SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 353 



Or a fraction less than 65 cents per bushel, exclusive of 

 the broken rice and flour. The first is just as valuable for 

 food as the whole grain, and is used for feeding the peo- 

 ple ; and the flour is worth as much as corn meal for stock. 



The average crop of rice upon the Cooper-River lands, 

 may be set down at 40 bushels. Upon some small tracts, 

 90 bushels to the acre have been made. 



Col. Carson's last crop was 800 bbls. which is about six 

 and two thirds barrels to the hand, and 24 bushels to the 

 acre. This, he says, is less than half a usual crop, owing 

 to the dry season, which kept the river so salt that he 

 could not flood the crop when most needed. 



The average yield of corn he estimated at 15 bushels, 

 oats 20 bushels, and sweet potatoes 100 bushels, to the 

 acre. The corn ground is "listed" in the winter ; that is, 

 all the stubble and trash hoed into the space between the 

 rows and covered with earth. Upon this additional dirt 

 is hoed, and the corn planted about the 20th of March till 

 20th of April, and thinned to one stalk, two and a half by 

 five feet. Oats are planted in drills by hand in January 

 and February, and cultivated with hoes. Sweet potatoes 

 are planted from middle of March to middle of April, and 

 by layers, (that is, cuts of vines,) until July. He usually 

 plants about one fourth of his crop with seed and the 

 balance with layers. Corn is ripe in August, and usually 

 harvested in October. He aims to cultivate six acres of 

 rice to the hand, and upland enough to furnish them all 

 the corn and potatoes they can eat. Upon none of the 

 rice plantations is it customary to give rations of meat ; 

 and it is alledged that the people are more healthy upon 

 vegetable food. 



Col. Carson made one year 45,000 bushels of rice with 

 120 hands, which is 375 bushels to the hand, and 75 bush- 

 els to the acre. 



The estimated value of a rice plantation is from $150 

 to $200 an acre for the rice land, and nothing for the re- 

 mainder ; so that in purchasing Dean Hall, at the highest 

 price, you would get the whole tract for about four dollars 

 an acre, including a very large tide-water hulling mill, 



