S.C. Code Ann. § 46-29-30

Every person who runs a public gin shall keep a book in which shall be entered a full account of all the cotton brought thereto with the date and the name of the person bringing it. Such book shall be open to inspection by the public. The ginner shall also, if requested so to do by the owner of the cotton, number consecutively each bale of cotton as it comes from the press, by stencil or other permanent mark, beginning with the number one at the opening of the ginning season, so that the stencil or number mark shall correspond with the number and weight of the identical bale of cotton as it is recorded in the ginner's book of records.