124 THE SAND HILL REGION. 



third party, as it were, stretching across the middle country of the State, 

 between the larger farmers of the upper country on the one hand, and 

 the planters of the lower country on the other. This, together with the 

 sparsely settled country. Where heavy sand hills were not favorable to 

 transportation, before the days of railroads, has made this section in some 

 sort a barrier between these two sections, socially and industrially, as it 

 is geologically. 



The crops are : cotton, 35,433 acres, two per cent, of the entire surface ; 

 yield, 15,055 bales, 6.1 bales per square mile, or about one hundred and 

 ninety-three pounds of lint cotton per acre, a little above the average of 

 the State, owing doubtless to the large area from which the small number 

 of acres planted is selected. The yield per capita is only two hundred 

 and thirty-nine pounds, less than in any portion of the State north of 

 the lower pine belt and south of the Piedmont country. 



Corn and other grain, 93,283 acres, yielding 920,444 bushels, a fraction 

 less than ten bushels per acre, but thirty -two bushels per capita of the 

 population, nearly double the average for the State, and twelve bushels 

 per caj^ita more than the next highest (the Piedmont) region. Another 

 result of an independent small proprietary and of a rural population re- 

 moved from the thoroughfares of travel and of trade, and forced truly on 

 their own resources for subsistence. 



In all other crops and fallow there is 22,043 acres, most of which is in 

 orchards and gardens. 



The work stock numbers 8,518, being 3.8 per square mile, which is less 

 than in any region of the State, except among the extensive unimproved 

 forests of the lower pine belt, where the proportion is only a little more 

 than half the above. The ratio of work stock to population is 29-100 to 

 one, being nearly double the average of the State. This is owing to the 

 larger proj^ortion of rural population, and consequently of farmers em- 

 ploying stock ; to the small independent farm-holdings, separated by wide 

 tracts of unimproved land ; the small proportion of crops worked by 

 hand, such as cotton and rice and the larger proportion of land in grain, 

 tilled chiefly by horse power ; and to the great facility and cheapness of 

 keeping stock on home-raised supplies, in place of doing so with corn and 

 hay brought from the north and west. These same reasons will account 

 for there being only seventeen acres of tilled land to the head of work 

 stock, seven acres less than the average of the State, although the lands 

 are light and of easy culture. 



There is 70,901 herd of all kinds, being only twenty-nine to the square 

 mile, which is eight less than the average for the State, and less than any 

 where in the State, except upon the sea coast, and in the lower pine belt. 

 This statement will doubtless seem very strange to the farmers in these 



