THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



encouragement to combat in a scheme of inter- 

 nal improvement which would most assuredly 

 increase the present travel and tonnage. The 

 bridge alluded to, has, I understand, averaged 

 annually above ten per cent. Aside from this, 

 eighty miles of the proposed South- Western 

 road, would be, as the common road now is, the 

 highway of a great intercourse between the 

 West and the Northern part of North Carolina 

 and the Southern portion of our own State.— 

 Improvement of some kind through this region 

 I regard as a matter of great agricultural in- 

 terest, and am fearful of having drawn too 

 largely upon your time and patience, but I could 

 not well say less. 



I am pleased with your notice in the Planter 

 of new books and have sent for the "American 

 Shepherd." This is the region of Virginia for 

 wool growing, but our fathers did not commence 

 in that way and we have thereby much to over- 

 come; there are some among us who would 

 walk half a mile out of their way to kick a 

 sheep. 



I have been induced by your communication 

 of the Richmond Plough to desire a friend to 

 examine it, and purchase, if suitable for our 

 heavy soil. The engraving of the mouldboard 

 is good, but such a beam and handles ! 



You recommend the late improvement on 

 common mills for grinding corn, cob and shuck- 

 cost from $75 to $150. In the Planter for April, 

 1844, John Lewis, of Kentucky, recommends a 

 similar improvement, at a cost of $15. 



The improvement noticed from an English 

 paper in the last Planter, in relation to hames 

 and the saddle, is worthy of your continued at- 

 tention ; it promises something available. 



Now for the most interesting and important 

 part of my letter, the bearer will hand you my 

 dollar for the support of the Planter another year. 

 Yours, &c. Agricola. 



Wythe County, Jan. 1, 1846. 



We are every inch a Virginian, and nothing 

 is more dear to us than the interests of this good 

 old Commonwealth. We would rejoice if every 

 farmer in the State had a rail-road running by 

 his barn directly to market, and if it only de- 

 pended upon our will, he should not be without 

 it for twenty-four hours. But how is he to get 

 it? that is the question. He won't contribute 

 a dollar to it himself, because it would be a bad 

 investment; if bad for him, it surely would not 

 be a good one for any body else. It may be 

 that a rail-road from Richmond to the Tennessee 

 line, or from Richmond to the Ohio River, would 

 be a good investment, but if we owned the whole 

 country between this and the Ohio River, and 

 were offered the loan of twelve millions of dol- 

 Vol. VI.-9 



lars on it at six per cent, per annum, as at pre- 

 sent advised, we would not lay it out in making 

 a rail-road ; would you, my cautious friend? — 

 Whether the State ought to make improvements 

 that individuals peculiarly interested in them 

 will not make, may be a matter of doubt ; but 

 that she will not do it, is, We think, pretty satis- 

 factorily settled. Gentlemen talk about patri- 

 otism, and the good of the country, and the nar- 

 row-mindedness which limits our expenditures 

 to our own benefit, but in our attendance upon 

 the debates in the House, this winter, we have 

 been forcibly struck with the fact, that all this 

 patriotism and love of country, seem to be con- 

 fined to those gentlemen interested in the parti- 

 cular improvement. It is really wonderful to 

 see what a flame of patriotism a bill for a road 

 or canal will kindle along the whole line of the 

 proposed improvement. 



We are heartily sick of wailing for the effects 

 of " patriotism," and they who rely upon the 

 patriotism of the East to do any thing for the 

 West, or vice versa, lean upon a broken reed.— - 

 Self-interest in these stirring times is the great 

 main-spring of human action, and all but philc- 

 phers in their closets know it to be so. W T e 

 want to get to our Western friends and we want 

 them to come to us, but we and they must pro- 

 vide the means : depend upon it, nobody is going 

 to help us. 



A prudent man will always look to trie end \ 

 do not be mislead by the brilliant picture of a 

 rail-road with a train of cars steaming it through 

 the country at the rate of twenty miles an hour. 

 If the sparseness of your population, and the 

 natural obstacles will not justify a rail-road at 

 this time, make a MAdamised road ; if the ex- 

 pense of that is greater than the circumstances 

 of the country will justify, make a mud turn- 

 pike, and if you can do no better, improve your 

 county roads. But begin at once; do some- 

 thing ; every hill you grade, every valley you 

 fill up, will bring you additional population, and 

 with it additional facilities to make more expen- 

 sive improvements. The members of the Le- 

 gislature might make the road themselves, in 

 the time they will spend in talking about it. — * 

 We think this one of the greatest faults of our 

 people, for they are ardent and imaginative, they 

 spend their time in poring over magnificent 

 schemes without regard to the circumstances of 

 the country, to the total neglect of more homely, 

 but more practical and useful, objects. It is for 



