BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2/ 



task. The overseer on Belvidere plantation pon- 

 dered on this, and desirous of doing the community 

 a service, sent an invitation to the gentlemen of 

 Pineville to visit Belvidere to see his packer meas- 

 ure off three bags, make and pack them to hold 

 three hundred and six pounds each, in time for 

 them to return to Pineville in seasonable time, — and 

 that they should be provided with as good a dinner 

 as he could furnish. Strange to say, this invitation 

 was not taken in good part by all. Mr. John 

 Palmer alone accepted the call and determined to 

 attend. On the appointed day he went up and 

 witnessed the performance of the promise. On 

 leaving one hour and a half before sunset, the 

 third bag had only to be headed, and by seven 

 o'clock the same evening the announcement was 

 made to the gentlemen in Pineville. Thirty years 

 after, I knew the same packer execute the same 

 task, with ease to himself, when required. 



At the time when planters relied altogether upon 

 the swamp lands for their incomes, they were occa- 

 sionally disappointed by the recurrence of freshets. 

 To the most enterprising it occurred that embank- 

 ments would effect some security, particularly 

 against what would be called small rises. The 

 Sinklers, Peter and James, took the lead in this, 

 and to a degree were renumerated for their labor ; 

 but the water surrounding their banks on all four 

 sides allowed no possibility of getting off what 



