Hobcaw Barony, a 17,500-acre tract on the Waccamaw Neck, is one of the few remaining undeveloped tracts of land there. Once part of a 1716 land grant, its name combines Hobcaw, a Native American word meaning between the waters, and barony, from land grant. Over time, the property was subdivided into 14 plantations and became part of the Carolina Gold rice empire. Because rice production was labor intensive, cheap slave labor was used to clear swamps and grow the crop. The 1650's were the most profitable years for Georgetown rice planters, and during that period Hobcaw Barony produced nearly six million pounds of rice in one year alone. After the Civil War, rice cultivation declined because of competition from western planters, and a series of weather events ultimately halted growth in the late 1800's. Bernard Baruch, a native South Carolinian and financier, purchased the property in 1905 as a winter retreat. His daughter Belle later bought the family property, and at her death the Belle W. Baruch Foundation was created to conserve Hobcaw Barony's unique natural and cultural resources for college level research in marine biology, wildlife, and forestry.