THE COAST REGION. 31 



per annum, larger tracts for less. And there is a state of things which 

 tends to reduce the saleable value of lands, while it increases the rental 

 value of it. 



West of St. Helena sound, land is almost without exception in the 

 hands of small negro farmers, either as tenants or ^proprietors. Much of 

 this land, valued formerly at $40 to $60 an acre, was confiscated, as a 

 war measure, by the U. S. government. A good deal of it was purchased 

 hy negroes at the government sales, at $1.25 an acre, on credit, and is still 

 owned by them. The size of the land-holdings is from one to twenty 

 acres, and nowhere is more than fifteen acres of cotton cultivated under 

 one management. Much of the land is uncultivated, and the remainder, 

 in small patches, varying from one-eighth of an acre and less to three 

 acres in size, is planted in corn, cotton and sweet potatoes, curiously 

 intermingled. Nowhere in the State, not even among the gardens on 

 Charleston Neck, is the system of small culture so strikingly illustrated. 

 The farmers usually own a cow, a mule or horse, and the work stock is 

 sufficiently numerous, though of a very inferior quality. Farm fixtures 

 are of the simplest and cheapest description. There is seldom any shelter 

 for the stock, the cabin of the proprietor being generally the only house 

 on the premises. The stock is fed on marsh* grass, with a little corn, and 

 is, in a large measure, subsisted by being picketed out, when not at work, 

 to graze on such weeds as the fallow spontaneously furnishes. Plows 

 are numerous enough, but the chief reliance is upon the hoe, which, for 

 several generations, was the only implement known to agriculturists on 

 this coast. These small negro farmers have enjoyed many advantages. 

 They bought their lands on easy terms, at one-thirtieth to one-fiftieth of 

 their value. They had the benefit of the famine prices of cotton during 

 the war for their staple product. Since the war, the industries connected 

 with the working of the phosphate rock in the rivers, and on the main 

 lands adjacent to them, have furnished the men with employment at 

 higher wages than could be obtained elsewhere in the State. The 

 opening of the railway to Port Royal harbor has, also, made a demand 

 for labor in loading and unloading vessels, at a better per diem than was 

 elsewhere obtainable. Graded schools were early established here, and 

 have been maintained on a large scale, uninterruptedly, for many 3'ears. 

 Fish, oysters and game abound, and poultry, as chickens, ducks and 

 turkeys, do particularly well. This adds largely to the ease with which 

 these people subsist. They live comfortably, happily and peacefully. 

 All the larger houses and buildings about the old farmsteads have rotted 

 down or been burned down, and have been replaced by small cabins and 

 a few country stores, where the traders, invariably white men, who take no 

 part in the cultivation of the soil, collect and dispose of the crop and supply 



