WATER-POWERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 207 



as were not utilized than such as were, and tlie total may be safely in- 

 creased in the proportion in which he has done this, which would be to 

 multiply the above total by four. So that, without further allowance for 

 ins low estimates or for the improvement that art might effect by dams 

 and canals, there can be no question that from the lower line of hill 

 country northward in South Carolina there is more than a million of 

 horse-power in water-powers, varying in size from thirty to thirty thousand 

 horse-power, easily and cheaply available under condition peculiarly ad- 

 vantageous, not counting the presence of the large amount of raw ma- 

 terial in the shape of cotton to be manufactured. 



A million of horse-power is about eighty per cent, of all the water- 

 powers now in use in manufacturing throughout the United States. It 

 is about seven times the amount of water-power now employed in the 

 United States in the manufacture of cotton goods, and nearly four times 

 the steam and water-power together so employed. It is sufficient to move 

 all the cotton factories, grist and flour mills and saw mills now worked 

 by water throughout the entire country. If such a power were used in 

 manufacturing cotton goods it would call for 600,000 operatives; in 

 grinding flour and grist, 75,000 ; in sawing lumber, over 200,000. It 

 appears, therefore, that the supply, for some time to come, must be in 

 excess of any demand likely to be made on it. If, however, the present 

 rate of increase in the employment of water-power in South Carolina 

 should continue, the time when all this power might be utilized is not so 

 indefinitely remote as might at first sight be thought. The amount of 

 water-power employed in manufacturing in South Carolina was thirty- 

 three per cent, greater in 1880 than it was in 1870. At this rate about two 

 hundred and twenty years would elapse before all this power would be 

 required. Just at the present time, however, the rate of increase is much 

 greater than this. By the census of 1880, only 2,398, H. P. water-power was 

 employed in the manufacture of cotton goods. By an enumeration, how- 

 ever, made by the State Department of Agriculture, in November, 1882, 

 it was ascertained that 4,113, H. P. water-power were thus employed, an 

 increase of seventy -one per cent, in a little over two years, or ten times 

 greater than the rate of increase shown between the 9tli and lOtli 

 United States Census. Up to this date this rate of increase is maintained, 

 and may be said to be accelerated, rather than diminished. How long it 

 will continue, and what will limit it, can not now, with any certainty, be 

 estimated. The increase in the employment of steam-power in South 

 Carolina, as given in the 9th and lOth Census, is much greater than that 

 of water-power, and amounts to one hundred and sixty-four per cent. Of 

 the total power used in manufacturing in South Carolina, in 1870, G9.62 per 

 cent, was water, the balance being steam, but in 1880 this ratio is much 



