In addition to the soils above mentioned, there is a large amount of bottom lands scattered along the numerous rivers, creeks and branches that everywhere traverse this well-watered region. Though rarely of any great width, they are for the most part of great fertility, and are highly valued. In some sections these lands have brought as high as one hundred dollars an acre; the adjacent ridge lands being thrown in at a nominal price, just as the pine barrens are, in the sales of the low country rice lands.

CLIMATE.

The shorter seasons and lower temperatures of the Piedmont region, as compared with those lying immediately south of it, are but slightly attributable to differences of elevation or of latitude, these differences being themselves slight. In so far as it obtains, it results, perhaps, from greater nearness to the mountains, and, as affecting agriculture, still more to the heavier clay soils and subsoils, more retentive of moisture, and, therefore, colder and later in spring than the lighter sandy loams of the lower country. Cotton planting is about ten days later than in the upper pine belt. Cotton blooms are also later, but by a lesser period, and the same is true of the opening and picking season of the plant; showing that, with a later start, it grows faster, passing more rapidly through its various stages to maturity. This region, however, does not seem to be much affected by that variableness of temperature common to localities in proximity to mountain ridges. This is shown by the singular exemption of certain localities here from the injurious effects of late spring frosts. Thus, on Rich Hill, in Pacolet township, Spartanburg, a ridge six miles broad, between the Pacolet and Fair Forest rivers, fruit has been injured by late frosts but once in forty years. Localities in Union also enjoy this immunity in nearly the same degree. In the absence of other records, some idea of the temperature may be formed by observations on the temperatures of springs, assuming that this temperature approximates the annual mean. Lieber states, as the result of a number of observations, that the springs of the Alpine region have a temperature of 55° to 58° Fahrenheit; those on a line passing through the centre of the Piedmont region, one of 58° to 61.5° Fahr., and below this line, one of 61.5° to 66° Fahr. The only accessible records of rainfall are those published by the Smithsonian Institution, May, 1881. They give an average annual rainfall in this region of 52.34 inches, varying from 44.05 inches to 60.12 inches. This gives a greater annual rainfall for this region than for those south of it, and places it, in this regard, next to the areas of greatest annual precipitation in the United States. The spring rains vary from

twelve inches to fifteen inches, and in this regard it holds the same relations as in the former to the regions south of it and to the United States. The summer rains are ten inches to fourteen inches less than in the regions south of it, and third or midway between the areas of greatest and of least summer precipitation in the United States. The autumn rains are eight inches to ten inches, and in the counties east of Broad river, they are ten inches to twelve inches, being about the same as in the region to the south, and midway between the areas of greatest and least autumn precipitation in the United States. The winter rains are ten inches to fourteen inches, something more than in the lower country, and a little above midway between the areas of greatest and of least winter precipitation in the United States. In the whole year, and in each season of the year, the rainfall is less than in the Alpine region north of it. As suggesting a possible connection between meteorological conditions and the interior of the earth's crust, it may be mentioned that it has been thought that the synclinal axis running northeast, near Allston, on the Greenville railroad, has been, during some years past, a line of demarkation between areas suffering from drought to the south of it, and areas having seasonable rains to the north of it. The first occupying surface under which the rocks dip northwest, and the latter one under which they they dip southeast. Along this same line, during the months of drought, tremors were observed and ascribed to slight shocks of earthquake.

In point of healthfulness, this region leaves little to be desired. When first settled, the country was entirely free from all malarial influences. Subsequently, during the period when the first clearing of the forest was in active progress, the hitherto clean-bordered channels of the streams became obstructed, in part with fallen timber and brush from the clearings, and in part by the washings of the hill sides, under the injudicious use of the plow. These washings occurred to such an extent as to alter the original level of the surface, and to pile the dirt up around the trees in the bottoms until they were killed. Such operations were attended with the prevalence of malarial fevers. Later, the uplands having been cleared and partly exhausted, attention was directed to the drainage and reclaiming of the low grounds for agricultural purposes, and the healthfulness of the locality was restored. It has thus happened that, with the extension of the settlements, a belt of malarial influences has moved forward with them, vanishing below and advancing above, until it reached the wooded slopes of the mountains before disappearing.

GROWTH.

Remarkable changes have occurred in the growth of the upper country since its settlement, during the middle and earlier part of the 18th century. The "long-drawn, beautiful valleys and glorious highlands," spoken of by Lord Cornwallis, were then interspersed with "forests, prairies, and vast brakes of cane, the latter often stretching in unbroken lines of evergreen for hundreds of miles" (Logan). On the highlands, the oak, hickory and chestnut were of large growth, standing so wide apart that a buffalo or a deer could be seen by the pioneer hunters for a long distance. There was no underbrush, and the woodlands were carpeted with grass and the wild pea vine, the latter growing as high as a horse's back. The cane growth was the standard by which the early settlers estimated the value of the land. If it grew only to the height of a man's head, the land was esteemed ordinary; but a growth of twenty or thirty feet indicated the highest fertility. This cane growth not only filled the bottoms, but extended up the slopes to the tops of the highest hills. Thus it was designed to place the first house built on the present site of the town of Abbeville, on the summit of the hill; but afterwards, when the tall cane that covered the whole place was cleared away, an error of more than fifty yards was discovered. The Trappean soils around Ninety-Six, the "flat woods" of Abbeville, the "meadow woods," Union, and the blackjack lands of York and Chester were prairies, with no growth of trees, but covered, for the most part, with maiden cane. Upper Carolina was then not inferior to any portion of the great West as a grazing country. Buffalo and deer in great numbers roamed through these luxuriant pastures. Henry Foster, a pioneer settler on the, Saluda, in Edgefield, counted one hundred buffalo grazing at one time on a single acre of ground in Abbeville. The original forest has disappeared almost altogether, and has been replaced by younger oaks of small growth, by underbrush, and by the loblolly pines of the abandoned fields. The cane has gone likewise. The wild pea vine is no longer known, though since the stock has been penned, under the new fence law, a plant supposed to be it has appeared in the open woodlands, with several other grasses not observed before. The prairies have become covered with a growth of heavy bodied post oak and blackjack; the latter, in turn, has now given place to the cedar in Chester. The chestnut has been dying out for fifty years. In some localities where it once flourished, it has entirely gone, and in others, the large dead stems and stumps are the only vestige of this valuable and stately tree. The chinquapin is also sickening and dying, and the chestnut oak likewise. During some years past, somewhat

similar symptoms of disease have appeared in the red and black oak, and fears on this account have been entertained. The distinctive growth of the region is the short leaf pine, with a large variety of oaks and hickories. On the water courses, willow, beech, birch, black walnut, ash, poplar and gum abound. In sections of Laurens the long leaf, formerly unknown in this section, has, within the last ten years, appeared among the old field pines. The sycamore sometimes attains a great size, one in York being twenty-eight feet in girth. The tulip tree, also, is often very large.. The sugar maple is found, and another maple of larger growth and yielding a superior sugar, both as to quantity and quality, is known in Lancaster, under the name of the sugar tree (Mills).

PRODUCTIONS.

The skins and furs of wild animals were the earliest products which the upper country gave to commerce. About the middle of the 18th century "the cowpen keepers" and the "cow drivers," led thither by the representations of the trappers, hunters and Indian traders, built their cabins among these pastures, and made large enclosures, into which their numerous herds were driven for marking, handling, &c. The business was a large one, and numbers of neat cattle, were driven annually to the markets of Charleston, Philadelphia and New York. Horse raising, also, was largely engaged in, and so highly were the qualities of the Carolina horse of that early day esteemed, that a statute of the provincial Legislatures forbids the introduction of the inferior horses of Virginia and other northern plantations. Around the "cowpens" of the stock drivers the agricultural settlers appeared. Their crops of wheat and Indian corn formed, for many years, a considerable item of export from the province. Hemp, particularly between the Broad and Saluda rivers, was largely cultivated, and Dr. Brahm says it was the finest and most durable grown anywhere in the world for the cordage of vessels. The cultivation of tobacco was engaged in, but was restricted by the difficulty of bringing so bulky an article to market in the then condition of the country roads. It was packed in casks, trunnions fastened to each head, shafts attached, and drawn by a horse several days journey to market, as a large roller. Silk was grown, and the vine successfully cultivated by the early settlers of New Bordeaux, in Abbeville. It is noteworthy that, within the last few years, since the French vineyards have suffered from the phyloxera, besides the scuppernong roots, hundreds of thousands of cuttings of the Warren grape, natives here, have been ordered from France, and being planted there they have yielded a wine of excellent quality. In 1801, Col. Hill, of York, made forty-eight tons of red clover on eighteen

acres of land, although Governor Drayton says the season was a very dry one. For several years past Governor Hagood has obtained two cuttings a year of excellent hay from fifty acres, and more, that he set out in Bermuda grass, on the Saluda river bottoms. The yield is two to four tons per acre. Mr. Doty, a Kentuckian, who owns a blue-grass farm in that State, but who is now living at Winnsboro, says, that taking the value of the land into account, he makes his forage cheaper on the worn out hills of Fairfield than he does on the famous blue-grass lands of his native State. His crops are oats and German millet. The latter he estimates that he houses at a cost of six dollars per ton. Lucerne has long been established in this town, and there are stools of this valuable forage plant, still vigorous, known to be fifty years old. In the same town, Col. James H. Rion sowed, in 1874, a half acre of red land, a worn out old field, infested with nut grass, in lucerne. In 1875 he got one cutting, and from that date to 1880, from four to ten cuttings each year. The ten cuttings were obtained in 1878. The lucerne averaged two and a half feet in height at every cutting, making a total growth for the season, of twentyfive feet. By actual weighing, each cutting averaged 4,189 pounds from this half acre, which was also carefully measured, giving a total of twenty and a half tons, or at the rate of forty-one tons per acre. The mention of such facts are not out of place, inasmuch as since the invention of the cotton-gin the culture of cotton has so superseded all other agricultural pursuits, that it might well be thought that nothing else could be grown here. Cotton planting has become so easy and simple, it requires so little individual thought and effort, the money returns are so certain and direct, or the crop may be so cheaply stored and preserved from injury for such an indefinite time, every business, trade and industry accessory to the work of the farmers, from bankers and railroads to implement and fertilizer manufacturers, have become so thoroughly systematized and organized in unison with this pursuit, that any change is difficult, and as a consequence, the manifold resources of the country are neglected and undeveloped.

STATISTICS.

The metamorphic region embraces about 10,425 square miles, or nearly one-third of the entire State. The population numbers 395,043, the increase since the census of 1870 being thirty per cent. The density of population per square mile varies from twenty-six to twenty-seven in Laurens and Lancaster, to forty.six and forty-eight in Newberry and Greenville; the average being 37.8 per square mile, which makes it the most thickly peopled portion of the State, except the sea islands, which have 39.4 to the square mile. The percentage of colored population