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mr. robinson’s tour.—no. 19. 
MR. ROBINSON'S TOUR.—No. 19. 
Sea-Island Cotton Planting .—Edisto Island, 
one of the largest of the South-Carolina group, 
about thirty miles southwest of Charleston, 
containing 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants, is the prin¬ 
cipal point where this valuable crop is culti¬ 
vated, It is a sandy soil, but little above tide, 
which, flowing through many channels, gives 
very irregular shapes to the farms, but boat- 
able water almost at every man’s door. By this 
means, the crop is conveyed to market, boats 
being substituted for wagons. There is con¬ 
siderable marsh, some of which has been re¬ 
claimed, and produces good cotton. 
Salt-marsh mud is much used for manure 
at the rate of about forty one-horse cart loads 
to the acre. Some compost it, others put it in 
the cattle pens. Some dry it before hauling, 
and then spread upon the land. Mr. John F. 
Townsend prefers to use it as soon- as dug, 
spread upon the land wet, and plowed in. He 
is the only man on the island who uses plows 
to any extent. All the land is cultivated with 
hoes, upon the two-field system; that is, one 
field in cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes, in the 
proportion of about seven twelfths cotton, three 
twelfths corn, and two twelfths potatoes; in all, 
less than six acres to the hand. As the soil is 
generally very light, it is unproductive without 
manure. Therefore, as many cattle are kept as 
can be pastured upon the “ field at rest,” and 
the marsh and woodland. These are penned in 
movable yards, littered with fine straw and 
coarse marsh grass or weeds, which is also used 
to lay along between the old rows, to which 
muck and manure is added, and all the grass 
sod which has grown during the year is hoed 
down into alleys, and the bed formed upon it, 
keeping the bottom as solid as possible. 
If the plow were substituted for the hoe, twice 
as much manure could be made; or what, in 
my opinion, would be far more economical than 
digging muck or keeping so many cattte merely 
to make manure, would be the use of guano. As 
this substance contains the same fertilising prop¬ 
erties of muck, in an hundred fold degree, I 
would most earnestly recommend planters to 
try the experiment by applying about 200 lbs. 
to the acre, plowed in deep, or buried in the bot¬ 
tom of the cotton or corn beds. Make use of 
none but the best Peruvian, and purchase it 
from a reliable merchant, so as to be sure it is 
genuine. 
It is true that cattle are easily kept here, liv¬ 
ing in winter in cotton and clover fields, eating 
the unmatured bolls of the former and stalks of 
the latter. In warm winters, there is much 
grass, and in summer, I believe, it is rather 
abundant throughout all the south. 
Cotton is planted from March 20th to April 
10th, upon high beds, five feet apart one way, 
and from eight to twenty-four inches apart the 
other. Corn is planted about the first of April, 
upon the same kind of beds, from two to 
four feet apart. Sweet potatoes are planted 
the latter part of March; also upon same 
kind of beds as the cotton and corn. As soon 
as the vines are sufficiently grown, say on the 
first of June, they commence planting the “ slip 
crop.” This is done by taking the vines from 
the seed beds, and laying along the top of other 
beds, and covering a part of the vines with dirt, 
when they immediately take root, and grow a 
better crop than from the seed. The bed is 
made rich and mellow, but the land below is 
kept as hard and firm as possible. The beds 
for cotton, corn, and potatoes are all made in 
the same manner and distance apart, and are 
reversed every other crop; that is, changed 
into the alleys of the preceding one., but no ro¬ 
tation of crops is practised. The average yield 
of potatoes, is about 150 bushels to the acre. 
Cotton, (long staple,) 135 pounds. Corn, 15 
bushels of the southern white-flint variety. No 
other will stand the depredations of the weevil. 
The amount of labor to grow and prepare 
for market a hundred pounds of Sea-Island cot¬ 
ton, is estimated at fifty days’ work; that is, the 
small amount of labor which a negro does at 
“ task work.” The first process of preparing 
land for cotton, after manuring, is “ listing”— 
that is hoeing the grass off the old beds into the 
alleys. A “ task ” of this work is one fourth or 
three eights of an acre a r day. Next, the old 
beds are hauled on top, at the same rate. The 
whole “ task system” is equally light, and is one 
that I most unreservedly disapprove of, because 
it promotes idleness, and that is the parent of 
mischief. 
The system of upland-cotton and sugar plant¬ 
ers, of giving the hands plenty to eat, and 
steady employment, is a much better system. 
Meat is not generally fed to the laborers in this 
part of the state. The diet is almost exclusive¬ 
ly vegetable, varying upon different plantations 
somewhat. The following are the weekly ra¬ 
tions upon four places, which will give a gen¬ 
eral idea. 
1st. One bushel potatoes a-week from about 
October 1st to February 1st. Then one peck 
of corn, ground or unground, as preferred, or 
one peck of broken rice. Meat occasionally. 
2d. One bushel potatoes, or 10 qts. corn meal, 
or 8 qts. of rice, and 4 qts. of peas, with occa¬ 
sional fresh meat, and twenty barrels of salt 
fish and two barrels of molasses during the year. 
Number of people 170. 
3d. Half a bushel of potatoes, 6 qts. of meal, 
and about 2 lbs. of fresh meat, or 10 qts. of meal, 
or 10 qts. of rice. Carpenters, millers, drivers, 
and others, who do not raise crops and hogs for 
themselves, have a much larger allowance. 
4th. Half a bushel of potatoes, or 10 qts. of 
meal, and at times, when the labor is l&trd, a 
quart of soup a-day, and in light work twice a- 
week. This is made of 15 lbs. of meat to 75 
qts. of soup, thickened with turnips, cabbage, 
peas, meal, or rice. Upon this place, as well as 
many others, the people can get as many oys¬ 
ters, crabs, and fish as they like. They also 
keep a great many more hogs than their mas¬ 
ters, but generally sell the pork instead of eat¬ 
ing it. A half bushel of sweet potatoes, as 
measured out for allowance, by repeated weigh¬ 
ing, averaged 43 lbs. 
The process of preparing Sea-Island cotton 
