SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 363 



uplands, may average $2.50 an acre, and yield about two 

 barrels, (ten bushels,) to the acre. The best corn land 

 on the river will average 10 barrels. 



In connection with this subject, I give the following 

 statement of another place near Tarborough, upon which 

 the principal crop is cotton. The average number of full 

 hands, 25, and average amount of expenses per annum, 

 $650, of which 300 is for overseer's wages. It is worthy 

 of remark, that the same overseer has been in the same 

 employ fourteen years. The proprietor took possession 

 of the place in 1844, and the sales that year amounted to 

 $1,500. 



In 1845, $2,500. 1846, $4,200. 1847, $4,500 1848, 

 $4,600. 1849, $4,200, leaving still on hand about $400 

 worth of surplus. During the same time, complete new 

 buildings and fences have been erected, and the value of 

 the land more than doubled, and more than quadrupled in 

 productiveness. 



Now how has this been accomplished? By ditching 

 and draining swamp land, naturally rich, but too wet to 

 produce any crop ; by using improved plows, and plowing 

 the old fields up deeply ; by creating manure for the poor 

 barren sands; but principally by digging and spreading 

 immense quantities of marl, or rather, seashell deposites, 

 which, until now, had lain idle and useless, while the 

 former owner was starving. This marl contains about 

 thirty per cent, of carbonate of lime, and in some in- 

 stances has been used at the rate of 600 bushels to the 

 acre, so that from being one of the poorest, this farm has 

 now become one of the most productive in the country. 

 His average to the hand, last year, was $222, and al- 

 though cotton brought a high price per pound, his crop 

 was unusually light — 200 acres produced 53,000 pounds. 

 He makes all his provisions, and nearly all his clothing. 

 His rations are five pounds of pork per week, for all field 

 hands, and all the bread and vegetables they will eat. He 

 now averages six barrels of corn to the acre upon land, 

 that, before it was marled, would not average two. Plants 

 cotton last of April and corn first of May. 



