184 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



orange). I have no faith in his success, as it naturally 

 grows to a tree. 



To show what a little energy and determination may 

 accomplish, in time of trouble, I wish to state that Mr. 

 Osgood has an orangery the fruit of which he has just 

 sold on the trees for $550, besides making a very large 

 reservation for himself and friends. But to the point. 

 When all the orange trees were winter killed, in 1834-5, 

 Mrs. Osgood, then living, immediately had the present 

 orchard planted, the trees of which, as large as my body, 

 and now 40 feet high, are loaded with most delicious-look- 

 ing fruit. There are also an abundance of lemons here, 

 too. So much for the active energy of woman, and deter- 

 mination to have an orchard, notwithstanding the loss of 

 one set of trees. There are many other places where 

 oranges are plenty, but many others where there are 

 none. But very few persons think of growing them for 

 sale. 



Mr. Osgood once built a railroad through the centre of 

 his plantation, which is long and narrow, to bring the 

 cane to the sugar house ; but, after a few years' trial, he 

 found it did not pay cost, and pulled it all up, except from 

 the sugar house to the river bank, and from the bagasse 

 sheds to the sugar house. Although these railroad ex- 

 periments continue to be tried by persons as sanguine in 

 the belief of their advantage as was Mr. 0., yet I have no 

 doubt, that they will all follow suit. For the use of only 

 six or eight weeks, when timber will not last over six or 

 eight years, and when the cane has to be loaded into carts 

 to be brought to the cars, however pretty the theory, the 

 practice is not so perfect. A plank road would undoubt- 

 edly be better, and that would be expensive, unless the 

 wonderful rapid decay of timber could be prevented. 



Mr. Osgood is one of those who keeps sheep for some- 

 body else to shear. He told me, that, a few years ago, he 

 had no trouble in getting his sheep sheared. Every spring, 

 one of them 'cute Yankees used to come along in his boat 

 and shear the sheep and carry off the wool without any 

 trouble. 



