462 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



half of which is to fence against other folks' cattle in- 

 stead of his own; and this fence has all to be renewed 

 once in seven years, as in this humid climate that period 

 is the length of durability of rails. What an enormous 

 tax! And with the enormous waste of timber going on, 

 how long will it be before all the rail timber is exhausted? 

 What is to be done then? What is to be substituted? 

 It is time this matter was thought of even amid the 

 forests of Mississippi. There is another matter that 

 ought to be thought of too by every cotton planter. What 

 are they going to do when the supply of basket timber 

 is exhausted, as it already is in some parts of the state? 

 Will they send to the north for these indispensable 

 articles? Well, so be it. We are ready to furnish you, 

 and we will soon learn that you cannot pick cotton with- 

 out baskets. I advise you to commence immediately the 

 cultivation of Ozier Willow. It will grow upon all your 

 creek banks, and it will make a more handsome and 

 valuable fringe than many that I have seen in the middle 

 of your fields. There is another article that grows al- 

 most spontaneously upon some of the rich bottoms and 

 waste corners of your plantations, that would bring 

 money if sent to market; and that is red pepper, the 

 grinding of which you can do in your own mills, and 

 pack in your empty flower barrels — try it. You can get 

 the willow from New-York; I don't know in particular 

 from where, but I will venture to name my friend, 

 Charles Downing, nurseryman, Newburgh, whose honesty 

 I have great faith in. 



And begin in time to husband your resources for fenc- 

 ing. Don't pursue a course that I witnessed a few days 

 ago. Deadening good rail trees within the proposed 

 enclosure to stand and rot down, and going outside among 

 the standing timber and cutting down the trees for 

 rails, and for the reason that by so doing it saved the 

 trouble of clearing up the tops within the field — those out- 

 side could lay undisturbed to rot. 



Leaving Captain Eggleston on the 18th, the first plan- 



