78 THE UPPER PINE BELT. 



The great August freshet of 1852 injured one-third of the crop so that it 

 could only be fed to hogs. Tlie fluctuations of yield from eight to eighty- 

 five was due to the seasons to a very small extent, and resulted chiefly 

 from neglect of this field for larger interests. 



2d. The other descriptions of swamps arc known as bays, or upland 

 swamps, and creek bottoms. They occur on the smaller streams, and 

 rarely exceed two miles in width. They are also found in bodies of seve- 

 ral thousand acres in the pine lands, on the second levels from the rivers — 

 probably ancient lakes, choked up with water-growth. The soil is black, 

 consisting largely of decomposed vegetable matter, with a depth of three 

 to fifteen feet, resting usually on white sand. The following analysis was 

 made by Professor Shepard, of a sample taken from the swamp of South 

 Edisto river : 



Organic matter 28.00 



Silica 60.00 



Alumina 4.00 



Oxide of iron 3.40 



Lime 0.50 



Potash and soda trace 



Water and loss 5.10 



100.00 



From 1845 to 1860, a good deal in the way of clearing these lands was 

 done. Since then they have been much neglected, of necessity, and are 

 relapsing into their original state. They are not suitable for cotton, but 

 produce large crops of corn. The Cowden plantation gave for twelve 

 years, without manure of any sort, an average yield of thirty-five bushels 

 of corn per acre, on 600 to 900 acres in one field. One year 600 acres gave 

 an average of sixty-two and one-third bushels of corn per acre. Now it 

 does not produce even enough to feed the stock of the negro renters, who are 

 cultivating patches of cotton on its margin, owing to the abandonment of 

 all drainage. 



Under the system of agriculture, at present pursued, the chief atten- 

 tion is paid to the more easily tilled, but less fertile uplands.^ Neverthe- 

 less, there is in the upper pine belt a body of 600,000 acres of productive 

 corn land, now almost wholly neglected, but once cultivated with great 

 profit, when corn was worth only fifty to sixty cents a bushel, capable now 

 of yielding fifty per cent, more than the present entire corn crop of the 

 State. 



