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 ESSAY 
 
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 ON 
 
 SEA COAST CROPS; 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 ^ritttltaral S^ssodation of % ^hntmg State, 
 
 ON OCCASION OF THE 
 
 ANNUAL MEETING, HELD AT COLUMBIA, 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF SOUTH-CAROLINA, 
 
 BY R F. V7.- ALL ST ON, 
 
 Plantfir, of South-Carolina, and a Member of the Association. 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C. 
 A. E. MILLER, 3 STATE STREET. 
 
 1854. 
 
 -c 
 
COPY. 
 
 La Place, Macon Co. Ala., Aug. 27th, 1853. 
 
 RoBT. F. W. Allston : 
 
 Dear Sir, at a late meeting of the Executive Coun- 
 cil of the Agricultural Association of the Planting and Ssave-holding States, 
 held August 12th, in the City of Montgomery, your name was proposed, 
 and you were elected by the Council, to address the Association, at its next 
 meeting, which takes place in Columbia, S. C, on Thursday, the first day 
 of December next. 
 
 The subject of the Address or Essay to be " Culture of Sea Coast Crops.'' 
 An early reply signifying your acceptance, will greatly oblige, 
 Respectfully yours &c. 
 
 (Signed) N. B. CLOUD, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 West Point, Septemher 8th, 1853. 
 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 * ***** Tijig selection, by the 
 
 Executive Council, while I am sensible that it does me unmerited honor, 
 oppresses me with a sense of responsiblity — our Statistics are so imperfect 
 and I have been so much a home man, out of my humble public duties. 
 
 While I may be permitted to express the wish that one more able had 
 been selected for the occasion of your interesting meeting, and am free to 
 utter the apprehension, occupied as I will be by pre-existing engagements, 
 that I may fail, not only of doing justice to the subject, but also of giving, 
 satisfaction to any one : I yet dare not decline the appointment, as unsoli- 
 cited as unexpected **»*****» 
 
 I remain very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ROBT. F. W. ALLSTON. 
 N. B. Cloud, Esq. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 It is good for us to be here — discussing, not "the 
 affairs of the Nation," but the elements of a Nation's 
 wealth. The education, the agriculture, the commerce of 
 the planting States. Citizens of the several States meet 
 in this Association to compare notes, with the mutual 
 desire to understand the peculiar views of each, to profit 
 by each others experience, communicating freely their 
 own— to improve the art, and direct attention to the 
 Science of Agriculture. 
 
 It is to be hoped that one (not the least) of the good 
 results of these meetings will be the institution of an 
 Agricultural and Geological Survey, in each State, by the 
 Legislature thereof, or at least the organization of a Board 
 of Agriculture through the members of which, analyses 
 of soils may be procured by farmers, together with the 
 dissemination of all sorts of information relating to soils, 
 manures, implements and culture— varieties of stock 
 and their treatment, the reclaiming of wild lands, and 
 the administration of labor. 
 
 To a country populated as is ours, a thorough Agri- 
 cultural Survey is replete with use and advantage. It 
 serves to discover the best systems of culture and of 
 management perfected by gifted individuals who may 
 have devoted a lifetime to their establishment, to analyse, 
 describe, and communicate them to distant parts of the 
 State, where, possibly, they may be entirely new, and, if 
 apphcable, greatly beneficial. 
 1 
 
The Surveyor makes it his business to ascertain the 
 diseases of plants and animals, and unites with his own 
 the experience and the science of all farmers in discuss- 
 ing the remedies applicable to them. 
 
 In this, and in various other ways, the Agi-icultural 
 Survey tends to make farmers, in all parts of the State, 
 somewhat acquainted with each other, as well as with 
 their different practices and facilities, their difficulties 
 and remedies. 
 
 The State of North-Carolina has ordered an Agri- 
 cultural Survey, and has entrusted its execution to the 
 experienced Dr. Emmons, who was an agent in the 
 elaborate work in the State of New- York. He has 
 already published a small preliminary volume as preface 
 to his valuable labors in our sister State. In connection 
 also, with the University of North-Carolina, at Chapel 
 Hill, a school of Science has been established, with a 
 Professor (C. Phillips) of Civil Engineering, and a 
 Professor (Hedrick) of Agricultural Chemistry, who, 
 besides lecturing on that subject has made some inter- 
 esting and valuable analyses of soil. 
 
 The Agricultural and Geological Sin*vey of South- 
 Carolina is little more than fairly begun. The benefits 
 which have been and will be derived from what has been 
 done, cannot fully be estimated in terms. If they could 
 be calculated and set down, in money, I suppose the result 
 would be a sum sufficient to defray an hundred times over, 
 all the expense which has been incurred for it by the 
 State. The bringing to view and marking the local ex- 
 tent of the marl beds on the rivers Pee Dee, Waccamaw, 
 Santee, Cooper, Ashley and Savannah, on Edisto Island, 
 and elsewhere on the seaboard. The testing of the 
 constituent value of those marls by the long practised 
 
formnlse and ample experience of the venerable Ruffin, 
 together with his clear explanation of and rules for the 
 use of them, are a boon to the inhabitants of the respec- 
 tive localities, and to the productive wealth of the State, 
 which no one will pretend to estimate in numbers.* 
 
 For the institution of the Board of Agriculture, by 
 which was organized the plan of Agricultural Surveys in 
 England, the people of that country are indebted to the 
 wisdom and public spirit of Sir John Sinclair, the friend 
 and correspondent of Washington.f 
 
 May not this Association constitute such a Board for 
 the Southern States, for wise and useful ends 1 
 
 Of all descriptions of men, whose energies are actively 
 employed in the same vocation, planters are the least 
 given to act together in combination. A main reason 
 for this may be found in the fact of their living segrega- 
 ted in the country, although sociably inclined, associating 
 kindly, and proverbially hospitable. 
 
 Each, independent of all persons save the indwellers 
 
 * lu his Report, (1843, p. 82,) Mr. Ruflin says: " The small use of the plow, 
 (indeed its total disuse iii many cases,) and its substitution by the hoe and liand 
 labor, is, to a stranger, the most remarkable and novel feature of the agriculture 
 of the lower Districts." This could not have been said of the Rice growing 
 region of the lower Districts, but of the long-staple Cotton region. Even there 
 the entire disuse of the plow is becoming somewhat more rare. Several planters, 
 even on Edisto Island, are using the plow in the culture of Cotton as well as 
 Cora; and its use k becoming general elsewhere. 
 
 t A descendant of Sir John visited the United States in the mojitla of October, 
 in the person of a Reverend Presbyter of the English Church. The Rev. John 
 Sinclair, Archdeacon of Middlesex, who, together with the Right Rev. Bishop 
 spencer, late of Madras, and other Divines, was deputed by the venerable So- 
 ciety in England " for the pi-opagating of Christianity in foreign parts," to attend 
 the late triennial meeting of the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in this country. It was gratifying to nie to make the acquaintance of this 
 distinguished Divine, this modest, estimable gentleman. And it will be gratifying 
 to my countrymen to know that he bore away to his native Island impressions of 
 American character and sentiment, most pleasing and grateful to him, alike hon- 
 orable aud grateful to us. 
 
and laborers of the plantation, practising there his own 
 peculiar system, is separated from his surrounding neigh- 
 bors by the recognized boundary of his broad acres. 
 Deluded thus into a dangerous self-dependence, habitu- 
 ally secluded from the active bustle of hfe, and the fre- 
 quent haunts of men, the worthy planter too often fails 
 of exercising his share of that influence which helps to 
 form public opinion. Not so the gifted citizen who 
 mingles daily with the animated masses congregated in 
 cities, or associates constantly with men engaged alike 
 with him, in commerce, manufactures, trades or profes- 
 sional pursuits. If combining seldom, however, and 
 only under the pressure of high excitement, or of threat- 
 ened danger to a common interest — and if less commonly 
 exercising individual influence — it is consoling to reflect 
 that, whenever it may be called into active exercise, the 
 influence of the educated planter is a sound and whole- 
 some one. 
 
 Generally, he is conservative. Bred in the country 
 amid the exuberance of nature, in her just proportions 
 and distribution, his mind is accustomed to her gradual 
 processes, the regular succession of the seasons, and the 
 annual recurrence of the routine of labor allotted by the 
 Creator. His gifts acquire strength, character and vir- 
 tue, They may never be developed beyond his rustic 
 sphere — never until fair occasion offer. But, when so 
 called forth, they will be exercised for the most part 
 conservatively, and on the side of truth. In the crea- 
 ion around him, even of inanimate nature, 
 
 '• He finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, 
 Serujons in stones, and good in everything." 
 
CROPS OF THE SEA-COAST. 
 
 You have invited me to address you on " the Culture 
 of the Sea-Coast Crops." A subject fruitful in itself, 
 abounding in details, and sufficiently interesting to those 
 of us whose business it is to cultivate the great staples. 
 The information which I have been able to collect, as to 
 one staple, together with all that I may have acquired in 
 the culture of the other, is entirely at the service of the 
 Association. But all the detail cannot be given here. 
 
 Both Cotton and Rice were at first grown by few 
 persons. As they profited largely by the peculiar 
 culture, they expended in hospitalities the revenues 
 which accrued. Early in the present century a single 
 estate in Georgia is said to have yielded a crop (600 
 bags) of Sea Island Cotton worth $100,000 and upwards. 
 Rice has been known to command a ready market at 
 thirty shillings per cwt. The planter, in those distant 
 days, who made good crops, doubled his capital in a few 
 years. I had the statement from the planter himself, 
 that in one of those years the proceeds of the labor of 
 each worker, on one of his plantations,* enabled him to 
 add another laborer to his estate. During the war of 
 1812, a good deal of salt was made on the seaboard. It 
 commanded, a year or two after the war, $6 a bushel ! 
 
 These monopolies have no more any existence. They 
 are now matters of history merely. In republican com- 
 pensation, the same causes which have reduced the profits 
 of the few, have tended to equalize with them the in- 
 comes of the many. 
 
 * Waterford, a small plantation lying in the best pitch of tide on Waccamaw. 
 it belonged at that time to the late Benjamin Allston. 
 
10 
 
 Of Salt, an article of necessary consumption, which 
 had been manufactured on our coast more than a hun- 
 dred years, there are now, none so poor to " boil a kettle." 
 
 Of Cotton, the culture far from being confined to 
 Georgia has been extended over the fertile region, em- 
 bracing with the exception of Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 
 tucky and Missouri, the Southern and South- Western 
 States. And in the production of Rice both the Caro- 
 linas, Georgia and Louisiana, are engaged. It is grown 
 for domestic consumption in Mississippi, Florida, and 
 Texas, and nearly every where else where may be found 
 a settlement of negroes who once lived in the rice region 
 of country. 
 
 The sawing of lumber — farming and distilling turpen- 
 tine, are now the most profitable kinds of business near 
 the seaboard and out of the city. 
 
 They are not considered favorable to the steady 
 habits of the negro ; but they yield very tempting in- 
 comes, varying from three to six hundred dollars to the 
 hand. 
 
 Over the bar of Georgetown alone, a single port in 
 South-Carolina, the lumber and naval stores which 
 passed out during the last fiscal year, it is computed, 
 exceed half a million of dollars in value. The quantity 
 exported is steadily increasing. 
 
 Cotton. — The crop most largely exported from the 
 United States is Cotton. It pays for two-thirds nearly 
 of the imports — the basis of Federal revenue. 
 
 This important staple, the peace-maker between Eu- 
 rope and America, is the chief product of the industry 
 of the States furnishing the constituency of this Asso- 
 ciation, 
 
11 
 
 Cotton * long known to the world, has been grown 
 and worn m the East for centuries. The application 
 of machinery to its manufacture, imparted a decided 
 impulse to the culture of the raw material. But it re- 
 mained for the invention of Whitney'sf saw-gin to 
 remove the chief difficulty in the way of its production 
 in America — a production now limited only by the wants 
 of mankind. 
 
 Amazing as has been the progress of the growth of 
 Cotton in America, the population, almost, and the com- 
 mercial prosperity of the United States have kept pace 
 with it. 
 
 I will not more than allude to the exports of the year 
 1791, in comparison with those of 1851 — sixty years 
 after. (In money value they are as $52,000 to $112,- 
 315,317 !) Nor will I offer the reflections suggested by 
 such a comparison. Some other mind will do this service 
 more appropriately and ably. They are replete with in- 
 struction as well as interest.^ For the benefit of States 
 as well as individuals, we are warned that "To whom 
 much is given, of him shall much also be required." 
 
 * Mr. William M. Lawton of Charleston, has iu his possession a sample of Cot- 
 ton, (produce of a single pod) which was plucked from the tree in its wild state, 
 growing in the Island of Cuba. The tree is said to bear about three years — the 
 staple, of course, is inferior. 
 
 t Whitney's invention was patented in 1793. There is now on exhibition, at 
 the World's Fair, in New- York, a model of the original Saw-Gin. Class 5 and 6, 
 No. 166. The model is owned and exhibited by bis son, Eli Whitney, of New- 
 Haven, Connecticut, where the remains of the ingenious inventor lie buried. He 
 died January 8th, 1825. 
 
 t The comparative distribution of the general crops of Cotton, for ten years 
 past, must not pass unnoticed. It appears (N. Y. Journal of Commerce and 
 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, Nov. 1853J that from the years 1843-4 to 1852-3, 
 while the Cotton crop has increased from 2,124,895 bales to 3,354,058 bales, the 
 consumption of Great Britain has diminished in the ratio of 56.50 to 51.78 — that 
 of France as 13.30 to 12.72 — that of the North of Europe has increased in the 
 ratio as 3.25 to 5.19 — that of other foreign ports as 3.54 to 5,77, and that of the 
 United States as 16.32 to 20.59 per centum. 
 
12 
 
 The variety which is cultivated on the sea-coast was 
 introduced into Georgia first. Removed from the influ- 
 ence of a salt atmosphere it degenerates, and the staple 
 becomes inferior. The region in Avhich it is produced 
 extends from the River Santee, in South- Carolina, in- 
 cluding the Parish of St. John's Berkley, to the ever- 
 glades of Florida ; embracing a belt of land some twenty 
 to thirty miles wide, measuring from the Atlantic. 
 
 The crop of 1852 may be set down at 34,000 bags: 
 The receipts in Charleston were, 19,843 bags. 
 
 in Savannah,* - 12,971 " 
 
 besides several hundred bags, say 1,186 " 
 
 (which were sent directly from 
 
 Florida to New- York and New 
 
 Orleans) 
 
 34,000 bags. 
 Out of which quantity, it is estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 
 bags were furnished by the State of Florida. 
 
 Judging from the quantity of land recently cleared 
 in Florida, and the comparative success which has hith- 
 erto repaid the enterprising cultivators of long staple 
 Cotton in that State,! it is estimated that the crop of 
 Florida, if not the present year, will very soon equal 
 that of Georgia in quantity. 
 
 * See Appendix A. for a Letter received after the foregoiiig statement was 
 made up. 
 
 t The planters in Florida have fresh lands not yet infested with bugs and in- 
 sects. They use the plow extensively, and find it no damage to the plant. They 
 have the salt air breathing its peculiar hiiluence from the West, on a part of the 
 Penuisula, as well as from the East. They have, too, domesticated among them 
 McCarthy's Gin. 
 
 They must succeed with this Cotton, it would seem, unless they yield to the 
 influence of the climate ultimately, and let the Cotton tree grow for their crop. 
 
 The people of Florida, as well of Southern Georgia, should forthwith begin to 
 plant the Olive Plantations of the Olive tree will interfere veiy little with the 
 general crop until they yield largely of fruit, They will succeed in Florida whe« 
 the Cotton lands shall be worn out. 
 
13 
 
 Sea Island Cotton, — In treating this subject, without 
 presuming to enter on the iield which has been so thor- 
 oughly traversed and completely occupied by the distin- 
 guished President of the State Agricultural Society, I 
 will only venture to add such gleanings as I have been 
 so fortunate to make in Georgia and elsewhere, together 
 with some few results which have been obtained in 
 Carolina, since the writing of that elaborate and able 
 essay, to which I beg leave to refer.* 
 
 The soil best adapted to the production of fine Cotton 
 is a light yellow, sandy soil. It bears well the admixture 
 of salt and marsh mud with the compost applied to it, and 
 yields, if fairly dealt by, a fine, long and even staple.f 
 
 The better practice is to prepare the land by listing 
 in the remaining growth, as soon as the last year's crop 
 has been picked — even before the Cotton has been 
 cleaned for market. The alleys are then broken up 
 with the plow. In the spring, the earth, well manured, 
 is drawn up with the hoe, making a bed upon the au- 
 tumn listing, and the seed is sown in dibbles, a peck to 
 the acre, or more, according with the strength of the 
 soil, &C.J After the seeds germinate, the alleys are 
 
 " Memoir on Sea Island Cotton by the Hon. Whitmarsli B. Seabrook, President 
 of the State Agricultural Society, and recently Govefnor of South-Carolina 
 
 I take leave here to acknowledge the favors which I have received, in the way 
 of information, freely and kindly given, both as to Cotton and Rice, from Dr. 
 Scriven, Messrs. Waldburg and Habersham, of Georgia; from Messrs. AVilliam 
 Seabrook, William M. Lawton and John F. Blacklock, of South-Carolina. 
 
 t The usual compost is prepared in summer by mixing with farm-yard, cowpen 
 and stable litter, salt marsh, marsh mud, and even salt. It is applied to the land 
 in winter at the rate of forty, fifty and seventy cart loads. 
 
 Mr. Townsend, of Edisto, does not depend on the " cart loads," but covers his 
 land well with the manure. 
 
 t In order to ensure the production of fine Cotton, the seed must be carefully 
 selected, and well attended to. Owens' Selection has, at present, a high reputa- 
 tion. Mr. Geo. C. Owens has given name to the seed, as Mr. Kinsey Burden did 
 to his in 1826-30. 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 again broken up with the plow, and soon the process of 
 thinning begins. With the three first hoeings, the plants 
 are gradually thinned out to the stand of a single stalk, 
 eighteen, twenty or twenty-four inches, or more, from its 
 neighbor. The ground must be kept clean throughout. 
 The quantity or rate of planting, when the hoe is alto- 
 gether used, does not exceed three acres to the hand ; and 
 the task is one-fourth of an acre (105x105 feet.*) If 
 the plow and scraper be used together with the hoe, 
 much more may be accomplished, the hoe drawing up 
 to the plants the earth loosened by the plow, the task 
 may be three-fourths of an acre. Where the plow is 
 used freely, seven acres to the hand may be tended, as 
 in Florida, and perhaps on Santee. But, on this scale, 
 the manuring must be neglected, or only partially done. 
 In Georgia, my informant,! who uses the plow and 
 scraper, plants five acres to the hand, in order to keep his 
 land in good heart by manuring. For the same reason 
 a very successful planter on Edisto,J tends but five acres 
 to the hand. He uses the plow freely, manures well, and 
 makes a good interest. 
 
 The effects of the autumnal gales, so unavoidable, are 
 sometimes disastrous to the ungathered and ripening crop. 
 
 Among the diseases to which Long Cotton is subject, 
 blight, rust and "blue,"§ may arise from some defect in 
 
 * Among Cotton planters, on the seaboard, the acre is laid off square, two hun- 
 dred and ten feet (210x210) being made up of four squares of 105 x 105 feot= 
 44,100 square feet. 
 
 t Mr. Waldburg. t Mr. Townsend. 
 
 5 Dr. Bachnian suggests that these diseases may be due to some niiiuile insects. 
 The suggestion is worthy the attention of microscopists. 
 
 If they will be attentive to the instructions of this distinguisiied Naturalist, Cot- 
 ton plantors cannot fail to derive from his scientific investigations, and practical 
 auggestions, liints which may lead them to discover the causes, and lil;ewise tlie 
 remedies, of many direasea to vvhic-h tlie plant is now a prey too often. 
 
15 
 
 the soil, which, doubtless, may be removed, or partially 
 remedied by proper dressing, at the proper season, to- 
 gether with thorough draining — for caterpillar and the 
 bug there is no certain remedy but propitious seasons — 
 unless, indeed, it be found in a judicious rotation of crops, 
 and naked fallows, the ground being w^ell broke up and 
 exposed to winter frost. When about to be attacked, 
 however, defend your plants by all the means within 
 your reach. Destroy the enemy in embryo, as the ener- 
 getic planter, last alluded to, has shown can be done. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR MARKET. 
 
 It requires from fifty to sixty days to prepare a bale of 
 fine Cotton for market. 
 
 1st. The seed-cotton must be sorted for the gin, i. e., 
 the dead leaves, and every thing extraneous is picked out 
 say sixty pounds to the hand. 
 
 2d. It is then passed through the roller gin, which 
 reheves it of the seed. The common foot gin or treadle, 
 propelling two rollers, is the machine commonly used for 
 separating the fibre from the seed, cleaning on an average 
 twenty-five pounds a day. The McCarthy, or Florida 
 Gin, with one roller, is now attracting much attention; 
 and the planters are putting them up as fast as they can 
 procure them. A gin, costing one hundred dollars, pro- 
 pelled by a good horse or mule, or still better by steam, 
 will clean from 1 50 lbs. to 200 lbs. a day.* 
 
 3d. The Cotton is "moted" as it comes from the 
 
 * Mr. McCarthy, of Florida, took out ;i patent, in 1840, for a gin bavin"- 
 one roller, say four inches in diameter and three feet in length, dressed with 
 leather arranged spirally around it. This roller revolves over and in loose contact 
 with a plate of sheet iron. The Cotton is received and drawn in between the 
 two, and the seed is separated by means of a thin steel bai- placed horizontally, 
 and operating vertically in front of the roller, and with great rapidity. By the 
 use of this machine, not only is the saving of labor considerable — a one horse 
 power machine will gin as much Cotton with one hand to feed it, and may be an 
 inciJicieut hand otherwise, as five old gins with each a Iiand — but flic seed is found 
 
16 
 
 gin, namely : all particles of broken seed, and every 
 speck which may have escaped detection in the " sort- 
 ing," are carefully removed. Thirty pounds to the 
 hand are moted after the foot gin, sixty pounds after the 
 use of McCarthy's patent, or in such proportion. 
 
 4th. It is then packed by hand in the old fashioned 
 round bales, containing each 320 lbs. to 400 lbs., of clean 
 merchantable Cotton. 
 
 The finest Cotton is exceedingly delicate in vegeta- 
 tion, and requires careful handling throughout. It can 
 
 to be less crushed than it was by the old fashioned roller gin, requiring, of course, 
 less nioting manipulation. 
 
 Strange to say, an invention of so much value to our planters on the coast, has 
 remained almost unknown in Carolina until a year ago, and unused by steam until 
 the present year. To Mr. Wm. M. Lawton, to wkose kindness I am indebted for 
 this description, is the credit due for bringing it to light in this State ; and Mr, 
 Wm. Seabrook, I believe, was the first planter who ventured to use it in the pre- 
 paration of his crop, a sample of which, in all its silky fineness, he has sent to the 
 Industrial Exhibition at New-York. This gentleman not content with the deter- 
 mination of his own sound judgment, supported by that of his immediate friends, 
 as to the effect of this new mechanism upon the staple of fine Cotton, has, yield- 
 ing to the promptings of his enlarged views and thorough practice, invited thereon 
 the verdict of the consumer of the I'aw material. He has paused a bale of his 
 last crop to be prepared by tliis machine, and one of the same fine Cotton to be 
 prepared after the old method, and to be shipped on his own account to the ha- 
 bitual spinner in Manchester, for the express purpose of testing by his practised 
 judgment the relative value of the staple prepared in the new and old way. This 
 test, as far as it has gone, has resulted unfavorably to the new gin. The spinners 
 think that Cotton prepared by it, has rather a greater tendency to " nep", and they 
 euggesta caution against using it for cleaning the finest Cottons. 
 
 We find the following letter in the Savannah Repuhlicnn, which we copy for 
 the information of those engaged in the cultivation of Sea Island Cotton : 
 
 " Liverpool, Aug. 18, 1853. 
 
 Gentlemen, — Since my arrival in Great Britain, I have had much intei-course 
 with the spinners of fine yams, in Lancashire and Scotland, and it will interest 
 you to know that they are generally impressed in favor of the Sea Island Cotton 
 they have been receiving from Savannah. The Florida Cottons they particularly 
 refer to as possessing every essential qualification, e.Kcept cleanliness; this defi- 
 ciency, I was apprised on all sides, would weigh gravely against the ajiprociation 
 of Florida descriptions in the future crop. And the reasons adduced were so for- 
 cible, that I am quite sure I shall do service to every intelligent planter by giving 
 them publicity. 
 
 lu the first place, they say thai the per centagc of loss by crushed seeds and 
 
17 
 
 only be produced, tlierefore, in small quantities; and then, 
 unless everything be propitious, it does not pay too well, 
 The cost of producing a bag of ordinary Sea Island 
 Cotton is about $75,* that of the finest twice as much. 
 Prices. — In 1851, in Charleston market, fine Cottons 
 were sold at 60 cents per lb. — a single bag commanded 
 70 cents. 
 
 In 1852, fine Cottons sold at 80 cents, per lb., only 
 a bale or two brought more, (85 cents.) 
 Ordinary Sea Island Cottons commanded in Charleston, 
 In March, 1851, 30 cents per lb. 
 1852, 30 cents per lb. 
 • " 1853, 43 and 45 cents per lb. 
 
 stained and dead Cotton, at present prices, is a prominent obstacle to the use of 
 carelessly prepared lots ; but a still more serious impediment is found in the fact 
 that in the present nice position of the labor question, the opei-atives, who are 
 now all paid by what is called piece work, are independent enough to decline 
 working upon illy prepared Cotton, out of which they cannot get as large a weight 
 of fine yarn per day as they can out of clean sorts. This is the secret of the pre- 
 sent absence of demand for the lower descriptions of Sea Islands, and it is not 
 difficult to predict that a wider difference in price will exist in the Savannah and 
 Charleston markets next season, between dirty and clean Cotton than has before 
 been known. 
 
 Complaints have not been wanting against not a few of the Liberty and Bryan 
 county crops, which are represented as harsh and dry in staple. Manure and 
 change of seed are the obvious remedies for this defect. On the other hand 
 some of the crops raised but a mile or two from the end of your plank road, 
 where care has been had, have been pronounced equal to some of the favorite 
 island brands. 
 
 I may add that of all the preparations of Cotton sent forward from Savannah, 
 the open fleecy sorts from the McCarthy Gin have given most satisfaction, promis. 
 ing always that the Cotton is clean. Some of the lots I have seen here, prepared 
 in this way, had minute particles of shell and leaf so incorporated in the Cotton 
 that its usefulness was considered greatly impaired. 
 
 A small portion of one of the finest island crops in South-Carolina, comprising 
 two or three bags, put through the McCarthy Gin, was recently sent to the mill 
 of one of the lai'gest spinning concerns in Manchester, and there placed in com- 
 parison with the remainder of the crop ginned in the old way, and the report 
 given me by the manager was, " the open Cotton is exactly in the condition we 
 require to bruig it to for our work." 
 
 I am, gentlemen faithfully yours, Z. 
 
 * This Jj3s reference to Cottons produced by the hoe culture without the plow. 
 
18 
 
 The planters are lew who make the finest Cottons, 
 some, eight or ten, perhaps, in Carolina, planting a small 
 portion of their lands in the choicest seed, which has to 
 be selected with great care from year to year. 
 
 These Cottons are taken by England and France, 
 chiefly through the ports of Liverpool and Havre. 
 England receiving the larger proportion, re-exports a 
 part of her supply to the Continent, (Switzerland and 
 elsewhere,) where it is manufactured into exquisite laces 
 and muslins. A few hundred bags of Sea Island Cot- 
 ton are manufactured in the United States, chiefly in 
 making spool cotton. A pound of Sea Island Cotton 
 may be spun so fine as to produce a thread *of incredi- 
 ble length. Yet Prof. Mitchell, of the Cincinnati Ob- 
 servatory, stated that no thread, of any kind, which he 
 could procure, was equal in fineness, lightness, and 
 elasticity to that of the spider's web. 
 
 The Cottons that will command from 45 to 68 cents 
 per lb., made with the proper use of the plow, and 
 cleaned by the improved machinery, yield a very hand- 
 some interest upon the capital invested, say not less than 
 from ten to twelve per cent. Fourteen per cent, was 
 realized last year by more than one planter. 
 
 PROVISION CROP. 
 
 Of all the various calhngs to which men in the low- 
 country resort for a livehhood, all, except the transient 
 turpentine farmer,* raise a provision crop of Corn, Peas 
 and Potatoes. Even the timber-getter, whose lumber- 
 ing gigantic wheels require a goodly number of stout 
 
 * The man who hires laborers annually for the purpose, the Railroad contractor 
 also, who hires male laborers only, for his work. Neither employment exercises 
 wholesome influence on the habits of the negro. 
 
19 
 
 oxen for the heavy draught, while these are recniltluf^ 
 on the summer pastures of his native pine-barren, will 
 put his horse to the plow and work out provision for the 
 ensuing winter. 
 
 The hunter, too, who ranges now for game farther 
 and wider than erst he did, over natural meadows* upon 
 which his stock of cattle luxuriate in summer, and 
 through thick wooded swamps, where they seek shelter 
 and forage during the hard weather of our brief winters. 
 The hunter and his sons employ a part of several days 
 in the week, during the proper season, in weeding the 
 potato patch, and tending the corn and planting the slips 
 and the peas, whilst the industrious wife, and thrifty, 
 home-bred daughter, ply the spinning-wheel and hand- 
 loom, to work up their own garden crop of Cotton with 
 the coarse fleece of their native flock into comfortable 
 jeans and flannels for the household, 
 
 CORN — (^Zea Mais) — Maize.^ 
 
 The land for Corn is seldom disturbed until near the 
 time for planting, though it will not be doubted that the 
 farmer would find profit in breaking up his land during 
 the frosts of winter. It is laid oft" with the plow in 
 drills, usually five feet apart, and the deeper the better. 
 These drills, or furrows are filled with the litter from 
 the stables, and the farm pen, and whatever else of 
 vegetable matter may be at command, (the Rice planter 
 uses rice-straw for this purpose.) They are then listed 
 
 * Large tracts of prarie called Savannas, which in May, June and July abound 
 with the finest grass pasture, and at limes are richly varied with beautiful flowers. 
 
 t See Eeport " on the Culture of Indian Com," made to the Winyah and All- 
 Saints Agricultural Society, 20th April, 1848, by the Hon, J. R.Poinsett, for a full 
 account. 
 
20 
 
 in or covered up wit}i either the hoe, or the plow — 
 sometimes with both. 
 
 Tlie Corn which is planted towards the last of 
 March, is dropped (3 or 4 grains in one spot, to be 
 thinned out, after healthy and vigorous vegetation, to 
 one plant) in dibbles made upon the ridges thrown up 
 as above, 3 or 4 feet apart, depending upon the produ- 
 cing power of the land.* Some farmers sow Corn as 
 close as 2j feet and even 2 feet. This, however, re- 
 quires very strong land, enriched by manure. In gene- 
 ral, it is not wise to plant thick ; the field in full growth 
 may be more promising and pleasing to the eye, and 
 may produce more fodder, but less sound, heavy grain. 
 
 For the most part, this crop receives three plowings, 
 and one hoeing, if the hoe can be spared. When in 
 its tender state it is thinned out to one stalk. In the 
 month of June it is thoroughly cleansed and laid by 
 with the hoe, when Peas are sown in dibbles upon the 
 ridges, midway between the Corn plants. This is done 
 at such precise time as to allow the peas to vegetate 
 and appear just before the Corn tassels. When the 
 grain is sufficiently filled and hard, the blades of the 
 plant are stripped and cured for forage. The fodder 
 makes excellent food for horses, but the work of strip- 
 ping is one among the least inviting and healthful to 
 the laborers. Soon the dying stalks, no longer ob- 
 structing the rays of the sun from the lowly legume, are 
 covered by the running pea-vines, which when in blos- 
 som, and when with full pods pendant from every stalk, 
 present the field in an aspect rich and abundant in 
 promise. 
 
 t is becoming a common practice lo roll the seed Corn in a solution of coal 
 tar, before planting it, in order to protect it from birds, (fee. 
 
21 
 
 When gathered, Corn should be put up with the inner 
 shuck on, in a house well ventilated, as open to the air 
 as is consistent with the protection from damp. 
 
 On good farms the production of this grain is at the 
 rate of 20 to 35 bushels per acre. A leading Wacca- 
 maw planter has repeatedly averaged, on thirty acres, 
 fifty bushels per acre and more. 
 
 Any soft Corn planted near the sea-coast tends gra- 
 dually to become flinty. 
 
 Higher latitudes, and especially western lands, are 
 better adapted to the production of Corn, yielding less 
 wood, and more grain. 
 
 In the State of Indiana, for example, a crop has been 
 obtained, much larger than ours, with a single plowing. 
 A stand once secured, the weeds are suffered to grow up 
 in common with the plant. Both mature, in nature's 
 good time, when as much Corn is gathered as may be 
 needed for the grainary, — the remainder is fed off to 
 stock on the field, where it has been grown. 
 
 OF POTATOES,* ( CoUVOlvuluS.) 
 
 The land is prepared in Hke manner as for Corn. On 
 rice plantations instead of straw the "tailings" are used 
 for Potatoes, viz : the finer particles of the straw pro- 
 duced by threshing out the grain, and separated by the 
 process of winnowing, or fanning the grain clean, to be 
 pounded. As on well managed farms these two crops 
 are produced from the same ground, alternately ; or in 
 the order of rotation with Cotton — the land is laid off 
 the same distance for both, whether it be 5 or 4J feet, 
 
 * For the elaborate and able Keport by Dr. J. R. Sparkman, "on the Culture 
 and Preservation of the Sweet Potatoe, " see the Proceedings of the VVinyah and 
 All Saints' Agricultural Society, 18th April, 1350. 
 
 3 
 
22 
 
 so that the beds, or ridges may be reversed every year. 
 This preparation with Rice Planters is made by hsting 
 in the taihngs in the month of February. The land lies 
 thus until a convenient time for planting, somewhere 
 about the last of March, when the earth on both sides 
 is drawn up on the listing, so as to make as large beds 
 as the ground will readily admit of On the top of these 
 beds, trenched for the purpose, the Seed Potatoe is 
 droped 6 or 8 inches apart, either whole or cut into two 
 parts, as the quahty of seed will allow, or require. The 
 trench is then covered with earth, and the seed left to 
 vegetate. As soon as the sprout appears above ground, 
 the work of cultivation begins, and it must be constantly, 
 and diligently followed up; or else disappointment will en- 
 sue as to the result. 
 
 The fine grass which makes its appearance with the 
 Potatoe must never be suffered to take deep root, but must 
 at once be shaved off with the hoe — and picked out by 
 hand, so as to be entirely destroyed. As fast as any 
 more grass, or weeds make show, they must in like manner 
 be removed, while young, and growing only on the surface. 
 If either be suffered to take root, loose, and rich as is 
 the earth of the beds, their roots soon penetrate deep, and 
 spread, when they can no longer be removed without 
 distusbing the incipient grotwhof the young tuber, if in- 
 deed it be not pulled up altogether in extracting the 
 weed. After hoeing, a good rain is the signal for break- 
 ing up the earth between the beds, and drawing it up 
 with the hoe to the top of the beds, carefully around the 
 plants. Upon this the vines shoot forth, and very soon 
 cover the beds, shading the ground effectually, and thus 
 preventing a new crop of grass. 
 
 This is the "root" crop. It is dug from September to 
 
23 
 
 November inclusive, and yields from 150 to 250, and 
 even 300 bushels per acre.* The more productive crop, 
 ordinarily, is that from the vine, or slip. 
 
 Thus the land intended for Slip Potatoes is generally 
 sown down with Oatsf as a winter crop. These are 
 harvested in June, by which time, Potatoes, if planted in 
 rich ground, and kept clean, will have shot out vines, 
 long, and abundant enough to cut for planting slips. 
 The Oat stubble is listed in four and a half feet apart, 
 (in order to alternate with Corn next year.) Upon this 
 Hsting, the plows throw four furroughs, then the hoes 
 come with the first rain, and make up a good bed, flat- 
 tening it on top. Along the top of these beds are care- 
 fully laid together three or four, or more, succulent vines, 
 which are covered at the distance of sixteen, or eighteen 
 inches, with a good hoefull of earth, leaving interval 
 enough open for the leaves of the vine to breathe. 
 Keep these clear of grass, and well earthed up, if 
 
 * A Proximate Analysis of the the Sweet Potatoe made by Emmons, and given 
 in the Report of the Agricultural Survey of the State of New-York, is attached, in 
 order that it may be compared with that of Prof. Sheppard, reported in the Pi-o 
 ceedings of the State Agricultural Society of South-Carolina, and in order also to 
 invite the attention of Farmers to the other Analyses furnished by both these va* 
 luable works. 
 
 PROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF THE SWEET POTATOE. 
 
 Starch, 19.955 
 
 Sugar, and Extractive matter mostly Sugar, 5. So 
 
 Dextrine 0.750 
 
 Fibre after boiling in a weak solution of Caustic Potash 1.850 
 
 Matter dissolved out of Fibre by a weak solution of Caustiq, f o i nn 
 
 Potash, ^ - "" 
 
 Abumen , 5.900 
 
 Casein 1.050 
 
 A body that resembles 225 
 
 Water 69.515 
 
 t After the middle of January, Oats may be sown (1 bushel per acre) in a light 
 
 furrow, mada by the plow ; the sower following the plow with seed, and the 
 
 earth from the next furrow covering the grain. 
 
24 
 
 washed by heavy rains, and the new vines will soon 
 cover the face of the earth. If the soil be rich, and the 
 planting be made in June, 300, 400, or even 500 bushels 
 of Potatoes per acre, may be produced for winter use, 
 depending upon the nature of the season, and the lateness 
 of frost. The lightest frost will affect the vines, and 
 effectually check the further growth of the tuber. The 
 manifest effect of frost upon the vines, is the signal for 
 gathering the crop. The alleys between the beds are 
 filled with straw from the threshing-yard. On the first 
 fair weather, the Potatoes are dug, and the straw 
 covered up by the digging, soon decomposing, manures 
 the land for the next succeeding crop of Corn. The 
 Potatoes after remaining in large heaps on the field, 
 protected by a covering of straw and earth, until the 
 whole be dug, are housed* for winter use ; the smaller 
 roots being selected for seed, and carefeully housed to 
 themselves. The hogs are now turned in to feed upon 
 the unearthed roots, and those which have been unavoid- 
 ably covered over in the digging, with earth, and straw 
 together. Before another season for planting arrives, 
 the hogs, besides furnishing the usual supply of Pork and 
 Bacon, will have given the field, by rooting after Potatoes, 
 which their keen sense of smell traces out, the best kind 
 of (not deep) subsoiling. 
 
 A good rotation course is, after the crop described 
 above, to take two crops of Corn, then graze, then a crop 
 of root Potatoes, then Oats, and slips as just described, 
 and so on. 
 
 The late lamented Ward, who confessedly stood 
 
 • The house is built of good plauk, with walls four feet high, covered with a 
 tight shingle, or thatched roof, oua dry well drained spot, — from 40 to 100 feet 
 long, and from l5 to 20 feet wide, with ventilators, allowing the escape of the 
 hot moist air, and gases from within, but not admiltiug the ingress of cold frosty- 
 air from without. 
 
25 
 
 foremost among Planters, was in the habit of dividing 
 his upland into two portions ; planting them every year 
 alternately, in Corn and Peas — Oats and Potatoes. 
 His crop of Corn seldom measured less than fifty bushels 
 to the acre — ^his Slip Potatoes yielded six and seven 
 hundred bushels, and sometimes more to the acre. 
 
 ALLUIVAL LANDS. 
 
 Of the large quantity of land uncultivated in the 
 the Carolinas, in Georgia and Florida, a good portion 
 of the alluvial Swamp is destined to be reclaimed and 
 converted to the farmer's use. 
 
 None of the Swamps on the great rivers in those 
 States are under profitable cultivation, which only can 
 be permanent, except those which, having been reclaim- 
 ed, are protected by dams {levies) from the destructive 
 influx of heavy freshets to which those rivers are annu- 
 ally subject. Leaving out of view, for the present, the 
 tide-swamp, the Cotton plantation nearest the Sea- 
 coast which has been damed on the Pee Dee, is Mr 
 Gibson's near Marr's Blufl", where the Manchester Rail- 
 way is to cross. That on the Santee belongs to Mr. 
 Mazyck Porcher, and lies near, a little below the Santee 
 Canal. 
 
 Doubtless there are many points upon these rivers and 
 others as susceptible of like improvement, which would 
 repay the labor, if the right plan of constructing levees 
 be pursued. Col. John N. WiUiams' dams on the Pee 
 Dee have withstood many floods, including those of the 
 last two years. 
 
 There are many inland Swamps, t)ordering on the 
 tide- water country, from the Neuse to St. Mary's — 
 (perhaps farther) sources of short streams, capable of 
 being drained, and ultimately tilled ; which contain not 
 
26 
 
 only thousands of acres of land suitable for Corn, small 
 grain and meadow grasses, but also an abundance of 
 excellent timber, — some white oak, as well as cypress 
 and ash. Among these, I may mention the immense 
 tracts bordering on the Lake Waccamaw, the beautiful 
 reservoir into which are emptied the floods of the adja- 
 cent low lauds, to be discharged gradually into the bold 
 river of the same name. This Lake, in North-Carolina, 
 some five miles long, by about three miles wide, is 
 surrounded by dense forests of Swamp abounding in 
 timber, which all will be brought into market, or domestic 
 use, whenever the lands shall be drained for cultivation. 
 The white marshes too, through which meanders a small 
 stream tributary to the Waccamaw, although they could 
 afford no timber, could be reclaimed, and would seem 
 to offer to the enterprising Planter, the temptation of a 
 boundless field. 
 
 Let us revert to the time, not more than a century 
 distant, when Indigo was grown in Carolina, for expor- 
 tation. 
 
 The now fruitful Rice-fields of Santee and Pee Dee, 
 and Waccamaw, which bear in grain such teeming 
 tribute to productive wealth, and which, in extent of 
 cultivated level, stretched out, in the direction of the ebbing 
 current, beyond the visible horizon, were then but dense, 
 and dark, interminable Swamps, the home of the owl 
 and the alligator. Tide swamps they were, the soil 
 of which though very rich, was useless to the residents 
 and settlers of that day. 
 
 If some active proprietor, desirous of converting it to 
 his profit, was hardy enough to plant in Corn, an occa- 
 sional knoll, more elevated than the rest, the loss of Corn 
 and Pumpkins, two years out of three, detered his 
 
27 
 
 neighbors generally, from following his example. In 
 periodical addition to the alluvial loam, the shaded 
 sm'face was enriched by the ultimate decomposition of 
 the annual fall of leaves from the diciduous forest, extend- 
 ing miles across, from river-bank to river-bank. These 
 leaves were often covered up entirely by the deposits 
 of freshets, freighted as they were with the disinte- 
 gration of rocks above, and the debris of marl-beds below 
 the falls. 
 
 The spring-tides also of the summer solstice, seldom 
 failed to bring their contributions of silt from the muddy 
 bays and creeks of salt-water. Lifted by angry waves 
 and held suspended, this silt was borne along with the 
 current of brackish water, sometimes far inland. 
 
 When these two causes operated in conjunction — 
 
 namely, when a heavy freshet from the high-lands was 
 
 met by muddy gale-tides, welling up from the salt 
 
 estuary below, the deposit precipitated was much deeper 
 
 . at the meeting of the waters,* 
 
 The extensive forest once sustained by this alluvial 
 formation has disappeared as far up, almost, as tide- 
 w^ater flowed then. Thousand of acres of this same 
 Swamp on each river, may now be traversed, and not a 
 stump be seen above ground. The Swamp has been 
 reclaimed. The tide is shut out, subjected to regulation, 
 and rendered tributary to the enlightened designs of the 
 Rice Planter, 
 
 The numerous Islands of which this region- is com- 
 posed are all enclosed (leaving an outside margin twenty 
 to thirty feet wide) by dams high enough and strong, to 
 
 * See Report to Committee of Patents on Rice, 1852, page 88, for a notice of 
 tlie deposit on Santee (over 2 inches) in 1845. 
 
2§ 
 
 resist the highest spring-tides. The entire area is divid- 
 ed into "squares" or fields, containing twelve to twenty 
 acres each, by a series of check-banks, made up by 
 excavating all around the field, at a distance of eighteen 
 feet from the center of the line on which the bank is to be 
 located, a ditch some six to eight feet wide, by five feet deep. 
 
 The fields are further prepared for cultivation by 
 excavating from ditch to ditch in one direction, a number 
 of smaller ditches, called "quarter drains," fifteen to 
 eighteen inches wide, and three feet deep, located 
 parallel to each other, at the distance of seventy-five, 
 or fifty, or thirty-seven and a half feet apart, as may be 
 required by the nature of the land, and the pitch of tide 
 in which it is found. Across the frontier bank, and in 
 a line with one of the main ditches, a deep cut is made, 
 in which is placed and covered up, a (wooden culvert 
 twenty feet long, and open, four feet by two) "trunk," 
 furnished at both ends with a sluice-gate, for either ad- 
 mitting the tide over the field, or withdrawing it as may 
 be desired. 
 
 Thus has the tide-swamp been subdued, and convert- 
 ed into flourishing fields, inviting diligent husbandry. 
 The owl has fled to some far off wilderness, and the 
 alligator hides his diminished size at the first sound of 
 human approach. 
 
 Sailing up one of those fruitful rivers, the traveller 
 may now behold many miles of serpentine embankment, 
 (contiinuous save where a water thoroughfare occurs) 
 enclosing thousands of acres, checked into fields, which 
 bear in waving luxuriance, crops of this translucent 
 grain.* 
 
 * Rough Rice as it comes from the field is tranlucent in a degree sufficient for 
 an experienced eye, when holding a head or sheaf of Rice up toward the Sun, to 
 detect the red-rice, which is opaque. 
 
29 
 
 OF RICE — {Oryza Sativa^^ 
 
 Rice, for which we are indebted to the Island of Ma- 
 dagascar, was introduced into CaroUna and America at 
 once, towards the close of the seventeenth centuiy. A 
 few grains were sown in the garden of Landgrave 
 Smith, the site of which is now entirely covered by 
 houses and modern improvements, in the City of Charles- 
 ton. Those few grains produced many ears, which 
 being disseminated for seed, succeeded in adaptation to 
 the climate; and the low country of South-Carolina 
 since, has become the centre of the rice-growing region. 
 The first seed was white, such as is grown in China and 
 Guiana to this day, and such as may still be seen pro- 
 duced on the uplands and inlands of America. 
 
 Sometime before the Revolutionary war, the "gold 
 seed" Rice was introduced,t which, owing to its superi- 
 ority, soon entirely superseded the white. It is now the 
 rice of commerce, and the only grain referred to herein, 
 when rice is mentioned, without being distinguished by 
 some peculiar name, or characteristic. 
 
 This " gold seed" has undergone improvement in lat- 
 ter years. Hence has resulted the production of a variety 
 longer in the grain, but not perceptibly larger otherwise, 
 which is highly esteemed by foreign consumers, when it 
 is produced in perfection, commanding the highest prices 
 in market. It is called "long grain" Rice.f 
 
 * See Appendix B. for a notice of the wild Rice of Minnesota. 
 
 t From what precise quarter, and how, has not been accurately ascertained. 
 
 X This peculiar grain, so eagerly sought out in the market at any price, when 
 strictly prime, and so trying to the planters' skill, perseverance and judgment to 
 produce in perfection, was obtained from the sowing of part of a single head on 
 the plantation of the late Hon. Joshua Jno. Ward, of Waccamaw. Its appearance 
 has only been accounted for thus : one of his friends, a planter on the Pee Dee, 
 having a large body of forest land, had been in the habit of clearing a small por- 
 
 4 
 
30 
 
 The white Rice of the present day measures three- 
 eights of an inch in length, the same in circumference 
 around its shorter axis, the grain being in shape an irregu- 
 lar elipsoid, and in weight numbers nine hundred and 
 sixty grains to the ounce (Troy.)* 
 
 The gold seed, the Rice of commerce, measures three- 
 eights of an inch in length, the same in circumference, 
 and in weight numbers eight hundred and ninety-six 
 grains to the ounce.* 
 
 The long grain Rice measures five-twelfths of an 
 inch in length, three-eights of an inch in circumference, 
 and in weight numbers eight hundred and forty grains 
 to the ounce.* 
 
 tion every year or two since the year 182S, He spared no pains, nor expense, in 
 getting the best seed to sow in this clearing ; and for ten or twelve years after, 
 the best seed of the last product, specially culled, was with diligent care selected 
 for the newest field. 
 
 The result of this judicious and con.slstent attention, was the appeaiance in 
 market of Seed Rice, which became notorious for its purity and soundness. 
 
 Some years ago Col. Ward sup[)lied his plantation with the seed of this Pee 
 Dee plant. The winter after, while threshiiig out the crop produced from it, 
 his overseer, .Mr. Thompson, called his attention to a lew grains of uncommon 
 length, being a fraction of a broken head, which he picked up in the barn yard. 
 Directing it to be carefully preserved, he had it sown in the spring, and nursed 
 under the immediate inspection of the overseer. From these few grains, re{)ro- 
 dnced and replanted, year by year, and pre.served tlirough the many difficulties 
 and disasters of several years, is derived the fincy " long grain " Rice. For Col. 
 Ward's letter on its origin, see " Proceedings of the State Agricultural Society." 
 Report on Rice, 1843. pp. .55-6. 
 
 * The specimens whicli have been compared, and which are now before you, 
 are all the production of the same plantation, Nightingale Hall, Pee Dee. The 
 seed of each variety (there is but one .species, several varieties) is more or less 
 polluted with a degenerate grain, the same for the most part in size, and in color 
 of the chaff, as the original, but red within after being hulled, and much harder to 
 be cleaned in the pounding mill. This corruption of the grain is supposed to 
 have been occasioned by its continuous exposure in the fields, after the harvest- 
 home, to all changes of weather and temperature, also from long submersion in 
 the water of the ditches. It is called " red " or " volunteer Rice." The seeds 
 resting upon the surface, or slightly covered near it,vegetate earlier than the seed 
 regularly sown for a crop — those somewhat deeply covered by the soil vegetate 
 later. Both, the one and the other, however, mature before the crop rice, rather 
 
31 
 
 The system of culture for one is suitable for any of 
 these varieties. The first, it is said, will bear upland 
 culture better. The last (long grain) it is supposed, 
 will bear water better.It does not tiller as much, shoots 
 up a taller stock, and longer head, but does not bear as 
 many grains to the head as the other, and more com- 
 monly approved kind of gold seed. 
 
 We begin the preparation for a new crop by (cleaning 
 out the ditches every third year ; the drains are cleaned 
 out every year, after plowing) plowing the land as 
 soon after the harvest as the fields can be gleaned, and 
 the scattered rice, left on the surface, be sprouted. The 
 stubble is turned under by running a deep furrough, say 
 eight inches.* This may be continued until the end of 
 January. The sods should have the benefit of the entire 
 winter frosts, if possible, the influence of which disinte- 
 grates and prepares them duly for the leveling. 
 
 In March; or when about preparing to plant, the har- 
 rows will be made to pass over the plowed ground.f 
 The hoe follows to cut up and break the remaining 
 clods and level the surface. The more the soil is com- 
 minuted, and the surface brought to a common level, the 
 better. The trenchers then come in with hoes made for 
 the purpose, and trace out with great accuracy, the drills 
 
 than after. There is a kind so vicious aiid degenerate that it can never be gath- 
 ered, except when immature- As soou as the grains ripen, they drop in the field, 
 being dislodged by a puft'of wind, or a tt uch of the hand. Hence it is sometimes 
 called " drop-rice." 
 
 * Both plowing and harrowing are performed, ordinarily, by oxen — two yoke 
 being required if we go deeper than six to eight inches ; and two yoke get on 
 badly in the swamp. The Tuscany breed furnishes the best oxen for our climate^ 
 
 t After deep plowing the " plow turns" should be broken up with the spade, 
 sinking the spade as deep as the plow has gone, say eight inches; an able-bodied 
 man will break, up in this way, and thoroughly, a surface of fifteen hundred 
 square feet in a day. The field should be well drained however. 
 
in which to sow the seed fourteen, thirteen or twelve 
 inches apart from center to center. They will average 
 (some drawing stake-rows, and others filling up the 
 pannels) three quarters of an acre to the hand, in day's 
 work.* 
 
 The field now in high tilth, and resembling some- 
 what a garden spot, is ready for the seed. The sowers, 
 with great care, yet with wonderful facility and precis- 
 ion, string the seed in the drills, putting two and a half, 
 or two and a quarter bushels to the acre. The labor of 
 sowing depends so much upon the state of the weather, 
 whether windy, or moist, or otherwise, it is better not 
 to require any given task. Generally, each woman will 
 accomplish two to three tasksf and do it well — it should 
 never be done otherwise ; for the seed cannot be re- 
 covered if two thick, nor if two thin, can the sowing 
 be repeated without needless waste and increased irre- 
 gularity. 
 
 The best hands are chosen to sow Rice. In fine 
 April weather it is pleasing to behold the steady, grace- 
 ful progress of a good sower.f The sowing done, water 
 
 * When the land is new, the trench should be brnad, say five inche«, and the 
 rice may be scattered in the trench ; but for old land, and most of rice-land is now 
 old, narrow trenching hoes are preferred, opening a drill three inches wide. In- 
 fected with grass-seed and volunteer rice, old land requires close hoing, and every 
 seed that vegetates outside the drill is cut up and destroyed. 
 
 t The task in the Rice region of South-Carolina is( 150" 2 feet ) a half acre. This 
 is the unit of land measurement among the negroes, and with practical planters. 
 The acie, which is u rectangle (300 x 1^0 feet) made by two square i)alf acres, 
 contains 4.5,000 squar feel. 
 
 t It is a good plan to make handsome presents to the best sowers afterthe plant" 
 ing. When Rice is to be covered with water, without a pi'evious covering of earth 
 as described in the text, the seed must first be pi'epared by rolling it in clayed 
 water, for process of which see a note to the Memoir on Rice, p. 16 ; Appendix to 
 Rulhn's Agricultural Sin vey of Soulh-C;ir(;lina ; also the Sii]ipli'nient to the Pro- 
 ceedings of the State Agricultural Society. 'J'here are mgny planters who still 
 prefer the old system, covering the seed with earth, lu this case, after the seed 
 
33 
 
 is forthwith admitted, (two tides are better than one,) 
 and the field remains covered until the sprout becomes 
 green and begins to fork. The water must then be 
 withdrawn, else the plants will be forced to the surface, 
 by any slight agitation, and float away from their posi- 
 tion.* 
 
 In twenty days after, or thereabouts, the Rice is hoed 
 
 is covered, the water is taken on the field for five or six days, to sprout the 
 grain, when it is drawn oS", and is returned only when the sprout, " in the needle 
 stale," is seen fairly above ground. This, " the point-flow," is held about four 
 day« and then drawn off. After which the culture is the same as above described 
 throughout. 
 
 ' The reasoning for the successful substitution of a covering of water for a 
 covering of eaitli in planting Rice, and also fur tlie requisition of sound and per- 
 fectly full seed, will be found in the law of germination and growth. 
 
 Prof. Johnston thus expresses it : " When a seed is committed to the earth, if 
 the warmth and moisture are favorable, it begins to sprout. It pushes a shoot 
 upwards, it thrusts a root downwards ; but until the leaf expands and the root has 
 fairly entered the soil, the young plant derives no nouri.xhnient other than water, 
 either from the earth or from the air. It lives on the starch and gluten contained 
 in the seed." 
 
 In the case of Rice covered with water, the first shoot is radical and tends 
 downwards, but it does not take root until the air is admitted to the leaf, the lungs 
 of the plant, then it becomes rooted instantly. If the water be not reduced when 
 the sprout becomes green (until the sprout is green it cannot bear the rays of the 
 sun) the expanding of the leaf in the water will draw up the unfixed root and the 
 whole will rise and float upon the surface. 
 
 The water, after floating the trash to the banks, should at no lime be over deep, 
 least the process of germination be delayed, and with any ijnperlect or defective 
 grains be prevented altogether. I have known an entire .sowing of a field lost by 
 too deep flnodiiig. The field which was rather low (reclaimed marsh) vi'as sown 
 early in Apiil, and the water let on inconsiderately deep. At the end of sixteen 
 days I had the water drawn, and not a seed had germinated. The land was occa- 
 sionally subject to the influence of salt water, but the water u.sed was entirely 
 fresh and sweet. The field was replanted in same manner as before, and flowed 
 undei- my per.sonal supervision. The seed, selected from the same parcel, sprouted 
 readily, and the field yielded an abundant return. This was in 1840. 
 
 In Georgia, on one of Dr. Daniels' plantations near Savannah, the Italian 
 metliod has been pursued wiih a good degiee of success, namely: The seed is 
 fii'st sprouted, then scivvn broadrc.ast over the field and covered up by the harrow, 
 which, being reversed, is drawn over the surface. The culture theie is with 
 water chiefly. The planters on the Savannah river, where the land drains re- 
 markably well, realise twelve percent, from the proceeds of their crops. 
 
and flowed deep, the water over-topping the plant for 
 two or three days, in order to destroy the young grass 
 just springing up among the plants, and also the insects 
 that may have lodged upon the blades, or which may 
 have been generated among the stumps or roots, or stub- 
 ble. At the end of two or three days the water is 
 slacked down to about half the height of the plant, now 
 somewhat stretched. At this depth it is held until the 
 plants grow strong enough to stand erect, and will admit 
 the laborers to walk between the trenches and pull out 
 the long grass which shows itself, and which will now 
 yield to very slight effort. If any rushes appear they 
 will now be plucked up by the root and borne out to 
 the banks. 
 
 Two days after this weeding, the long water* will 
 gradually be drawn off. A succeeding tide will be 
 taken in and let off immediately, in order to wash out 
 the ditches. Two men, furnished, each with a long- 
 handled rake of curved iron teeth, are put to rake from 
 the ditches all the water-growth which impedes the 
 draining, placing it on the side of the bank. In eight 
 days (the land by that time should be dry) the smaller 
 hoesf are used, and the soil is stirred as deep as it can 
 be with them. The plant jubt recovering from the 
 
 * In Georgia, and elsewhere perhaps, this is called the " stretch flow " In that 
 State, as well as in some parts of Carolina, the practice is common to continue the 
 point flow into the " stretch" or long flow, without drawing the water until the 
 latter be over. This free use of water as it may be made to substitute one hoing, 
 may enable the planter to cultivate seven or eight acres to the hand, instead of 
 five and six as of old. But, the proprietor \\ bo suffers this meth(id to be prac- 
 ticed in his culture, year by year, if liis young crop be not often troubled by the 
 maggot or root worm, will probably find his land so polluted with water grasses 
 after several years, and so packed as to require rest and change of system to 
 ameliorate it. 
 
 t The hoe now used has been reduced, latterly, to four inches in breadth. 
 
35 
 
 effects of long water, and taking a dry growth, is putting 
 forth new green blades and fresh roots, which, not 
 long enough yet to be interfered with by the deep hoing, 
 very soon yield to the grateful influence of the air 
 admitted, shoot vigorously into the loosened earth, and 
 nourish a " good stalk." 
 
 In the course of fifteen or eighteen days, the field is 
 hoed cigain and weeded. This last hoing is also done 
 with the small hoes, but very lightly, to avoid disturbing 
 the roots which are now extended nearly midway be- 
 tween the trenches. 
 
 As the plant is now beginning to joint, the laborers 
 will step about with care, for if one be broken at the 
 joint it cannot be restored. A day or two after this 
 third hoing, the water is put on again, as deep as the 
 last long-flow, and is gradually increased in depth after 
 the rice-heads have fairly shot out. 
 
 This is called the "lay-by" flow,* Up to the time 
 of this flow, is about ninety days for Rice sown the first 
 week in April. After this, to the period of maturity is 
 from sixty to seventy days, during which the water is 
 often changed, and kept fresh,t but is never entirely 
 withdrawn, until the grain be ripe for the harvest. 
 Meantime, should any grass have escaped the previous 
 hoings and weedings, it will show its crest before the 
 
 * Some planters have this flow very shallow, insisting that a deep flow breeds 
 ■worms to the injury of the plant before it has shot out, in which case the only 
 remedy is to dry. 
 
 t The improved and best means of keeping the water fresh is to furnish the 
 field with two trunks — one to admit fresh water at every flood-tide, and the other 
 to void it with the ebb, so that twice in twenty-four hours there is obtained a 
 slight rtirrent through the field. This, besides lessening the infection of the 
 atmosphere ( miasmata) by stagnant water, keeps the roots of the plant cool and 
 healthy, though it postpones the ripening of the Rice some five or eight days. 
 
36 
 
 Rice matures, and be plucked up by the roots. All white 
 Rice will be stripped off by hand. 
 
 HARVEST. 
 
 And now the grain is ripe for the sickle. The time 
 for harvest is come. Gladsome, bounteous harvest ! A 
 season, it is true, of laborious exertion, but a season also 
 of cheerful emulation, of rustic, joyous festivity. The 
 Rice is cut a day before you will say it is fully ripe.* The 
 water is drawn off over night. Soon after the rising of 
 a bright autumn sun, the reapers are seen amid the thick 
 hanging grain, shoulder-high, mowing it down with the 
 old fashioned sickle, dealing brisk and dexterous, but 
 noiseless strokes. Before the dew is all gone, the Rice 
 is laid prostrate, even and orderly, across the porous 
 stubble. 
 
 The next day, when quite dry of dew, it is tied up in 
 sheaves, and borne away to the threshing yard, where 
 it is well stacked before the night dew falls heavy. — 
 This last heavy but gleeful labor completes the jfield- 
 culture of the Rice plant. 
 
 When the stack has undergone its curing heat, and 
 become cool again, the Rice is threshed out by one of 
 Emmons' Patent Machines, and sent to the pounding 
 mill to be cleaned. The mill performs ingeniously 
 enough the finishing process, thus : By steam power, 
 the rough-rice is taken out of the vessel which freights 
 it, up to the attic of the building — thence through the 
 sand-screen to a pair of (five feet wide) heavy stones, 
 which grind off the husk — thence into large wooden 
 
 • For Rice sown 1st April the harvest begins usually from the 1st to the lOth 
 of September. 
 
37 
 
 mortars, in which it is pounded by large iron-shod pes- 
 tles, (weighing 250 to 350 pounds,) for the space of 
 some two hours, more or less. 
 
 The Rice, now pounded, is once more elevated into 
 the attic, whence it descends through a rolling-screen, 
 to separate whole grains from the broken, and flour 
 from both ; and also through wind-fans, to a vertical 
 brushing screen, revolving rapidly, which polishes the 
 flinty grain, and delivers it fully prepared, into the barrel 
 or tierce, which is to convey it to market* 
 
 The barrel is made by coopers attached to the mill, 
 each one dresses his stuff and makes three barrels a day. 
 He is paid twenty-five cents for each barrel made over 
 his number. When the stufl' is dressed previously, five 
 barrels, and even more may be made.f 
 
 The profits of a Rice plantation of good size and 
 locahty, are about eight per cent, per annum, indepen- 
 dent of the privileges and perquisites of the plantation 
 residence. Privileges and perquisites, which are ne- 
 glected or undervalued by absentee proprietors, if not 
 absolutely thrown away. 
 
 * For information on Mills and Milling, see AUston'a Memoir on Rice. Also 
 Appendix to the same, D. E. F. Also, Report to Winyah and All Saints Agricul- 
 tural Society, April 1848. 
 
 For other particulars and experiments in the culture of Rice, see sundry reports 
 on the subject to the Patent Office Commissioner. Also, to the State Agricultural 
 Society ; Vol. of Proceedings, pp. 55, 88. 
 
 t The staves are of yellow pine, 40 inches in length; the heading of inch plank 
 is made twenty-four inches in diameter. The barrel should contain at least six 
 hundred pounds nett. The barrels from the Butler estate in Georgia, are much 
 larger, weighing eight hundred pounds and more. 
 
 There were several Machines for dressing staves, exhibited at the World's 
 Fair in New York. Glass 5 and 6, Nos. 92, 184, (Hawkins' — this I saw in opera- 
 tion, and admired.^ 384, 407. — Class 9, Nos. 11 and 14, are grain separators — 
 aluable to rice-planters for preparing seed. 
 
 5 
 
38 
 
 OF DRAINING AND MANURES. 
 
 The art of culture, however necessary, to be effectu- 
 ally taught by experience, and learned in practice, depends 
 upon principles, for the knowledge of which we are in- 
 debted to science. In proportion as these are understood, 
 and appreciated by farmers, will their system of practice 
 be more or less improved. When a good system is 
 applied with cheerful industry, patience, and persever- 
 ance, the grateful earth will seldom fail to yield her 
 increase. 
 
 Light, heat, air and water, are the great fertilizers, 
 furnished by bounteous Nature, for the intelligent use of 
 man. Every plowing, every hoeing, every flooding of 
 the fields, should be done in reference to the influence 
 of one or more of these universal agencies. 
 
 Without good draining, the most thorough prepara- 
 tion of the surface, and subsoil, the most diligent labor 
 after careful sowing, and the highest degree of manuring, 
 will fail of producing the desired result. Water may be 
 used so as partially to supersede its necessity in the 
 culture of Rice; but, ultimately, it will be followed by evil 
 effects on the land. 
 
 Manures of various kinds are freely used in Cotton 
 planting; Guano, with plaster, and with Kettlewell's 
 Salts, Mapes' preparation, and composts of litter with 
 muck, marsh-mud, sedge, and sometimes salt.^ 
 
 * Every stable whether for horses or cows, should be furnished with a tank, 
 and conduits for the collection and preservation of li..iuid manures, otherwise 
 so improvidently wasted. 
 
 Every Farm-pen also should be provided with some convenient receptacle for 
 the same, which is greatly more valuable than the dung of the cattle. A ditch 
 Cfour feet by three^ cut along the inner end of the stalls for oxen and cows, all 
 around the pen, and filled in with rice-straw, or leaves, or any thing else that will 
 absorb the liquid voided, is a plan which I have found answer very well, and 
 may do, for the want of a better. The ditch may be emptied once a month, and 
 refilled with fresh straw. 
 
39 
 
 In Rice-planting the practice of manuring* is of re- 
 cent origin, excepting of course that best of all dressings, 
 to which we are indebted for increment of the soil itself, 
 the natural deposit, namely, of sediment when the rivers 
 overflow their banks, or silt from seaward, when the 
 turbid waters, admitted into the fields, are held there, 
 undisturbed for days. A good time to apply rice-flour to 
 Rice, is to scatter it between the trenches immediately 
 after the long-flow. 
 
 Ifthe dressing be too heavy, the Rice, made too luxuri- 
 ant, will lodge, and waste in the harvest. In applying 
 lime (100 bushels is safe, if there be plenty of stubble, 
 or peaty fibre, or a thick native growth,) time should 
 be given for it to act chemically and to become incor- 
 porated with the soil, before water is put on the land. 
 
 Rice-strawf if hsted into the fallow ground, and well 
 covered up with a bed of earth, will be decomposed by 
 planting time, and make a fine manure, improving the 
 crop in both quantity and quality. 
 
 * See Dr. Heriot's Report on Manuring Rice-laud. Proceedings of Winyah and 
 All Saints Agricultural Society, April 20th, 1848, p. 16. 
 
 Ravenel's Report on Manures. Proceedings of State Agricultural Society, 
 p. 273. Patent Office Report on Manures, re-published in "Cotton Planter." 
 
 t In 1843, Mr. Ruffin, when treating of Manures in the low country (Agricul- 
 tural Survey, p. 83, j said " there is almost no straw, except oa Rice plaiuations 
 and where it is mostly thrown away. " 
 
 The worthy Surveyor was probably misled by observing the neglected barn- 
 yard of some absentee, or some Island Estate, not having attached thereto any 
 highland worth planting. The proprietor who should throw away his straw 
 either then or now, would be deemed by his neighbors a loose and thriftless 
 planter. It must be acknowledged, however, that since the publication of their Ana- 
 lysis by the Winyah and All Saints Agricultural Society, both the straw and chafl" of 
 Rice, have been preserved with more care, and used extensively in manuring both 
 swamp and highland. Prior to the Analysis \he chaff was mostly thrown away. 
 
 Dr. Edward T. Heriot, who originated the system of Manuring Swamp-land, 
 with Rice straw, has not only turned it to good recount in establishing his brand 
 in the marke*, but has derived from it large aid in provisioning his plantation 
 with Potatoes and Peas. He has furnished his neighbors not only with the exam; 
 pie, but, ihcTule also, by which they are enabled to profit equally with himself. 
 
40 
 
 Rice-chaff,* spread three or four inches thick over the 
 fallow ground, and plowed in, will produce a like effect 
 in course of time. It is not as readily decomposed as 
 the straw, and may disappoint early expectation. 
 
 Rice-flourf is a still better, more stimulating dressing, 
 but not so lasting in its effects. It may be applied 
 (thirty bushels to the acre) broad-cast, and plowed in 
 before planting, or it may be scattered between the 
 trenches after the long water, as above described. 
 
 Now, as to the labor, by means of which these crop^ 
 are raised — these important results, both commercial 
 and national, are obtained, the produce of which pays 
 for three-fourths of all imports into the country, ($260- 
 000,000). Our laborers are descendants of the African 
 bondsmen given to our ancestors by the mother country 
 at the same time that Indigo, and Rice and Cotton were 
 sent to them to cultivate. They are well fed and 
 clothed, well sheltered, and cared for in sickness, and 
 during the infirmities and helplessness of old age. They 
 are for the most part healthy, and cheerful, and, when 
 well trained, are very efificient laborers. 
 
 The negroes have provided for them all the necessa- 
 ries of life in sufficient abundance And they enjoy the 
 privilege of procuring many comforts and indulgencies. 
 
 For Dr. Heriot's method and its results in 1843, see Supplement to Tiausac 
 tionsof the State Agricultural Society. Memoir on Rice — Appendix C. Also 
 Transactions of the State Agricultural Society, p. 57. 
 
 * For an Analysis of the offals of Rice — ^ee a Report on the suliject by Prof. 
 Sheppard, to the Winyah and All Saints Agricultural Society, as published by that 
 Society. It is re-published in the Supplement to the Volume of Transactions of the 
 State Agricultural Society. 
 
 t For the consistant e.xperiment made with Rice-chaff and flour, we ore indebt- 
 ed to the late Joshua John Ward, whose observation, judgment and energy, iu 
 mana'^in'' his large Estate, were equaled by his humanity, hospitality, and willing- 
 ness to communicate. The eminence which he attained as a Planter, tho sim- 
 plicity of his character, and the sterling qualities of heart.which gained Lim many 
 
41. 
 
 In every Christian neighborhood, the means are afford- 
 ed of Missionary instruction in their duty to God and 
 toman. On most, well regulated plantations the young 
 negroes are taught specially; and to all, the way of 
 salvation is preached. In short, the educated master, 
 is the negro's best friend upon earth. But it is not 
 enough in all cases, that the preaching of the Gospel is 
 provided for our negroes ; they must be induced to seek 
 an interest in it — they must be won to obedience to 
 the divine law — to love the truth. Obviously the 
 strongest inducement, is example on our own part; 
 next, a just, consistent, systematic administration of 
 domestic government. Nothing sooner attracts the 
 confidence of the negro, and commands his respect, 
 than the illustration, in a system of management, of 
 justice, tempered by kindness. But enough — let us do 
 our present duty, kind Providence will smile upon our 
 efforts. 
 
 In proportion as we shall have performed well our 
 mission, so may we, with trust and hope, bequeath 
 our inheritance to posterity ; and so may each of us, 
 when prostrate under the hand of time, and hourly 
 expecting the summons of the last messenger on earth, 
 with humble confidence look up toward the bar of our 
 common Judge. 
 
 friends, procured for him in 1851, on the part of the Legislature, the spontaneous 
 offering of the honorary position of LU Govenor of South Carolina — on which he 
 retired from public life. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Si. Catharine's Island, January 21st, 1854. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 To ascertain with accuracy tlie amount of Sea-Islancl 
 Cotton produced in Georgia, the production of each county should 
 be known ; and to acquire this information, reference should be 
 made to intelligent individuals residing in each one, in the absence 
 of statistics ; but as this course has not been adopted, I necesarily 
 had recourse to the Factor of the Planters of said counties. This 
 estimate may be somewhat vague, but I would decide, that it ap- 
 proaches as near accuracy, as the date which has been assumed 
 will admit of. It is computed that 11,300 bales of Sea-Island 
 Cotton are produced in this State, weighing not less than 400 
 weight. I have assumed the maximum 6000 laborers — 1000 white 
 laborers, and 5000 negroes. 
 
 We will estimate the land cultivated by the former at $400,000, 
 and that cultivated by slaves at $1,500,000. The whites produ- 
 cing 3000 bales, to the slaves 8,300 bales. 
 
 To form an accurate estimate of the value of the slave capital 
 employed, we must embrace the old [negroes] and children, and 
 double thenumber — say 10,000 slaves, whose marketable value is 
 $4,000,000. For the past 5 years Cotton has averaged 20c. per lb. 
 
 Value of land cultivated by slaves,. .^ $1,500,000 
 
 Value of slaves employed in its cultivation 4,000,000 
 
 $5,500,000 
 8,300 bales of Cotton produced by slaves at 20 cts. 
 
 per pound, $664,000 
 
 Expenses, (this estimate may fall below the cost,) $100,000 
 
 $564,000 
 
 Adding to this estimate the yield exceeds 10 per cent. 
 
 It is not supposed that there is any deterioation of the capital 
 
 employed, for every judicious Planter improves his lands by a 
 
 judicious system. Keeps his buildings in good condition, and he 
 
44 APPENDIX. 
 
 realises a numerical increase of his slaves, of from four to eight per 
 cent from births. The increase of our negroes must be ascribed to 
 their improved condition in all respects. They are better fed, 
 their buildings are more comfortable, and they enjoy the benefits of 
 the improved system of husbandry, which, whilst it lightens the 
 physical labor, it enables the planter to apply them profitably to 
 the improvement of his lands, by a judiciovis system of manuring, 
 which is infinitely cheaper and more substantial, than any extra- 
 neous manures which come from abroad. The use of these 
 implements, (my remarks are exclusively applied to Sea-Island 
 Cotton Plantations) places it in the power of the Planter, to keep 
 employed a part of his force the whole year, except when he is 
 harvesting his crop, in collecting the material, and making manure. 
 He possesses advantages which no other agriculturist enjoys, and 
 if he does not avail himself of them, the fault rests with him, and 
 I am inclined to believe that from this neglect, he does injustice to 
 his negroes. If his crops are made in abundance, he has it in his 
 power to expend a little more money for their comfort and certainly 
 for his benefit. 
 
 I cannot but regret that circumstances beyond my control, have 
 prevented my answering your letter before. 
 
 I am, very respectively your obt. servt. 
 
 # # * 
 
 Robert W. Allston, 
 
 Georgetown, So. Ca. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following Communication to the Daily Mercury of 11 th Jan^y, 
 lSi9,from the 'pen of that eminent Naturalist, the Rev. Dr. Bach- 
 man, furnishes a reliable account of the Wild Rice of the Lahes. 
 
 MINNESOTA RICE. 
 
 Mr. Editor: Several articles, under the above head, have, 
 within the last few weeks, been going the rounds of the various 
 Newspapers in the United States, and I perceive one of a similar 
 character in the Mercury of yesterday morning, extracted from the 
 Journal and Messenger. 
 
 From the accounts published by Prof. Randall, of Cincinnati, 
 it would appear that this is " a new discovery of a new cereal 
 grain in the Territory of Minnesota ;" that " it is infinitely supe- 
 rior in taste, and far more nutritious than the Rice of the United 
 States ; grows abundantly as an indigenous production, and can 
 be cultivated to almost any extent in the rivers and lakes that 
 abound in that territory," Your western brother, the Editor of 
 the Journal and Messenger, ventures the opinion, that '"the Min- 
 nesota Rice will, in time, be found to be of infinitely greater value 
 than the far-famed gold mines of California." The latter predic- 
 tion may prove true. 
 
 Should our planters, however, from the above glowing descrip- 
 tions, entertain any fears that this new western production should 
 supplant the Carolina Rice, I would invite their attention to the 
 few following facts : 
 
 The Minnesota Rice is the article known in our Northern, Western 
 and some of our Southern States, under the name of "Wild Rice," 
 " Zizania Aquatica ;" sometimes it is called wild oats. It abounds 
 in the rivers and lakes of Western New York, Pennsylvania, 
 
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