SOUTH CAROLINA. 



813 



by the merchants, notwithstanding their first 

 lien on the crop, are said to be not less on the 

 average than forty per cent. A large number 

 of the emigrants as many as one thousand 

 removed to Beaufort County instead of to Ar- 

 kansas. In the Sea Islands the Republicans 

 have the lead, and a considerable colonization 

 of negroes from the northern and middle coun- 

 ties of the State had been going on before. 

 Besides the prospects presented to farmers 

 there was an active demand for labor at higher 

 wages in the phosphate-mines. Similar causes 

 attracted many to Charleston, Colleton, and 

 Hampton Counties. The movement was not 

 confined to Edgefield County, but spread to 

 different parts of Central and Northern South 

 Carolina. 



There were in attendance in the public 

 schools in 1881 a total number of 133,458 pu- 

 pils, 61,339 white and 72,119 colored. The 

 number of schools in operation was 3,057; the 

 number of teachers employed 3,249. The 

 average session was 3f months. There were 

 84 more schools and 78 more teachers than in 

 the preceding year. The school fund for the 

 year was in the neighborhood of $420,000. 

 The constitutional school-tax of two mills is 

 collected and disbursed by the county authori- 

 ties. The financial management of the school 

 fund is now satisfactory, and all claims are 

 promptly paid ; whereas in 1877 there were 

 $209,940 in unliquidated orders outstanding in 

 the different counties, and these were sold in 

 the market for twenty-five cents and less on 

 the dollar. Many of the counties have cleared 

 off all their past indebtedness. 



The fund donated by the Federal Govern- 

 ment for the establishment of agricultural and 

 mechanical schools is applied to the support 

 of two schools. One is the school at Orange- 

 burg connected with Claflin College, devoted 

 to the instruction of colored youth, in which 

 390 students were taught during the year. 

 The other is a similar school for white youth, 

 more recently opened at Columbia, in which 

 there were 59 students in attendance. It is 

 proposed to re-open the old Military Academy 

 at Charleston when the United States Govern- 

 ment restores to the possession of the State 

 the Citadel, which it has occupied as a military 

 post. 



The Penitentiary, in 1881, for the first time 

 sustained itself and made the necessary per- 

 manent improvements out of the earnings of 

 the convicts, leaving untouched, in the Treas- 

 ury, an appropriation of $23,000 for prison 

 improvements, and having a cash balance of 

 $15,000 ahead. The system of leasing out the 

 convicts it is thought necessary to retain for 

 the present ; but improvements in the methods 

 are proposed, such as having the overseers and 

 guards appointed and paid by the penitentiary 

 authorities ; leasing them only for work which 

 does not require them to be removed from 

 place to place, and requiring the contractors to 

 build suitable barracks; and avoiding special 



legislation directing the prison authorities to 

 lease out the convicts for specific and local en- 

 terprises. The employment of the convicts 

 upon the large State plantations below Colum- 

 bia has not been attended with success. 



The Lunatic Asylum absorbs over one third 

 of the aggregate current expenditures of the 

 State. The number of inmates in 1881 was 

 490, all but twenty-five of whom were sup- 

 ported by the State as paupers. To prevent 

 the abuse of burdening the State with the sup- 

 port of lunatics who should be maintained by 

 their families, it is proposed to return to the 

 system in use before the war, and require the 

 counties to support those whom their officials 

 send as paupers to the asylum, just as they are 

 now required to levy the taxes for the mainte- 

 nance of their other poor. 



The number of farms in South Carolina in- 

 creased between 1870 and 1880, according to 

 the census of 1880, from 51,889 to 93,864, or 

 80-9 per cent, while the increase between 1850 

 and 1860 had been from 29,967 to 33.171, or 

 only 10 - 7 per cent. The ratio of increase was 

 considerably greater than in Georgia, which 

 came nearest to South Carolina in the extent 

 of the transformation which the land system 

 has undergone, but which is not nearly as 

 much confined to agriculture as is South Caro- 

 lina. Of the 93,864 separate farms in the 

 State, 46,645 were occupied by the owners, 

 21,974 were rented for a fixed money rental, 

 and 25,245 were worked on shares. Classified 

 according to size, there were 7,153 farms un- 

 der 10 acres in extent, of which 1,202 were 

 farmed by their owners, 4,464 paid a fixed 

 money rental, and 1,467 were worked on 

 shares; 12,519 farms of between 10 and 20 

 acres, of which 2,609 were farmed by owners, 

 5,096 for a money rental, and 4,814 on shares; 

 27,517 between 20 and 50 acres in extent, 

 5,914 of which were occupied by the owners, 

 8,443 paid a money rental, and 13,160 were 

 worked on shares; 13,612 farms of between 

 50 and 100 acres, 8,750 of which were farmed 

 by the owners, 1,866 for a fixed rent, and 

 2,996 on shares; 27,735 farms between 100 

 and 500 acres in extent, of which 23,358 were 

 farmed by the owners, 1,811 for a money rent- 

 al, and 2,566 on shares ; and 5,328 farms 

 over 500 acres in extent, 4,812 of which were 

 farmed by the owners, 294 on a money rental, 

 and 222 on shares. 



The total value of farm-lands and improve- 

 ments, implements, and live-stock, was re- 

 ported in the three last decennial censuses as 

 follows : 



The acreage of improved and unimproved 

 land at the different periods was as follows: 



