10 INTRODUCTORY. 



cess'to a degree incalculable without some standard of reference as to the 

 value of human labor, on which the drudgery of this toil had rested for 

 ages. In 1828, one hundred and seventy-five thousand and nineteen 

 tierces were exported, and the crop of 1850 exceeded two hundred and 

 fifty thousand tierces, that of 18()0 was something less, and in 1870 the 

 product tumbled headlong to fifty-four thousand tierces. 



INDIGO. 



In 1742, George Lucas, governor of Antigua, sent the first seeds of the 

 indigo plant to Carolina, to his daughter, Miss Eliza Lucas (afterwards the 

 mother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney). With much perseverance, 

 after several disappointments, she succeeded in growing the plant and ex- 

 tracting the indigo from it. Parliament shortly after placed a bounty on 

 the production of indigo in British |)Ossessions and this crop attained a 

 rapid development in Carolina. In 1754, two hundred and sixteen thou- 

 sand nine hundred and twenty-four pounds and in 1775, one million 

 one hundred and seven thousand six hundred and sixty pounds were 

 produced. But the war with the mother country, the competition of in- 

 digo culture in the East Indies, the unpleasant odor emitted and the 

 swarms of flies attracted by the fermentation of the weeds in the vats, but 

 above all the absorbing interest in tlie cotton crop, caused the rapid de- 

 cline of its culture, and in the early part of this century it had ceased to 

 be a staple product, although it was cultivated in remote places as late as 

 1848. 



* INDIAN CORN. 



Indian corn, the grain which, " next to rice, supplies food to the largest 

 number of the human race, * * the most valuable gift of the new 

 world to the old," as a plant unknown to European culture, and in ill 

 repute as the food of the ever hostile red man, received little attention 

 from the early settlers. Nevertheless, with the steadiness that marks true 

 merit, it worked its way to the front rank among the crops grown in the 

 State. As early as 1739 it had become an important article of export and 

 continued such until after 1792, in which year ninety-nine thousand 

 nine hundred and eighty-five bushels were exported. About this time, 

 in consequence of the absor})tion by cotton of all surplus energy, it fell 

 from the list of exports and shortly after entered tliat of imports, on 

 which to-day — taken in all its forms — it stands the largest. But its cul- 

 ture was )>y no means abandoned ; on the contrary, the crop grew in size 

 with the increase of the population. In 18^0, more than sixteen millions 



