256 
mr. robinson's tour. — no. 20. 
port all these bales in wagons ! The propor- 
tionate increase in some other things has been 
equally great. 
In consequence of the facilities of getting tur- 
pentine to market, which formerly would not 
pay transportation by wagons, a few individuals 
began to levy contributions upon some of the 
valuless pine forests, and in 1846, the railroad 
brought down 48 barrels; in 1847, 3,189 bbls; in 
1848, 5,753 bbls; in 1849, 13,918 bbls. 
In 1849, 66,904 bushels of corn were carried, 
and 1,507 bbls. flour, though most of that was 
carried into instead of out of the country. But 
in the same year, 1,584 head of cattle, mostly 
beef, and 3,353 hogs, mostly fat, and 328 sheep, 
and 977 horses were carried; and 16,632 bales 
of domestic cotton goods were brought down 
from the interior factories ; not one of which 
would have reached the sea shore, if this railroad 
had never been built. 
The increase of amount received for freight 
has been upon the same scale. In 1834, the 
receipts for all freight was, $83,214.44; in 1844, 
.$306,155.71; in 1849, $621,990.32; in 1834, 
the number of passengers was 26,649, giving 
$79,050.35; in 1849, the number was 92,713, and 
amount, $223,325.42. The rate of charge for 
passage is four cents a mile, for all distances 
under 125 miles, and five dollars for all longer 
distances. 
These rates, so much higher than northern 
roads, are contended for, because, unlike those 
roads, this could gain no way passengers by 
lower fare, for the very good reason that they 
are not there to gain. 
The rates of freight upon the lightest class 
goods, are eight cents per cubit foot ; and upon 
boxes, bales, &c, 45 cents per 100 lbs. Upon 
coffee, sugar, pork, lard, and heavy articles, 25 
cents per 100 lbs. 
Upon all grain and seeds, (except oats,) in 
sacks, seven cents per bushel. Oats, five cents. 
Upon shovels, spades, scythes, brooms, &c, 25 
cents per dozen. 
Upon plows, wheelbarrows, cornshellers and 
straw cutters, 50 cents each. 
Upon the very things, particularly plows, that 
should be carried almost freight free, the heavi- 
est duty is levied. Upon a plow that costs on- 
ly $1,374;, at your store, in New York, and a sea 
freight of only 124; cents, the farmer must pay 
one third of its whole cost to get it a few miles up 
the railroad. I call the attention of directors 
of this, and also other roads, to the policy of en- 
couraging the farmers to use improved imple- 
ments and fertilisers to increase their products, 
by offering to transport them at more nominal 
freights, and thereby ultimately increasing their 
own business profits, and greatly benefiting 
agriculture. 
The freight charged for carrying a single 
horse or ox, is $8. For two, $12, for four, $20, 
for ten, $30, for twenty, $50. 
The road is well furnished with cars and 
engines, and the Columbia and Camden branches 
laid with T rails, of 35 to 56 lbs. per yard and the 
other part is being relaid with the same kind of 
rails, 51 lbs. per yard, so that the country has the 
prospect of a good road, and if the directors will 
give them cheap frieghts, the benefits to agri- 
culture incalculably will be great. 
It is proper that I should remark that I am in- 
debted to William H. Bartless, Esq., one of the 
polite gentlemanly officers of the company, 
most of the statistical information herein 
given. 
I also had the pleasure and advantage of the 
company of the Hon. H. W. Conner, president 
of the company, upon a passage from Hamburg 
round to Columbia, and through his politeness 
learned much of the history of the road. The in- 
clined plane has been a very expensive affair; it is 
now operated by a descending locomotive attach- 
ed to one end of a wire cable, the other end being 
fast to the ascending train, and the middle work- 
ing over a drum at the top of the hill. This 
plane could be avoided without difficulty. 
There are no rock excavations, deep cuts, nor 
high embankments, of any magnitude on the 
whole road ; though there is some pretty long 
bridging across the Congaree River and Swamp. 
One of the most striking things noticed by a 
northern traveller, upon all southern railroads, 
is the difference in the appearance of the depots 
and more particularly the. way stations. How- 
ever, it is only the natural difference between a 
white man and a negro. The difference between 
neatness and thriftiness, filth and dilapidation. It 
is a question of some importance in an agricultu- 
ral point of view, what will be done or, if any- 
thing can be done, to reclaim all the waste 
lands that we see along this road, lying idle and 
unproductive, and in a great degree uninhabited 
and uninhabitable, on account of its malarious 
character. 
In coming up from Charleston to Akin, we 
see nothing that looks like a hill ; and upon the 
Columbia branch, none till near the Congaree, 
and only small patches of clearing, and but two 
or three unimportant towns. The mass of the 
land, in the lower part of the state, is in the for- 
rest, some of it thin sandy upland and some rich 
swamp that, if once drained, would be very pro- 
ductive in cotton, corn, potatoes, or rice. 
The greatest drawback to improvement is 
the disposition of many persons to buy up all 
the land that joins them ; as for example, my 
friend Major Felder, of Orangeburg, who boasts 
of owning fifty thousands acres. For what pur- 
pose he desires to accumulate such a vast tract 
of unproductive land, is past my comprehension 
— certainly not for his children — and I don't be- 
lieve he will live long enough to saw up all the 
timber in his half dozen sawmills. Besides the 
unheal thiness, however, of a large portion of 
those lands, between Charleston and Akin, there 
is another thing to prevent their settlement and 
improvement by individuals. The country is 
so flat that it requires some great and general 
plan of draining, to free it from the surface 
water, in the first place, and this will not be un- 
dertaken so long as labor can be more profit- 
ably employed upon soils naturally more dry 
and rich. The fact is, there is entirely too 
much land in the United States for the present 
population. 
