122 THE SAND HILL REGION. 



SO fine a flavor as on the poorest of these lands. There was no finer veg- 

 etable or flower garden in the State than that of the late William Gregg, 

 situated on a high and sandy liill between Aiken and Graniteville ; one 

 scuppernong vine covered the fourth of an acre with its luxuriant and 

 productive growth. On the apparently barren hills of this vicinity there 

 also flourished formerly a most remunerative culture of the peach. The 

 late James Purvis cultivated, with three hands, sixty acres in this fruit, 

 and in six years he made five crops, realizing on each from §5,000 to 

 ^10,000. Neighboring orchardists engaged in this culture have more 

 than once made five hundred dollars to the acre. The 



CLIMATE 



of the sand hills is dry, tonic, sunny and stimulating, and entirely free 

 from malarial influences. They have long been a resort during winter 

 for consumptives from northern latitudes, and during the summer months 

 for persons from the lower country of the State. The inhabitants them- 

 selves enjoy an unusual degree of health. Cases of great longevity are 

 common, and the death rate is unusually low. For example, in Piatt 

 Springs township, Lexington, in a population of eight hundred and fifty- 

 three by actual count, there were only two deaths in 1879, and only four 

 deaths in 1880. Of the latter three were of persons over eighty years of 

 age ; nor can this be considered an exceptional case. 



The period without frost has an average duration of two hundred to 

 two hundred and twenty -five days, nor are they of very frequent occur- 

 rence, even during midwinter. 



The mean annual temperature is 62°, 50^ Fah. The winter mean is 

 48°, 53^ Fah. The spring mean is 55° Fah. The summer mean is 75° 

 Fah., and the autumn mean is 71°. Excluding August, the warmest month 

 of the year, the mean for autumn, i. e., September and October, would be 

 68° Fah. The average diurnal range of temperatures is 12°, 65\ a frac- 

 tion less than at the important health resort of Santa Barbara, California. 

 The elevation and the porous subsoil of said, in which water is found only 

 at a depth of eighty feet to one hundred and twenty-five feet, make this 

 a remarkably dry climate. Steel instruments may be exposed for months 

 without rusting ; matches left open never miss fire ; moth and mould are 

 rarely seen, and the cryptogameous plants are feebly represented. Ob- 

 servations at Aiken show that the relative humidity of tlie air is 64.0-4, 

 being less than at an}' of the fiimous health resorts of Europe, except 

 Cannes and Hyeres, wliich are somewhat less, due, perhaps, to the preva- 

 lence of the mistral. Heavy dues never occur. Fogs are also rare. The 

 number of rainy days varies from twenty-nine to forty-five, and of the 



