140 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



wheat. Hence the efficacy of plaster of Paris and 

 crushed hones as manures. 



7. If lime or its sulphate be empioj'ed as the 

 means of raising- ^reen crops, which have but 

 small exhaustini^ powers, the iertility of a soil 

 may be maintained by ploughing them in, or in- 

 creased by using them to feed cattle whose ma- 

 nure is applied to the ground. 



ON THE RAIT^ ROADS OF N^ORTII CAROLINA, 

 AKD OF THE SOUTH GEAERALLY. 



Rakigh, May 25, 1836. 

 To tliG Editor of the Fanners' Kegistcr. 



Your friend G. L. C. may he surprised to see 

 me still alive. I attribute my miraculous escape 

 to the fact that his first shaft has never reached 

 me. He alludes to a '' partial reply" which he 

 had before made. This communication must have 

 been sent to some other paper, or it must have 

 been lost on its way to your's. I will hope the 

 last, as I am not so magnanimous as to wish, with 

 Dogberry, to see myself "writ down an ass;" 

 and, perhaps, G. 1j. C. may spare me a repetition, 

 when he sees how penitential I am under thecas- 

 tigation already received. If this reply has ap- 

 peared in the columns of some other paper, I must 

 apologize (or not having seen it, by mentioning 

 that the nature of my occupation prevents me 

 from reading newspapers with any regularity.* 



It is evident that G. L. C. has misconceived me 

 entirely. I attempted to offer him some friendly 

 advice, and he meeis me Vv'ith the front of Mars. 

 I wished to admonish him of some of his ibibles, 

 and to persuade him to examine a little more 

 closely into the subjects upon which he writes. 

 I hinted, as gently as possible, that he gave his 

 thoughts too wide a range, and thus subjected 

 himself to tlie imputation of being desultory. I 

 looked, Mr. Editor, to receive some thank's for my 

 ^ood advice, and to witness signs of improvement. 

 Imagine my disappointment, then, when I found 

 my advice construed into an attack ; and I saw 

 your correspondent unchanged in his dictatorial 

 manner of settling questions, and holding fist to 

 his old habit of touching upon every thing at the 

 same time. 



Mark the forcible style of reasoning. To prove 

 that he was right in the plans which he advo- 

 cates, he says, " It is now tully seventeen years 

 since I imbibed the idea of the possibility of 

 making the Chesapeake the great mart of Amer- 

 ican commerce, and Norfolk, the great gate 

 through which it must pass." * * * 



* * G. L. C. imbibed an idea, seventeen 

 years ago — and, therefore, he must be excused for 

 considering it perfectly orthodox, and for looking 

 upon every thing which opposes it as founded in 

 "local interests, local prejudices, and local par- 

 tialities." 



It is proper to state, in explanation to both our cor- 

 respondents, tliat no previous reply of G, L. C. was 

 received ; and that we had supposed, honi the manner 

 in which it was referred toby liiin, that some such pre- 

 vious piece had been inserted in some other publica- 

 tion. Ed. 



" O wad some pow'r, the giftie gie u?, 

 Toseeoursels asithers see us." 



We shall see, presently, whether G. L. C. has 

 any of these local interests, prejudices, and par- 

 tialities. I will not dwell on his fear of the " Empire 

 State,"nor onhisideaof bringingthe whole Amer- 

 ican commerce through Chesapeake Bay, lc)r the 

 good and valid reason that he thought of it seven- 

 teen years ago. I will take, lor my purpose, an 

 opinion clearly -expressed in the former communi- 

 cation to the Farmer's Register, and which I 

 understand G. L. C. as alluding to in the " trust" 

 appended to his congratulations on the success of 

 the subscription to tlie Raleigh and Gaston road. 

 I mean the notion of ^Ve^don being the only place' 

 on the Roanoke wdiere a road li'om Raleigh should 

 termmate. Can any one shov/ me a more rank 

 local prejudice ? I can give reason upon reason, to 

 prove that this is a prejudice, i(>undedin no just 

 reasoning. But permit me to return to the text. 

 G. L. C. laughs at my speaking of " those who 

 have long and zealously labored to promote a fa- 

 vorite scheme," (speaking of the Raleigh and 

 Gaston Rail road ;) and he taunts me with the 

 silence of the Raleigh papers in time past. Now, 

 your correspondent lias yet to learn that there is 

 a zeal which does not display itself in newspaper 

 essays, and county meetings. I ask no stronger 

 proof of the previous existence of such a zeal, than 

 the success of the project when it was brought 

 before the public. 



But G. L. C. must not suppose that my ideas 

 are confhied between the Roanoke and Raleigh. 

 When I speak of a favorite scheme, I regard 

 the Raleigh and Gaston road as a very small hnk 

 in a vast chain of public works, extending from 

 the northern to the southern extremity of our 

 Union — a chain of conmiunication passing through 

 the interior of the country, and connecting all the 

 most important cities and towns of our land. 

 When I speak of those who have long and zeal- 

 ously labored to protnote this scheme, I speak of 

 all tiie distinguished men, as well as the humble 

 unknown, throughout our country, who have, at 

 any time, contributed to this noble and gigantic 

 scheme. I would ask G. L. C. if even his pen 

 can stop the march of this work. Already has 

 this line been completed, (with the exception of a 

 few short gaps, which will soon be filled up,) from 

 the city of Boston to Gaston, on the Roanoke. 

 And two years will scarcely elapse before this line 

 is extended to Raleigh. Nor do we propose to 

 stop here, nor even at the Pee Dee, which our 

 fiiend " trusts" we will reach. No one, who has 

 waiched the course of events, can doubt, for a mo- 

 ment, that the scheme will reach its original desti- 

 nation. It there has been a scarcity of newspa- 

 per flourishes, about this scheme, it can scarcely 

 be said there has been "apathy" in prosecutinnj 

 the work. Will G. L. C. take his map, and 

 stretch a silk thread from Boston to Washing- 

 ton City, fi'om Washington City to Petersburg, 

 ii-om Petersburg to Raleigh, and fi'om Raleigh, 

 through Cohind)ia, southwards I I may salely- 

 leave him to tbilow out the thoughts which will 

 be suggested by this experiment. I will aid him 

 with one remark. Does Gaston appear to be too 

 high up the Iloanoke for a rail road between Pe- 

 tersburu' and Raleigh to cross that river at ? Or, 

 does Weldon seem to be nearer the proper point_? 



J 



