Volume 03 Page 0107

1844 Memoranda
Gowrie Dec 4
Mr Bagshaw says I will not turn an inch of the Rice Land at
Mr McAlpins or at my place had he continued with me as
he has found that every field turned became polluted
with Volunteer Rice which because this turned in and
cultivated as it were. At my place he turned last year
Nos 8. 9. & 11 when [illegible] this season considerable Volunteer
At Mr Legare's they have turned the whole every year
& such is the state of the fields now that he planted
30 acres in dry culture this summer & when the time
came to hoe the crop of oats the Volunteer rice in the
trenches was so thick that Mr Bagshaw says he could
either have howed away at the rice & made a crop of oats
or howed away at the oats & made a crop of Volunteer Rice
that Mr [Lipin] has planted the same seed on his land
for seven years without changing his seed & that in
consequence he will not make quite 4000 Bushels
from the 106 acres which plants in rice this summer
That his little place is much worn & deteriorated
He showed me Mr Legare's List of Negroes 35 in all 22 Prime 3 3/4 hands 1 driver. 3 Nurses & 6 children
Driver Isaac is now old & feeble & [illegible] should he fail one named Will, is best to make Driver

Mr Bagshaw says 5 Dec 1844 that Mr McAlpins two Places
above me are 340 acres & had 95 Negroes on them when he bought
them in 1838 from Mr Wallace for $85.000 including a
miserable high land place called Mulberry Grove in Georgia
That the land is now very much deteriorated & the
Negroes in the last six years have died off & now there
are only 65 That the Negroes were @$450 round
That he would not give my 255 acres for McAlpins two Places of 300

Mr Bagshaw says that Mr Hamiltons new Purchase he thinks less valuable than Mr Elliot Garrets just above it
Mr B says that my Land is every inch Clay & much superior
to any of the land above my place Much of theirs is light
loose soil, much deteriorated but mine is lasting
That Mr Potters adjoining below me is of the same good soil
Mr Potters tract next to me is 250 acres the oldest & worst next to me, the crop from 230 acres of it made 1844 9.000 Bush
as mine but more worn being much longer cultivated
He infinitely prefers Dr Kings recent purchase at the head of Argyle Island @ $20.0000
it being 400 acres of good clay land this with bad bank at present & with bad sandy foundation for banks
that Mr Hamiltons purchase of the place in Carolina near mine for $15.0000 it having very little
clay lands the rest of loose black soil. Exposed to the river. Very narrow the tract & draining badly

Dr Pritchard tells me this day that Mr Guerard (one of the
brothers who owned the place now Mr J A Smith's) informed him
that forty Prime Hands died there out of a gang of -- It is there
that Mr J A Smith this year (1844) makes 19.800 Bush of Rice from 380 Acres

Mr Bagshaw says 28 Decr 44 that he always plants my new Land first
as the old Land is colder & stiffer requiring warmer weather & advises me to plant
10 acres or about half of the new field opposite Mr Taylors Mill in the Seed
30 Bushels of which I propose sending on from Charleston to give me seed
near [illegible] season for my whole crop His experience last year is much
in favor of open planting for the 2d & 3d planting (not the 1st) a Cold
might come (frost) & kill the young rice just as the sprout flow is taken off
He says 2½ Bush of seed is abundance for the New ground 2 for the old