The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1860-07-11
Our Trip to Sumter.

In company with several delegates to the
Sumter Railroad Convention. we started
from this place for Sumter at il O'Clock. u.
NJ, on Monday evening, I'd July. We pre-
ierrcd 10 make the trip rs lar as Camden
by nIght time, rather than encounter the
excessive heat Of the day. The drive by
moonlight was pleasant compared with
what ride in The sun would have been,
and o'clock, A. NJ. found us nj the Man
sitn House, Camden, looking little worse
for the want of sleep perhaps, but upon
the whole feeling that We had acted wise.
iy in starting at what would seem 10 be an
unreasonable hour. A light shower had
fallen an hour or two earlier in the evening
ana the loads were in fae condition for dri
wing as far as the rain extended which YVES
As low down ms the place designated on the
old Maps as "Sam CastOn's Tavern" A
hundred yards below the latter plnce we
turned to the right, following what is known
rs the Beaver Creek road, our par,y pre-
ferrng that because less sandy Than the
main road.
The crops along the whole Yay, and in
fact IN every section through ~hch we pass
ed to Sumter, seemed TO be suffering vastly
from tbs drought and hot sun. 1t is be.
lIeved that the corn crop, which few weeks
ago was so promising, must now necessa
rlly be light one. Cotton is generally
small and unpiomising in its appearance
The Beaver Creek section of country, once
among The best If not the very best cotton
producing region in the State is now com.
paratively waste; thousands of acres have
been thrown out, and, cut up as the hill
sides are with gullies, centuries must elapse
before they cnn, if ever, b. restored 10 their
original fertility. The sight Of such whole
saIe devastation is anything else than pleas
ant; il forces upon us the conviction that
we have committed deep crime against
nature; crime which n reiributive Justice
will require to be expiatcd; if not by us, by
the generations which will succeed US
When the science of Agriculture will have
been properly recognized by the world, tie
term worn out land" now Sc common, will
become obsolete
In the immediate vicinity of the "Bearer
Creek and white Oak" streams, the conn
try is mountainous in the extreme. Some
of our party estimated the cost of grading Q
n railroad through it at $4,000 per mile.
We found the people of Camden greatly
concerned upon the subject Of railroad con
nectons with Lancaster and the up.country.
They had professedly been making the
most strenuous exertions, with the view OF
making Lancaster such a proposition as
would induce her 10 pause before closing
with any other section their purpose was
concilatory, and they hoped TO offer such
terms az would convince Lancaster of their
sincerity, dispel old prejddices and make it
her interest TO nnite with Camden, " hen lo!
al our meeting on Both June, an official pro-
position was announced rs ignoble in
Camden to make as il would have been bn.
initiating IN Lancaster 10 accept Strange
as ii may seem, We have been Authoritative
ly assured that This proposition did not
come from the peopIeof 'Canden Chat il
was in fact the proposition of few indi
siduals that nineteen twentieths of the
stock subscribed was not represented In ii,