A pictorial description of the United States; embracing the history, geographical position, agricultural and mineral resources (1860) (14774793991)

Identifier: pictorialdescrip00sear (find matches)
Title: A pictorial description of the United States; embracing the history, geographical position, agricultural and mineral resources ..
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: (Sears, Robert), 1810-1892. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, R. Sears
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
a-tion. On the tide-lands, or those which lieon the coast and are open to the ocean,so that the supply of water is obtainedfiom it, rice is sown about the 20th ofMarch, while on those inland, which areirrigated from fresh-water streams, thesowing-time is about three weeks later.The soil is turned up with the hoe orplough, and then formed into drills ortrenches. From one to two bushels aresown upon an acre, and then the water islet in, and left standing from two to fourdays, to kill the worms, and make thegrain germinate. The water is thendrawn off, and the hoeing commences,which is soon repeatro, the grass beingnow picked from among the young grainby hand. The water is again let in af-ter the third hoeing, for ten days andoften more, sometimes for twenty. Thewater is then suffered to run off by de-grees, and the rice branches out, eachbranch at length bearing an ear of from100 to 300 grains. Three months aftersowing it begins to blossom, and thenthe floodgates are again opened and the
Text Appearing After Image:
374. DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. water flows in, where it remains till har-vest, which takes place in August on thecoast, and in September inland. Butthe great obstacle in the way of rice-culture, is the unhealthiness of the neigh-borhood, caused by the miasma raisedby the heat of the sun, which is mostdeadly to white men, and very injuriousalso to the negroes. The rice-plantersgenerally leave their homes during thesummer, and take their families to thecities, or to the uplands, to avoid thisevil. From 600 to 1,500 pounds of rice areobtained from an acre inland, and onthe coast from 1,200 to 1,500, and evensometimes 2,400. The separation of families from eachother, in a country where the plantationsystem is universal, and the scarcity ofvillages and even smaller settlements,necessarily throw many obstacles in theway of social improvement. Childrencan hardly be collected in schools, orthe people in chuiches, while social in-tercourse must be limited, even thoughthere ma