30 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



exclusively to cotton and receiving a double amount 

 of manure and rest, became more productive than 

 nature had originally made them. 



To whatever embarrassment and distress these 

 parishes were subjected by the circumstances of the 

 times, the districts of the upper portion of the State 

 had their full share and even more. Rice and naval 

 stores were out of their reach. Wheat, for the want 

 of merchant mills, availed them little beyond their 

 domestic wants. The first mill erected was in 

 Camden, by Col. Broome, in 1795 ; the production 

 of that grain was greatly stimulated thereby, and 

 Camden soon became a market for flour of a 

 superior quality. At the same time tobacco, as a 

 market crop, was planted, chiefly by emigrants 

 from Virginia. Extensive inspections were estab- 

 lished, the first one near the bank of the Wateree 

 River, but this with about two hundred hogsheads 

 of tobacco was swept away by the unprecedented 

 freshet of 1796. It was afterwards rebuilt in the 

 town of Camden. The cultivation received an im- 

 petus, as well in that district as in some of the 

 adjacent counties of North Carolina ; the business 

 was pursued with considerable energy and success. 

 To get the heavy hogshead to market, an axle was 

 run through the centre and traces fixed to each 

 end ; it was thus drawn or rolled by one horse to 

 market, hundreds of miles. 



But the curse which a seeming necessity had 



