The land is sandy and should have skillful handling to get the best results. Yet the farming is very unscientific. The first plowing is shallow and subsequent cultivation is done almost entirely with hoes. When a Hampton graduate began some new methods last year the people came for miles to see his big plow. It is said that there was more plowing than usual as a result. The daily life of the farmer is about as follows: Rising between four and five he goes directly to the field, eating nothing until eight or nine, when he has some "grits," a sort of fine hominy cooked like oat meal. Many eat nothing until they leave the field at eleven for dinner, which also consists of grits with some crabs in summer and fish in winter. Some have only these two meals a day. Corn bread and molasses are almost unknown and when they have molasses it is eaten with a spoon. Knives and forks are seldom used. One girl of eighteen did not know how to handle a knife. There are numbers of cows on the island, but milk is seldom served, the cattle being sold for beef. The draft animals are usually small oxen or ponies, called "salt marsh tackies," as they are left to pick their living from the marshes. Some chickens and turkeys are raised, but no great dependence is placed on them. There are no geese and few ducks. Little commercial fertilizer is used, the marsh grass, which grows in great abundance, being an excellent substitute of which the more progressive take advantage. The following statement will illustrate the situation of three typical families, an unusual, a good, and an average farmer. The figures are for 1902:
The rice is grown without flooding and known as "Providence Rice."
With the great ease of getting a livelihood the advances necessarily are small. From January 1, 1902, to July 15 (which is near the close of the advancing season) several average families had gotten advances averaging $15.00. The firm which does most of the advancing on the island writes: "We have some that get more. A few get $50.00 or about that amount, but we make it a point not to let the colored people or our customers get too much in debt. We have to determine about what they need and we have always given them what was necessary to help them make a crop according to their conditions and circumstances as they present themselves to us." The firm reports that they collect each year about 90 per cent of their outstanding accounts.
Below are given the customary forms of the Bill of Sale and the Crop Lien given to secure advances:
The State of South Carolina,
County of Beaufort.
Know all men by these presents, that ............ of the said County, in consideration of the sum of ............ dollars, to be advanced in merchandise by ............, of Beaufort County and State, have bargained and sold unto the said ............ the following personal property, ............, now in my possession, and which I promise to deliver on demand of the said ............
(Signed) .....................
$............
On the .... day of 19.., I promise to pay to the order of ............ ..........., at Beaufort, South Carolina, ............ dollars for money and supplies to be advanced and furnished me by the said ............, merchants, Beaufort, South Carolina, for use in the cultivation of crops on the plantation or farm cultivated by me in Beaufort County, South Carolina, known as the ............ plantation, and containing about ............ acres, during the year 190...
And in consideration of the said advance made me I hereby give, make and grant to the said ............ a lien to the extent of said advance on all the crops which may be grown on the said plantation or farm during the year 190.., wherever said crops or parts of them are found.