SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 241 



$17,894.48, or a fraction over five cents and four mills a 

 pound, including freight and commission, as well as in- 

 terest upon a fair valuation of property. 



The cost, exclusive of freight and commission, and in- 

 cluding interest, of making 128,000 pounds upon the 

 "cane brake lands of Alabama," last year, was $6,676.80, 

 a fraction over five cents and two mills a pound. 



This is considered the richest cotton land in the world ; 

 and, although the crop was called a small one, it was 

 probably about an average one. 



The field hands upon this place numbered seventy-five, 

 counting all over twelve years old, which gives a fraction 

 less than four and one-third bales to each. 



Now this crop has to be hauled over about twenty-five 

 miles of the worst road in the world, when wet, as they 

 usually are at the time the crop is ready to go to market, 

 and then down the difficult and dangerous navigation of 

 the Tombigbee river. 



I am satisfied that these two crops give a better show- 

 ing than three fourths of the cotton crops of the United 

 States. My own opinion is, that whenever cotton is be- 

 low six cents it does not pay interest upon the capital 

 invested, except perhaps in some few cases. 



Below I give a table of items of expense upon the first 

 plantation mentioned. This is owned by Col. J. N. Wil- 

 liams,^ of Society Hill, and lies upon what is called the 

 swamp lands of the Peedee river. These items are nec- 

 essary to show that I have not stated the expense too 

 high: 



The capital consists of — 

 4200 acres of land (2,700 in cultivation) at 



$15 $63,000 00 



'John Nicholas Williams, born at Society Hill, South Carolina, 

 July 2, 1797; died April 12, 1861, at Baltimore. Son of David Rog- 

 erson Williams, planter, statesman, manufacturer, and governor of 

 South Carolina, who died in 1830, leaving several large estates to 

 John Nicholas. Interested in scientific agriculture and the manu- 

 facture of agricultural products. See Cook, Harvey Toliver, The 

 Life and Legacy of David Rogerson Williams (New York, 1916). 



