392 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



ticed by a northern traveller, upon all southern railroads, 

 is the difference in the appearance of the depots and more 

 particularly the way stations. However, it is only the 

 natural difference between a white man and a negro. The 

 difference between neatness and thriftiness, filth and 

 dilapidation. It is a question of some importance in an 

 agricultural point of view, what will be done or, if any- 

 thing can be done, to reclaim all the waste lands that we 

 see along this road, lying idle and unproductive, and in 

 a great degree uninhabited and uninhabitable, on account 

 of its malarious character. 



In coming up from Charleston to Akin, we see nothing 

 that looks like a hill ; and upon the Columbia branch, none 

 till near the Congaree, and only small patches of clear- 

 ing, and but two or three unimportant towns. The mass 

 of the land, in the lower part of the state, is in the for- 

 rest, some of it thin sandy upland and some rich swamp 

 that, if once drained, would be very productive in cotton, 

 corn, potatoes, or rice. 



The greatest drawback to improvement is the disposi- 

 tion of many persons to buy up all the land that joins 

 them; as for example, my friend Major Felder,^ of 

 Orangeburg, who boasts of owning fifty thousand acres. 

 For what purpose he desires to accumulate such a vast 

 tract of unproductive land, is past my comprehension — 

 certainly not for his children — and I don't believe he will 

 live long enough to saw up all the timber in his half 

 dozen sawmills. Besides the unhealthiness, however, of 

 a large portion of those lands, between Charleston and 

 Akin, there is another thing to prevent their settlement 

 and improvement by individuals. The country is so fiat 

 that it requires some great and general plan of draining, 

 to free it from the surface water, in the first place, and 

 this will not be undertaken so long as labor can be more 



' Probably John Myers Felder, born Orangeburg District, South 

 Carolina, July 7, 1782; died September 1, 1851. Major of militia 

 in War of 1812. State legislator and Congressman. Engaged in 

 agricultural pursuits and in the lumber business. Biographical 

 Directory of the American Congress, 960. 



