288 RICE. 



An interesting report by Dr. E. Elliot, on the Cultivation of Rice, 

 was read before the Pendleton Fanner's Society, South Carolina, at 

 a recent annual meeting, from which I shall make an extract. 



la " Ramsay's History of South Carolina" it is stated : " Landgrave Thomas 

 Smith, who was Governor of the Province in 1693, had been at Madagascar be- 

 fore he settled in Carolina. There he observed that rice was planted and grew in 

 low moist ground. Having such ground in his garden, attached to his dwelling 

 in East Bay, Charleston, he was persuaded that rice would grow therein, if seed 

 could be procured. About this time a vessel from Madagascar, being in distress, 

 came to anchor near Sullivan's Island. The master inquired for Mr. Smith, as 

 an old acquaintance. An interview took place. In the course of conversation 

 Mr. Smith expressed a wish to obtain some seed rice to plant in his garden. 

 The cook being called, said that he had a small bag of rice suitable for the pur- 

 pose. This was presented to Mr. Smith, who sowed it in a low spot in Longi- 

 tude Lane. From this small beginning did one of the great staple commodities 

 of South Carolina takes its rise, which soon became the chief support of the 

 colony, and its great source of opulence." 



" Such is the historical account of the introduction of rice into South Caro- 

 lina ; and from that day to this, it has constituted one of her staple articles of 

 production. Although the climate and soil were found admirably suited to the 

 plant, the planters encountered incredible difficulty in preparing or dressing the 

 rice for market. From the day of its introduction, to the close of the He vo- 

 lution, the grain was milled, or dressed, partly by hand and partly by animal 

 power. But the processes were imperfect, very tedious, very destructive to the 

 laborer, and very exhausting to the animal power. The planter regarded a good 

 crop as an equivocal blessing, for as the product was great so in proportion was 

 the labor of preparing it for market. While matters stood thus, the planters 

 were released from their painful condition by a circumstance so curious that it 

 deserves a place in the history of human inventions. A planter from the San tec, 

 whilst walking in King-street, Charleston, noticed a small windmill perched on 

 the gable end of a wooden store. His attention was arrested by the beauty of 

 its performance. He entered the store and asked who the maker was. He was 

 told that he was a Northumbrian, then resident in the house a man in neces- 

 sitous circumstances, and wanting employment. A conference was held ; the 

 planter carried the machine to the Santee, pointed out the difficulties under 

 which the planters labored, and the result was the rice pounding-mill. This 

 man was the first Mr. Lucas, and to his genius South Carolina owes a large 

 debt of gratitude. For what the cotton planter owes to Eli Whitney, the rice 

 planter owes to Mr. Lucas. His mills were first impelled by water, but more 

 recently by steam, and though much mechanical ingenuity and much capital have 

 been expended in improving them, the rice pounding-mill of this day, in all essen- 

 tial particulars, does not differ materially from the mill as it came from the hands 

 of Mr. Lucas. 



This great impediment being removed, one formidable difficulty still remained 

 in the way of the rice planters, and that was the threshing of the crop by flail. 

 The labor requisite to accomplish this was so great, that we once heard a dis- 

 tinguished planter say, while having one large crop threshed out by flail, that 

 he would regard another large crop as a calamity. Previous to 1830 threshing 

 mills had been tried by various individuals, but with no apparent success. In 

 that year the attempt was renewed, and we were present and witnessed the fii'st 

 trial of a thresher, constructed in New York, and which was tested on Savannah 

 river, under the auspices of General Hamilton. The machinery was driven by 

 apparatus similar to that employed for driving the cotton gin. The result was 

 not very satisfactory, but there was ground for hope, and after an outlay of very 

 large sums, and after many disappointments, the happy expedient was thought 

 of, of testing the mill with steam instead of animal power. The experiment 

 was completely successful, and it was manifest at once that the difficulties had 

 not been in the imperfect construction of the thresher, but in the insufficiency 

 of the moving power. 



It is now twenty years since we witnessed the working of the small mill 

 alluded to, and the rice threshing-mill, with steam-engine attached, is now a 

 splendid piece of operative machinery. The rice in sheaf is taken up to the 



