32 THE COAST RKGION. 



the cominuiiity Avith .such articles of food and dress as arc required. Most 

 of the men are engaged at the pliosphate works, or on the wharves at Port 

 Royal, and the heft of tlie farm work is performed by the women and 

 children. Land is worth $10 to |15 an acre. (See opposite table, showing- 

 relation of size of farms, number of work stock and production.) 



CREDITS AND ADVANCES. 



Purchasing supplies on a credit prevails to a considerable extent,, 

 especially among the small farmers. The exact rate at which these 

 advances are made cannot be given, as it is not charged as interest, but 

 is included in an increased price asked for supplies purchased on credit. 

 It varies from twenty to one hundred per cent, above the market value 

 of the goods, according to the amount of competition among the 

 store-keepers, who here, as elsewhere in the State, are b}'' far the most 

 prosperous class of the community, in proportion to the skill and capital 

 employed. The better class of farmers do not approve of this credit 

 system. It furnishes facilities to small farmers, and encourages them to 

 undertake operations they cannot make remunerative to themselves ; it 

 reduces the number of laborers, and precludes high culture. The rental 

 value of land is thus increased, and land which could not be sold for $10 

 may be rented for $5. The thriftless culture resulting from the small 

 farms, unduly multiplied by this unhealthy stimulus of credit, causes 

 many acres to be thrown yearly out of cultivation. Thus the increasing 

 demand to rent land, in consequence of the increasing facilities for credit 

 to small farmers, and the constantly diminishing area of arable land, 

 resulting from the very imperfect system of culture their lack of means- 

 forces them to adopt, create high rents, injurious to the small former, 

 and impoverishes the landlord by deteriorating the quality of his land, 

 as well as by abstracting the labor he could employ iu remunerative 

 culture. 



TILLAGE AND IMPROVEMENT. 



The sea islands have, since 1866, enjoyed a law special to them, requir- 

 ing the owners of live stock to enclose them. Owing to this and to the 

 numerous creeks and marshes that intersect these islands, and which 

 serve as natural divisions, when required, between the different fields^ 

 fences are not a burden on the agriculture of the coast lands, and there 

 is comparatively little fencing. 



Drainage, although said by Gov. Seabrook to be so little attended to on 

 the sea islands as to be scarcely worthy of being considered a regular ag- 

 ricultural operation, has of necessity always been practised to some extent. 



