306 



Seabrook, in 1844, that three parcels of long-stapled cotton seed were, 

 to his knowledge, brought in 1785-86 from the Bahamas to a gentle- 

 man in Georgia, it would seem certain that the seed reached our coast 

 from those islands. There it was known as Gossypium harhadense, as 

 coming from the Barbadoes. In the Barbadoes it was called Persian 

 cotton, the seed having been brought from that countr3\ In this 

 manner its descent from the G. arhoreum of India is traced. 



Be this as it may, Mrs. Kinsey Burden, Burden Island, Colleton 

 Covmty, S. C, obtained some of these seeds from Georgia and planted 

 them. This crop failed to mature, and the first successful crop of 

 long-staple cotton grow^n in South Carolina was planted in 1790 by 

 William Elliott, on the northwest corner of Hilton Head, on the 

 exact spot wdiere Jean Eibault landed the first colonists and erected 

 a column of stone, claiming the territory for France a century before 

 the English settled on the coast. Mr. Elliott's crop sold for lOid. 

 per pound. Other planters made use of this seed, but it was not until 

 Kinsey Burden, sr., of Colleton County, began his selections of seed, 

 about the year 1805, that attention was strongly called to the long- 

 staple. Mr. Burden sold his crop of that year for 25 cents per pound 

 more than did any of his neighbors. He continued to make selections 

 of seed and to improve his staple, and in 1825 he sold a crop of 60 

 bales at $1.16 per pound. The year subsequent his crop sold for 

 $1,255 and in 1828 he sold 2 bales of extra fine cotton at $2 per pound, 

 a price not often exceeded since. The legislature was on the point of 

 offering Mr. Burden $200,000 for his method of improving the staple 

 of cotton, and Mr. William Seabrook, of Edisto, w^as prepared to pay 

 him $50,000 for his secret, when it w^as discovered that the fine cotton 

 was due wholly to improvements made in the seed b}^ careful and 

 skillful selection. Since then the greatest care has been bestowed 

 upon the selection of the seed, and to such perfection was the staple 

 brought by this means that the crops of some planters were sold not 

 by sample, but by the brand on the bale, as are the finest wines. 



During the war of 1861-1865, the cultivation of the finest varie- 

 ties being abandoned on the islands, the seed removed to the interior 

 greatly deteriorated in quality. So scarce, on this account, was good 

 seed directly after the war that J. T. Dill, a cotton merchant in 

 Charleston, at one time had, in an ordinary letter envelope, the seed 

 from which are derived all the better qualities of long staple now cul- 

 tivated. Nor have the improvements made by careful selection of 

 the seed ceased in later years. The staple has kept fully up to the 

 best grades of former days, and the proportion of lint to seed cotton 

 has been increased. Formerly 1 pound of lint cotton from 5 pounds 

 of seed cott(5n of the fine varieties was considered satisfactor3\ 

 Thanks to the efforts of Mr. E. M. Clark, a cotton has been recently 

 found which yields 1 pound of lint to 3^ of seed cotton, preserving 

 at the same time the lenglh, strength, and evenness of fiber charac- 

 teristic of the best varieties. 



BEANS. 



The history of the derivation of the bean ( Vicia sativa, Vicia faha, 

 and Ervum lens) is given by A. de Candolle (see Agr. Sci., Vol. I, 

 p. 58), who shows that its cultivation began in Persia, and that the 

 common white bean, which has been cultivated since prehistoric times 



