THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



249 



*• Deprived of cotton as our main crop, we shall 

 be compelled to resort to every variety of produc- 

 tion which our soil and ciimaie affords, to make 

 out a crop which may be profitably cultivated. 

 Among them 1 have no doubt that cotion will 

 always hold a place lo some, though probably a 

 small, extent. 1 have estimated the average pro- 

 duction of the best cotion regions at 250 lbs. per 

 acre. And although they have much that will do 

 better, I think I may salely say, that land which 

 will produce 300 lbs. need not fear any competi- 

 tion. We have no bodies of such land in our 

 state. But here and there spots may be found, 

 and by judicious management more can be made 

 to do it. So that every planter who will be con- 

 tent to lessen materially his cotton crop, and com- 

 mence at once to manure highly all he plants, 

 may yet be enabled to grow some o( his favorite 

 article. For the bulk of his crop, however, he 

 must adopt some of the substitutes I shall enu- 

 merate. 



In all that I have heretofore said, I have spoken 

 of short staple cotton exclusively. It is well 

 known, however, thakSouth Carohua is the largest 

 producer of the ^best Sea Island cotton. In its 

 finest qualities we have, I believe, as yet no rival. 

 How far this crop may be profitably extended is 

 uncertain. The consumption of it has Huctuated 

 around the same point lor the last thirty years, and 

 we might infer had reached its maximum. But 

 by a judicious system of culture, there is reason to 

 believe that the inlierior qualities — the Maines and 

 Santees — may be grown so cheaply as to drive out 

 of compeiiiion the Egyptian and better sorts ol' 

 Brazilian which now rival them, and thus secure 

 a larger market for ourselves. Our planters on the 

 sea-coast already put in little enough lo the hand, 

 and are alive to the advantages of manuring. Let 

 me recommend to their earnest consideration a 

 much more extensive use of that implement which 

 has wrought such a revolution in short staple 

 culture within the last 10 years, I mean the 

 plough. Horse power is in planting what ma- 

 chinery is in manufacturing. And it not only 

 saves labor, but does better work and assists to 

 preserve and renovate the land. Cato said— -so 

 long ago as his day — that " the best culture of 

 land was good ploughing : the next best, plough- 

 ing in the ordinary way, and the next best" — but 

 alter these, "laying on manure." I commend 

 his maxims to our Sea Island planters, and be- 

 lieve that by the adoption of them they will soon 

 absorb a portion of the labor which will be ihiown 

 out of the short staple crop. 



The culture of rice upon sea-board has stood 

 the test of time and competition, and we may 

 safely regard it as a great and valuable staple, ol 

 which no contingency is likely ever to deprive 

 our state. The demand is steadily increasing, 

 and offers a fair reward to those who will embark 

 in its production. Although we grow three- 

 fourths of the crop of the United States, only a 

 small part of the state adapted to it has yet been 

 prepared lor cultivation. Vast inland swamps 

 well suited lor it, yet frown in barren gloom eve- 

 ry where below the ridge, while many of our up 

 country bottoms, which are destined at some fu- 

 ture day to groan beneath its harvest, are now 

 idle wastes, consigned to flags and rushes. The 

 necessity which shall drive us to drain these 

 grand reservoirs of disease aaJ death, will cne 

 Vol. X.-32 



day be hailed as an inestimable blessing. We 

 cannot too soon turn our attention to it, and in- 

 stead of drawing our supplies of rice from the sea- 

 board, we of the up-country may at no distant day 

 send our tributes to unite with theirs in supplying 

 the north, and western Europe, where this lux- 

 ury is fast becoming a necessary of lile." 

 # # # # # 



" The innumerable streams which intersect the 

 state, and the gradual lall towards the ocean of 

 even the flattest parts of the low country, afford 

 great advantages lor draining, while nature has 

 been extremely bountiful to us in materials for 

 manure. In many parts of the stale marl has been 

 found in abundance, and at convenient points for 

 water transportation : and no doubt it will yet be 

 (bund where it is not thought of now. In other 

 parts limestone exists to an unknown extent ; 

 and in others again salt-marsh and oyster-banka 

 abound. Almost every where upon our rivers, 

 creeks, and branches, and in our swamps, we 

 have rich alluvial deposites, a portion of which 

 may be well spared to recruit the exhausted soil 

 near : and our forests furnish a boundless supply 

 of leaves and straw, which in various ways may 

 be converted into valuable compost. Possessed 

 with these resources, and all the usual ones inci- 

 dent to farm yards, whenever we resolve to set 

 seriously about it, I question whether it will be 

 found near so tedious or expensive to reclaim our 

 waste and renovate our worn out lands, as is now 

 generally supposed. But this interesting topic 

 alone would require all the time alloited to this 

 occasion, and I must therefore pass from it to 

 continue my enumeration of the substitutes to 

 which we may resort when we can no longer de- 

 pend upon our cotton crops. 



" Although we now purchase fi-om other states, 

 probably one half the flour we consume, there ia 

 hardly any part of this stale in which wheat may 

 not be grown. Fair crops may now be occasion- 

 ally seen within 40 miles of the sea-coast, perhaps 

 nearer ; and i'ew soils or climates are better adapt- 

 ed to it than the upper parts of South Carolina. 

 The flour made there, when skilfully managed, is 

 not in the least inferior to the best that we receive 

 from Virginia or the Lakes; and it only requires 

 an impulse, such as the loss of the cotton crop 

 will give, to convert our state into an export^ in- 

 stead of importer of the article. The same may 

 be said ofevery other kind of grain. We obtain 

 large supplies of oats, rye, barley, and even Indian 

 corn, from other states, when lew or no states can 

 grow them in greater abundance than our own. 

 1 do not allude to the fact to condemn the practice 

 in the wholesale, as it is now becoming custom- 

 ary to do. The planter is but lit lie more capable 

 of raising to advantage every thing within him- 

 self than other persons, and if he is cultivating 

 other valuable crops which will enable him on a 

 (air calculation to purchase these things cheaper 

 than we can now grow them, he is just as correct 

 in doing so as the merchant is in buying his hat 

 or the tailor his shoes, instead of making them in 

 their own families. But when the more valuable 

 crops lail, and the means of purchasing are taken 

 li'om us, we shall be driven to produce provisions 

 of all kinds, and I feel assured that we will soon 

 find that we can do it as abundantly and cheaply 

 as it can be done in any other place. The pros- 

 pect of a foreign market is not very flattering, it is 



