The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-11-18
TRANSPORTATION
Was Difficult Problem for the Old.Time
Planters. =
Martha MoCullooh williams in Atlanta Constitution.


| the ashes, and black coffee, hot and
strong.
Thirty miles was fair days jour
ney. That is, if the road ran m hill
aud down. Pulling across level was
slower and harder work.
But if the wagoners hated the long
levels, the rollers reioiced in them.
Few folks now living know what roll
ler was. The reason OF It's being Wa
the pauci.y Of wagons, and the costli-
ness Of freighting in.them. Men with
more sims than money would not
think Of paying ten dollars hogshead
to get tobacco hauled hundred miles
to tidewater when they could get it
there at no other cost that @ weeks
work. The first thing was to cut
down straight-grained tree, aud hew
from the trunk Of it a slab six inches
thick and as wide as possible. From
this slab rounded bits were cut, in
shape like giant felloss, and accur-
ately fitted around each head Of the
tobacco hogshead. When the hogs
head sA-= sacumherea, vas ;aia vu
it's side, it was in effect big roller,
resting upon thick timber rims. It
remained only to cut hole IN each
head, pin on pair Of shafts %ithtstout
iron pins, driven deep into the hard.
packed tobacco, join the shafts with
cross-bar some little way in front Of
the hogshead, and there you were, ell
ready to hitch up. j
Like the wagoners, the rollere car
ried their own feed. Two uprights
rising from the oross-bar and the
shafts had fodder enough for che hor,
ses tied fast to them, and go arranged
| as to thatch the tags OF eorn or oats
below. Bread sad bacon ready cook:
ed filled wallet the roller carried,
slung over his cnoulder. He walked
beside the staft-horse on the journey
out. +
There was another horse in front,
sometimes even two, hitohed, tandem
wise or abreast, according to number.
Uphill or on levels, the rollers kept
up, with the wagoners. Goings;down
hill they lost out-the wagoners could
let theiz teams run bit at the last
length Of the slope, whereas the roll.
e-s had 70 hold back sedulously, in
fear OF bouncing and jounoing oft
shaft.pin. Thus they commonly foil
mile cs 30 behind In the days jour
pey, bus made up for it by pushing on
after dark to reach wagoner's camp.
In moist, miry weather, neither
wagoning nor rolling was, any fun.
Often the wagon wheels mired, 70 the
hubs. In suoh roadstates the roller
hogshead became 9 visoid earthern
cylinder, needing to be freed Of, its
aocumulations about every hundred
yards. Notwithstanding, the team
sters kept at il, unless sharp quick
freeze came to turn the mud, for the
tiUe being, to stone. Then there was
nothing for. it, but to out loose and
take 'the back traok-seoure that the
loads would stay where they had been
loft until the weather changed.
Once in the market town. the roller
hi haG ihir innings. While the wagoners
were painfully gathering up the back
loads that returned the greatest profit
OF ofTosd.wagoning, and still more pain
fully carrying il, the roller was free
and saucy--able to mount one horse,
lead or drive the others, and go gilpin
home. carrying no greater weight than
the money his tobacco had fetched,
and maybe . few gewgaws For his wo-
Imenkind. Commonly &c got home ID
o third Of the time it had taken him
TO 60. Richmond end Petersburg
knew him we'll hundred OF even
eighty years ago. Across che noun
Gains he was s rarity tobacco! raissrs
there sant their crops 60 New Orleans
Is is e aasst sst 5oat5 before anybody go much
asgd dreamed % . steamboat. ss5
In these days the crucial question
with south country faIm folk swas va not
sp saacsl :. How shall We rinse orop22'''
bnt: ]. = i We DO withit. aftss
titis raised. s. s..
Wheat alone among grains has ever
/ Ibesn s.osth money enongh 20 pay for
j its wagon transport beyond q hundred
i miless Roughly speaking iss takes
tWo bushels of ofrI, tn nav snr IA !, \; ],