CHAPTER IV.

THE UPPER PINE BELT.

LOCATION, PHYSICAL FEATURES AND GEOLOGY.

The upper pine belt of South Carolina is sometimes called the middle. country, as distinguished from the upper country and the low country, between which it lies. It has also been known as the central cotton region of Carolina, having formerly led, as it still does, in some regards, in the culture of that staple. It may be defined as that portion of the State lying between an elevation above the sea of 130 and 250 feet. It crosses the State, in a northeasterly direction, from the Savannah river to the North Carolina line. To the south it is bounded by the lower pine belt, where the flat, open piney woods, with an undergrowth of coarse grasses, gradually gives place to the higher and more rolling pine lands, with an undergrowth of oak and hickory. To the north, the upper pine belt sweeps round the feet of the interrupted range of high red hills traversing the State, or rises, in the intervals of this range, to the still more elevated sand hills. It comprises, generally, the counties of Barnwell, Orangeburg, Sumter, Darlington, Marlboro and Marion. The northern half of Hampton and the northwest corner of Colleton are included in it. Along the rivers, it penetrates northward beyond the limits of the counties named. As uplands, on the first level above the swamps, it extends, in Aiken county, as high up the Savannah as Old Fort Moore, at Sand Bar ferry; in Richland, it reaches along the Congaree nearly to Columbia, embracing the wide, level area of Lower Township, lying between that river and the sand hills; along the Wateree, between the swamps and the High Hills of Santee, it passes into Kershaw county, and along the Great Pee Dee it passes up among the sand hills of Chesterfield.

PHYSICAL FEATURES.

The land is level, without being flat, and is sufficiently rolling to insure good drainage for the most part. While the general slope follows the southeasterly course of the rivers, the land rises more rapidly in the west, which gives the region a marked easterly slope in addition to its southeasterly inclination. Thus, in the west, Appleton, on the Port Royal railroad, 46 miles distant from tide water, has an elevation of 259 feet, while Orangeburg, on the South Carolina railway, 65 miles from tide water, has only the same elevation, and Wedgefield, on the Manchester and Wilmington road, 74 miles from tide water, has an elevation of only 236 feet; these being the highest points on the respective roads. The

WATER COURSES

rising in this region, or in the sand hill region above, are clear and rapid, while the larger rivers passing through it, that come from the mountains, are turbid. The latter furnish this region with valuable facilities for the transportation of produce. On the western side, the Savannah is navigable to Augusta for steamboats of two hundred to three hundred tons burden. The Salkehatchie river, rising in Barnwell county, might be rendered navigable to the county seat, by removing logs. The two Edistos might be rendered navigable for small steamboats, and if the contemplated canal, connecting these streams with the Ashley river, were opened, it would become an important avenue for the cheap transportation of produce. Steamboats carrying eight hundred to one thousand bales of cotton have passed up the Santee and its confluents, the Congaree and Wateree, as far as Granby (two miles below Columbia), and to Camden. In the east, the Great Pee Dee is navigated to Cheraw, one hundred and twenty miles in an air line from the sea, by steamers; for smaller craft, Lynch's river (the Kaddipah) and Black Creek were navigable, the one eighty, and the other thirty miles from where they join the Great Pee Dee. The Little Pee Dee is also navigable for vessels of considerable burden. Besides the large streams mentioned, there are numerous smaller ones in this region, flowing with a rapid current, through healthy localities heavily timbered with pine, and capable of furnishing water-powers sufficient for the largest factories. Such are the Three Runs creeks and the Little Salkehatchie river, in Barnwell, with many smaller mill creeks; in Orangeburg, such are Four Hole, Caw Caw, Halfway, Bull, and Dean swamps, with many lesser mill streams (on the ridge between the North and South Edisto, springs of fine drinking water

furnish a water-power sufficient for grinding and ginning, a few hundred feet from the spot where they issue from the earth). In Sumter, such are Black river, Scape, and Big and Little Rafting creeks; in Darlington, Cedar (where a cotton factory was erected in 1812 by General Williams), Sparrow, High Hill, Swift, Dake, Jeffry's, Middle, and Brickhold creeks, with others; in Marlboro, Crooked, Beaver Dam, Three Runs, Naked, Muddy, White's, Phill's, Husband's, and Hick's creeks; in Marion, Catfish, Ashpole, Buck, Sweet, Big, Smith, and Pope creeks. There are numerous small lakes, chiefly in the swamps, but sometimes on the uplands; in Barnwell, there is one, a beautiful sheet of clear water, two miles in circumference, with a beach-like shore, affording a fine drive, and surrounded on all sides by high and healthy pine uplands. The sweep wells, the bucket being attached to a pole, fastened to a long lever balanced near its middle, are characteristic of this region; generally they are from ten to twenty feet in depth, with only a short wooden curb on top, for the rest uncurbed, being dug through a fine, compact, yellow or red clay, to a stratum of quicksand, in which an abundant supply of pure and cool water is found.

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

West of the Black river, in Sumter county, the line where the buhr-stone formation passes under the Santee marls, traverses the centre of the upper pine belt. North of it occur the silicified shells of the buhr-stone; south of it, the coralline marls, both belonging, to the eocene. East of the stream named, and in the direction of Darlington courthouse, occur numerous outcroppings of the miocene marls, in Sumter and Darlington counties. Lower down, in Darlington and Marion counties, on the waters of Lynch's river and of the Great and Little Pee Dee, extensive beds of marl of the cretaceous formation of the secondary make their appearance.

Commencing on the Savannah river, a few miles above the mouth of the lower Three Runs, Mr. Tuomey traces the upper limit of the Santee marls to Tinker's creek, the dividing line of Aiken and Barnwell counties; thence, southeasterly, to Binnaker's bridge, on the South Edisto river; thence to Caw Caw swamp, north of Orangeburg, and across to Halfway swamp, where, below the site of Stuart's old mill, the most satisfactory locality is found for observing the passage of the buhr-stone formation under the green sand, overlaid by thick strata of Santee marls; thence to the Santee river, and across that stream into Clarendon and Sumter counties. As an average, the Santee marls are found to contain 881 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and were formerly in considerable use as an

amendment to the soil. Quantities of excellent lime were also obtained. from them by burning, especially by Dr. Jamison, on Caw Caw swamp. The green sand marls intercalated with them contain 30 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and 22 per cent. of green sand.

The marls of Sumter and Darlington, examined by Mr. Tuomey, were found to contain 60 to 70 per cent. of carbonate of lime, with traces of phosphate of lime. Larger quantities of the latter are said to have been found here since attention has been directed to the value of phosphates.

SOILS.

The upper pine belt contains something over 6,000 square miles, about one-sixth of which is swamp and the remainder uplands.

The uplands consist of a fine, light, gray, sandy loam, resting on a subsoil of red or yellow clay. In the east, in Marlboro and Marion, it is usually found at only three inches to four inches. In the west it is often deeper, and a subsoil of yellow or red sand intervenes between it and the surface soil; even here the depth to clay is seldom as much as two feet. The following are the analyses of these soils, made by Eugene A. Smith, of Alabama, for the Tenth United States Census:

No. 1 is from the Johnson field, on the Cathwood plantation of P. F. Hammond, in Aiken county, near the Savannah river, the soil being taken. uniformly, as all the samples were, to the depth of twelve inches. The

original growth was long leaf pine, with undergrowth of post oak and black jack runners. The land was cleared in 1835 and has been planted continuously in cotton for the last thirteen years, yielding from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds seed cotton average on two hundred acres last year. The cotton being a long staple variety of uplands, selling for two to five cents a pound above ordinary uplands and not very prolific.

No. 2, from Gov. Hagood's plantation, near Barnwell C. H.; mulatto soil; original growth, long leaf pine; oak and hickory undergrowth; yield 764 pounds seed cotton, average for ten years on one hundred and forty acres.

No. 3, field of Hon. C. S. McCall, near Bennettsville; original growth long leaf pine, with undergrowth of oak and dogwood; has been planted for two or three generations; yield for several years past, one bale per

acre.

No. 4, virgin forest soil, from red clay ridge, near Marion and Marlboro line, on Donohoe, plantation of W. D. Johnson; growth, large hickory, oak and pine; similar land under present culture averages for large fields a bale of cotton to the acre one year with another, when planted for a succession of years in the same crop.

The following analyses are by Prof. Shepard, and were published in Tuomey's Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, in the year 1848. No. 1 is from the cotton lands below Columbia, in Richland county; and No. 2 is from near Bennettsville, Marlboro county:

The Pee Dee lands were little esteemed formerly, and seventy-five years ago many of them were considered so impoverished by cultivation as to have been abandoned by their owners for the fresh lands of Alabama. Under the present system of culture they are the most productive and certain in the State. As the above analyses show no superiority of the