COTTON CULTURE. 81 



The region lying directly north of Barnwell and Charles- 

 ton, that is, the counties of Kershaw, Sumter, Darlington, 

 Chesterfield, Fairfield, Edgefield, and two or three others 

 still farther towards the mountains, is admirably adapted, 

 as respects climate, to the production of the ordinary green 

 seed staple, but only small portions of the surface present 

 a superior soil. 



Like the corresponding cotton counties of Georgia, these 

 South Carolina lands are by no means uniform in their 

 appearance or value. The bottoms of the Savannah, Salu- 

 da, Congaree, Water ee, Catawba, and Lynch's Creek are, 

 like all other alluvions, remarkably fertile and productive. 

 But between these streams there are extensive tracts on 

 which hardly anything grows but the southern pine, and 

 in those counties adjacent to Georgia there is much red 

 land, as it is called, which originally was of fine produc- 

 tive power, but by injudicious cropping, and by washing, 

 to which the soil is very liable, its value has- greatly de- 

 teriorated. Much of this region has been in cultivation 

 for nearly a hundred years, but the bottom lands still yield 

 a bale to the acre, and the average throughout the State, 

 in a favorable season, is three hundred and twenty pounds. 

 In the upper counties, near the Blue Ridge, neither the 

 soil nor climate is well adapted to cotton, this region being 

 devoted principally to grain growing and stock raising. 



Notwithstanding the length of time for which the State 

 lias been settled, there remains a very considerable breadth 

 of undeveloped laud, capable of producing three hundred 

 pounds and over per acre. 



XOETH CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE. 



There is but a moderate extent of land in either of these 

 States adapted to cotton. The river bottoms above Wil- 

 mington, and some of the midland counties of North Caro- 

 lina, produce quite well. But in those parts where the 

 climate suits cotton, the soil is too poor to pay for cultiva- 

 4* 



