Agriculture, though the grand business of Carolina, is far from having reached the perfection of which it is susceptible. The art of manuring land is little under stood, and even less practised. Most of the planters, relying on the fertility of the soil, of which they have generally extent enough to enable them to change what begins to fail for that which is fresh, seldom give them selves much trouble to keep their fields in heart. So little was the value of manure understood only twenty years ago, that it had no fixed price in Charleston, but was often given to the first who chose to carry it off. To their cattle, hogs, and sheep, they pay little attention. Allowed to roam at large in the woods, where they find abundance of excellent food and shelter, they depend but little on the care of their owners, and can hardly be regarded as domesticated animals. Hence it often hap pens, that a planter, who possesses twenty or thirty milch cows, derives less advantage from them, than cot tagers derive in other countries from two or three, which they tend with proper care. Much valuable high land remains yet unbroken. Extensive marshes, which might easily be converted into productive rice swamps, are left in a state of nature. Indeed, it is only a small proportion of the ground lying on the margins of rivers and of swamps, that has yet been brought under proper cultivation. Immense forests of pine land, which have hitherto produced little else than lumber, might, with the help of manure, be made to produce abundance of kitchen vegetables, with good crops of corn, potatoes, and turnips ; and, instead of remaining unproductive deserts, might he improved to the support of a numerous and healthful peasantry. Rice, which is the most nu tricious and useful aliment made use of by man, is the grand staple in the agriculture of Carolina. It was in troduced into that country about the year 1693, by Laud errave Thomas Smith, who, ha% ing procured a bag of rice front the cook of a vessel from Madeira, that an chored near Sullivan's island, sowed it in a spot of moist low ground at the bottom of his garden. It grew luxu riantly. The crop was distributed among his planting friends ; and in a few years rice became the chief sup port of the colony. The variation in the amount of the crops of this valuable aliment forms an important docu ment in the history of south Carolina ; for it has been materially aliucted, not only by the introduction of other staples, but by the political changes of the country. ‘NrIfen it was first introduced, the number of negroes in the province was small, the government was unsettled, and the kind of soil and mode of culture most fitv °livable to its growth were unknown. For twenty years alter its introduction, its exportation was rendered so ha•a•lous by the ravages of pirates on the coast, that it was not cultivated to any great extent. 111 the year 1724, about six years after the suppression of Buccaneers, 18,000 barrels of rice were exported ; and each succeeding year brought an additional quantity to market. The quantity exported in 1740 was 91,110 barrels ; in 1754 it amounted to 104,682 barrels. Ilitherto rice had been the chief article of export from Carolina ; but soon after the middle of the 18th century, much of the attention of the planters was transferred from it to indigo. The cul ture of rice, however, continued to advance, though slowly, till the commencement of the American revolu tion, when the average quantity' annually- exported was about 140,000 barrels. In 1783, the first year after the evacuation of Charleston, the crop of rice amounted to only 61,974 barrels. From that time its cultivation was resumed with vigour, and the annual exportation of it continued to increase till the year 1792, when the quan tity exported amounted to 106,419 barrels. The cul ture of cotton now began to employ so much of the agri cultural force of the state, that the crops of rice since that period have rarely exceeded what they were about the middle of the 18th century.
Next to rice, the most important article of agricultu ral produce in South Carolina, for a long time at least, was indigo, which was first introduced about the year 1742. The cultivation of this plant went on with such spirit and success, that, in the vear 1747, a considerable quantity of it was sent to England ; and, in the following year, a bounty was obtained from parliament of sixpence per pound on indigo, raised in the British American plantations, and imported directly into Britain from the place of its growth. Thus encouraged, the planters of
Carolina proceeded in the cultivation of indigo with such spirit and success, that the export of this article amount ed, in 1751, to 216,924 lbs. ; and before the revolution, it had risen to 1,107,660 lbs. Thought neglected du ring the war, the cultivation of it was eagerly resum ed after the restoration of peace; and it continued for some years to form a valuable export, till its price was greatly lowered, by large importations of the same com modity from the East Indies into England. The at tention of the planters was, towards the close of the 18th century, directed to cotton ; and as the same soil was adapted to the cultivation of both it and indigo, the latter was in a great measure neglected for the new staple.
Though the climate of Carolina was known to be si milar to that of the East Indies, where cotton had grown abundantly for many centuries ; though Dr Hewat, in his valuable history of South Carolina, had declared, so early as 1719, that the climate and soil of the province were favourable to the culture 01 e otton , and though tit( first peon 1( ial congress, held in 1775, had re commetyled to the inhabitants the raising of that use lid plant ; yet a very trilling quantity only was raised lOr 'nestle manufactures, previous to the year 1795. It that year, however, cotton was exported to the amount of 1,109,6531. Since that time the quantity of cotton raised has been annually increasing ; and, in the first year of the present century, eight millions of pounds of it were exported from South Carolina. Two kinds of cotton are raised in South Carolina. On the level lands of the low country, the kind chic fly ( 'titivated is the black seed, or long staple «,tton, which is admirably adapted to the finest manufactures. The wool is easily separated from the seed by roller-gins, which do not in jure the staple. In the middle and upper country, the cotton universally cultivated is the green seed kind, which is less silky, and adheres so tenaciouly to the seed, that it cannot be separated without the action of a saw-gin. This cuts the cotton exceedingly ; but as this kind is unfit for the finer fabrics, the cutting is scarcely e onsi &red injurious. Though the wool of the green seed cot ton be cheaper than the other, it grows likewise more luxuriantly. An acre, which will produce 15) lbs. of black seed cotton, will generally yield 200 his. of the green seed kind.
These staple articles have so engrossed the attention of the planters, that the culture of wheat, barley, oats, and other crops, equally useful but less profitable, has been almost wholly neglected. So little wheat is raised throughout the state, that considerable quantities of it arc annually imported. Barley has occasionally been cul tivated with such success on the low grounds that seven ty bushels have been procured from an acre ; and as it ripens there early in May, another crop might easily be raised on the same ground in the course of the year. Noth•ithstanding these advantages, however, the cul ture of this grain has not been pursued with any degree of spirit. Hops arc annually raised in small quantities. and the cultivation of them might easily be carried so far as to answer any probable demand. As mulberry trees grow in Carolina spontaneously, and native silk worms, producing well-formed cocoons, are often found in its woods, there can be no doubt that the country is naturally adapted to the raising of silk. For a consider able time the culture of silk was carried on by the Swiss colonists near Purysburgh, and occasionally by private persons as late as the year 1787. At present it is successfully continued at New Bourdeaux in Abbe ville ; but the conviction that greater profits may be ob tained more easily by other means, has prevented the culture of this commodity from being carried to any great extent.