Arkansas true Democrat., 1860-04-14
Lumber and Hav.


 the nominees of its party.
 Lumber and Hay.
 A friend handed us one of the Memphis papers, of late date, and pointed to paragraph, under the head of river news, in which it was stated that . steamboat from St. Louis was bound up the Arkansas river, with load of lumber and Aay. The idea of bringing these things to this river, seemed to him like carrying coal to Newcastle
 Above this point vast pineries exist, ex- tending for miles, and often reaching to the border of the river. Steam saw mills are to be seen on the river and many others are to be found in almost every county back from it. Nearly all the pine lands are, what is called, vacant" in other words, are the lands of the United States. The trees cost nothing, or if a conscientious man wishes to avoid trespass on the pub lie domain, he can enter land, trees and all at the government prices, ranging from twelve and half cents an acre to ten times that sum- Pine Humber sells at the mills above for 310 thousand feet. If carried any distance the cost of carriage must be added to this. We presume by the time it is rafed or otherwise brought to the prin cipal points on the river, it will cost SIS thousand feet But even at this rate, we do not believe lumber can be brought here from St. Louis or any other point out of the State and sold at profit. We have the trees costing little or nothing; we have, or can have mills, with machinery of the most improved kind, and certainly should be able to undersel all foreign competitors.
 The western country is naturally one of the finest grass countries in the world. In the vicinity of Fort Smith and other cities the prairies are moved and the hay pre- served The natural grasses are succulent and nutritve. There is scarcely hill or mountain that might not be pastured to its summit With improved grasses, timothy, blue top, honey blade and others, the level lands might be formed into splendid mead ows yielding tons of hay which might be sold readily. It is more easily baled than cotton, is as easily handled and sells as rapidly and always for cash Thousands upon thousands of tons of wild grass yearly die on our praires and plains, that if now ed, baled and sent to market would sell readily. Of course, the wild grasses do not commend as high a price, or is the yield so great 2, the cultivated grasses.
 Our short winters, the habit of feeding stock on corn and fodder of the blades of the corn, and the fact that cattle ,ubsist in the bottoms during an ordinary winter with out attention, has caused our people to neglect meadows and pasture grounds. As the country fills up, as the bottom lands are fenced in and cattle excluded, farmers will see the necessity of raising grasses for the support of stock.
 Our friend was surprised at lumber and hay being brought here, yet he IS planter who, with over a hundred negroes and sew eral thousand acres of land, buys his corn his wheat and his oats every year. He raises cotton, sells that and buys his pro- vender. If he would raise one third less cotton, with a supply of corn, oats and other grains, he would net more at the end of the year. But then his account with his commission merchant would be smaller- He would appear to dwinde down to a planter of two or three hundred bales. .- There is a great pride Tn being known as Q heavy cotton planter, in sending large number of bales, so that each man raises cotton and raises nothing else So n the western country They raise huge crops of corn and let the meadow lands lie untouched. A farmer will have thousand bushels of corn and not q wisp of hay.
 These things will all come right in few years. All over the country farmers are enclosing grass lot, and laying off meadows. Hay will be an export and heavy one ere long.
 The rapid building up of our cities and country is one reason why lumber IS so high and so scarce, notwithstanding the great number of mills in operation. Rafts ale carried down all our streams, usually of logs, but sometimes of sawn lumber.- There is enough wood in Arkansas, of oak, cypress, pine, hickory, elm and other kinds to supply the wants of the cities south of us for years to come.