PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 339 



principal timber is long-leaf pine, with an undergrowth of 

 scrubby black oaks, persimmons, black gums, and sassafras, and 

 the land clean white sand. Not one-eighth of the area is culti- 

 vated, and this is the character of a vast portion of the middle 

 region of North and South Carolina and Georgia. 



Five miles south-east of Columbia lies the great plantation of 

 Col. Wade Hampton, a considerable portion of which is upon the 

 bottom lands of the Congaree, and the first level above, and it 

 yields, by fertilizing with manure and peas, five out of seven 

 years, 40 bushels of corn per acre, or 800 pounds of cotton. 

 There are 12,500 acres of land in this plantation, 10,000 of 

 which are timber, and much of it not worth clearing. Of the 

 2,500 cultivated, I found Y50 acres devoted to cotton; 400 acres 

 to corn ; 200 acres to oats ; and a small portion of the balance 

 in vegetable crops, and the other resting or in pasture. I found 

 here a fine flock of 400 sheep, which would be largely and profit- 

 ably increased but for the same pest that infests the North — that 

 is, dogs. The regular average allowance of every mean negro is 

 five, and every mean white man six, worthless curs. This plan- 

 tation has 300 slaves, and does not make sufficient meat, owing 

 to the fact that the neighbors' negroes love young pigs. 



The method of planting corn is to plow a bed of five furrows 

 with a 16-inch shovel plow, and then plant in drills four and a 

 half feet apart, leaving two stalks two to three feet apart in the 

 drills, and the average yield is 40 bushels an acre. In cultiva- 

 ting corn, the first operation is to "bar off," and then to " break 

 out the middles " — that is, plow the land between the beds. 



Cotton is planted April 1 to 15, in drills four to four and a 

 half feet apart, according to quality of land, and thinned to a 

 stand fourteen inches apart in the drills. Ten acres per hand is 

 the allotment. Three cotton gins and a press on this plantation 

 are driven by water. 



A plantation, owned by Col. Hampton, situated on the Missis- 

 sippi bottoms- above Vicksburg, and conducted by his son, with 

 180 slaves taken from the home plantation, yielded, in 1847, 747 

 bales upon 700 acres planted in cotton and corn. The general 

 average there is 1,200 pounds of cotton per acre, or 80 or 90 

 bushels of corn. 



Five miles below Camden, S. C,, on the Wateree, is the home 

 plantation of Col. James Chesnut, 15,000 acres in one body, with 

 400 slaves. He plants 1,000 acres in cotton, 600 acres in corn, 



