THE PIEDMONT REGION. 140 



varies greatly in the different counties, being as high as seventy in Fair- 

 field, and as low as thirty-four in Spartanburg. The average is fifty-eight. 



Of the 6,672,000 acres of land in this region fifty per cent, is in wood 

 lands ; twenty-two per cent, is in old fields, and twenty-eight per cent, is 

 tilled. There are 38,591 farms. This is an increase of at least eighty 

 per cent, since 1870, and of one hundred and eighty per cent, since 1860, 

 while the increase in the decade preceding that, a time of much pros- 

 perity, did not much exceed one per cent. ; fifty-six per cent, of the farms 

 are worked by renters, and forty-four per cent, by owners. This is nearly 

 six per cent, more of farms rented than in the State at large, or ten per 

 cent, more than in the other parts of the State. The maximum of the 

 farms rented is sixty-seven per cent, in Fairfield, and the minimum is 

 forty-two per cent, in Laurens ; forty-five per cent, of the farms are under 

 fifty acres, but seventy-one per cent, of the rented farms are under fifty 

 acres, while only thirteen per cent, of those worked by owners are under 

 fifty acres. The farms under fifty acres worked by owners constitute only 

 six per cent, of the total number of farms in this region ; thus, notwith- 

 standing the great subdivision of farm holding that has been, and still is 

 taking place, it cannot be said that land is here, as it is on some of tlie 

 sea islands, in the hands of a small proprietary. 



The tilled land is 1,861,922 acres, an increase of fiftj^-six per cent, 

 since 1870. This gives an average of 4.7 acres per capita, or nearly one 

 acre above the average for the State, and one-half more than in 1870. Of 

 it forty-eight per cent, is in grain of all kinds, forty per cent, is in cotton, 

 and twelve per cent, is in gardens, orchards, fallows and all other crops. 

 The proj)ortion in cotton varies from a maximum of forty-six per cent, in 

 Laurens and Union, to a minimum of twenty per cent, in Lancaster. 



The crops are cotton, 274,318 bales, against 94,494 in 1870 ; an increase 

 of one hundred and seventy-two per cent., or nearly six times as great as 

 that of the population within tlie same period. It constitutes fifty-three 

 per cent, of the crop of the State, on less than one-third of its area. The 

 average number of bales per square mile is twenty-six, and varies from 

 twenty and one-third bales, in Lancaster, to thirty-six and three-quarters 

 bales in Newberry. In many of the townships the number of bales 

 grown per square mile is much greater. In Fairfield, township No. 3 (E. 

 D., 69) produces forty-six bales per square mile ; in Newberry, Floyds 

 township (E. D., 114) produces forty-seven ; in Chester, Chester township 

 (E. D., 36) produces fifty-nine ; in York, Fort Mill township (E. D., 169) 

 produces eighty-four. These facts indicate that the establishment of en- 

 larged and improved gin-houses for the better preparation of the staple is 

 practicable in many places now, as they show that the main obstacle in 

 the way of such establishment, viz. : the distance over which a sufficient 



