338 ' [Senate 



prepare the grain for market, it will be found that the culture of 

 the grasses might be introduced with advantage not only on the aban- 

 doned meadow lands of the inland swamps, but as a profitable alter- 

 nation of those situated on tide water. It will appear scarcely credi- 

 ble, in countries where the true principles of husbandry are under- 

 stood, and lands are kept in heart by a proper rotation of crops, that 

 on many of the tide swamp plantations the soil has been cultivated 

 every year in rice for a century past, without rest and without change ; 

 and such is the practice on all the rice lands in South Carolina. And 

 yet under this extraordinary course, they yield from forty-five to six- 

 ty bushels of grain to the acre, owing to the natural strength and fer- 

 tility of the soil, and the free use of water. As the different methods 

 of cultivating rice are probably known to very few of the northern 

 farmers, and as it is a subject of curious interest to those who are en- 

 gaged in agricultural pursuits, I will endeavor to explain them as 

 briefly as possible. The broad margins of alluvial soil which border 

 the rivers in the low country of South Carolina, are fitted for the 

 culture of rice nearly as high as the tides flow up them. These mar- 

 gins, when unreclaimed, are heavily timbered with the deciduous cy- 

 press, tupelo, and other trees which delight in a humid soil, for in 

 ordinary seasons their roots are covered with water, at each return of 

 the tide, and during the freshets so'frequent on these rivers, remain so 

 for days and weeks together. These rich bottom lands are cleared 

 and surrounded by an embankment of earth, which is furnished with 

 a sufficient number of trunks, a very simple and ingenious contrivance 

 answering the purpose of flood-gates, alternately to admit and to drain 

 off the water with the flow and ebb of the tide. About twelve feet 

 within this embankment, runs abroad ditch which extends around the 

 field, and receives the water from the smaller ditches that intersect 

 the land at distances varying from thirty to fifty feet. The fields, 

 which rarely embrace an area of more than twenty-five acres, are se- 

 parated from each other by strong embankments called cross dams. 

 The field thus laid out, is prepared to receive the seed with the ut- 

 most care. The soil is broken up with the plow, and after being 

 harrowed, is gone over with the hoe, so as to break up all the clods. 

 In this condition it is laid off" in drills fourteen inches apart, into which 

 the seed is sowed by the hand, at the rate of from two to two and a 

 half bushels an acre. Two methods of sowing the seed are practiced ; 

 the one is to cover it by drawing over it the earth thrown up along 

 the edges of the drills ; the other is, to soak the seed in water well sa- 

 turated with clay, which effectually prevents it from floating off" when 

 the water is let on the field, as it is immediately after sowing, in both 

 cases. The practice being in the first method to suff"er the water to 

 remain only five or six days, whereas when the rice is clayed, the 

 field is covered for a much longer period. Until very lately, the only 

 method of cultivating this aquatic plant was to let the water on and 

 off from time to time, weeding and hoeing the rice three times in the 

 season, and after the third hoeing, to cover the field with water un- 

 til the grain was matured. The land was then dried and the harvest 

 commenced. Many planters now prefer the water culture, or sixty 



