New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-26
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE.
BY SOLON ROBINSON.


culture which requires a good deal of capital, and
peculiar location. and Is them probably, more profit
able than the cultivation of any other of the ce-
reals Ii is true that rice has been grown upon up
land-in one case | knew of In South Carolina,
sixty bushels of rough rice per acre. worth dollar
bushel-but as a rule, It's growth is confined to wet
culture that is upon land situated that il can
be flowed and "uuflowcd" rapidly at stated periods
of the growth of the plant. Sometimes this is ac-
compIshed by the rise and fall of tides. which
back up the fresh water 9f rivers 10 overflow
the meadows previously surrounded with dykes.
In of very low water IN the tresh-waer streams
this system fails, for kills the rice plants
rs certainly as a hard frost.
Sometimes fields are so situated that they can be
watered by the natural descent of stream. As
this is not always to be relied upon at the proper
time, have known rice planters in South Carolina
to construct reservoirs in ravines hollows or natu-
raj ponds, at great expense TO furnish water when
needed and indispensable to perfect the crop.
THE PREPARATION OF LAND.
Rice can be successfully grown "a far North as
cotton succeeds. II is often cultivated upon swamp
land that is too low for any other crop. The prep
aratiOn of a timber swamp, particularly cypress
one. is extremely labOrOus and expensive, and
nothing but the great profit of rice crops upon such
land could ever induce an owner to undertake Its
clearance. Besides cutting the timber and grubblng
out the roots. the tract must be dyked, both to
keep the exterior water out and the flooding water
in and il large the tract must be subdvided by In
terror dykes. as 10 flood one portion while an
other is getting ready. Then the whole tract must
be ditched so that the water can be drawn down
below the natural land surface. l have seen
ditch through rice plantation three miles long
and large enough for twenty-tOn fiat-boats, by
which the crop was carried to the threshlng floor,
the sheaves being brought TO the boats upon that
universal carry-all, a negroes head
1t is about $50 years since rice culture was intro
duced into this part Of the world, and nOrwthstand-
ing we have millions of of rice land, its cuti-
Walton never has become extensive as it has been IN
India formany ages, simply because We have never
had and hope never shall have class of laborers
willing 10 work for Just rice enouCh to hold soul and
body together in climate where they could 1--we
without clothes.
TIE METHOD or CULTIVATION.
The method of cultivation is thus: As soon as one
of the plots enclosed by interior dykes Is seeded,
the water is let on just enough to the surface
until the grain sprouts and begins to take root,
when it is drawn off and kept off until the fourth
leaf appears. Then wedding with hands and hoes
commences. and continues, if the weather Is dry,
until the time Of second wedding or if too wet for
the noes, water again lcl Oh 10 NcpuS'
After being on ten OF fifteen days, It is again drawn
off for hand-weeding, and then the plantation is
flooded and regulated every day so as to just keep
the heads above water, until fully grown. usually
in August about Charleston. During this high
flooding the dykes must be constantly watched.
The grain is mostly cut with sicbes and after being
threshed and winnowed like other grain is often
sold in its rough state under the name Of paddy"
which has no alusiOn TO an Irishman.
The beautiful white substance that we cat Is en-
closed in a hard shell composed mainly OF silex,
which is removed by continued beating in mortar
for some hours aud by several other processes thus
is made little City per cent of clean rice to
the weight of the paddy, which averages about
forty-fve pounds per bushel.
have the notes of one crop grown on Cooper
River South Carolina, that averaged ninety bushels
per acre upon fifteen acres watered from reservoir
pond. A plantation Cape Fear River, North Caro-
lima. averaged ffty-fye bushels upon 200 acres, and
l13 bushels upon eleven acres. | think the fair
average of welI-nanaged plantations. fifty bushels
per acre and that twenty bushels Of well grown
paddy wlll.fll Compounds tierce, besides about
21a per cent of broken rice, good but not merchant
able. There is also small quantity OF meal for
cattle or pig feed.
THE LABOR REQUIRED.
From the nature of the ground 1t viii be seen why
nearly all the work ia rice field is done with hoes,
and that five or six per hand is D." task for
the season, besides making corn crop. In prepar-
ing stubbe field it is either burnt over or the stub
bic turned under with hoes during the Winter, and
in March the surface bedded up and sOwn with
three bushels Of seed per acre.
The usual ratlons per week TO the slaves upon
South Carolina rice plantations used 10 De peck
of broken rice or peck Of corn, which they often
From October to February the rations were
half a bushel of sweet potatoes, instead Of
rice or meal Meat was not often given, though
mon the upland cotton plantation it was generally
three and half pounds Of bacon to each adult per
week. with peck and haltof corn meal. To this
an occasional coon" was added and without doubt
once in a while one of ma5sas pigs surepltiOusly
entered the stomarhs Of massa's people. II so, II
was only property in a different combination.
Knight write at length Of two other Southern
crops, tobacco and hemp bat az they do not belong
exclusively to Southern Agriculture | shall pass
them by for the present; partly because should
dislike to say anything that would encourage
any increase Of the one, and partly because should
despair Of being able to promote the growth Of the
other sufficiently to meet all the demands Of
justice.
THE SUPPLY OF LABOR,
There IA one other matter very closely conducted
with Southern Agriculture that did intend 10
speak Of and that is the future supply Of labor but
can now only briefly express my opinion that the
prospect Is not encouraging. As a general thing,
the hoped for, and by some sanguine persons
confidently expected, improvement Of the coored
race has not yet become a fixed fact. In towns
portion of the children getting just education
enough to unfit them for laborers, so that some Of
them would rather starye as loatng gentlemen
than work, and another portion are the yeriest
vagahonds living and lodging only degree above
the pigs and in the country the young negroes seem
10 be governed DIV The one dea how " live without