it was only seven bushels in 1870, and in 1880 only eleven bushels per capita, and only 236 bushels to the square mile, it averages over fifteen bushels to every acre planted, which is nearly fifty per cent. above the average of the State. The increase in the amount of grain produced has been eighty-two per cent. on the crop of 1870. The work stock during the same period have increased fifty per cent., and the live stock seventysix per cent.

The explanation of these seemingly paradoxical facts is found in the consideration, that this fertile but thinly peopled region is scarcely reclaimed at all from the dominion of the waters for man's uses. That there being neither capital or organized labor commensurate with this undertaking, what of either of these forces is to be found, employs itself in cultivating the poorer, but more easily tilled land, or in the more tempting occupation still of gathering the products of the forest, which nature with lavish hand offers in abundance.

PRODUCTIONS.

The most characteristic, if not the most important, crop of this region is the rice crop. The various methods of its culture fall under two classes, the dry and the wet culture.

The dry culture is pursued on uplands and on low grounds not susceptible of irrigation. It is cultivated very much like cotton, planted in drills two and a third to three and a half feet, and in hills eighteen to twenty-four inches apart, twenty to thirty seed being dropped in the hills. The ground is afterwards kept clean and stirred by the use of the plow and hoe, with one hand picking of the grass in the hills, when the rice is about six inches high. The yield varies with the soil and culture, from fifteen bushels to fifty bushels to the acre. This rice sometimes fetches a fancy price, as seed rice, being free from the seed of the red rice that springs up as a volunteer in the fields under water culture.

The water culture of rice is conducted on three sorts of low grounds. 1st. Flats, which may be irrigated from ponds or water "reserves "lying at a higher level. 2nd. River swamps, into which water may be conducted by canals running from the river above, and returned to it again at a lower level; such lands may be found anywhere in the State. 3rd. The tide. water lands, which are only found near the coast. These lands lie in such a position on the lower course of the rivers, that while they are subject to a sufficient "pitch of the tide" to irrigate them on the flood and to drain them on the ebb, they may be dammed against the invasion of salt water below and from the freshets above. By taking in the fresh water from the rivers above and letting it out below at low tide, these lands have been

reclaimed as low down as the salt marshes. They are of limited quantity. and of inexhaustible fertility, the waste of cultivation being constantly restored by the rich deposits from the turbid streams that irrigate them. Formerly their value was estimated in hundreds of dollars per acre. Since the war the difficulty of obtaining labor has changed this, many of the finest plantations remain uncultivated, or are only partially cultivated, and lands once worth from $200 to $300 per acre may now be bought at from $20 to $30, or less. There are more than two million of acres of land, consisting of inland and river swamps, and of fresh water and of salt marshes, admirably adapted to rice culture, now lying unused, in this section of the State, most of it in its original wilderness. There are numerous methods employed in the water culture of rice, from that known. as dry culture, when water is sparingly used, to that known as the “all water culture," where the crop is only dried once or twice during the season for the purpose of weeding it. Usually it is flowed four times. Known as the "sprout flow," to perfect germination, the "point flow," to stretch up the young plant, the "long flow," when the plant is six to eight inches high, after the first and second hoeings, and the "lay by flow," after the third hoeing and until harvest. The fine mud and decomposed vegetable matter that compose this soil is so soft that a horse will readily bog in it, and therefore horse power has been little used in their cultivation, an objection that, with the solid cross dams at short distances, would not apply to the plow moved by steam power. Horse power has, however, been used so far as to show that seed drills for planting and the mowing machine for harvesting may be successfully employed in rice culture. Under these circumstances, taking into consideration the amount and certainty of the yield, from forty to eighty bushels per acre, and the improved machinery for threshing and hulling, there is perhaps no food crop so entirely under the control of mechanical inventions, and so little subject either to the vicissitudes of season, or the uncertainties of human labor as the rice crop. The straw is much superior as forage to that of any of the small grains, and except the hulls of the grain, there is no waste in the crop, the very dust from the pounding, known as rice flour, being most nutritious food for stock.

Although eighty bushels per acre is generally given as a large field crop, the possibilities of the product are much greater, and Mr. Kinsey Burden reports a yield from selected seed at the rate of 1,486 bushels per acre. The rice crop for the whole State averages 20 bushels to the acre. This means 600 pounds of merchantable rice, worth say $30; 400 pounds of straw, worth $2.80; and 100 pounds of flour, $1.50-in all, $35.30. Cotton gives an average of 182 pounds per acre, which, at ten cents, would be only $18.20, or a little over half the gross yield of rice. Why

is it, then, that rice culture is in so depressed a condition, and cotton culture so flourishing? It may be briefly stated as that condition of industry which favors small enterprises, and discourages accumulation of capital in large investments and the organization of labor into large masses, which the embankment, drainage and irrigation of a rice field requires.

It has also been asserted that the protective duty of 2 cents per pound on rice operates adversely to its culture. This culture requires a large outlay of vested capital in dams, ditches and waterways. But as an act of Congress may any day remove the protective tariff, and thus lower the market value of the product by one-third or more, capital is unwilling to encounter such a risk, refuses to enter into permanent investments in improving and restoring these lands, or in mortgages given for this purpose, and prefers to restrict itself to hand to mouth advances on the growing crop at exorbitant rates. Thus throwing largely into the hands of mere speculators what was once the most solid and certain industry of the State. One thing is certain: while the cotton crop has largely increased, even while burdened with a tax of two cents per pound on it, the rice crop, with the protection of a duty of two cents per pound, has not recuperated, and amounts to scarcely one-third of the production it attained formerly without protection.

The allurement of the ready money realized by collecting the products of the forest, and by rice and cotton culture, has diverted attention from other crops in this section. The culture of corn as a market crop would be profitable. The red rust proof oat is admirably adapted to this climate, and is one of the most certain crops, yielding readily thirty bushels to fifty bushels to the acre. Although New England, and even European, hay has for many years been purchased to subsist, in part, the work stock in this section, Mr. Ruffin, who came from the clover fields of Virginia, says in his official report on the agriculture of the lower and middle parts of South Carolina: "Few countries possess greater natural facilities, or which are more improvable by industry, for producing in abundance, grasses, hay and live stock, and their products of meat, butter and milk, all of which are now so deplorably deficient."

COTTON.

Although the lower pine belt comprises nearly one-third of the State, it produces only a fraction over five per cent. of the cotton crop. The per centage of the total area planted in cotton is less than one-tenth of one per cent. in the southeastern third of Charleston county, in the whole of Georgetown county, and in the greater portion of Horry county.

From one-tenth to one per cent. of the area is planted in cotton in the lower half of Hampton county, in Colleton county, in the northeastern portion of Charleston county, in the southern third of Williamsburg, and in portions of Horry. From one to five per cent. of the area is planted in cotton in the northeastern corner of Colleton, in the northeastern part of Charleston, in the upper two-thirds of Williamsburg, in the lower onefourth of Marion, and in Clarendon county.

LABOR AND SYSTEM OF FARMING.

In Colleton county, the farms on which cotton is planted vary in size from fifty to two hundred acres, and are in some instances as much as four hundred acres. A system of mixed farming is pursued; food supplies mostly, and in an increasing degree, are raised at home. Bacon, however, for the laborers is usually bought in Charleston. There are a few white laborers, and the labor is chiefly performed by negroes. Wages vary from $6 a month to $120 and to $150 a year. Very few farms are worked on shares; when it is done, the landholder usually furnishes all supplies, and takes one-third of the cotton and one-half of the provision crop. The share system is not entirely satisfactory; the quality of the staple is not affected by it, but the quantity produced is small, and the land deteriorates. Money wages are preferred, because it places the management under intelligent control, enables the laborer to meet his current expenses and preserves his independence from debt. The condition of the laborer is good, and about two per cent. of the negro laborers own some land, or the houses in which they live. The market value of land is two to five dollars. The rent is from one dollar and fifty cents to three dollars an acre. The system of receiving advances on the growing cotton crop is diminishing.

In Williamsburg county, the farms on which cotton is planted vary from one hundred to six hundred acres in size. Mixed farming is practiced; the family supplies of the landlord being usually raised at home, those of the laborer purchased in Charleston; the tendency to raise supplies is increasing. There are some white laborers, but generally negroes are employed; wages averaging eight dollars a month, are paid monthly or oftener. A few cotton farms are worked on shares-the terms being one-quarter of all crops for the landlord, he for the most part advancing all supplies, for which he is repaid. Land deteriorates under the share; and improves under the wages system, which latter is better for the laborer, his energies being more intelligibly directed his labor is more productive and worth more, besides it induces economy, enables him to understand fully his financial condition, and he is more satisfied at the

end of the year, than when there is a settlement of accounts, the run of which he cannot keep. There is little demand for land; the price ranges from two to fifteen dollars an acre. It rents for one to two dollars an acre; more generally for one-quarter or one-third of the crop. The system of credits and advances on the growing cotton crop prevails largely from one-half to three-quarters of the farmers, both black and white, receiving such assistance.

In Clarendon, the usual size of a cotton farm is eighty acres. Mixed farming is practiced, but much of the supplies consumed is purchased in Charleston, though the tendency to raise them at home is increasing. The field labor is performed by native whites and negroes. Laborers are usually contracted with by the year, and the settlement takes place at its close. One-third of the crop to the landlord is the usual rate, where cotton farms are worked on shares, he advancing all supplies, for which he is repaid. The share system is preferred to wages. The condition of the laborers is good, and about five per cent. of them own houses and lands. Land is worth from three to five dollars an acre, and rents for one dollar per acre. The liens for advances on the growing crops, recorded in the Clerk of Court's office for the year 1880, numbered 2,716, or one to every farm save nine, and aggregate $283,317.18.

In Horry, the farms average fifty acres, and run from ten acres to two hundred acres in size. All supplies are made at home. The laborers are largely white natives, but there are some negroes. Wages five to sixteen dollars by the month, fifty dollars to $125 by the year. No cotton farms are worked on shares. The soil improves under culture. Wages system preferred. The condition of the laborers is good, and about twelve per cent. of the negroes own houses and land. Unimproved land sells for one to two dollars an acre; very few advances on the crop, and those wholly for fertilizers. The liens on the growing crop recorded in the Clerk's office, 1880, numbered twenty-seven, and aggregate $1,179.80.

TILLAGE AND IMPROVEMENT.

In Colleton county, one-quarter to one-half of the swamp lands are reported as thrown out of cultivation, but none of the lighter uplands. In Williamsburg, ten to thirty per cent. of the cultivated lands have been abandoned. In Clarendon, at least one-third of the cultivated lands have been turned out since the war; in Horry, very little. These lands all produce as well as virgin soil when reclaimed and again brought under cultivation. The depth of plowing is usually four inches with a single horse plow; sometimes a double horse plow is used, and a depth of six to seven inches attained. Subsoiling is little practiced; fall plowing is es