Private citizens made experiments on their estates; and the newspapers and the multiplying agricultural journals published their reports and advice.

Most prominent among the cotton belt planters who labored in the cause of reform were ex-Governor James H.
Hammond of South Carolina, Jethro V.Jones of Georgia, Dr.N.B.Cloud of Alabama, and Dr.Martin W.Philips of Mississippi.

Of these, Hammond was chiefly concerned in swamp drainage, hillside terracing, forage increase, and livestock improvement; Jones was a promoter of the breeding of improved strains of cotton; Cloud was a specialist in fertilizing; and Philips was an all-round experimenter and propagandist.

Hammond and Philips, who were both spurred to experiments by financial stress, have left voluminous records in print and manuscript.

Their careers illustrate the handicaps under which innovators labored.
Hammond's estate[16] lay on the Carolina side of the Savannah River, some sixteen miles below Augusta.