the room is wanted, 
it is taken down and bulked away to make room for the 
next cutting. The crop avarages about 800 lbs. to the 
acre, worth 2| to 3c., and 2 to 3 acres to a hand. As a 
matter of course when tobacco is the general crop, the 
land is rich; yet generally speaking the people do not 
appear so in this part of the country. 
Although here is nothing but corn and fodder, yet 
stock looks better than in Missouri. Pretty good oxen 
with miserable yokes and bows, are worked upon more 
miserable carts In iact all the farming implements are of 
the roughest kind—even brooms, that indispensible ar¬ 
ticle with a yankee housekeeper, are not to be found, 
unless you are pleased lo denominate that miserable little 
switch of broom straw with which you see a negro 
poking about the floor as though looking for dropped 
pins rather than sweeping, by the name of broom. Per 
haps you may think the floors are all carpeted—on the 
contrary I never saw the first one of these household 
comforts. 
This district is a natural “ eccalobion” of swine, and 
needs no artificial hog hatching machine lo encourage 
the natural increase of pigs. With little feeding and less 
care, particularly when « mast” is plenty, they live, move 
have their being, independent of their owner, but who 
nevertheless is dependent on them for his living. 
The western district of Tennessee contains an abun¬ 
dance of most excellent land, yet covered with the na¬ 
tive growth of forest trees, mostly oak, except upon 
creek bottom land, and occasionally upon small tracts of 
upland; where all the kinds of timber usually found up¬ 
on the richest alluvial land of the west, grow in the 
greatest luxuriance; requiring a great deal of hard toil 
to prepare it for culture, but affording an assurance to 
the husbandman that when once cleared, he will have a 
soil that no judicious system of culture can ever wear 
out. But I am sorry to say that that system however, is 
not pursued generally, as can be seen in the fact after a 
few years of “ skinning,” it becomes too poor to pro¬ 
duce a good crop of tobacco, and therefore the to¬ 
bacco planter is annually making additions of new land 
instead of trying to keep up the fertility of that which 
was first cleared. Tobacco is a very ameliorating crop, 
and leaves the land in fine condition, particularly foi 
wheat; which crop however, is but little cultivated, foi 
two reasons—first, the tobacco crop in « wormy time, 5 - 
requires every pair of hands on the plantation that is 
able to crush a worm, at the very time too when the 
wheat needs an equal amount of care to save it from to¬ 
tal destruction by the weevil, which often destroys the 
crop even after ft has been thrashed and cleaned and 
stored away. And secondly, the tobacco is a more 
certain crop in growth and sale for cash, which is the 
grand desideratum, and which will be sure to prevent 
The cultivator from bestowing any care towards the im¬ 
provement or preservation of his soil in a country where 
new land can be purchased so cheap as it can here, 
when that first cleared will no longer produce his favor- 
^Onthe 7th of Feb., between Dresden and Jackson, 
Tenn., I began to leave the tobacco and enter among 
the cotton plantations, the soil becoming more sandy and 
Ijo-ht, though not showing much more appearance of 
wealth until within the precincts of the latter town, 
which is beautifully situated upon a plain, and contains 
some 1,500 inhabitants, and many handsome mansions; 
a very fine court house and a college and a flourishing 
female school. Leaving this place a short distance from 
the town, we cross the “Forked Deer Creek, 55 over a 
toll bridge and high clay turnpike over a two mile wide 
bottom, subject to overflows, and covered with beech 
timber, which if cleared off and set with grass, I ven- 
to say would prove more profitable land than some of 
the upland. I notice generally that the bottoms are the 
last to be cleared, but time will prove their value. Out 
of this stream, the cotton from this region is sent in 
j flat boats to the Mississippi. Between this town and 
Lagrange, the last town in Tenn., the land grows more 
and more sandy, and when badly cultivated, is very liable 
to wash into gullies; some of which, particularly by the 
road side, becomes perfectly unmanageable. Passed 
fine cotton plantations, and some very good and some I 
think very poor land, covered with small black oak tim- 
