THE ALPINE REGION. 189 



land along the Chatuga river, in Oconee county. Of the farms forty-five 

 per cent, are rented, and of the rented farms seventy-four per cent, are 

 under fifty acres — showing that the renters are farmers on a small scale. 

 Of the fifty-five per cent, worked by their owners only fifteen per cent, 

 are under fifty acres. Of bona fide small proprietors, if landliolders of 

 under fifty acres, who till their own land, may be termed such, the num- 

 ber is small, being only seven per cent, of the total number of farm- 

 holders. By far the larger number of farms are rented for a portion of 

 the crop, very few being rented at a fixed money rental. For instance : 

 in five adjacent townships in Greenville, where there are six hundred 

 and thirty-one farms rented, only one is reported as rented at a fixed 

 money rental. 



Of the tilled land, 88,76G acres, or sixty-five per cent., is in grain of all 

 kinds ; 25,740 acres, or tw^enty per cent., is in cotton ; and 18,285 acres, 

 or fifteen per cent., in fallow, and all other crops, including gardens, 

 orchards and vineyards, and a small area in tobacco. 



The average yield of grain is only a little over eight bushels to the 

 acre, and does not express the capability of this section for the produc- 

 tion of this article. Fields of corn on bottom lands averaging forty to 

 sixty bushels an acre are not uncommon, and the minimum calculation 

 of the crop for uplands without manure is ten to twelve bushels per acre, 

 while twenty to thirty bushels are obtained by good culture. Rice has 

 grown here, without any manure, over one hundred bushels to the acre, 

 though very little of it is planted. The yield of grain per capita is 

 twenty bushels, and is greater than elsewhere in the State, except in the 

 Sand Hill region. 



The average yield of cotton to the square mile is 6.3 bales, an increase 

 of over six hundred per cent, since 1870. This is more than upon the 

 coast; in the lower pine belt, and in the sand hill region, but much less 

 than elsewhere in the State. The average yield of lint per acre planted 

 in cotton is one hundred and forty-one pounds, Avhicli is sixty per cent, 

 more than the yield on the coast, but less than elsewhere in the State. 

 The yield per capita is one hundred and five pounds of lint against four- 

 teen pounds in 1870. This is one hundred per cent, more than the 

 yield on the coast, and seventy per cent, more than the extensive lower 



taxation for ten years. Immigrants are exempt for five years. The northwestern 

 States ought to be most urgent for an outlet to the ocean througli the Tennessee, Hi- 

 wassee, Tugaloo and Savannah rivers. Besides being tlie shortest and safest, and always 

 available, it would bring them directly in front of the marts of the world ; whereas, by 

 des(;ending the Mississippi, tiiey are thrown widely away, and, moreover, are made to 

 encounter deadly malarial diseases every season, and yellow fever at short intervals. 

 The eastern cities should also advocate this outlet, since it would place the vast pro- 

 ductions of the Northwest within easy grasp of their coast shipping." 



