Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-08-22
A LOVER OF NATURE.
CORRESPONDENCE.

Orion COUNTY, Tenn, Aug. 10, 1857.
Editor Of Nashville Union and American:
If evidence of conclusive character was ever
furnished to prove want of ssgseity among our
capitalists who reported to have good share of
that great element of success, the condition and
character of the lands in this county now furnish
that evidence. Five short years ago men of wealth
refused to give five dollars per acre for these lands
Some were actually sold for three dollars. Here is
q county bordering on the Mississippi, one of the
most fertile in the State and proved to be one
of the heathiest within borders, that has been
passed over for 80 years by families moving west
ward in search of new home. Few ever seemed
to think of purchasing land here, though offered at
incredibly low prices. Here is the river always
navigable and never impeded by ice, ready to bear
of the produce of the country to the same market
sought by the products of your old middle portion
of the State. This county is more intimately and
more directly allied to New Orleans, our great en-
porium, than any of your middle counties, and yet
this is the last county in the State populated But
the chance of getting good plantation for chunk
of horse is gone forever from Obion. You will
hear of fifty dollars per acre instead of fve All
these lands about to be appreciated The truth
is, they are more intrinsically valuable than any
lands in Middle Tennessee. They are worth more
for farming purposes. There is producing
land in this than in any of the middle counties The
water is purer, for it has lime mineral in it.
We bring the well to the hOuse-you carry the house
to the spring. A few of your monied men have
bought farms here recently at $50 per acre.
question whether any more could be bought on
equally favorable terms. There is a great deal of
enterprise and industry here, and we begin to think
we may well continue to own and cultivate these
lands to sell them to strangers and seek strange
homes in the far west ourselves. We want only such
purchasers as will replace the old occupants and
cultivate the lands. hold it also to be exceeding
ly bad policy for the present owners to sell their
lands in this county at present; for before they
could sell but and ramble over THE world until they
found new homes and settled them, the rise in the
value of their old possessions in 0bion would exceed
in amount all their fancied gains, however lucky
they might be-to say Lothing of time lost and the
harrassing incident to the removal of family
to a new country. have noticed, however, that few
people are so wise as ''to let well enough alone"
They may pass from good to better. From this they
seek still BETTER and long as the mind can con-
ceive better condition, they overlook the present
good and reach forward to some better good-never
satisfied. Such is man! No person who has lived
in this county one year. and felt all its advantages
practically would ever consent to return to any mid
die county of the State if that was his former resi-
dence. But if he consented to leave this part Of the
country at ALL it would be in the hope of some bet
ter good than any he has yet tasted but simply
dreamed Of We are here in the centre of country
of unsurpassed fertility-in the centre of the best
market facilities in the world radiating in all direc-
in winter and in summer, and it
seems to me to be about as near to the commercial
centre of the world one ever get who desires
to be an agricultural producer.
sat down to write you q letter on very different
topic, but my pen took another chute, and thought
would let it 60, like CrOcketts boat that got stove
I saw him in Memphis Immediately after his mis-
hap, and asked him why he did not keep his boat in
The channel? He replied that the craft was Gurus
10 prospect that chute and he thought he'd let the
Id critter go ahead and see what she'd make |
on't ...- v