214 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



The Drainage Journal Department 



DRAINAGE BY THE SEA. 



A DRAINAGE SYSTEM WHICH PROTECTS LAND FROM IN- 

 JURY BY TIDE WATER. 



BY C. G. ELLIOTT. 



So much interest is centered about the reclama- 

 tion of lands of the interior states and the settling up 

 and improvement of the newer parts of the country that 

 progress along this line in the older and especially the 

 coast states has passed unnoticed. The attention of 

 the writer has been recently called to the interest which 

 South Carolinians have manifested in the building up 

 of their agricultural interests. No state has such a 

 checkered history or one fraught with such distressing 

 vicissitudes of political life and industrial conditions 

 as the state of South Carolina. The people of no state 

 can boast of more brilliant statesmen. The spirit of 

 higher European social distinctions which took root\ 

 at the time of its first settlement still bears fruit under 

 modified and continually changing conditions. The at- 

 tention of the people of this state, in common with 

 those of other states of the South, is now turning to 

 the necessity of developing the agricultural possibilities 

 of the soil. The attainment of this object is a work 

 attended with perplexing difficulties. The urgent de- 

 mand for highly intelligent management of lands can 

 not be met by the negroes who constitute so large a, 

 part of the cultivators of the soil, by reason of their 

 lack of information, previous training, and working cap- 

 ital. Enterprising white farmers must carry the bur- 

 den of this work alone and at the same time furnish 

 example and precept for less favored tillers of the soil. 



CO \ST ENTRANCE TO FARM OF W. G. HINSON. 



Enterprising farmers at the North who are public-spir- 

 ited enough to work in a disinterested way for the pro- 

 mulgation of improved methods of agriculture would 

 be do"ubly discouraged by the obstacles which continually 

 loom up before the Southern agriculturist. 



.This is a digression from the object of this article, 

 which is a description of some drainage work on James 

 Island, opposite the city of Charleston. The appearance 



of this island from the main shore is a fringe of green 

 rising above the sandy shore line beyond which is the 

 outline of farm buildings, suggesting to one just from 

 the center of the rustling city a restful quiet with 

 agreeable surroundings. The buildings which first meet 

 the view are those of Mr. W. G. Hinson, one of the 

 most progressive agriculturists of the State and who 

 is the pioneer in tile drainage in that part of the SoutK 

 His roomy residence and ample grounds bear marks of 

 taste and thrift in rural affairs, while the large range of 

 books found in the library indicate culture of a literary 

 character rarely found in farm homes of the North. 

 The original part of this residence was built by Mr. 



RESIDENCE OF W. G. HINSON. 



Hinson's ancestors in 1745. As an evidence of the 

 historic interest attached to the location it might be 

 mentioned that it is one of the three houses on the island 

 which was not destroyed during the Civil War. In 

 fact, the remains of coast battery defenses are still 

 in view at the rear of the premises. It may be added 

 that pottery ware with the British coat of arms which 

 was in use at the time of George II. has been unearthed 

 on the grounds, left there by the king's subjects when 

 this fertile island was a part of the province of Caro- 

 lina. 



'The islands of?' the coast of South Carolina have 

 long been noted for the production of Sea Island cotton, 

 the most valuable and highly prized species of the cot- 

 ton plant. The soil is a dark, sandy loam, containing 

 peculiar elements by reason of its formation as an island 

 in the sea, having this characteristic, however, that 

 the north coast line, with its numerous deep indenta- 

 tions, is bordered by a ridge of red sandy clay, fine in 

 its texture and quite retentive of water. Mr. Hinson, 

 in his interesting account of the condition of his land 

 before he attempted tile drainage, which, by the way, 

 was fully twenty years ago, says that his cultivated 

 fields were divided by various depressions which were 

 neglected by reason of their wet condition, and by 

 swales or low land into which tide water backed from 

 the arms of the sea or small bays, and submerged them, 

 thereby depriving him of the use of much otherwise 



