Misc. Records
Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869
SOUTH CAROLINA.
SOUTH CAROLINA, in the form of an irregular triangle, with its base upon the Atlantic, lies between North Carolina upon the north, and Georgia upon the south and west. Its area contains 34,000 square miles, equal to 21,760,000 acres. The total population in 1860 was 703,708, of which but 291,300 were white.
South Carolina is well watered, and possesses a very fertile soil, with but little waste or barren land. The numerous fine rivers which traverse the State afford excellent facilities for communication and traffic, and abundant motive-power for manufacturing purposes. Along the sea-coast is a belt of territory, about 100 miles in width, which is flat and frequently swampy. It is traversed by sluggish streams, and covered with forests of pitch pine. Adjoining this region upon the west is an unattractive strip of country called the "Middle Region," consisting principally of low sand-hills. West of the middle country is a belt called the "Ridge," where the country suddenly rises, and continues gradually to ascend, exhibiting beautiful alternations of hill and dale, interspersed with extensive forests, and watered by pleasant streams, until it terminates in the west in the Blue Ridge mountains, of which the highest peak—Table Mountain—rises to the height of 4,000 feet above the ocean level. A range of low, flat islands skirt the more southerly portion of the coast, covered with forests of live-oak, palmetto, and pine, whose density of perennial verdure rivals that of the tropics. These islands, and those along the coast of Georgia, are devoted almost exclusively to the cultivation of the long staple sea-island cotton, the best known to commerce, and which is here grown more successfully than in any other part of the world.
Governor SEABROOKE says:—
South Carolina is most favorably situated, not only with regard to the States of the Union, but to the other portions of the globe. Midway between the frozen regions of the North, and the burning heat of the tropics, in her climate, seasons, and productions, it has been fully represented that she enjoys most of the advantages of all. If we except tropical fruits, to which frost is fatal, her capacity successfully to rear all the grains, fruits, and esculent roots, which enrich more southern countries, is nearly certain. Her latitude for cotton enjoys an extraordinary advantage. Much farther south, the forcing nature of a vertical sun develops the plant too rapidly, thereby running it into weed and foliage; it is from the same cause most exposed to the ravages of the caterpillar and other insects. Farther north, the season is too short to mature an abundant crop of bolls, while the staple degenerates, and becomes less valuable.
The same authority states that there are six varieties of soil, viz.: 1st, tide swamp, appropriated to the culture of rice; 2d, inland swamp, to rice, cotton, corn, peas, &c.; 3d, salt marsh, to long cotton; 4th, oak and pine, to long cotton, corn, and potatoes; 5th, oak and hickory, to short cotton, and corn; 6th, pine barrens, to vegetables, fruits, &c. We quote further:―
Surprising to many as may be the declaration, South Carolina, in reference to her whole population, is a very healthy country, and by no means a sickly one with regard to her white inhabitants. If the alluvial region, and a few of the middle districts are subject to fevers in summer, the whole State in winter is comparatively exempt from the diseases to which more northern climates are peculiarly liable. The assertion, too, is with entire confidence made, that even during the hot months, in perhaps one-half of her limits, foreigners may reside, not only with impunity, but with renovated constitutions. In the neighborhood of every locality in which mephitic exhalations show the fatality of their power, there are sites for settlements, where vigorous health, under the ordinary safeguards, is always secured. The entire sand-hill country, and pine lands generally, as well as our towns and villages, furnish the most signal evidence of the salubrity of their atmospheric influence. It may here be appropriately observed, that while from causes, several of which are among the arcana of nature, the lower division is becoming gradually but steadily healthier, a portion of the middle zone is decidedly more liable to maladies of a fatal character. If a better system of drainage and other improvements in the cultivation of the ground do not satisfactorily account for the one, certain agricultural features are perhaps sufficient to explain the other. For the diseases which occasionally clothe in the habiliments of mourning, the people of Abbeville, Union, Chester, and York; it is supposed that the planters of those districts are competent to the diminution of the sources whence they spring.
Governor SCOTT; says in his recent message, July 6, 1868:―
German and French grape-growers will find in our upper tier of counties a soil and climate as genial to the grape as their own vine-clad hills, being precisely on the same parallel of latitude as the great wine-making districts of Spain and Portugal. The Swede and the Dane will find ample scope and verge for their talents for mining in our gold, iron, and lead regions, while even the Hollander, may exercise his cunning, in draining the marshlands of our low country, which he may get almost for the asking. Our rivers, abounding with noble falls, are running to waste, when they should resound with the hum of thousands of busy spindles. These invite the manufacturer of the North, who will find labor among us abundant and cheap, and may look from his own door upon fields white with the cotton that supplies his mill.
We have been favored with the following communication from the State Commissioner of Immigration:―
SOUTH CAROLINA BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION, CHARLESTON,
August 8, 1868.
DEAR SIR.: * * I beg leave to transmit to you some of my official publications, containing most of the information you seek, in such a form that there can be no doubt. * * * We are now about having a homestead law to $1,500 value, and other favorable developments may be expected. In our mountain regions, valuable and plentiful minerals have recently been found, and the whole region of our low country contains inexhaustible beds of the most valuable phosphates, which are already shipped to Northern and foreign markets. We desire immigrants, and will heartily welcome them.
Yours truly,
JOHN A. WAGENER.
The following are extracts from the late publications referred to in the Commissioner's letter:—
RIVERS.—The principal rivers of the State are, the Savannah, which bounds it on the south, and for nearly 300 miles marks its line the Broad River and Pocotaligo, which empty into the Bay of Port Royal, and, by their depth and bold indentations, promise sites for large and important mercantile communities; the Combahee and Ashepoo and Edisto, which empty into the Bay of St. Helena—inferior only to Port Royal—and which are bordered with rich rice and cotton plantations; the Stono, which is in the immediate vicinity of Charleston, and the Ashley and Cooper, on which old Charleston, the noble, hospitable, and heroic old city, is situated; the Santee, which, through its connection with the Congaree and Wateree, runs through the heart of the State up to the mountains; and the Pedee, which receives the Waccamaw of North Carolina into its bosom, and empties into the Bay of Winyah, on which the flourishing town and seaport of Georgetown is situated.
FORESTS.—Of the 19,000,000 acres of area in South Carolina, there are but about 4,500,000 acres in use, and all the rest are in forest, original as the Lord in his infinite goodness and wisdom has created it. The husbandman will look for the open and cleared field, and he will find enough, and to his heart's content; for of the 4,500,000 acres cleared and in cultivation, at least one-half are now for lease or sale, at very reasonable prices. But the forest of South Carolina—the beautiful, grand, and useful decoration of God's blessed world—where will be found another like it? From the Carolina sea-board, where the tough Palmetto grows, the emblem of the State, to the mountain ridge, where the stately balsam-pine towers beside the fruitful chestnut, the valuable black walnut, and the useful maple, there is hardly a tree on the face of the earth which does not find a congenial home within her borders. The yellow pine, which affords the excellent lumber, rosin, and turpentine of commerce, is. liberally intermixed with the oak of every kind. Hickory, walnut, maple, cedar, poplar, cypress, dogwood, locust, ash, aspen, birch, spruce, hemlock, and basswood abound everywhere, and many other woods, for useful and ornamental purposes, provide the most ample supply for the various mechanical trades.
GAME AND FISH.—The forests of South Carolina abound in deer, bears, foxes, wild-cats, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, and rabbits. Otter, mink, and sometimes beaver, are found on the water-courses. Pigeons, doves, partridges, woodcock, snipe, wild turkeys, and sometimes grouse, are found in most parts of the State, whilst innumerable wild ducks, plover, marsh fowls, and curlews abide in the tide regions. Fresh-water fish are caught in all the streams of the interior, whilst every valuable fish, from the largest to the smallest, is daily brought in regular supply from the rivers and banks near the sea. The luxurious oyster is an article of daily consumption of the people residing in the tide regions, and may be had at any hour for the gathering.
CLIMATE.—The careful emigrant, in seeking a new home for himself and his children and descendants, naturally inquires into its climate, temperature, adaptation to the culture of the great staples of food and commerce, and especially of its healthfulness or salubrity. * * * The climate of South Carolina corresponds with that of the south of France, and of Italy. It has often been the subject of disparagement; but a sober investigation will not only remove every prejudice, but will show its comparative superiority over many other favorite sections of the Union, and a decided superiority over most countries of Europe. It may not be amiss here to mention, that the late war has demonstrated fully and satisfactorily, that even in our low country tidal regions, where strangers formerly were totally averse to dwell, the most perfect state of health may be enjoyed with proper care for personal cleanliness, comfort, sobriety, and regular living—which are the conditions of health in every portion of the world.
Such a climate must necessarily be very beneficial to agriculture, and we therefore not only have a continued and uninterrupted succession of crops, but the produce of almost every section and clime of the earth will here thrive. In this State there is hardly need to house the live stock, excepting, perhaps, for a few inclement days to give them a night shelter. In October and November, our grain seeds are put into the ground; in March and April, corn and cotton are planted; in May and June, our grain harvest is gathered; and in September, our cotton picking commences and the corn is ripe. There is here a happy distribution of the seasons, and not one day in the year the farmer is prevented from some useful employment legitimately consequent upon his calling. How very different in the cold North and West, where winter covers the earth with an icy mantle for months, and compels man and beast to remain in shelter, and to rely only on the stores which summer and autumn have permitted them to gather ! The cost alone of a supply of fuel, is an item of great consideration. It has been asserted that the North and West will produce a richer harvest of cereals and grains, per acre, than the South. Even if that were so, the reason would be very simple and easily found. Southern cultivation of the food plants has heretofore been very careless, on account of the very rich returns of their more valuable staples. Indeed, slave labor has been a careless and slovenly labor in every respect. But where the same attention has been paid to the cultivation of the cereals and grains as at the North and West, the result has been not only equal but very often much superior. Over 100 bushels of corn from an acre have frequently been made in South Carolina, and 60 bushels of wheat; and there is an instance recorded when, with special care and a combination of favorable circumstances, somewhat over 300 bushels of corn have been gathered from one acre in this State. The average harvest, however, under our present system of cultivation, according to official reports, is about 25 bushels of corn per acre, 15 bushels of wheat, 20 bushels of oats, 15 bushels of rye, 40 bushels of barley, 100 bushels of Irish potatoes, 150 to 400 bushels of sweet potatoes, 40 bushels of rice, cotton about 600 pounds, &c.
PRODUCTIONS.—The usual productions of this State are cotton, the long and short staple, rice, both swamp and upland, tobacco, indigo, sugar, wheat, rye, corn, oats, millet, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, sorghum, broom-corn, sunflower, guinea corn, sweet potatoes, and Irish potatoes. Hemp, flax, and hops grow luxuriantly. Of fruits, our orchards will show apples, pears, quinces, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, oranges, lemons, olives, figs, pomegranates, and the American date, the persimmons, of many kinds. Of berries, we have the mulberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, huckleberry, sparkleberry, and elderberry. Of nuts, we have the walnut, pecan nut, chestnut, hickory, hazelnut, and chincapin. The grape grows luxuriantly in every portion of the State. In our woods and swamps enormous vines are found, extending to the topmost branches of the tallest forest-trees. Around Aiken, about 500 acres are now planted in grapes, and the quantity increases annually. The vines are healthy and vigorous. The silkworm thrives well with us, and the morus multicaulis flourishes without any more care or attention than any of our forest-trees, and the growth is so rapid that the leaves can be used the second year after planting. The tea-plant is successfully cultivated. Of garden products, we have turnips, carrots, parsnips, artichokes, mustard, benne, rhubarb, arrowroot, watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers, cabbages, kale, salads, peppers, squashes, tomatoes, pumpkins, onions, leeks, okra, cauliflower, beans, peas, radishes, celery, &c., &c.—in short, almost whatever can be raised in any garden in the world. Of flowers, we have in our gardens whatever the earth will yield in beauty and fragrance. The rose is a hedge-plant, the japonica blossoms in the open air throughout the winter, the jasmine perfumes our thickets, and the violet borders our roads.
LIVE STOCK.—Horses and Mules may be purchased here at ordinary rates. They are raised without any greater trouble than anywhere else. They are stall-fed when they are working, whilst they are mostly allowed to roam the forest and provide their own support when they are young.
Cattle are very rarely provided with food or provender, excepting the mulch cows, to induce them to come home of evenings for milking. Nutritious grasses fatten them rapidly in the summer, whilst in the winter they grow poor from the scantness of the herbage. They are no expense whatever; but of greater advantage would it undoubtedly be to house and keep them properly, as in the colder sections of the Union, for their manure and steadier increase would surely pay the farmer handsomely for his trouble.
Sheep do well, and are as little expense to the farmer as his other stock, being rarely attended to, excepting to learn them to know their home. They are sheared twice in the year. What has been said of cattle applies to them with equal force.
Swine are very thriving and prolific, on account of the superabundance of food, which our fields, swamps, and forests furnish them. They are suffered to roam at large, simply bearing the mark of the owner, being fed only occasionally, and driven to the pen only when wanted for slaughter.
COST OF A FARM.―A good farm may be had in South Carolina as cheap as anywhere in the Union, perhaps cheaper. The Bureau of Immigration has lands registered at from one dollar to five dollars per acre. Farms may be obtained, having buildings, and fences, and cleared lands enough for a family to work, for five hundred dollars and upward, according to the situation and improvements. The payments can in all cases be made to suit the means of the purchaser. This being one of the oldest settled States, there are no public lands remaining, but the immigrant finds an established society, churches, schools, good roads, bridges, and an orderly and well-regulated neighborhood wheresoever he goes. He will have to expect difficulties and embarrassments at first; for whoever leaves his old home for the land of the stranger, must find things different from what he has been used to. But industry, careful management, and patient fortitude will succeed here as speedily, at least, as anywhere else, in acquiring comfort and a competency.
MANUFACTURING AND COMMERCE.―With the raw material on the spot, and water-power and fuel everywhere in abundance, no better opening for the establishment of factories can anywhere be found than in South Carolina. This must be obvious to all reflecting minds. We have the cotton, the most valuable manufacturing material in the world, growing in fields on the borders of which the stream passes by, where the mill would find an effective site; we have the iron ore in abundance, and the fuel near at hand, to make our own metal and build our own machinery; we have the clay for stoneware and pottery, the fine kaolin for porcelain, and the silica for glass, in many portions of the State; we have the fine-grained and hard woods in our forests for all the branches of cabinet-making; and we have an excellent and ever-ready market for all our produce. The port of Charleston is connected by a system of railroads with all parts of the State and the whole country, the harbor is safe and capacious, and is visited by vessels from all parts of the world. In addition, we have the port of Georgetown, and the magnificent Port Royal, situated in a rich and fertile region, enjoying a pleasant and salubrious climate, deep and capacious enough for the maneuvers of the largest war-vessels in the world.
RAILROADS.―A glance at the map will show that a railroad station is within easy reach of every corner of the State. The Charleston and Savannah Railroad connects us with all the principal Southern cities. The South Carolina Railroad runs up to Columbia, the capital of the State, and by a branch to Augusta, from thence forming a chain of connections with the Western States. The Greenville and Columbia Railroad, by its main line and several branches, reaches every western and northwestern section of the State, and by its connection with the Blue Ridge Railroad (which for the present terminates at the German town and settlement of Walhalla, in Pickens District), will in a few years unite us with Cincinnati, in Ohio. The Columbia and Charlotte Railroad traverses the northern sections of the State, and, by the Danville Railroad, terminates in Richmond, Virginia. The Northeastern Railroad connects with the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, and is one of the lines of travel from Charleston to New York. Thus it will be seen, that this State has a complete network of intercommunication, whilst connecting with every main avenue of the business and travel of this continent by direct lines.
CITIES AND TOWNS.—Charleston and Columbia are the principal cities in South Carolina, the former with about 50,000, and the latter with about 20,000 inhabitants. In each district there is a principal town, with a court-house and public offices.
* * * * * * * * * *
Towns of importance, besides the above, are Summerville, Aiken, Hamburg, Pendleton, Walhalla (the German town in Pickens), Stateburg, Blackville, Branchville, Bluffton, Hardeeville, Adams' Run, Willtown, Mount Pleasant, Moultrieville, and several others. A great number of villages, with stores and post-offices, dot the State in every direction, and every railroad station is a point of trade.
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, &c.—Every Christian denomination is fully represented in the communities of South Carolina, and the Jews have several synagogues. The Catholic Church have their houses of worship for their native congregations, and also for their Irish, French, and German congregations. The Protestants are mostly Baptist, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans. The latter are very numerous, have a large number of churches, and are mostly supported by the Germans and their descendants. * * * Every district is entitled to a portion of the State appropriation for the support of free schools, according to its population and taxes. In the city of Charleston there is a normal school for the education of teachers. An agricultural college is now being established, but the location has not yet been determined upon. In the city of Charleston there is also a German school, and another in Walhalla, in Pickens District.
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On the Savannah there is a monument for the Polish hero, Pulaski; on the Santee there is a monument for the German hero, De Kalb; and never is the great day of Carolina's glory, the anniversary of Moultrie commemorated, without a grateful allusion to the Irish hero, Jasper.
As a religious community, South Carolina can proudly refer to her hundreds of churches, that point their spires to heaven from her hills and dales everywhere. And not in Pharisaical self-righteousness, but with the truly Christian liberality that knows no difference whatever in sect or creed, but appreciates the good in all.
Her system of African slavery enabled her opulent planters to do without every other branch of industry but that of cultivating the soil.
It has been reported that manual labor was not honorable in the South. If this ever was a truth, hard work and steady employ have now become fashionable; and whoever cultivates his fields best, and is personally most industrious, is the most successful and the greatest gentleman. And the immigrant, as a brother workingman, will be heartily welcomed, and will meet with encouragement and friendly offices wherever he exhibits habits of industry, frugality, honesty, and thrift. And the Carolinian, furthermore, instead, as formerly, preferring goods from abroad, will now prefer an article made at home, and feel proud of his choice. What an opening for the mechanic of every trade, every town, every village in the State, has need of such, and will afford them a competency. Let them come !
From the February, 1868, Report of the. Department of Agriculture:―
REAL ESTATE.—Returns represent the decrease in real estate to be from 25 to 80 per cent., making the average for the State about 60 per cent. The causes are variously stated: general indebtedness, scarcity of money, want of reliable laborers, great loss of capital in slaves, want of capital, unsettled condition of the country, general poverty of the people, fear of confiscation, and negro domination.
Union District reports none but worn-out lands, worth little; Chester, the same, but on trap formation, and can therefore be easily reclaimed by deep plowing, while the wooded lands are well timbered. In Spartanburg, woodland is seldom sold, except as part of cultivated farms, and then at four to five dollars per acre. The uplands are thin in soil; the gray—standing drought —is best for cotton, and the reddish for wheat. Georgetown has pine lands, for poor, coarse pasture, at 50 cents to $1; such as lie near water-carriage are worth $1.50 to $2 for turpentine and lumber. Few sales are reported in Pickens; asking price from 10 cents to $5 for lands that will yield from ten to twenty bushels of corn and four to ten of oats, rye, or wheat. Abbeville unimproved lands are generally poor ridges and abandoned lands, at $2 per acre; Sumter, light sandy, with clay subsoil, at 50 cents per acre, which, if covered with pine, are valuable for turpentine; Richland, from $1 to $5; much is valuable only for timber; the oak and hickory lands will yield 500 to 1,000 pounds cotton, 10 to 20 bushels corn, and 8 to 12 bushels wheat; in York County, King's Mountain lands, fit only for coaling and iron working, are now being operated by two iron companies. Marion has much virgin land, valuable for farming, adapted to cotton, corn, rice, &c.; heavy pine forests, scarcely touched, valuable for naval stores; and swamp lands for oak and cypress lumber—average price $2. Barnwell reports rich alluvial swamp lands on water-courses, expensive to clear and drain, heavily timbered with sycamore, cypress, poplar, short-leaf pine, &c., and cane-brakes, affording rich pasturage the year round. The oak and hickory lands are less rich, but easier cleared. Pine lands and barrens, kept for "ranges," are too poor to cultivate; average price, $2 per acre. Lands rated at 6 bushels corn per acre can easily be made to produce much more by a good cultivator, as 600 bushels sweet potatoes have been produced on such lands by manuring and good tillage. Barnwell District, it is claimed, is peculiarly adapted to produce silks, wines, and fruits, and has railroad and water communication to all parts of the State.
MINERALS.—Iron of superior quality, in great abundance, is found in Spartanburg, but only used for plantation purposes; ore is reported in Abbeville. Gold is found in Spartanburg, in Pickens (where a company is successfully at work, near Walhalla), in Abbeville (where "Horn's gold mine," discovered in 1834, has already yielded $1,000,000, and is still worked with profit); and in York some mines have lately been sold to Northern capitalists, including some California miners. Lead, also, is found in Spartanburg, copper and silver in Pickens, very pure ocher in Abbeville, and immense beds of kaolin and superior buhrstone. Marl in Barnwell contains a large percentage of lime. This district has had several manufactories of cotton, paper, &c., in profitable operation, and some are yet running successfully.
CROPS.—Cotton is the only special or market crop in Spartanburg, Union, Abbeville, Sumter, Richland, York (southern part), Chester, and Marion, and raised also, as one among others, in Barnwell. All testify that at present it is profitless, and in most cases a losing crop. Rice has been the special crop in Georgetown, but only about one-tenth (5,000 tierces) of the former amount is now raised. Corn and wheat are grown in Spartanburg as a principal crop; also, rye, oats, and common and sweet potatoes for home consumption; the same is true of Abbeville and Chester. In Barnwell, the Irish potato has been grown, with no manuring, and little cultivation except mulching, at the rate of 400 bushels per acre. In the same garden, out of 700 cabbages, 500 bore large heads, some of the Early York 42 inches in diameter, and other vegetables of proportionate size, all showing that the soil only needs better culture to produce abundantly. As the season is from four to six weeks earlier than in New Jersey, market-gardening for Northern markets would be profitable as fruit-growing in the latter State. The only implement for cultivation in Union District is the common one-horse plow, and there is no machinery for harvesting crops. The yield of farm lands is generally 300 to 1,000 pounds seed cotton, 8 to 50 bushels corn, 20 to 40 bushels rice, 4 to 15 of rye, and 10 to 20 of oats. Of course, better implements, thorough tillage, and good use of marl and other materials and manure, would greatly increase these products.
CORRESPONDENCE.
The following interesting letter will repay special attention. Fairfield District is situated centrally in the State:―
WINNSBORO, FAIRFIELD DISTRICT, S. C.,
August 12, 1868.
SIR: * * * The lands in Fairfield District before the war averaged $12 per acre; at this time they average about one dollar per acre. In most cases plantations now sell for less than the improvements upon them cost.
A plantation of 750 acres, the buildings upon which cost over $5,000, sold lately for $1,650. A farm one mile from Winnsboro, containing 100 acres, half in woods and half in cultivation, with orchard, grapery, fine residence, with ice-house, stables, and other large out-houses, besides another farm settlement, costing certainly more than $10,000, sold for $3,000;—payments in one, two, and three years.
A large brick hotel, containing stores and offices, which cost $30,000, sold for $8,000, gold—payable in eight annual installments; the rent of which property, exclusive of hotel and stables for which there is now no demand, amounted to $2,500 yearly. Property has often sold at lower prices than the above, which alone occur to the writer at present, and lands often sell as low as fifty cents per acre.
A large portion of the landed property of South Carolina will change owners within the next few years, and will sell at very low prices until immigration causes prices to advance.
The lands of this district have been very fertile, but they have been greatly injured by careless cultivation and slave labor. The old fields, however, are rapidly growing up in pines, and in many places the land is nearly as productive as when first cleared. The soil is chiefly clay, or a gray loam, which is the best cotton land. The surface is hilly or undulating, and is well watered with springs and streams running into Little River, a tributary of Broad River on the west, and into Wateree Creek, a tributary of Wateree River on the east.
Almost any thing which will grow in the temperate zone may be raised here. Whatever will grow in Maine or Oregon, and nearly every thing that will grow in Texas, may be raised successfully in South Carolina. The fact that the cultivation of the soil has produced wealth more rapidly in this State since its first settlement, than has been the case in any other State of the Union, is evidence of the great natural fertility of its soil and the benignity of its climate.
Probably a million acres of land, on the banks of the Santee and the other rivers and creeks of the State, as fertile as the banks of the Nile, remain utterly valueless for the want of capital and enterprise to embank or drain them.
Fairfield District, before the war, produced, annually, about 20,000 bales of cotton, with corn and wheat enough to supply its people. By a subdivision of plantations, improved cultivation, and attention to a variety of crops, the value of our products might be increased tenfold.
We need mechanics of all kinds, and farmers, and intelligent white men of any occupation. In the negro we have an abundance of unthinking and unskilled labor to last for a long time. Nearly every sober and industrious foreigner, whether shoemaker, blacksmith, carpenter, or farmer, who has come to this district, has acquired property; and many of them have acquired wealth. Our own citizens, too, who have in former years moved to Illinois and other Northwestern States, after years of toil in a severe climate, have had their circumstances improved only by increase in the value of their lands. If the value of our lands had been increased by immigration, as was the case there, what a difference there would have been in the comparative wealth of the two sections !
The climate is agreeable and healthful. Upon some of the watercourses chills and fever prevail, but this disease might be prevented by proper drainage and cultivation. Fairfield, with some other districts in the State, has been noted for the number of large men it produces.
The mineral resources of Fairfield are undeveloped. There are indications of gold and iron—none of coal. The country has been much cleared, but there is still an abundance of timber, as oak, hickory, ash, walnut, pine, &c., &c.
There is, upon some of the streams in this district, water-power for mills or factories rarely surpassed.
The Charlotte and South Carolina, and the Greenville and Columbia railroads, pass through the district. There are churches and schools in every neighborhood. The descendants of settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia constitute about half of our population Scotch, Irish, and their descendants, forming the other half, with a few Germans and people from other States.
Northern men who come to settle among us will be kindly received. In this particular, the South has been much misrepresented. Because unprincipled political adventurers have been here treated with contempt, our feelings have been construed falsely into hostility to Northern men. We earnestly invite laboring men, business men, and professional men, from the North as well as from Europe, to come and live among us.
We believe that by coming here they can benefit themselves as well as us and our country. Nothing would more gratify me personally, than to learn that a large colony of Northern farmers had established themselves in South Carolina. Their industry, skill, and good sense would soon place them in the very front rank of Southerners in every sense of the word.
Respectfully,
G. H. McMASTER.
F. B. GODDARD, Esq., New York.
Our correspondent at Aiken writes, under date of August 10, 1868:―
I would especially call your attention to the fact of the remarkable salubrity of this climate (of Aiken and vicinity), in connection with the length of the growing-season, and the opportunity for preparing farms during the entire winter. The prospects of a rapid increase in population and wealth, as soon as the excitement incident to the presidential election is over, is most flattering.
Mr. JOHN A HAMILTON writes from
ORANGEBURG, S. C., August 10, 1868.
* * * The lands of this district are adapted to the most successful culture of upland cotton, rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, indigo, corn, potatoes, and fruits of every variety, such as peaches, pears, apples, apricots, quinces, &c. The soil is fertile; and previous to the late war, this district afforded wealth equal to any in the State.
The price of labor is regulated by the yield of crops; laborers getting in most cases one-third of the crop.
Climate unsurpassed. Summer extreme heat averaged 85º; winter mild and pleasant.
Timber of every variety—oak, pine, poplar, ash, cypress, cedar, walnut, and maple.
School and religious privileges good.
The principal settlers of this district are Germans; they are in circumstances of comparative affluence, despite the loss of thousands of dollars by the war; but there is an admixture of Irish, English, and French.
Mr. C. W. DUDLEY writes us from Bennettsville, Marlboro County, in the northern part of the State, under date of August 24, 1868, that —
* * * The county contains a great variety of soil. Where it leaves the North Carolina line, the country is hilly, and as you pursue it to its southern boundary, you descend, as it were, a succession of steps, until you reach a perfect level. Three-fourths of this land is productive, under skillful cultivation. Fertilizers must be used all over it, for this whole country has been long under cultivation, and its natural strength has been very much impaired. * * * Previous to the war, $30 per acre was not considered a very high price for lands which had once been exhausted. Prices would now range at from $5 to $10—though there is not much selling going on. The small farmers could not easily be prevailed upon to sell their lands—those who never owned slaves, or who worked on their own plantations, do not feel the change that the war has brought about, like those whose possessions were much larger, and did not work at all. With them, the fall has been from a precipice—and they are completely ruined—their lands can be bought, and they are anxious to sell them. * * * The negroes know how to cultivate cotton, and are willing to put up with very plain accommodations—a piece of fat meat, and a piece of cornbread, is all they care for—and as to sleeping, they ask for nothing but a cabin and a fire. On the other hand, the work is not the best in the world—Cuffee loves to talk with every one he sees going along the road—and he is not a very early riser; but even with all that, he is a great institution. The South could not do without him, and if the employer will lay off his coat and go to work in the same field, Cuffee will keep up with him.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.