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Postwar Decline of the Rice Culture
Although
to some degree rice production on the Cooper River—as in the rest of
the South Carolina lowcountry—had a short-lived and small-scale
revival after the Civil War, between 1880 and 1900 it suffered a
steady and permanent decline before disappearing from the landscape
almost altogether by about 1920. This was due in part because it was
impossible for planters to hire a large enough labor force to grow
rice on a scale that would justify the effort and expense, and in
part because changes in the method of rice production, shifting from
a tidal system to an upland system featuring
irrigation, made it easier and more profitable to grow rice in
Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.
Although
Berkeley County still produced six million pounds of rice in 1900,
production declined sharply during the ensuing two decades.61
The
last crop grown at Mulberry Plantation, for example, was in 1916.
After timber
companies such as A.C. Tuxberry and the Atlantic Coast Lumber
Company bought much of the former plantation land, yet another
transformation occurred in the landscape during the Great
Depression. When these financially troubled companies asked the
federal government to buy them out, it established the 250,000-acre
Francis Marion National Forest in 1936. The forest has long
supported or encouraged timber production, watershed protection,
wildlife conservation, and recreation.62 Two Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) camps were located within the bounds of the forest.
These served as bases for the lowcountry component of an effort that
planted more than 56 million trees in South Carolina, built
firebreaks, fought forest fires, and created the basis of the South
Carolina State Park system.63
Home Page for the
Historic Resources of the Cooper River, ca.
1670-ca. 1950
Historic Resources
of the Cooper River, ca. 1670-ca. 1950
Name of Multiple Property Listing Berkeley County, South Carolina
United States Department of the Interior
National Park
Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
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