brands[C] sixty to seventy cents is often paid. The writer has seen a
few bales, of a most beautiful color and length of staple, which sold
for eighty cents, when middling Uplands brought but ten cents per pound.
It is mostly shipped to France, where it is used for manufacturing the
finest laces, and contributes largely to the texture of fancy silks,
particularly the cheaper kinds for the American market. After passing
above the flow of the salt water, but within the rise of the tide, there
is a wide alluvial range along the rivers and creeks, which, by a system
of embankments, can be flowed or drained at pleasure. This is cultivated
with rice, and, if properly cared for, yields enormous crops, sometimes
of sixty bushels to an acre. The land is composed of a mass of muck,
often ten feet deep and inexhaustible, and never suffers from drought.
This land is very valuable, one hundred dollars often being paid per
acre for large plantations. Much rice land, however, remains uncleared
for want of the enterprise and perseverance necessary to its
improvement.

Farther in the interior the land is principally of a sandy formation,
most of it underlaid with clay. Very little effort is, however, made by
planters to cultivate it, although it is very easily worked, and with a
little manuring yields fair crops of corn and sweet potatoes. The cereal
grains are seldom cultivated, but no doubt they would yield well. A
large portion of the main-land is composed of swamps, of which only
enough have been reclaimed to make it certain that here is a mine of
wealth to those gifted with the energy to improve it. The soil is as
fertile as the banks of the Nile, and nowhere could agricultural
enterprise meet with such certainly profitable returns. Recurring again
to the agricultural capacity of the islands, it is certain that good
crops of sugar-cane can be grown on them. During the war of 1812, the
planters turned their attention to it, and succeeded well, since which