No. 85.] 337 



AGRICULTURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY HON. J. R. POINSETT. 



The Homestead, 

 On Saluda River j near Greenville^ S. C"., 



September, 1844. 



Dear Sir : — On recurring to the very comprehensive inquiries em- 

 braced in your circular of March last, I find, by retaining it so long 

 without reply, that I have assumed a task which my limited know- 

 ledge and experience will scarcely enable me to perform in a satisfac- 

 tory manner. This reflection, I acknowledge, comes too late, and I 

 will endeavor to describe the agricultural condition of South Carolina 

 by the aid of such information as I possess, and that collected from 

 authorities worthy of credit. 



For many years after the settlement of this State, indigo was the 

 only agricultural product raised for a foreign market in the rich al- 

 luvial lands of the lower and middle country, and tobacco in the in- 

 terior above tide water, and as far within the granite region as the 

 country was settled. The first great change in the agriculture of 

 South Carolina, was made by the introduction of rice, which was first 

 cultivated on an extensive scale about the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century. In the very interesting memoir of R. F. W. 

 Allston, Esq., on the introduction and cultivation of rice in South 

 Carolina, published in Charleston, in 1843, it is stated that " at first 

 rice was cultivated on the high land, and on little spots of low ground 

 as they were met with here and there. These low grounds being 

 found to agree better with the plant, the inland swamps were cleared 

 for the purpose of extending the culture. In the process of time, as 

 the fields became too grassy and stubborn, they were abandoned for 

 new clearings ; and so on until at length was discovered the superior 

 adaptation of the tide lands, and the great facilities for irrigation af- 

 forded by their location. For these the inland plantations were grad- 

 ually and slowly abandoned, and that great body of land which little 

 more than a century ago furnished for exportation over 50,000 bar- 

 rels of rice, now lies utterly waste, constituting, where trees have not 

 overgrown it, the finest natural pasture which could be desired." 



It is much to be regretted that these fine meadow lands should re- 

 main unreclaimed, for they might be rendered highly productive with 

 very little outlay, if cultivated in lucerne or clover, rye grass, and 

 timothy. Once drained and well set in grass, even the common crab 

 grass of the country, these lands would yield from one to two tons 

 of good hay, which is never worth less in Charleston than from fif- 

 teen to twenty dollars the ton. When the small amount of labor ne- 

 cessary to produce this result is considered and compared with that 

 required to prepare, sow and tend the land for a rice crop, and to 



[Senate, No. 85. J W 



