The early planters in Virginia eagerly tested any crop which 

 might be planted for profit, including such ill-fated tropicals 

 as oranges, lemons, almonds and tea. Rice culture had been 

 introduced 116 years earlier and was first grown in this country 

 in Virginia. 



Debow (1853) reported the history of rice and a number of 

 other crop species in America. "This grain was first introduced 

 into Virginia by Sir William Berkeley, in 1647, who received half 

 a bushel of seed, from which he raised sixteen bushels of 

 excellent rice, most or all of which was sown the following year." 

 Rice was introduced into Charleston, SC in 1694 and 60 tons were 

 exported to England only 4 years later. By 1754 the export of rice 

 from South Carolina was up to 104,682 barrels, while Virginia's 

 economy was still almost entirely dependent on tobacco. The 

 success of rice in South Carolina was viewed enviously by 

 planters like Washington, who saw this as a way to produce income 

 from wetlands which previously had been used only for pasturage. 

 The Dismal Swamp Land Company actually operated a plantation on 

 the western edge of the swamp for a few years. Rice and corn were 

 produced, with rice crops up to 10,000 pounds annually (Stewart 

 1979). 



In 1729, thirty-four years before Washington's description 

 of the great marsh at Corapeake Swamp, William Byrd surveyed the 

 boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. He waited at a 

 plantation on the Suffolk Scarp for his men to traverse the 

 Dismal, occupying the time by making notes on the surrounding 

 land, including a striking feature of the swamp: 



"There is one remarkable part of the Dismal, lying 

 to the south of the Line, that has few or no Trees 

 growing on it, but contains a large Tract of tall Reeds. 

 These being green all the Year round, and waveing with 

 every Wind, have procur'd it the Name of the Green Sea." 



There appear to be two candidates for the location of the 

 "Green Sea" in the historical literature. It may have been the 

 same large marsh that Washington observed in 1763, or it may 

 have been another feature described by him to the south. It is 

 not clear whether Byrd or his men actually saw this feature. 

 If the marsh were present at the time of Byrd's survey, it would 

 have been remarkable for them to have missed it during the 

 several goings and comings between the survey line and the 

 plantation at which Byrd was a guest, 6 miles south of Corapeake 

 Swamp . 



Washington explored south along the western periphery of 

 the Dismal in 1763, crossing the Perquimans River in northern 

 Perquimans County, and then travelling north through the swamp 

 to the neck of higher land where US 158 emerges on the east side 

 today. He described the traverse through this southeastern arm 



49 



