INTRODUCTORY. 7 



some fifty-five hundred square miles of swamp lands, which, though 

 naturally, when reclaimed, of almost inexhaustible fertility, remain to 

 this day for the most part waste, the prolific source of the miasms so 

 deleterious to the health of this region. Numerous suggestions to remedy 

 this evil have been made, but as yet nothing has been attempted on a 

 scale commensurate with the importance of the undertaking. The 

 Legislature even refused, in 1846, to grant a charter to a company 

 proposing to prolong the channel of the Edisto in a direct line through 

 Wassamassaw swamp to the Ashley river ; and a suggestion of a similar 

 character, for straightening the Santee through to the Cooper river, and 

 draining, thereby. Biggin, Fair Forest, Walleye, and the numerous 

 adjacent swamps, made by Governor Seabrook, in 1848, met with no 

 response. Such works would have reclaimed for the plow large bodies 

 of soil, consisting of fine mud and decomposing vegetable matter, resting, 

 "^t a depth of five to ten feet, on marl or gravel ; restored the adjoining 

 uplands to remunerative culture; and would have established on a 

 secure foundation the healthfulness of the entire region. 



PHYSICAL AND AGRICULTURAL REGIONS. 



In addition to the two grand divisions of South Carolina already dwelt 

 upon into the " up-country " and " low-country," it will facilitate the con- 

 sideration of the agricultural characteristics of the State to treat of them 

 under certain minor natural and parallel sub-divisions, which are quite 

 well marked. These are as follows : 



I. 77(6 Coast Region, It coincides very nearly with the post pleiocene 

 formation, rareh' extending inland more than ten miles from the shore 

 line. It consists — 



1st. Of the Sea Islands lying south of Santee river, and containing 

 about eight hundred square miles. 



2d. The salt marshes, uncovered at low tide, bordering and intercalating 

 with the Sea Islands, capable of being reclaimed, and embracing six 

 hundred square miles. 



3d. The continuous shore line. north of Santee river and Georgetown 

 entrance, three hundred square miles in extent. 



II. The Lower Pine Belt or Savannah Region, lying inland and j)arallel ivith 

 the Coast Region. It has a width of about fifty miles, attains a maximum 

 elevation above the sea of one hundred and thirty feet. It may be 

 divided, 



1st. Into the region below the influence of the tides, the rice fields of 

 South Carolina. 



