11

BALTIMORE, August 11,1866.
OTTO HAHN, Reutlingen,:

DEAR SIR :—My last letter you will have received a fort-
night since. I informed you in it of my late arrival in Bal-
timore and also of my intention to visit, with Commissioner
Cole and Secretary Bogen, on Friday the 10th, the land des-
tined for colonization. We left on that day at six in the
morning, on a steamer, and went down the bay, which is lined
in part with farms on both sides, which offered a magnificent
view.

After a ride of seven hours, we arrived at one in the after-
noon, at the point of destination. Ah ! what an indescriba-
ble view I had when I set my foot on this land. We first
went through a splendid field of Indian corn and then we
came tor the farm house, which is situated near the bay.
These were very respectable Americans. The servants, men
and women, were blacks, but very good natured people they
were. This farmer has 480 acres, but only the fourth
part of it is under cultivation. The corn was very perfect
and the two friends assured me that they never saw it better ;
it stood before me like the giant before David; it was from
ten to eleven feet high and had many cobs; the wheat I could
not see, as it had been harvested fourteen days before. Both
of these grains succeed admirably and furnish excellent
breads; the corn was served on the table in form of a cake.
I hope you will taste it with me very soon. The potatoes
here are very large. They raise here also many sweet pota-
toes, but I have not yet seen this vegetable. I assure you
we could have of everything a double harvest. The people
here are very lazy. One has only to look at their hands—
they have hands like merchant's clerks. The soil is very
prolific. One acre of this land brings 350 bushels of pota-
toes as the farmer cultivates the ground. Onions succeed also
admirably well on this soil; an acre brings over 100 barrels,
worth over $300, as I have seen in a letter written by a far-
mer himself, and the land on which he lives cannot compare
in fertility with that which I have seen and which I think is
so well adapted for civilization. People know nothing here
of meadows nor of manure heaps; the cattle run at large in
the field grouped together; swine I could not count, so many
they were; the same with hens, geese, ducks, &c. People
live like Emperors; everything grows wild.

Horticulture they carry on very badly. Where we visited,
they had a garden of about 1 1/2 acres—there were melons,
tomatoes, some cabbage, and other vegetables. There was no
gardener to be seen. I saw fine fruit upon the different trees,
but the trees were greatly neglected; no saw nor any other
instrument has ever been applied to one; everything wild;
and yet plenty of fruit, and good fruit, too; they have no