mr. robinson’s tour.—no. 15. 
93 
soil, and bearing good grapes; yet they are not 
so luxuriant now as when their produce was 
inferior in quality and less in quantity. It is 
therefore evident, that vines might make gross 
wood, and at the same time be deficient in the 
pabulum necessary to bring the fruit to per¬ 
fection. 
In all the instructions for the making of vine 
borders which I have read, “ turfy loam ” is 
recommended to form the principal ingredient 
in the compost, but the particular kind of loam 
to be chosen is rarely or never specified, 
although under that vague name soils of widely 
different nature and quality are comprised. 
The turfy surface of a pasture is alike called 
loam, wether the subsoil be clay or gravel, and 
when first dug, there may probably be but little 
perceptible difference, but when after a few 
years the herbage and fibrous roots which form 
the turf have decayed, it will be found that the 
loam from above the clay is much more reten¬ 
tive of water than that which had gravel be¬ 
neath it; I would therefore recommend all who 
have the opportunity of selecting their soil, to 
choose loam that lies upon a porous subsoil, and 
that feels soft and soapy when rubbed between 
the fingers, A mixture of such soil with a fourth 
part of half-rotten farmyard dung, and another 
fourth of whole bones and mortar rubbish, will 
form a border in which vines cannot fail to do 
well, if it is made shallow, (from 2 to 3 feet 
deep, according to the situation,) wide, and well 
drained at the bottom. The grand secret of 
growing good grapes is to get an abundant stock 
of healthy roots, and this cannot be done in a 
cloggy, adhesive border.— Gard. Chron. 
MR. ROBINSON’S TOUR.—No. 15. 
A South-Carolina Rice Plantation .—On the 
12th of January, I left Charleston, upon a small 
steamboat that goes up Cooper River twice 
a week, having an invitation to visit Dean 
Hall, the plantation residence of Col. Wm. A. 
Carson, an extensive rice planter. Col. C. owns 
3,300 acres of land, only about one third of which 
is cultivated, and the remainder is in the original 
forest. After the most approved fashion of the 
south, Col. C. cultivates 650 acres in rice, 90 
acres in sweet potatoes, 180 acres in corn, and 
26 acres in oats. The remainder of the cleared 
land is taken up in gardens, yards, lots, and 
roads, of which last he can show a pattern 
worthy of imitation. 
Can you believe me when I tell you that every 
acre of these crops is put in with hoes—that a 
plow is never used upon the plantation, except 
to scratch the ground a little between the corn 
rows ? The rice land, being reclaimed swamp, 
and kept wet during the growth of the; crop, is 
perhaps too soft to admit of using horses or 
cattle for draft. But why, in this age of improv¬ 
ed agricultural implements, the sandy-loam 
upland should continue to be dug up with hoes, 
just as it was a century ago, passeth my under¬ 
standing. But this is not the worst waste of 
labor. I have seen a hundred negroes in a lot, 
threshing rice with flails, winnowing it in the 
wind, and carrying off the straw half a mile in 
bundles upon their heads. Col. Carson has so 
far advanced in improvement as to thresh his 
crop by steam ; but in some other labor-saving 
practices he is still keeping company with men 
of past ages. 
To give readers some idea of rice cultivation, 
I will describe the process from the begining. 
In December and January, if the stubble is 
dry enough it is burnt off, and if not, it is dug 
up and piled, or turned under by enormous hoes, 
which the negroes raise high over head, and let 
fall with the least possible exertion of strength, 
and at so slow a rate the motion would give a 
quick-working Yankee convulsions. But the 
negro has his task, that is, one third of an acre, 
(which the said Yankee would do with a plow 
in two hours.) and so it is useless to expect 
Cuffee to move any faster than to accomplish it 
before dark. In March, the ground is all hoed 
over again, and clods broken up and drills 
opened with suitable hoes, 15 inches apart, and 
the seed drilled in by hand, and covered with a 
wooden baton. The water is then let on for a 
few days until the seed is sprouted, and then it 
is drawn off'. When the plant attains the fourth 
leaf, go through with the hoes, and if the wea¬ 
ther is favorable, hoe again before letting on 
the water, or let it on at once for ten to twenty 
days, and then draw off and clean out the grass, 
and then let on the water, and keep it on until 
the grain is ripe, which is the last of August. It 
is cut with sickles, bound in small sheaves, and, of 
course, carried off'upon the negroes’ heads, either 
to hard land, where it is carted, or to flat boats 
along the shore, or in some of the large canals 
through the fields. From the boats, it is carted or 
carried to one great stack yard, where it is put 
up in very handsome round stacks, or long ricks, 
upon beds graded so as to carry off all rain 
water. As soon as possible after the crop is 
secured, the threshing commences, and requires 
a great number of hands to carry the sheaves to 
the machine, and take away the straw and chaff, 
and put up about 500 bushels of cleaned grain 
a day in the store house. 
As soon as there is a stock on hand, the pro¬ 
cess of hulling commences. I will endeavor to 
describe this process particularly. 
The mill is driven by tide water, and will hull 
about 500 bushels a tide, which rises here six 
feet; Col. C., however, intends to get a steam 
engine, so as to be able to run constantly. The 
rough rice is brought from the store house and 
emptied into a bin upon the lower floor, from 
which it is carried by elevators to the third 
story and passed through a large fanning mill; 
and then through a three-part screen, to separate 
the sand that is too heavy to be blown out, and 
divide the small rice from the large grain as 
much as possible, as it is important to have all 
of nearly the same size passing between the 
stones at the same time. From this screen, the 
rice falls to a pair of six-foot mill stones, which 
run just close enough together to rub off the 
hulls of the most of it. From here it is again 
elevated, and passed through another fan that 
blows off the hulls and spouts them out doors. 
Then it passes through another screen that 
