106 THE UPPER PINE BELT. 



the land is darker and finer. To the south, there is a gray loamy soil, 

 resting at one foot to three feet on bright red clay. The ridges on what 

 is known as the " slashes," is a mulatto soil on dark red clay, beneath the 

 clay, white sand, mixed with gravel, is found. Growth, long and short 

 leaf pine, with the usual swamp growths on the water courses. Crops, 

 eight hundred pounds seed cotton, ten bushels corn, twenty bushels oats, 

 twenty bushels rice per acre. The sandy lands were formerly considered 

 worthless, a bale to three acres was unusual ; now with manures and ju- 

 dicious culture, an average of 1,500 pounds to 2,000 pounds seed cotton 

 is not uncommon. Farmers now who do not make their supplies and a 

 bale to the acre are not considered as doing well, e. //., a farm of three 

 hundred and thirty acres in cotton made, last year, three hundred and 

 forty-six bales ; on smaller fields more has been made ; last year a farm 

 of twenty acres made 44,600 pounds seed cotton. Besides thorough til- 

 lage, twenty or thirty loads of straw or litter, one hundred pounds to tw^o 

 hundred pounds Kainit, with one hundred and fifty pounds or two hun- 

 dred pounds of superphosphate or of Peruvian guano, is appUed to the 

 acre. The " Thomas grape," a fine variety scuppernong, was first culti- 

 vated here, and is still found wild. Farm wages, for men. fifty cents a 

 day ; for w^omen, thirty cents; one-eighth of the field w^ork is performed 

 by whites ; some fever near the river, otherwise remarkably healthy. 

 Improved lands rent for five dollars an acre, unimproved for a four hun- 

 dred pound bale for a one-horse crop. Lands sell from three dollars to 

 one hundred dollars an acre. 



Lef/eWs, {E. D. 93) : Rolling clay lands, sometimes flat and low. The 

 sandy soils are level and dry. The subsoil mostly a yellow clay, some of 

 red, or yellow sand. Sand is found again four feet to ten feet beneath 

 the clay, and in some places marl occurs. Wages of field labor, forty 

 cents to fifty cents a day, four dollars to eight dollars a month. One- 

 half of the field w^ork done by whites. Knows of no land for sale, may 

 be bought for four dollars to ten dollars an acre. Rents for one-third or 

 one-fourth of the crop, or worked on shares for one-half to two-thirds of 

 the cotton, and two-thirds of the corn ; rents often yield five dollars to 

 ten dollars an acre. 



Hillsboro, {E. D. 90) : Soil a darkish gray clay loam, six inches to eight 

 inches to a yellow clay subsoil, overlying a very compact red clay that 

 reaches twelve feet to twenty-five feet, the depth of wells, where water is 

 found in c|uicksand. In the eastern part thousands of acres of most 

 fertile sw^amp lands might be reclaimed by drainage. There are also 

 some sandy soils, with yellow sand subsoil. Crops, ten bushels to twenty- 

 five bushels corn, five hundred pounds to fifteen hundred pounds seed 

 cotton, one hundred bushels to two hundred and fifty bushels sweet po- 



