334 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
NOTES OF TRAVEL in the SOUTHWEST— No. VIII. 
BY SOLON ROBINSON. 
Visit to Warren county — Vicksburgh — Hill-side cultiva¬ 
tion — Orcharding — fyc., fyc. 
Well, dear reader, are you rested? so am I, and so, 
if you please, we will go ahead again. During a rest of 
four days at Log Hall, the residence of Dr. Phillips, I 
have eaten more vegetables than during the four weeks 
that I have been on the road from St. Louis. 
Leaving the examination and description of the Doc¬ 
tor’s plantation till another day, let us mount our horses 
and take a ride over Warren county, and visit the city of 
the “ Walnut Hills,” the far-famed town of Vicksburgh. 
This county is one of several similar ones along the 
Mississippi river, and presents a most singular formation. 
It is called hilly, but I think the word side-hills would 
convey a more correct idea. It seems to me, from care¬ 
ful examination, to have been a deposit of alluvium two 
or three hundred feet deep. At the bottom, coarse 
gravel, then fine, then sand, and then a deposit some ten 
or twelve feet deep, of fine silex, lime and shells; now 
a bed of rich marly loam, above which is the fine 
alumina that was held longest in solution. After this 
deposit had lain long enough to form a stratum of lime¬ 
stone underneath, it was apparently disturbed by an 
earthquake, which left the surface in the most uneven 
condition of any tract of country I have ever seen. I 
saw many side-hills in cultivation lying at an angle of 
45 degrees, and singular as it may appear, although there 
is not a level farm in the county, until the present season, 
side-hill plows have been almost unknown. Those of 
Barnaby & Mooer’s, that I have seen, are entirely too 
large. If they will make a light, one-horse size and 
send them here, they will find a market. The few now 
in use are the tumbling shares. 
If any of my readers are anxious to know how such 
steep hill sides can be cultivated, they must come and 
see—I cannot tell them. There are many farms that do 
not contain a spot of level land large enough to build a 
house upon; but the fertility of the soil is so great and 
so inexhaustible while it remains unwashed away, that 
it ha3 tempted men to overcome difficulties that never 
would have been encountered upon poorer land. Although 
the cultivated hill-sides are much steeper and more nu¬ 
merous than those of Capt. Eggleston, yet I believe the 
same system could be adopted to save this excellent soil 
from utter destruction. Though it does not appear to 
wash away quite so easily as the lighter lands up north, 
yet I find places here gone past all redemption, and 
worthless for every purpose except Bermuda-grass pas¬ 
tures, over which nothing could range but sheep and 
goats. In fact the whole country looks more suitable 
for a sheep range than for anything else, and in ho part 
of the United States could wool be raised to better ad¬ 
vantage. Of the feed for them I shall speak hereafter, 
and as to the deterioration of the wool on account of the 
climate , I have only one word to say, and that is “fudge J” 
If any one chooses to contend for the contrary, I will 
bring witnesses. 
We left the Doctor’s place for our ride on the 25th of 
February, which was so hot that it was very uncomfort¬ 
able. On account of the high water in the Chittaloosa, 
the Indian name for the “ Big Black,” and a much bet¬ 
ter one, to my notion, we had to go a round about way. 
We passed during the day, in our twenty miles ride to 
Vicksburgh, some very good plantations, and as is almost 
universal in the state, all well fenced, and but very few 
good dwellings. The cause, I have heretofore spoken 
of—difficulty of getting lumber—mill streams are among 
the things wanted. 
Vicksburgh is built on the face of a bluff that rises from 
the river 200 or 300 feet high, and which is broken 
into sundry other bluffs and ravines, and these are mul¬ 
tiplied by lesser ones wherever the water can get a 
chance to gully out the soft friable soil. The town con¬ 
tains a very quiet and peaceable set of order-loving in¬ 
habitants notwithstanding the bad name that they got a few 
years ago, by a very summary way of ridding themselves 
of a pack of gamblers, robbers, and murderers. It is a 
place of considerable business, though not half as much 
as it was. The railroad from here to Jackson cuts otf 
a good deal of trade. The town is situated at the bot¬ 
tom of a great bend of the river, and as there is no high 
land on the opposite side, fears have long been enter¬ 
tained that the ever changing stream might make a 
“ cut off” across the narrow part of the bend, and thus 
leave the town “alone in its glory.” Greater changes 
than this have taken place. “ The Walnut Hills ” settle¬ 
ment and fort, near which the present town is built, has an 
ancient and historical name. It was settled by the old 
French explorers. 
About dark we left town with the intention of riding 
out to a friend’s house, about four or five miles—Missis¬ 
sippi miles, and over Mississippi roads, and through, I 
can’t tell how many, Mississippi gates—more than we 
were able to find by negro directions, in a dark night, 
till near midnight. Late as it was, we were met at the 
gate in southern style—a guest never thinking of entering 
the house without this little ceremony. 
Before pushing ourselves off in the morning, we took 
a stroll over the farm, and the greatest curiosity witness¬ 
ed was the possibility of raising a crop upon such a 
wonderful uneven surface. Among the small curiosities 
was an alder tree eight inches in diameter, and a sumach 
fifteen inches in diameter. And I was assured that this 
latter was used abundantly on the Yazoo river for rail 
timber. It grows tall and straight. I visited upon this 
place a heavy cane-brake. If it is thought by any of my 
readers that cane only grows upon low, wetland, let them 
think more correctly. All these hill-sides were origi¬ 
nally covered with an immense growth of cane, now 
fast disappearing from the country. It grows so thick 
upon the ground as to make it difficult to penetrate. I 
was unable to learn the period of time it requires to 
come to maturity, or whether there is any certain Lime. 
A few years ago, I think in 1830, nearly all the cane in 
this part of the country seeded. It then dies. The seed 
bears a slight resemblance to oats, and is about as nutri¬ 
tive. All kinds of stock are fond of young cane, and it 
is by the constant cropping that it is so rapidly destroyed. 
Its want of durability renders it of little value, though 
it is often used to make drying scaffolds for cotton. But 
all scaffolds except folding ones, are nothing but a make¬ 
shift. 
The next place that I shall take notice of, is that ofR. 
Y. Rogers, five miles from Vicksburgh, amt from whom 
we met a most hearty welcome, and enjoyed a pleasant 
night visit. Mr. Rogers is one of the best farmers in (he 
state—that is, upon a small scale, and that he does not raise 
a pound of cotton, affects not the truth of the assertion. 
For reduced by shipwrecks and other misfortunes from 
an abundant competency, to one pair of hands, he did 
not hesitate to use them. I venture to say that with his 
two or three negroes, and market-cart, which carries 
every thing he raises to Vicksburgh market, he makes 
more clear cash than some planters do with 200 or 300 
negroes. It will be recollected that 20 to 30 bushels or 
corn per acre is about the average yield here; but Mr. 
Rogers has succeeded in raising 90 bushels per acre on 
his steep side-hills. He however turns his attention 
chiefly to marketable vegetables, and having but little 
competition, he reaps the benefit. I saw tomatoes in 
his garden to-day, Feb. 27, afoot high. 
Within a short time past, Mr. Rogers has established 
a milk-selling business in town, and reduced the price 
from 40 to 25 cents per gallon. He assured me that it 
used to be sold for two dollars per gallon. After a 
most pleasant visit with this very intelligent gentleman 
and his lovely wife, he accompanied us as far as Col. 
Hebron’s, where we met Dr. Bryant and several other 
gentlemen, and partook of one of the most sumptuous 
dinners that I have yet seen on my journey. And when 
we take into account the long distance between the 
house and kitchen, which Dr. Phillips and myself com¬ 
puted at twenty rods, it appears a still greater wonder 
how such a dinner could have been gotten upon the ta¬ 
ble in one day. This wide separation of the house and 
kitchen, is only an extreme of a very extraordinary- 
fashion. If a similar fashion prevailed in Yankee land, 
we should hear of sundry enactments to “encourage the 
