136 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



they are too shiftless to get a living, they cannot get credit at the 

 stores ; so if they have any property they have to mortgage it, 

 including their tobacco crop to the merchant. Then they can 

 get trusted. The tobacco is brought to market and sold at auc- 

 tion and the merchant takes the pay. 



The roads are so muddy that half a cord of wood is as much 

 as two horses can draw to market. It brings from seventy -five 

 to ninety cents per load. Chickens that, dressed, weigh four 

 pounds, bring twenty-five cents each. Eggs bring twelve cents 

 per dozen, and other things in the same proportion. The land is 

 worn out and will not produce crops unless fertilized. It takes 

 five acres to raise what one ought to raise. Grass will not grow 

 on the plowed land. Some people who keep a cow can raise a 

 patch of clover. The creek lands will raise quite good crops 

 without putting in any manure, one stalk on a hill. 



Salisbury is noted for its prison pen, some call it the stockade. 

 It was where the Union soldiers were put who were taken pris- 

 oners. This prison pen has about five acres of land with a few 

 old wooden buildings on it, not enough to shelter one-half of the 

 prisoners, enclosed with a board fence. It was within this en- 

 closure that eleven thousand seven hundred Union soldiers died 

 from exposure and starvation during the war. Some of them 

 were found with a death-grip on a corn dodger. They were 

 l)uried near by in deep trenches. A granite monument marks 

 the spot. The grounds comprise six acres, and are enclosed with 

 a nice cemented wall five feet high. The Government keeps a 

 man to care for the grounds, and every visitor is asked to regis- 

 ter his name. I found some names from this county and I found 

 seven marble slabs with inscriptions on them lying on the ground 

 above the dead bodies. 



Some fifty odd years ago, a wealthy man died in the city of 

 Philadelphia, by the name of Stephen Girard. He was born in 

 France. When he was a young boy he met with two great losses. 

 His first was the death of his dear mother. Then while he and 

 some boys were having a bonfire, one of the boys threw some wet 

 oyster shells in the fire and a sharp piece of the shell struck 

 Stephen in the eye and he lost the sight of it. So with one eye 



