THE ALPINE REGION. 101 



tation of crops. After land has been planted two or three years in cotton 

 it is planted one or two years in wheat, corn or oats ; the results of such 

 a change are excellent, if stock is kept off the stubble. Fall plowing is 

 little practiced ; it has been found of advantage where stubble, grass or 

 weeds cover the land to turn them under at this time. The amount of 

 land in old fields is not great. Such fields, after lying out eight or ten 

 years, have been found to produce as well as ever, and most of them have 

 been brought into cultivation again. The washing of hillsides does not 

 amount to a serious evil, and it is reported as easily prevented and effect- 

 ually checked by hillside ditching when necessary. The use of commer- 

 cial fertilizers has largely increased with the facility of obtaining them 

 by railroad, and the practical demonstration of their value in the culture 

 of cotton. Cotton seed is worth ten to fifteen cents a bushel ; little of it is 

 sold. It is applied green and broad-cast as a manure for wheat, and com- 

 posted with stable manure as a fertilizer for cotton. A portion of it is 

 fed to stock. • 



COTTON CULTURE 



was a leading industry in the upper counties of South Carolina previous 

 to 1826. The crop raised was from one hundred and twenty pounds to 

 two hundred pounds lint per acre in the four most northerly counties, 

 and averaged one hundred and forty-five pounds. At that date, however, 

 and for long afterwards, probably not an acre of cotton was planted in the 

 region now under consideration. The opening of tlie Air-Line railroad 

 having reduced the cost of fertilizers, attention was drawn to the large 

 bodies of gray sandy lands hitherto little considered, and experiments in 

 cotton growing by their aid proved so successful that the cultare w^as 

 largely increased. It has extended over the table lands and even up the 

 mountain slopes, and is now grown in every township of the region except 

 one, Chatuga township, in Oconee county, already referred to as the cul- 

 minating point of the river system. It has been found that while the 

 season is shorter, the stimulation of the growth by the use of fertilizers 

 compensates for this. The same tillage as is given further south ex- 

 pended here in a shorter period of time has a like effect in pushing the 

 plant to maturity. With slave labor this was inconvenient, if not im- 

 practicable. With free labor it is, if anything, easier and cheaper to ac- 

 complish thirty days work in three days than to do it in ten. It has been 

 further found that the growth of the plant is steadier here; it does not suffer 

 from those checks during long dewless intervals, which retard its progress in 

 the hotter and dryer sections. The claim is also made, that better cotton is 

 grown here than further south. Experienced cotton buyers have long given 



