Santee Coastal Reserve Meeting Update

[DoubleSprig]

*tmi given by an individual*

[SharkDave]

Thank You for keeping us in this important loop. Good work. I treasure this area and again appreciate your actions ,more than you'll know.

[Calibogue]

Ok serious question. I'm not as enlightened on South Carolina history as I am Texas history, though I've now lives here 14 years. If rice was so prominent in the low country...what happened? Why doesn't anybody farm rice anymore?


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FYI....

http://www.carolinaplantationrice.com/history/

During the Colonial Period, coastal South Carolina was the largest producer of rice in America. The crop arrived in the area around 1685. A brigantine ship, captained by John Thurber and sailing from the island of Madagascar, encountered a raging storm, perhaps a small hurricane, and put into Charleston Harbor for repairs.

With the ship in dry dock, Captain Thurber met Henry Woodward, the town's best known resident, who had the distinction of being the first English settler in the area. Thurber gave Woodward a bag of rice. Some say a peck, others say a bushel. Woodward experimented with the rice, which gave him a good crop. Rice was soon on its way to becoming the area's main cash crop.

The respected Thomas Jefferson traveled to the low country of the Carolinas to find out why Italian rice, at the time, fetched a higher price in the Paris market than Carolina rice. He became its biggest fan. In fact there were at least one hundred MAJOR rice plantations in the region, with names like: Hobcaw Barony, Beneventum, Chicora Wood and Hasty Point, to name a few ... all feeding off of rivers flowing into tidal bays. One of those rivers is the Great Pee Dee, and this is where our flavors start.

Rice remained a dominant commodity on the coastal rivers of South Carolina until the end of the Civil War, when production started a long decline due to a loss of labor and working capital, and aided by several severe storms. In the early 1900's rice farming disappeared from the state all together. Rice was never grown as a cash crop in the Darlington area where Plumfield Plantation now produces Carolina Plantation Rice, but it was grown there in small plots by slaves who raised it for their own consumption, as they had traditionally in Africa.

In 1997, Campbell Coxe planted 20 acres on his family farm near Darlington, South Carolina. Campbell grows the Della variety. "People who buy our product like its aromatic appeal and its taste, " he says. His rice rates highest on the aromatic scale. He says this is probably because of the rich soil, climate, water and northern latitude where he grows Carolina Plantation Rice.

[buckpro]

Ok serious question. I'm not as enlightened on South Carolina history as I am Texas history, though I've now lives here 14 years. If rice was so prominent in the low country...what happened? Why doesn't anybody farm rice anymore?


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tractors and better water control, that's what happened. They could stand up in places like Louisiana and Arkansas, but not in the pungo/peat we had, we couldn't keep up with production of other states.

now, if you have a trunk, its to flood for ducks, not farming.

[Duck Tape]

The average lifespan of an overseer on a rice plantation was 3 years. Mosquitoes were brutal.

[Moonlight Hunter]

[QUOTE=TXFowler;2075102]Ok serious question. I'm not as enlightened on South Carolina history as I am Texas history, though I've now lives here 14 years. If rice was so prominent in the low country...what happened? Why doesn't anybody farm rice anymore?


Uncle Ben's.

[TXFowler]

Thanks for the history lesson Cali. Sadly Texas rice production has declined in huge numbers very rapidly. Believe it or not they used to be the highest producer in the states in the 70's and 80's. Now there like last as far as top rice producers. Water is the biggest reason down there. Irrigation companies are closing doors with the decline of farmers. CCA and the Galveston Bay Foundation are actively trying to turn this around because they believe that the estuary gets a lot of its nutrients from rice paddy runoff. Thought that was interesting!


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[Strick9]

Thanks for all the feed back and ideas. My computer died so I am semi out of pocket.

Tuffy you have obviously kept up and I as appreciate it as per usual same to you RH and others.

Its really ALL about the management and producing abundant desirable food on the available habitat and NOW.

We already the habitat.

[DRDUCK]

Thanks for all the feed back and ideas. My computer died so I am semi out of pocket.

Tuffy you have obviously kept up and I as appreciate it as per usual same to you RH and others.

Its really ALL about the management and producing abundant desirable food on the available habitat and NOW.

We already the habitat.

We do have the habitat and a lot and I mean a lot more people wanting a part of it.

[rrconductor]

Thanks for your effort S9, it seems people Bob Perry, Tommy Strange , Bill Mace and some others I know and have had the pleasure to be around could offer the ideas and advice if the state would listen.
For all the years i lived in PI and hunted the areas, they were the guys in the know and we had an abundance of ducks. I hunted in the 70's and 80's every chance.
There is a plethora of people in that area that could be informative and helpful if only the SCDNR would heed the advice.
I now travel OOS to duck hunt and spend my money elsewhere.

[Eurika]

Ducks Unlimited for one is only interested in private land owners and the deep pockets of their donors won't change that. Good luck trying to get DU to play ball, they are only good for likker and a sticker like someone pointed out on here before.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

[HARDCOREFOWLER]

Thank you strick9,Bogster,Ducktape and the rest of you for all your hard work!