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Wed, 30 Apr 1997 08:59:51 -0400 |
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Hi, this is Linda Derry from Alabama with a belated reply to Sharyn
Woodcock's April 21, 1997 inquiry about anyone coming "across [camels]
being used in a similar way elsewhere. eg. carrying the ores to the nearest
railhead." I have some info. from the cotton belt in Alabama, USA.
Of course its not about carrying ores. In 1859 a Mr. Benj. M. Woolsey
imported camels and a trainer from the Canary islands. He intended them to
pull wagons and prairie turning plows. Woolsey reported that he: "sent
twelve bushes of corn to Selma to be ground, on the same camel. The corn
was placed upon a saddle weighing 170 lbs, and the camel driver 160 lbs.,
making a burthen of 1,002 lbs - a very good mill wagon and team, I think."
Mr. Woolsey also wrote that "I am not interested in the sale of them except
as a planter, desirous of checking the immense draught upon our cotton for
mules, by substituting a procreating animal of more power and greater
longevity, and which requires less expensive food to keep in working
condition." He put ten camels in an old field where a mule would starve
and found them "luxuriating upon weeds, briars and shrubbery." He also
hoped that they could be taught to eat cottonseed.
I doubt if Mr. Woolsey's camels were very successfull, afterall there no
camels in the county today --- but then there are few mules either! I do
know that according to the editor of the Cahawba paper (Cahawba being the
town site I'm working on) camel rides were a real big hit that year (1859)
in town.
Linda Derry
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