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Show • 120 EMIGRANT,S GUIDE. Fairchild's and St. Catherine creeks, bound the pine ridge to the north, east, and south, and to the west is the Mississippi bottoms. We have not been in[! rmed, that the pine tree <my where else ap .. proaches so near the margin of the Mississippi river as at Pine ridge. The timber trees enumerated in the annexed list are found intermingled along the bluffs, upon the creek bottoms, and in fact upon every kind of laQd to be met with in the country. The under growth is composed of tliffereut kinds of vines and shrubs ; common wiiJ gr::~.pe, mu::cadine , dogwood , spice wood, papaw, morns scabra (Spanish mulberry,) and brakes of the arundo gigantea , (great cane.) This vege table bas become comparatively rare, being m great part destroyed by fire and domestic animals. Upon land \bus richly clad by nature, has arisen the fine farms that now pour wealth into the lap of their owners. Cotton is at this time, anJ perhaps will ever remain the staple of this country. Tobacco and indigo h::~ve both been cultivated, and the former nearly, and the latter entirely abandoned by the planters. Maize, or India~ corn, sweet potatoe~, Irish potatoes, and a great variety of other vegetables, arc cul ivated successfully. The apple, peach, fig, and plum, are the most common fruit ; the peach anJ fig are most easily produced. As in Louisiana, the summer showers do much injury to fruit along the east margin of the Mi.5sissi ppi. In fact, the general observations made on the fruits of Louisiana, are applicable to those of the state of Miasissippi, with exception of the orange, and other fruits of the same family. The facility with which the apple iTil every state of preservation can b , brought down the Mississippi, will operate again.5t any great attention "being paid to its production in places where it is evidently ou of its congen ial dime. The production of small grain, wheat, rye, oats, and barley, will never become objects of culture where cotton can be made at the rate of 300lbs. to the acre, at a price of ~0 cents . or more per ib. The production of cottcm on more than two-thiros of the land if1cluded in the section of "~hich we are nmv treating, will rath er exceed than fall short of the quantity we have already stated. More than ~OOOibs. in the seed, or above 500Jbs. clean cotton, has been taken fr0m an acre in many instances that have come und er our knowledge. Where flour can be procured at 10 dollars per barrel, or less, it will be purchased rather than made by a people who are in the habit of realizing such very consioera~l; ernolume~t f~om c?tton. The reciprocal advantages possessed by the pe.op.le. wh.o mha~ 1t the .northern and southern regions watered by the Mt5SIS~ Ippl, are m nothmg more real than in the faci]ity with which the latter can be su plied by the former with bread stuff. meat and o tlJ er artt.c 1 .e s o f /.P od. ' ' ' In poiFlt of salubrity, if the parts adjacen to the Mississippi river are excepted, the country from the Yazoo to the 31° N. lat. is very favourably situatrd. . The surf:1ce is dry t\nd waving. little or no low ~arsh:y land exists ; and .the spring and well water excellent. The mhab.Itants are found to enJOY as much health as upon any spot n earth, m the same parallel of lat. \ EMIGRAN'l''S GUIDE; 12 1 f he seasons are agreeaule, the ::wtumn and winter pvrticularly~ l), t( little of tl1e ri i:!,ours of a northern wiuter is experienced. We koow no pl ace, wh;r<: from Septen1bPr io April the w~ather i.s so uni iomdy plea!'ant. 'l'be tmdu !(lting f;;ce of the country prevents the roa d:' from IJecoming uncorr.nwnly diOic1tlt to p3s · <'lfte r heavy rains. Tcaveliirw is ea~y, aud se!Jom long interruptrJ by tloous. Spring is, inuee d, in all places near the Mi ss is:' ippi, south of the thirty-fifth Jetr rec of north latitut!e, less n~ree a ble than winter. The ~ ~ . latter has the milun ess of a north ern autumn; the fornwr, to too much (lf LIH~ heat of a southern sutnmer, auds the inconvenience of frequent ~nd heavy rains. I11 the norr bern and eastern states, there is no season answPring correctly to the winter of Gf'or(r ia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Missis- • 0 sippi. T'he air in ~be months of November, December, January, February, and March, ill the latkr placP.s, is generally mild. Summer, anJ the early part of autumn, arc the seasons when health be- . . comes fJrecanous. Perhaps after all tbat medical men have said upon the maladies of mankind, and with all tbe multifario~:~s drugs of the apothe· ·ary's shop, that. the road to health is plain and easily trod. In seasu11s of heat, bilious complaints in their V3ried forms; and in seasons of cold and moisture, catarrh, asthma, consumption, anJ phthisic, are tbe scourges of the human race. \..Yhich of those two lists are the most frigbtfuJ, it is difficult to determine; tbe latter is, however, but little. kn,hvn in the United States south of the thirty .fi fth degree of north latitude. Most men with whom we have couversed, who haJ the advantage of residing many year~ near Natchez, and who had previously removed from the northern or eastern state ; and who of course bad g~ined from . experience the means of forming a correct judgment, have almost uniformly decided in favour of a resilience in the former place. It may be replied to this, that views of interest would have much influence in this preference; but a conviction so general upon the minds of men of all profes~ions aud ages, must have a mure solid basis than mere temporary interes t. Jt is found that the human frame is less liable to lingering pain, and that life is more ea~ily supported, where the rigours of winter are bardly known. l.{elieved from much severe labour, it ought rwt to excite surprise that men migrate from a celder to a warmer r"esidence. If the spirit of emigration in . the United States was not checked by the common, though unfounded belief, that southern situations were Jess favourablf' to health than northern, a very gre'at change of local population would take place. As matters and opinions are, the stream of migration is S. W. The inhab it::mts of the New-England states remove· to Obio; those of New-York, New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to Ohio, Judiaoa , and lilinois; those of Maryland anJ Virginja, to TenrH::ssee and Missouri; and those of the Carolinas and Georgia, to Mrs::: i.-sip pi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Many exceptions to til is course Jaily occur, but this is the u~ual eourse; anJ the consequence will be, that the great body of per on~ who daily swell the population of the states of Mi. sissippi and Louisiana, and the territory of Alabama, come from the two .Carolinas and G orgia. JS |
