344 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

 Mr. Robinson's Tour — No. 14. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 9:49-51; Feb., 1850'] 



[January ?, 1850] 



Sivamp Draining. — This has been done by Governor 

 Hammond,-' of Silver Bluff, South Carolina, to a greater 

 extent than by any other person of my acquaintance. 

 When I visited his place, in April last, he had about 600 

 acres in cotton, upon land that three years ago was 

 almost impenetrable swamp; full of timber, living and 

 dead, and matted together by running vines, with a soil 

 five or six feet deep, but so soft, that, even after it was 

 cleared of timber, a horse could not walk over it, nor until 

 some time after it had been thoroughly drained. In fact, 

 one of the swamps, (there are three different tracts 

 drained,) was covered with 2 to 4 feet of water, consti- 

 tuting what is known as a "cypress pond." These swamps 

 are basins, or natural depressions in the upland, which is 

 here all composed of a light, sandy soil, interspersed v/ith 

 swamps, which heretofore have never been successfully 

 cultivated, although everywhere abounding in the south, 

 and possessing the same general characteristics as these 

 upon Governor Hammond's land. 



He first commenced with a tract containing 170 acres. 

 Being one of the most practical of men himself, he avoided 

 a very common course among southern gentlemen, who 

 act altogether too much upon the principle that some- 

 times induces sporting men to "go it blind ;" and there- 



^ Reprinted in Southern Cultivator, Augusta, Georgia, 8:37-38 

 (March, 1850). 



■ James Henry Hammond, born November 15, 1807, at Stoney 

 Battery, Newberry District, South Carolina; died November 13, 

 18G4. Editor of Columbia Southern Times, 1830. Moved to Silver 

 Bluff on the Savannah River and operated a cotton plantation, 

 1831. Representative in Congress, 1835-1836. Governor of South 

 Carolina, 1842-1844. In 1855 moved to Redcliffe on Beach Island 

 in the Savannah River. Owned thousands of acres and over three 

 hundred slaves. Scientific and highly practical farmer. A founder 

 of the South Carolina Agricultural Society. Contributor to De 

 Bow's Review, 1849, 1850. United States Senator, 1857-1860. See 

 sketch in Dictionary of American Biography, 8:207-8. 



