The Resources of North Carolina - Pages 5-34



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RESOURCES OF NORTH CAROLINA.

   NORTH CAROLINA is conspicuous among the States of the Atlantic seaboard 
for advantages of position calculated to develop every feature of its 
natural wealth. Whatever it may produce through its fertility of soil, its 
abundant growth of timber, or its extensive mineral deposits, is within 
easy reach of the best markets, and can be forwarded by the cheapest modes 
of transportation. Facilities for cheap production are also remarkably 
abundant. Machinery can easily be sent to any point; the properties of 
every sort--land, water power, timber, and mines--are all purchasable at 
very reasonable rates; labor is cheaper than in. any other State of the 
Union, east or west, and all these materials and appliances can be handled 
by an owner or capitalist residing in any one of the States north of it 
without such risk of loss or waste as is inevitable in attempting to own, 
hold, or work productive property in the new Western States. These are 
most important facts, to be put in the foreground of any statement of the 
resources and merits of North Carolina, in considering its new and 
important relation to the business interests of the people of the States 
north of it.

   North Carolina holds a position of equal advantage as regards its 
climate. It has that better phase of the temperate climates belonging in 
Europe to Italy and to Spain, giving the capacity to produce half tropical 
products, while it is still exempt from tropical unhealthiness, and from 
the excess of heat or of moisture belonging to the Gulf Coast of the 
United States. Cotton is abundantly grown over nearly half the surface of 
the State, and the low country of the southeastern 

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part is as rich in productions of the warm climates as any part of the 
coast south of it; yet all parts of even this low country are 
conspicuously healthy. Stretching westward the country rises, first in 
rolling lands, of admirable adaptation to general tillage, and next into 
mountains, inclosing valleys of great comparative elevation, and of the 
purest air, and most perfect adaptation to all the growths of Western 
Pennsylvania and Western New York. The climate, in fact, really merges the 
almost tropical southeastern coast, with the Italian softness of the 
interior, and the temperate freshness of the mountains and the west. No 
other State of the Union has so great diversity, nor has any considerable 
diversity within such easy reach by ready means of communication.

   In a more detailed account given in another part of this paper we show 
what the precise conditions of climate are in various parts of the State, 
and how strikingly the positions outlined here are sustained by the 
recorded facts.

   Geographically, therefore, North Carolina is a half-way house for the 
Seaboard States, at any point of which the business man and business 
enterprises of the East are practically at home. Transportation of cotton, 
grain, lumber, iron, fruits, and vegetables is quite as easy to Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, and Now York, as from Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Buffalo. 
The Sailing vessels and steamer lines of the Atlantic Coast offer cheap 
and prompt transportation, and, aided by the interior railroads of North 
Carolina, they bring the whole section tributary to Wilmington as near to 
New York as Central Ohio is. This fact alone should concentrate attention 
on the natural wealth of the State, but when we add to it the difference 
of climate, which is as if the spring were to open nearly three months 
earlier, and fruits were to ripen in Ohio when they were blossoming in New 
York, we have a new value given to the productive lands, which it is 
reasonable to estimate at twice what they would otherwise be worth.

   Every product of the soil is now of higher value and of greater 
interest than at any previous time. Vegetables and fruits are merchandise, 
to be produced, shipped, handled, and sold by wholesale, as commercial 
products. The changes of a few years in this respect are astonishing, and 
they add enormously 

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to the value of the lands of the South, especially of the seaboard from 
Norfolk southward. Norfolk has for a few years been conspicuous in 
producing early fruits, but it is really too far north, and Wilmington has 
much the better position. The difference between Norfolk and Wilmington in 
the advance of the seasons is twenty-one days, a difference so great as to 
give the latter overwhelming advantages in everything that relates to 
early cultivation.

   We have, therefore, a district of almost tropical capacity of 
production within easy reach of the daily business of the East. The number 
of active men free to choose a profitable opening to new business is very 
great, and they are looking eagerly for new fields of enterprise. Her 
mining States are far less attractive now than they were three or five 
years ago : heavy losses, distant fields of labor, and painful inability 
to control surrounding circumstances, and prevent losses, crowd the whole 
history of investment in the West. In the new east of the Southern States 
it need not be so. A moderate capital suffices to obtain absolute control 
of a large tract of land, of fine water power, and of productive mines. 
Neither in the original purchase, nor in the subsequent management, are 
large sums required. Valuable products are, ready for market almost at the 
outset, and the purchaser can bring cargoes of shingles, lumber, ores, or 
fruits, to eager markets, almost as soon as his possession is secured.

   With this general reference to the advantages of North Carolina, 
resulting from its geographical position, its climate, and its intrinsic 
capacity for production, we proceed to give full information on each 
branch of these interests in detail, and we ask every reader to follow us, 
confident that we have embodied facts, not only of interest in themselves, 
but that will show new and attractive openings for business enterprise.


The General Surface of North Carolina

   Is conspicuously fairer to the first impression of a visitor than any 
of the Seaboard States north of it, in consequence of the finer growth of 
its forests, and the number and depth of its indenting bays and navigable 
rivers. While the low eastern 

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lands of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia exhibit a 
comparatively short growth of pine and other timber, the plains of North 
Carolina are covered with fine and lofty pines, and the swamps abound with 
the largest growths of cedar.

   Access to every part of the lowlands is also afforded by the rivers and 
bays, all of which are navigable for vessels of sufficient capacity to 
carry lumber, grain, and every form of produce directly and cheaply to 
northern markets. By reference to the map, these advantages of water 
communication are very apparent. Leaving Wilmington in either direction, 
for instance, forty or fifty miles of railway will touch on the bead of 
some of the fairest bays to be found in the world, communicating both with 
the ocean and with the interior, and enabling business establishments 
handling the heaviest goods to attain the greatest economy in freights 
inward and outward. Waccamaw Lake, on the south of Wilmington, is 
peculiarly favored in this respect, and the finest cedar, cypress, and 
pine abound in the forests near its shores.

   As the rolling lands further westward are reached, the scene is varied 
and attractive. There is little waste land, and nothing bare of valuable 
products--timber, if unopened, and valuable crops, if the land has been 
cleared. Less of waste surface, and of the often-prevailing stretches of 
land once cultivated and afterward abandoned, is visible in North Carolina 
than in any other State south of Maryland.

   Still farther inland, the splendid mountain scenery of the Blue Ridge 
and adjacent ranges rises before the visitor, offering a succession of 
green hills, with intervening valleys, which never fail to interest the 
most superficial observer, and which reward the closest examination with 
evidences of universal fertility. The general aspect of this upper part of 
the State is attractive in the highest degree. Fruit cultivation and 
grazing here attain greater perfection than in any other part of the 
Alleghany range. Orchard fruits, particularly, exhibit a degree of 
perfection not exceeded by the best in Western New York or Pennsylvania. 
Upland valleys of this district are well known when cited as belonging to 
East Tennessee, but in North Carolina, bordering the whole eastern 

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line of Tennessee, the same conformation exists, and the same advantages 
are found, with the addition of much more ready access to Raleigh, 
Wilmington, and Norfolk.

   The elevation of this western part of the State is, in fact, greater 
than that of East Tennessee and the climate is greatly modified in 
consequence. Quite a large area west of the, Blue Ridge, from which the 
French Broad and other rivers cut their way, and drain the western tier of 
counties into the Tennessee valley, will average two thousand feet above 
the sea, a good share of it being table-land 2500 feet above the sea. East 
of the Blue Ridge, the fine valleys in which Danbury, Yadkinville, and 
Morganton are situated, are about 1500 feet above the sea, on an average. 
A railroad runs to Morgantown, and another to Lincolnton, both connecting 
with Charlotte, Salisbury, and Greensboro. The valley country of North 
Carolina is, in fact, if not quite as accessible as the celebrated "Valley 
of Virginia," scarcely less fertile or less attractive in any respect.

   Generally we claim for North Carolina that it is the richest and most 
attractive in its appearance among the States of the seaboard south of New 
York. Its water penetration, its forests on the plains, as well as on the 
mountains, and its noble mountain ranges with their intervening valleys, 
place it in the first rank not only for variety of resources, but also for 
the intrinsic value of these resources.


The Forests of North Carolina.

   The peculiar value of the forest growths of North Carolina entitles 
them to consideration before almost anything else, because of the facility 
with which the timber and lumber they produce may be made a source of 
profit to the purchaser. Exhausted as the timber lands of the Northern 
States are, the demand for building and ship timber, for shingles, 
flooring lumber, and other varieties, must for many years be supplied from 
the South. North Carolina has the best, the greatest quantity, and the 
most readily accessible timber lands from which this supply can be 
obtained, and we proceed to give such account of them as will enable the 
purchaser 

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of lands there to put this class of his resources at once to use.

   In the eastern and lower counties of the State the most valuable trees 
are the long-leafed pine, the cypress and the cedar, all trees of 
magnificent growth, with trunks two to five feet in diameter, and forty to 
a hundred feet to the branches. This may seem an extreme statement, yet 
the facts are indisputable. General W. A. Blount, of Beaufort County, 
describes his cypress lands, of many thousand acres, as bearing "cypress 
trees, averaging eight or ten in number per acre, from two and a half to 
four and a half feet in diameter at the stump, one hundred feet to the 
limbs, straight bodies, small bulky tops." These cypress trees generally 
grow in clusters, and they are found all over the swamp lands of the 
eastern counties. Where the swamps are deepest, and unreclaimable to 
agriculture, there are great quantities of fallen cypress timber, easily 
raised, and as perfectly sound and available for any form of lumber or 
shingles, as if cut from standing trees. All the swamp lands from Norfolk 
southward were formerly covered with cypress and cedar, or as the last is 
usually called, juniper; but the surface growth of the Dismal Swamp in 
Virginia is now almost wholly destroyed, and only that which was buried 
ages since in the peaty swamp earth, can now be got for timber. In the 
North Carolina swamps, however, the cedar and cypress are both abundant 
yet standing, while the mass of the peat and earth of the swamps yields 
incredible quantities of the finest timber when excavations are made.

   In excavating a canal through the Matamuskeet savanna lands, Mr. Ruffin 
says:-- 

   "Such a quantity of dead but sound wood was found and removed, and 
which was at first left lying alongside, that it appeared to an eye-
witness impossible to replace all the wood in the canal from which it had 
been taken." Mr. Ruffin also says (Sketches of Lower North Carolina, p. 
198): "There are extensive bodies of cypress lands, owned by wealthy 
companies or individuals, who deem it more profitable to use the swamps to 
produce cypress shingles and timber, than to drain and clear any portion 
The juniper trees are very valuable for furnishing shingles. Every deep 
burning of any portion of a juniper swamp exposes numerous dead, but sound 
trunks, before buried and concealed, from which much shingle", timber is 
obtained. Thus, though the great fires, which occur after almost 

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every unusual drought, kill the living trees, and burn and destroy much of 
the upper earth also, they are often the cause of exposing much great 
values in the before buried juniper trunks."

   In fact, the whole of the vast area of swamp lands of, eastern North 
Carolina, estimated at two millions of acres, is a great mine of valuable 
cedar and cypress timber, and the only practically inexhaustible store of 
this necessary element of supply to the Northern States.

   Growing with the cypress on the best lands bordering the swamps and 
bays of this lower district, there is also a fine tree called the black 
gum two or three feet in diameter, and fifty feet to the branches, 
valuable for a great variety of purposes. Gigantic poplars are also 
intermixed, with laurel large enough for use as timber, and one or two 
varieties of water maple.

   But the greatest timber trees of North Carolina are the pines, of which 
there are four or five conspicuous species. That first deserving notice is 
the Great Swamp pine, or the naval timber pine, a variety growing in a few 
localities on the borders of the sounds and bays. Magnificent timber of 
the species has been cut within a few years for naval purposes, and the 
few clumps and scattering trees tower far above the height of the 
surrounding forest whenever found. In a lot of seventeen mast sticks, cut 
in Bertie County in 1856, one was 88 feet long, two 86 feet, four 80 feet, 
and six more 70 feet or over, varying from 20 to 36 inches square; they 
measured from 200 to 600 cubic feet in each stick, nearly all heart wood 
It is unfortunate that but few of these groves remain, but being so 
conspicuous and so valuable, it was not to be expected that they would 
escape notice and capture. We are assured, however, that they are still 
frequent in the more secluded portions of the bay country.

   Next, away from the water border, come the great pine forests for which 
North Carolina is celebrated. They occupy all the sandy lands, the two 
great species being the long-leaf southern pine, and the yellow pine. The 
first-named is the turpentine tree, so long wastefully cut for the 
manufacture of turpentine and rosin. It grows on the poorest of the sandy 
soils, to an average of seventy feet high, with a trunk 

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nearly uniform diameter of twenty inches for about fifty feet, forming a 
beautifully straight columned series of forest arches, crowned with tufted 
summits of leaves ten or twelve inches long. Such a forest is peculiarly 
attractive to a stranger, and it is as valuable for practical uses as it 
is picturesque and beautiful. Long seed cones, seven or eight inches in 
length, contain edible seeds.

   "For naval architecture the timber of this tree," Ruffin says, "is 
preferred to that of all other pines." "The broad belt of land stretching 
through North Carolina, which has been covered by the long-leafed pine, 
except on the borders of rivers, is generally level, sandy, and naturally 
poor. Even if it had been much richer, and better for agricultural 
profits, the labors of agriculture would still have been neglected in the 
generally preferred pursuit of the turpentine harvest. But so great were 
the profits of labor, and even of the land, in the turpentine business, 
compared to other available products, that capital thus invested has 
generally yielded more profit than agriculture on the richest lands." 
(Ruffin.)

   North Carolina is the first State in which these splendid forests of 
long-leafed pine are found. A few specimens are found in Southampton and 
Nansemond Counties, Virginia; but almost immediately on entering North 
Carolina, the fine arched canopies of this splendid tree begin, and 
stretch in one unbroken belt across the State. Some of this timber has 
been injured by long tapping of the trees for turpentine; but it is still 
of vast value in the aggregate, and it is so easy of access to cutting by 
mills on the rivers and bays, and the value placed on the lands themselves 
is so moderate, that great advantages are offered to occupants who know 
how to put the whole tree to use, as well as to extract the turpentine.

   The remaining valuable species is the yellow pine, a fine tree in two 
or three counties in the northern part of the State. It is very valuable 
for flooring lumber, and it grows to a large size, with fine clear trunks. 
But it disappears as the more compact forests of long-leafed pine begin, 
and is only of secondary importance in the general appearance of the 
forests. There are two or three other species of pine in the State, but 
not important. The old field pines of the wasted lands, a small pine of 
the poorer swamps, and some instances of white pine in the mountains of 
the western part of the State.

   These are the most conspicuous forest growths of North 

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Carolina that are accredited as having commercial or business importance 
to new settlers. But there are also very rich and varied forests in the 
rolling lands west of the pine plains, in which valuable timber of oak, 
walnut, chestnut, the gum trees, and many others may be found. No part of 
the State is so bare of fine timber as the corresponding parts of Virginia 
are. The oaks and other trees of the middle region, above the pine 
forests, are of magnificent growth, and in great variety. And in the 
mountainous counties of the west a singular forest phenomenon exists in 
the crowning balsam firs of several of the principal mountains. The Black 
Mountains of Buncombe County, north of Asheville, are the most conspicuous 
for this dense growth of black balsam firs. The Roan or Bald Mountains, 
west of this valley, and the Balsam Mountains, southwest of Asheville, are 
the principal instances of this peculiarity, in addition to the first 
named.

   The elevated districts of the western counties bring in the general 
forest variety of the Northern States, and the beech, maple, chestnut, 
linden, and similar trees are almost as abundant as they are in 
Pennsylvania or New York. White pine is often found with a handsome 
growth, and forming trunks as large as in the Northern States. Although 
these peculiarities of forest growth in the western part of the State are 
of less business or commercial importance than the pine and cypress of the 
east, they aid in proving the State distinction for picturesque and 
conspicuous forests, and a just preference for their beauty as well as for 
their value.


The Soil of North Carolina.

   The soil of North Carolina must be relied upon as the principal and 
permanent basis of prosperity, however. There is, in the opinion of Edmund 
Ruffin and other intelligent writers on Southern agriculture, a marked 
superiority in the lands near the Atlantic coast, after entering North 
Carolina, over those of Virginia, at least. In the whole coast line from 
New Jersey southward, there is first a belt of swamp lands nearest the 
sea, and next a wide tract, generally level, sandy, 

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and covered with pine timber, which extends westward to the edge of the 
rolling lands. In North Carolina both these belts are very large: the 
swamp lands proper are estimated at two millions of acres, and the pine 
forest lands next to them are nearly as great in extent. And here it is 
proper to, say, that what are called "swamp lands" are by no means 
irreclaimable swamps. They are generally highly fertile, and not difficult 
of reclamation. Professor Emmons, for many years State geologist, 
estimates their value, in a special report to the North Carolina 
Legislature, to be as great as that of four millions of uplands.

   "We have no hesitation in saying that the two millions of swamp lands 
are worth four millions of upland. In a rough estimate of this kind we 
take time and expense of cultivation into the account--the time these 
lands endure without the use of expensive fertilizers, and the ease and 
the slight wear and tear of the instruments used in cultivation, when 
compared in the same list of expenses required in the cultivation of the 
upland of the middle counties." (Report of State Geologist for 1860, p. 5.)

   As these swamp lands are the first encountered in entering the State 
from the north, by way of Norfolk, it may be well to describe them first. 
They have been the subject of elaborate examination and report, by both 
Professor Emmons, and Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, the first in 1860, and 
the last in 1861. Remarkable peculiarities are presented in the soil of 
these tracts, and all observers agree that nothing has been found exactly 
like them, and nothing equal to them in fertility when reclaimed.

   The entire body of these lands is a vast plain, with open but shallow 
bays or lakes, and deep navigable rivers, everywhere cutting through it. 
Most of the land is only from four to ten feet above tide, though the 
interior of all the tracts rises, whether wet and an actual swamp, or dry 
and fully reclaimed, to the height of twelve, fifteen, and sometimes 
twenty feet. There is, therefore, always an ample descent to afford 
drainage when ditches or canals are cut. The materials which form the soil 
are, to a surprising extent, vegetable or organic matters, the proportion 
of sand, lime, or earths of any kind never exceeding one-half, and often 
not amounting to more 

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than one-tenth. Emmons describes the general extent and appearance of 
these lands as follows:-- 

   "The lands under consideration are confined to the eastern counties. 
They scarcely touch the long narrow sounds that skirt the Atlantic. Large 
bodies extend from fifty to one hundred miles from the ocean, and occupy 
wide belts not far from, and parallel with, the principal rivers. .The 
most northern swamp is a continuation of the Great Dismal, lying partly in 
Virginia and partly in North Carolina.. Numerous towns and hamlets are 
planted in it; it is traversed by roads, and few in passing through this 
section of the country would suspect, that they were in this swamp, famous 
the world over for its ominous name. The largest territory of swamp lands 
lies in Washington, Tyrrel Beaufort, and Hyde Counties. Its whole length 
is rather more than 75 miles from east to west, and at least forty-five in 
the widest part, from north to south. It lies between Albemarle Sound, the 
lower Roanoke River, and Pamlico Sound, Pamlico and Tar Rivers. .This 
great body differs from other swamps by a more uniform continuity, and a 
more perfect level, and with fewer knolls, called islands. Hyde County, 
for example, is as level as a house floor, or as a well constructed 
garden. It is but a few feet above tide. This swamp has four shallow lakes 
of considerable size; the largest is Matamuskeet, which is twenty miles 
long. Lying a few feet lower than the swamp are tracts of a stiff clay 
soil, probably as good for wheat as any in the State. .The lands of this 
swamp have become famous for the large crops of coin they produce."

   Other tracts of these lands are described, one between the Pamlico and 
the Neuse Rivers, an eighth of the size of that described above; another 
of great size, south of the Neuse, in Carteret and Jones Counties, "eighty 
thousand acres of which is the open prairie of Carteret," and the whole of 
which is 75 miles in length, east and west; the Dover Swamp, fifteen miles 
in length, is another; Holly Shelter Swamp, in New Hanover County, and the 
Great Green Swamp, in Brunswick County. This embraces an immense area 
south of Wilmington, and its connected portions reach to the southeastern 
corner of the State.

   But the most remarkable feature of these swamp lands is their 
apparently inexhaustible fertility when reclaimed Those in Hyde County are 
the most celebrated, and the circle of plantations surrounding Matamuskeet 
Lake has been under cultivation for more than a century with undiminished 
crops. The farm of Dr. Long, of Lake Landing, is cited by Professor 
Emmons, in 1860, as having been under cultivation 

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for six generations, with an average product of 12 barrels of 5 bushels 
each, or 60 bushels of corn per acre. Fourteen thousand plants to the, 
acre are left to stand for the crop, and the growth is 12 feet high. 
Ruffin says that the lands under tillage around Matamuskeet Lake, in 1860, 
amounted to fifty square miles, all of it "immensely rich, and very 
productive in corn; the good land sells nearly for $75 to $100 per acre." 
He also declares that these lands are much superior to any similar lands 
in Virginia--drainage, of the low, peaty, and swampy lands in that State, 
supposed to be similar, not having been successful in producing lands of 
permanent fertility.

   Next to these are the drained lands about Lake Scuppernong, in 
Washington and Tyrrel Counties. This lake lies higher than Matamuskeet, 
being about twenty feet above tide. Very rich and productive farms have 
been made around this lake. Ruffin says:-- 

   "The principal production is Indian corn, which is doubtless the best 
adapted to this peculiar soil, and is therefore most sure and profitable. 
Wheat is grown to much less extent, and sometimes produces very heavy 
crops. Clover and cotton have both been found productive--a sufficient 
evidence of the soil being well drained. Rice has also been made by dry 
culture, and as much has been made in that least productive mode as fifty 
bushels of rough rice to the acre. Tobacco has been tried and grew well; 
but the cured leaves were deemed too coarse and thick."

   These swamp soils are singularly composed of vegetable matter, half 
formed into peat, yet capable of being rotted and reduced into the most 
fertile soils in the world. In some cases more than nine-tenths of the 
mass for a depth of ten feet, is vegetable or other organic matter, the 
accumulation of ages of growth and of partial decay. And by this long, 
course of accumulation the surface has been elevated so much as to permit 
free drainage from the centre of the largest swamp outward. In all cases 
the central parts are higher, and beautiful lakes lie in these positions 
from which the cultivation spreads as drainage is perfected. Lake 
Scuppernong and Pungo Lake, in Washington and Tyrrel Counties, and 
Matamuskeet Lake, in Hyde County, are the best illustrations of splendidly 
fertile soils reclaimed in this manner. Two samples of Hyde County soil 
are reported by Professor Emmons, containing from 60 to 75 per cent. of 
vegetable matter, and 15 to 

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20 per cent. of fine sand. The lands and what they had produced are thus 
described:-- 

   "The sample A was taken from an 80 acre field lying on the north shore 
of Matamuskeet Lake, and running back half a mile. This land has been in 
cultivation about 20 years, and produces now, in a fair crop year 10 to 12 
barrels (50 to 60 bushels) of corn to the acre. The sample B was taken 
from a 640 acre tract lying back of the 80 acre field. It has been in 
cultivation five years, and produces, in a fair crop year, from 10 to 12 
barrels of corn per acre. These lands lie between Matamuskeet and 
Alligator Lakes, four miles distant from Alligator River. Alligator Lake 
is said to be ten miles wide and fifteen long, and from three to five feet 
deep. It lies nearly in the centre of Hyde County. It is surrounded by a 
ridge from four to six feet above the sheet of water. The back lands are 
drained into Alligator River on the north, and into Pamlico Sound on the 
south. The cultivated lands on the north side of Matamuskeet Lake run back 
about two miles, and are very uniform in quality. The north side is the 
best and deepest soil. Indeed, it may be said the county is a garden spot. 
It has a population of 5000 to 6000, and ships from 500,000 to 600,000 
bushels of corn, and some 50,000 bushels of wheat per annum; to which may 
be added a large quantity of peas, potatoes, etc."

   From this description of what has actually been done in the cultivation 
of the swamp lands of Hyde County, it is clear that there is a mine of 
wealth in these soils, as yet only begun to be opened. Prof. Emmons also 
says, that the "Hyde County soils show a capacity for endurance greater 
than the prairies of Illinois," and also, "as it regards health, Hyde 
County is no more subject to chills and fever than the country of the 
prairies." In fact, as we shall show in another place, all this so-called 
swamp region is singularly healthy, and has none of the diseases of swamp 
districts elsewhere.

   We have referred more at length to the coast lands of North Carolina 
than was necessary, perhaps, but it was due to the intrinsic merit they 
have, to show what wealth may be developed from them, and to avert any 
prejudice that might be created by the usual language employed in 
describing them as swamp lands. In a word, the timber in the swamps still 
undrained, and the inexhaustible richness of their cultivable soil when 
drained, put them in the front rank for productive value to the 
enterprising visitor.

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The Sandy Soils of the Pine Lands.

   The pine lands have not, so far, been so fully tested for agricultural 
purposes as any other general section of the State, the reason being that 
the pine timber was too valuable to be cut away and farming the turpentine 
was the most profitable pursuit. But it is a sufficient assurance that 
they have intrinsic fertility to find the lofty growth of pine covering 
them everywhere, in their original State. When cultivated in the careless 
manner often found in the previous history of that section they are of 
course exhausted, and being laid out to "rest," the after-growth is by no 
means attractive, and their general appearance is calculated to lead to 
the belief that they cannot be made productive. But there can be no 
greater mistake. The whole history of light and sandy lands is one well 
known: with care in cultivation they are always productive; they are very 
cheaply and easily handled, and with the demand that now exists for early 
crops, they have a value they never had in competition with richer lands 
without early markets. The successful experience of thousands of 
cultivators in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, is one that will be 
repeated on an equally large scale on the long-leafed pine lands of North 
Carolina, and with the advantage of at least a month advance of the 
season, giving a precedence in the seaboard city markets of just so much 
time.

   In the Northern States of the coast above referred to, the sandy tracts 
are almost always lightly timbered; the short and inferior growth which 
covers them in New Jersey is particularly well known. This short growth is 
really the best test of want of intrinsic fertility. Where timber of a 
larger character will grow, the real fertility of the soil is 
proportionally greater. When, therefore, the timber which now covers them 
is removed, the lands, instead of being valueless for cultivation, will 
repay care almost as well as any others, and they will be peculiarly 
fitted to early market culture, in consequence of their light and sandy 
character.

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The Great Middle District: the Piedmont Lands.

   On the western border of the pine lands, a large and most important 
district begins, stretching westward to the foot of the Blue Ridge, and 
embracing an immense area. It is more than 200 miles in length from east 
to west, and it includes over 30 entire counties. It all belongs to what 
is called in Virginia, the Piedmont region, on the foot of the mountains, 
as distinguished from the eastern plains and the interior valleys west of 
the Blue Ridge. But in North Carolina this belt is more than twice as wide 
as in Virginia, and it constitutes the greater part of the State under 
cultivation.

   It is a district of great capacity, and of that peculiar attractiveness 
which is so well known further north. The surface is undulatory and 
varied, with many river valleys and much bottom land along them. Rich and 
productive farming, lands abound, interspersed, however, with tracts on 
which cultivation has been carelessly bestowed, and the usual proportion 
of washed and worn-out slopes may be found, grown up, in places, to the 
old-field pines. But here, as in Virginia and Maryland, careful 
cultivation very soon restores them, and they have all the qualities of 
the light, easily worked, warm lands which are so readily made 
remunerative under careful cultivation in the south.

   Geologically this whole great district is one in which the 
stratification has been much disturbed by the forces which elevated the 
mountain chains, the rock ledges being turned up almost on edge, and 
quartz and other primary rock veins often showing at the surface. All 
these formations have been swept over by a powerful denuding force, which 
has crushed and carried away a vast amount of the earth and rocks. 
Scientific writers call it, therefore, the, "denuded regions." Its soils 
are peculiar, but with many belts of rich, red clay, deep loamy ridges, 
and light mixtures of clay and sand. The worst fault is the want of 
limestone, yet on the whole it is a very attractive and productive 
district. The careful Mr. Ruffin says of these lands:-- 

   "The lands of the Piedmont region (including all the surface here 
treated as part of the denuded region), in their natural state of 
fertility, as 

Page 20

found when first settled by the white race and subjected to the tillage, 
were in general far more fertile than the great body of the lower drift 
formed lands. . . Again, since the course of improvement and resuscitation 
has been begun, and has been extensively in successful progress in both 
regions, the lands of the denuded region have been found most capable of 
being enriched by putrescent manures alone, and restored to the productive 
condition."

   In fact the natural growths of grass and grain on these lands, being 
carefully preserved to put the waste and the manures again on the soil, 
afford the best and cheapest means of restoring them. No form of expensive 
fertilizers is equal, for such soils, to the straw heap and the cattle 
yard accumulations. Soils of this class always require to be kept covered 
as much as possible, and to be laid down in clover or grass at frequent 
intervals. The climate of this part of the State, while not so favorable 
as in the West, by no means forbids clover cultivation, as we shall show 
in another place.

   This great middle belt will probably please Northern farmers more than 
any other part of the State. It has such variety of surface, with 
woodlands of various sorts, groves, hills, water power at the rivers, as 
they descend the several steps to the sea level, and so much to satisfy 
the wish for varied cultivation that thousands will choose them for 
residence. At the prices at which they are generally held, there is 
nothing more remunerative. Cotton can be tried for variety, while corn, 
wheat, and all the ordinary farm products of the Central States are 
unfailing staples. This section has been well compared with Northern Italy 
and Southern France, with the climate of which it strikingly corresponds, 
and it requires only skill in cultivation to develop almost every growth 
known in those attractive countries of Europe.

   But as we are here referring to the soil and surface more particularly, 
we will repeat that there is no part of the Atlantic slope of the 
Alleghanies that affords greater advantages of soil than the belt, 200 
miles wide, which in North Carolina stretches from the Blue Ridge mountain 
foot to the pine forests of the low country. (Twenty thousand square miles 
of area are embraced in this generally uniform belt, the position of which 
is such that the soil will produce all temperate climate staples, and half 
those belonging to semi-tropical 

Page 21

districts. Going westward, there are several moderate steps of ascent, so 
that each range of counties in succession affords some modification toward 
cooler uplands, but it is all the characteristic Piedmont soil, with 
upturned rock stratification, and rich belts interspersed with others of a 
poorer character. In the mild climate of North Carolina these soils are 
far more susceptible of being brought up to a high standard of 
productiveness than they would be even in Maryland, and they would be 
particularly tempting to a northern farmer, who has to struggle with 
refractory clays during the, cold rains of May and June in the North.


The Mountain and Valley Soils of the Western Part.

   West of the Blue Ridge lies the American Switzerland, an elevated mass 
of valleys and mountains, from which the rivers all run westward into 
Tennessee, no streams passing through the lofty Blue Ridge to the 
Atlantic. There are fourteen counties in this western section, and the 
loftiest mountains of the whole Allegheny range cluster around it on both 
sides. The soils are the very best for grazing, and are characteristic of 
the plateau of the Alleghanies from New York southward, being formed of 
loam and drift, deeply abraded from slates, shales, and limestones. The 
river borders have fine and rich gravel flats, and the hill-sides are 
always green with grass.

   The forests of this western tier of counties show an abundant growth of 
the sugar maple, a tree characteristic of the best northern grazing lands, 
and of a temperate and healthy climate. The valley will average 2000 feet 
above the sea at its lowest part, and the slopes of the mountains exhibit 
every variety of elevation above this to the mountain tops, averaging 4000 
feet for the chains generally, and 6500 feet for some twenty of the 
highest peaks. To show the cultivated products of these counties, we 
append the results of the census of 1860:--

Page 22

           Wheat*   Corn*  Oats/Rye*  Cattle/Sheep  Butter/Wool**  
Ashe       3,500   110,000  100,000      11,000       105,500
Buncombe  25,000    50,000  150,000      30,500       275,000
Cherokee   3,000   205,000   37,000      11,500        65,000
Henderson  7,000   326,000   48,500      14,500        74,000
Haywood   15,000   200,000   50,000      16,250       100,000
Jackson   18,000   238,000   11,000       6,119        51,000
Macon     65,000   270,000   17,500      11,900        83,000
Madison   32,500   235,500   33,000      10,200        68,000
Watauga   14,000   110,000   54,300      10,607        87,000
Yancey    40,000    25,000   67,000      14,000        25,000
* bushels
** pounds

   The growth of corn is due to the number of river valleys, and among the 
products there is an aggregate, in the ten counties, of 138,000 bushels 
sweet potatoes, 36,000 pounds maple sugar, and $68,500 in value of orchard 
products. The climate and soil favor orchard fruits very much, and no part 
of the South will compare with it, while nothing at the North is superior.


Staple Crops 

Cotton.
   Though the grain crops of the State are very large, and more valuable 
in the aggregate, cotton has peculiar interest, and we place it first in 
order in consequence of the attractions it has for residents of districts 
where cotton is not grown. There is great capacity for cotton culture in 
North Carolina, and the experience of the most skilful farmers is that 
land may be fertilized so as to produce two, three, or even more, bales to 
the acre, precisely as fertilization will produce corn or any other crop. 
Heretofore cotton lands have simply been cropped without any attempt to 
maintain their fertility, and when they would no longer produce enough to 
repay the cost of cultivation, they were thrown out as worthless. In the 
new era of management of soils at the South, cotton will be restored to 
thousands of tracts from which it has been dropped for the last fifteen, 
or twenty years, and under the present remunerative prices it will be a 
crop worthy attention on many tracts where it is not now grown.

   In 1860 the total production of cotton in the State was 145,514 bales, 
of 400 pounds each. The value of this crop now, at 25 cents net a pound, 
would be $1,455,140, a handsome accession to the resources of the State 
for a year. Looking at the distribution of this crop for 1860, we find 
more or 

Page 23

less cotton grown in two thirds of the counties. The following is a list 
of the chief cotton producing counties in which the quantities exceed 400 
bales, and in the general table which we give elsewhere of the crops of 
1860 as shown by the census, it will be seen what counties produced it 
then in quantities less than 400 bales.

Chief Cotton Growing Counties for 1860.
Edgecombe .... 19,138 
Halifax ...... 10,432 
Anson ......... 9,378 
Pitt .......... 7,634 
Rowan ......... 6,957 
Bertie ........ 6,672 
Northampton ... 6,632 
Mecklenberg ... 6,112 
Wake .......... 6,112 
Richmond ...... 5,714 
Cabarras ...... 4,731 
Greene ........ 4,589 
Lenoir ........ 4,283 
Wayne ......... 4,062 
Robeson ....... 3,467 
Martin ........ 3,068 
Union ......... 3,054 
Wilson ........ 3,012 
Johnson ....... 2,892 
Franklin ...... 2,673 
Nash .......... 2,756 
Hertford ...... 2,447 
Surry ......... 1,902 
Montgomery .... 1,409 
Jones ......... 1,185 
Duplin ........ 1,171 
Moore ..........  958 
Sampson ........  962 
Gaston .........  893 
Orange .........  848 
Craven .........  817 
Chatham ........  800 
Chowan .........  782 
Beaufort .......  609 
Iredell ........  502 
Cleveland ......  476 
Haywood ........  452 
Davidson .......  458 
Stanley ........  473 
Watauga ........  450 
Person .........  400 
Hyde ...........  400

   On examination, these cotton producing counties are found to be grouped 
around the leading rivers, and to be chiefly near the border of the sandy 
plains. The best district is on the northern border of the State in the 
valley of the Roanoke, where four counties produce 26,804 bales; next, 
four counties on the Tar River produce, in a somewhat larger area, 32,200 
bales. Edgecombe County, on this river, produces 19,138 bales, which is 
the greatest production reported by any county. Together, these two river 
valleys in the northeastern part of the State produced over 60,000 bales 
of cotton in 1860.

   On the Neuse River the cotton product was 18,000 bales, while the 
counties through which the Cape Fear passes report much less. Six or seven 
counties on the Yadkin make up 

Page 24

over 30,000 bales, and on the Catawba and Broad Rivers, further west, 
there was a considerable production. There are few counties, as we have 
said, that did not produce some cotton in 1860, and it is undoubtedly true 
that careful cultivation would greatly extend its range in the uplands, 
and add largely to the exportable product.

   It is a mistake to suppose that cotton cannot be grown in the general 
and varied farming which best maintains the fertility of the soil. In the 
North the rotation of crops which is invariable, is, more than anything 
else, the guaranty that the soil will not be exhausted. It is the "rest" 
which is needed, and which is infinitely preferable to laying out the 
lands in barren abandonment. It is safe to assume that with proper 
attempts to maintain the uplands, and with the opening of new tracts in 
the low country, the cotton crop of the State can be brought up to 250,000 
bales as a reliable average.

   The great cotton market of the State, and to which a large quantity 
from South Carolina also comes for shipment, is Wilmington. In our notice 
of the commerce of Wilmington the facts will be fully given.

Rice
   The capacity of the low country of North Carolina for rice culture is 
much greater than is usually supposed. In 1860 the whole State produced 7,
593,976 pounds, four-fifths of which was in Brunswick County, but twelve 
or fifteen other counties produced a notable quantity.

               Pounds
Brunswick .. 6,775,286 
Columbus ..... 170,595 
Duplin ........ 10,204 
Sampson ....... 87,977 
New Hanover ... 69,049 
Pitt .......... 54,103 
Robeson ....... 46,692 
Bladen ........ 53,606 
Onslow ........ 43,938

   Brunswick County is as perfect a rice district as any on the coast, and 
in this county and vicinity many of the most successful 

Page 25

localities of northern capital and enterprise have been made.

   Upland or dryland rice is grown on the reclaimed swamp land of Hyde 
County and Albemarle. It is a branch of industry worth looking into, in 
view of its extension to other reclaimed lands of this coast. Mr. Ruffin 
says, in his valuable "Sketches of Lower North Carolina," p. 239, that on 
the swamp lands of the Pamlico and Albemarle districts, in Hyde and 
Tyrrell Counties, "rice has also been made, by dry culture, and, as much 
has been raised, in that least productive mode as fifty bushels of rough 
rice to the acre." This important fact in regard to the capacity of the 
drained lands, should not be neglected in estimating their value.

Indian Corn.
   This is the great staple crop of the State, and almost its chief 
reliance alike for breadstuffs and for export, as the statics of the 
census show. The corn grown at the South is well known for higher 
farinaceous qualities than that of the States in the latitude of New York. 
Containing less both of moisture and of oil in the kernel, it is admirably 
adapted for shipment to foreign countries, and for distant transportation 
generally. It never fails of a market, therefore, and with the facility of 
reaching it at the various outlets by water and rail, the export of corn 
may always be relied upon as among the most certain and valuable.

   Indian corn is grown in every county of the State; the river bottoms 
and lower slopes of even the mountain region yielding large and profitable 
returns. On the swamp lands, as we have before mentioned, the crop of corn 
is very heavy and constant. It has been grown for fifty to sixty years, in 
some cases, with but a very slight diminution of the product, or decrease 
of fertility. The lowest product on these lands thirty bushels, and the 
highest near a hundred bushels per acre. Nothing can more forcibly convey 
the impression of vast productive capacity than to see a cornfield of two 
or three hundred acres, on land as level as a floor, stand twelve feet 
high, and yielding when harvested twelve barrels 

Page 26

or sixty bushels of corn to the acre. Yet such fields may be seen in the 
swamp lands of the northeastern part of the State now, while opportunity 
exists to drain and open vast areas to a like abundant production.

   Of course it is requisite to invest something in the preparation of 
lands for such cropping as this, but with the certainty that for half a 
century, almost, the store of vegetable matter in these soils would answer 
to the fullest draft upon it, without material weakness or exhaustion, 
there can be no more promising opening to a spirited farmer or capitalist.

   The corn crop of North Carolina in 1860 reached 30,078,564 bushels, an 
increase over that of 1850 of 2,137,513 bushels. In 1867 it was estimated 
at only 17,967,000 bushels, but since the last census we cannot state with 
definiteness what the production has been. Probably it is now little or 
none in excess of 1860, in consequence of the hesitation of new 
cultivators to open their lands, and the unfortunate neglect of too many 
of the present occupants to improve and fertilize the tracts in their 
hands. Simultaneously with the inauguration of new enterprises, however, 
the dormant energies of all others will be brought into action, and this 
class of products will be brought out in constantly increasing, abundance.

   It will be seen by reference to the census statistics of 1860 that but 
ten States produced a larger aggregate, and in 1850 only nine exceeded the 
production of this staple in North Carolina.

The Wheat Crop.
   It could scarcely be expected that the soils of this State would be 
especially adapted to wheat, yet the product in 1860, was 4,743,706 
bushels, distributed quite generally over the State. Even the drained 
swamp-lands produce wheat, though of course not so profitably. In the 
counties of the Albemarle and Pamlico districts, a good deal of wheat is 
grown, the counties surrounding these Sounds averaging 20,000 bushels 
each, nearly, in 1860. The greatest production was in the central part of 
the State--Chatham, Davidson, and Randolph Counties leading with an 
average 225,000 bushels each. Next, Granville, Orange, Alamance, 

Page 27

Guilford, and Rowan, in the same vicinity, furnish 150,000 to 200,000 
bushels each. Even the mountain counties produce from 10,000 to 60,000 
bushels each, showing that wheat may be successfully grown there also.

   Ruffin says of the Albemarle swamp-lands, after speaking of their great 
production of Indian corn, that "wheat is grown to a much less extent, but 
often produces very heavy crops," (p. 239, Sketches of N. C.). And again 
(p. 99): "Corn is the great crop of the Roanoke lands, though fine crops 
of wheat are raised in Northampton County, and in Halifax, giving evidence 
of the fitness or the low-ground soils for that crop." The visitor from 
other States may therefore expect to find opportunities for a variety of 
cultivation that he has not been led to anticipate from the current 
impression conveyed in the usual references to this State.

Other Grains: Peas, Potatoes &c.
   The census of 1860 shows a production of 436,856 bushels of rye and 2,
781,860 bushels of oats, both being very equally distributed over the 
State. Barley is scarcely grown, and but a small quantity of buckwheat. 
Peas and beans are much in excess of any other State of the Union, both in 
1850 and 1860; being in 1850, 1,584,252 bushels, and in 1860, 1,932,204 
bushels. Peas are, in fact, a most prolific crop, favored greatly by both 
soil and climate, and the natural alternate of wheat and Indian corn. All 
writers on the cultivation of lands of lower North Carolina recommend 
sowing peas, as a preparatory, or fallow crop. Ruffin says (p. 89, 
"Statistics" &c.) speaking of the northeastern counties:-- 

   "The farmers of this region possess peculiar facilities for rotation in 
the pea crop, and a climate admirably adapted to its growth. The limited 
territory on which both the pea and the wheat crop can grow well, the one 
suiting so well to prepare for and aid the growth of the other, I deem the 
most favored of agricultural regions. . . It is true that peas are 
planted, as a secondary crop, in every field of corn, and the returns are 
highly valued. . . With the superior facilities for the best growth of 
peas, if I were farming in this region, I should much prefer pea-fallow to 
clover-fallow to precede wheat."

   The greater part of the pea crop so produced with corn is fed off by 
hogs on the round in the fall and winter following, 

Page 28

so that the full production of the State does not appear in the statistics.

   Sweet potatoes constitute a crop having peculiar value in this climate. 
In 1850 the production of the State was 5,095,709 bushels, and in 1860, 6,
140,039 bushels. The sandy pine lands lead off in this crop, several of 
these counties making up from 200,000 to 300,000 bushels each. Proper 
attention has not yet been given to the early shipment of sweet potatoes 
northward. With the rapidly extending consumption of the large cities, and 
of the interior towns of the Northern States, supplied by railroad from 
the seaports, this will become a staple export and source of profit. A 
large share of such produce can come cheaply to Norfolk, there connecting 
with the trade in other market garden products. It is a noticeable fact 
that the mountain counties of the western border produce sweet potatoes in 
considerable quantity. In 1860 ten of these counties produced no less than 
109,000 bushels, no one of them being without some small quantity.

   Irish potatoes are grown to a smaller extent, the quantity being but 
one-eighth of the sweet potatoes, or 830,565 bushels for 1860. The 
greatest quantity is in the west, but they are distributed everywhere. The 
only difference caused by the climate is that the crop grows earlier in 
the season as we go southward. It may be eminently profitable, as an early 
garden crop, to put in the northern markets by the early part of June. It 
is customary to plant them in December for the earliest use, which is in 
May, and to follow with later plantings for later uses.

Fruits, Grapes, Wine, and Market Gardening.
   The census returns of orchard products are again our best guide to the 
valuable fruit growth of North Carolina. In 1860 the whole value of these 
was $643,688, a sum unexpectedly large. Peaches in the eastern counties, 
and apples, with peaches, pears, and cherries, in the central counties and 
the west, make up the market fruits. The apples are peculiarly fine, the 
native varieties doing better than those cultivated at the North. All the 
counties of the interior lying somewhat elevated above the deeper river 
valleys, are very favorable to orchard fruits. 

Page 29

Some of the finest fruits known south of New York are of North Carolina 
origin, and native seedlings of this State are conspicuous for size and 
fine flavor. Wilkes and Rutherford Counties, east of the Blue Ridge, and 
Buncombe County, west of it, are celebrated for fine apples and fine 
cherries. The, requisites for fine orchard fruits appear to be more fully 
met in the climate of Western North Carolina, indeed, than in any part of 
the country south of New York.

   Peaches belong more particularly to the eastward counties, or to those 
lower than the best localities for the fruits just referred to. The 
uncertainty of "peach seasons" in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland 
renders it important to extend their growth to warmer localities, and now 
attention is being directed to the belt from North Carolina to Georgia, 
corresponding in position relatively to the sea on one side and to the 
inland districts on the other, which the northern peach region has. 
Heretofore, so little attention has been given to planting out largely 
that the capacity of the section has not been proved. It cannot be doubted 
that it has great capacity, however. The peach tree is almost indigenous 
here; it comes early, and grows to great size. The only question is that 
of transportation, but with care in packing it should be practicable to 
ship from Wilmington, Newbern, or Norfolk with dispatch and safety. As the 
season is a full month earlier than that of ripening in Delaware, the 
question of competition is not in the way. Cheap and safe transportation 
has already been provided through a semi-weekly line of steamers from 
Wilmington to New York, which can put any such products in market in fifty 
hours, while by railroad only thirty-six hours' time is required.

   Wine is, as the census of 1860 shows, a standard product of North 
Carolina. Three leading American grapes have their origin here--the 
Scuppernong, the Catawba and the Lenoir. From the Scuppernong grape 
chiefly, 54,061 gallons of wine are reported to have been made in 1860, 
the larger quantity in the low eastern counties, but with a surprising 
distribution of small quantities in every part of the State.

   First, the Scuppernong grape is the most extraordinary plant of its 
class in the world. It is identified chiefly with 

Page 30

the Albermarle and Pamlico districts, where it is a native, growing wild 
in many localities. The vine is capable of making an enormous growth, 
covering half an acre, almost, if the fertility of the soil and other 
circumstances favor. It need not be trimmed or cut back, but must be 
allowed to grow over a large space, its production being in proportion to 
its size. Large vines will form a canopy covering thousands of square 
feet, and the production of one vine may reach 50 bushels of grapes. They 
are round, of a rusty white color, a thick skin and a sweet pleasant 
juice. The wine is considered especially fine by most persons, and it has 
long been made in considerable quantity in many of the eastern counties 
for the local use of the people. It would warrant cultivation for export, 
as well on account of its quality, as for the facility with which the 
grapes may be grown to any extent. Though totally unlike any European 
grape, since the vines, instead of being cut short and multiplied in 
number on the surface, grow so large that a single plant will cover 2000 
to 5000 square feet, the Scuppernong is an unfailing bearer, and instead 
of a half dozen or a dozen bunches constituting the growth of a year, as 
many bushels may be gathered. There is no bunch to this grape, the fruit 
being formed two or three berries, at most, together, but the size of 
these is equivalent to many more of the common or European grapes.

   This picturesque and peculiar vine is first met with in North Carolina. 
It will scarcely grow at Norfolk, and not at all in States further north. 
It is a singular anomaly in grape cultivation, and the only known wine 
grape of the giant North American wild species.

   The Catawba is the most important grape of general cultivation in every 
part of the United States where grapes will grow at all. It is the 
favorite on Lake Erie as well as in its native district of Western North 
Carolina. Major Adlum, of Georgetown, D. C., through whose efforts it was 
originally brought into notice, "thought that be had conferred a greater 
boon upon the American people by its introduction than if be had paid the 
national debt." Though this was spoken when the debt was less than now, it 
is a fair illustration of 

Page 31

the universal acceptance of the Catawba grape as the finest among 
cultivated varieties. The Catawba is claimed to be a native of Buncombe 
County, and the Lincoln, or Lenoir, is a native of Lincoln County. The 
Isabella grape is often accredited to Western North Carolina as its place 
of origin. Universally cultivated as it is, it is certain that its best 
growth is in the elevated lands of the Southern States. Another valuable 
grape, which is a native of North Carolina, is the Lenoir, just referred 
to, promising much as a wine grape; and still another new one is called 
the North Carolina Seedling. All observers are struck by the evidences 
which most parts of both Virginia and North Carolina afford, of the great 
adaptation they have to the growth of grape-vines, wild or cultivated. In 
the low country the gigantic Scuppernong grape is without a parallel in 
the world for magnitude of growth, and abundance of production. Writers 
have even declared that no plant known produces so much for the uses of 
man, as a full grown vine of this Scuppernong grape. A gentleman of 
Mississippi writes to the Gardener's Monthly in 1868, styling it "the 
grape of America." He says:-- 

   This most wonderful grape was first brought to notice by Col. James 
Blount, of Scuppernong, North Carolina, who found it growing wild on the 
banks of the Scuppernong River. The name was given by Calvin Jones, of the 
Southern Planter, in which paper Col. Blount presented it to the public, 
in several well written articles. It is also said that an Episcopal 
clergyman, grandfather to Gen. Pettigrew, very highly recommended it to 
the Southern people. It is now generally known, and universally esteemed 
by all grape-growers of the South, and it is destined to revolutionize 
grape-growing and wine-making throughout America. It grows in small 
bunches of four to ten berries, of large size, juicy, round, sweet, 
luscious, rich flavored. Skin very thick, light green, marked sometimes 
with yellow dots; tough, bears handling, keeps well, excellent for wine.

    . . . There are three varieties, white, black, and golden-hued. The 
white is the native, and the one generally known: it makes an amber-
colored wine. The black ripens after the white is gathered, and makes a 
darker wine, though there is no difference in the taste of the fruit. It 
remains on the vine till after frost, and will sometimes keep till after 
Christmas. The white berries are gathered by shaking the vine; the black 
must be picked.

    . . . It is immensely productive, surpassing all others in its most 
fabulous yield; a single vine often producing annually from 25 to 50 
bushels of grapes. One vine in this county is said to have yielded over 50 
bushels this last year (1867). Dr. Neisler, of Georgia, has one averaging 
35 bushels. There is one at Mobile averaging 40 bushels, bringing its 
owner over 

Page 32

$300. Col. Ross, of Georgia, writes that he has a vine, thirty years old, 
that yields annually from 35 to 75 gallons of wine. There is one near 
Somerville, Tenn., producing fruit enough for a small family, and making a 
barrel of wine besides. Two vines are ordinarily considered enough, in 
North Carolina, for an ordinary sized family. Mr. Van Buren estimates that 
100 vines planted on three acres of land will yield every year after 
maturity 5250 gallons, or 1750 gallons per acre. Mr. W. F. Stevenson says 
that this estimate is entirely too low--that 100 vines will yield twice as 
many gallons at ten years of age, and three or four times as much as they 
grow older . . . . . The Scuppernong never fails to bear; never mildews; 
never rots, and is seldom troubled by frost. There are but few fruit 
trees, if any, known to live half so long as the Scuppernong Its native 
region is a level, dry, sandy open soil; though it is also found in 
abundance in pine barrens and along hill-sides, near the Tar, Neuse, 
Roanoke, and Cape Fear Rivers. It will flourish in alluvial bottoms as 
well as in sandy plains. Thousands of acres in the South can be planted 
with it; indeed, it will grow anywhere that corn and cotton will grow, and 
is ten times as profitable as either. An acre that will grow 30 bushels of 
corn will yield 300 bushels of Scuppernong grapes. . . . The celebrated 
chemist, Dr. Jackson, of Boston, analyzed 38 of the best wine grapes of 
America, and he says, 'Scuppernong wine may be made so fine as to excel 
all others made on this continent.'The white variety makes a beautiful, 
pale, amber-colored wine; sweet, rich, luscious, and fragrant, everywhere 
the ladies' favorite: so says the President of the Memphis and Little Rock 
Railroad, who has been familiar with it for many years. . . . It is the 
Poor Man's Friend--and it richly deserves this appellation, be-because it 
needs no Pruning nor training, nor placing- vines along trellis work; 
because it never mildews nor rots, and never fails to produce an abundant 
crop."

J. M. D. MILLER
of Iuka Miss., in Gard. Monthly, March, 1868


   This enthusiastic tribute may appear extravagant to those who have 
never seen a full-grown vine in bearing, but by those who have, and who 
have used the wine, no exaggeration will be charged.

Garden Products.
   Market garden products attain to respectable proportions in the census 
reports of North Carolina, being for 1860, $75,663 in value. For many 
varieties no return is made, and undoubtedly a small portion only is 
included in the values above. The item is valuable only as showing that 
some counties attain to $15,000 in value for what should be, and probably 
already is approaching $50,000 for each county of 

Page 33

the more accessible in the eastern part of the State. Unfortunately we 
have no recent report of this cultivation, and only know that in many 
spots the work of market garden cultivation has been energetically and 
profitably begun.

The Ground Pea, or Pea-Nut.
   A novel crop in the eastern part of the State is the ground pea, or 
peanut, the cultivation of which is very profitable on the light lands 
near the coast. For many years past these pea-nuts have been the 
preference in the northern markets, and large quantities are sent there. 
The chief production is in the counties near Wilmington, and at that city 
a constant shipping market has existed for several years past. The average 
quantity shipped for several years up to 1861 was about 200,000 bushels. 
During the war of course they were not grown for shipment outward, but the 
trade is now reviving, and nearly restored to its best proportions.

   Onslow County, about fifty miles northeast of Wilmington, reported in 
1867 to the agricultural department that the growth of ground-nuts, or pea-
nuts, was the farming specialty, and that the crop grown was 50 to 90 
bushels per acre, and the value $2 25 to $2 50 per bushel. The light soil 
of the low pine lands is particularly adapted to this crop, and at the 
production and prices reported above, it is very remunerative. The 
cultivated pea-nuts of the coast, from Virginia southward, and 
particularly those obtained at Wilmington, are far superior to those 
imported from Africa and other foreign countries.

Page 34

MINERAL RESOURCES OF NORTH CAROLINA.

   The extent of the mineral resources of all the States of the seaboard 
south of Delaware has, for years past, been much undervalued in 
consequence of the delay in developing them. While the reputation of North 
Carolina and Georgia has been very well known in the production of gold, 
there has been no proper credit given for the more useful minerals, and 
particularly for coal and iron. It may be a subject of surprise to claim 
much merit for North Carolina coal fields, yet the principal locality, on 
the Deep and Cape Fear Rivers, covers an area of forty square miles in 
Chatham and Moore Counties, in which there is a most extensive bed of the 
best bituminous coal in the world. The superior character of this coal has 
been vouched for in an official report by Admiral Wilkes to the Navy 
Department in 1859, and by Prof. Emmons, in his general geological report 
for the State. Prof. W. C. Kerr, the present State geologist, describes 
these coal fields as follows:-- 

   "Coal is found in two districts in North Carolina, known as the Deep 
River and Dan River coal fields. In both the coal is bituminous, and 
occupies a narrow tract of country along the course of the rivers from 
which they respectively take their names. These beds, therefore, follow in 
their outcrop the general direction of the rocks of the country. The Dan 
River bed is distant from market, and has been little explored. There is 
an outcrop in Rockingham and Stokes Counties, one seam being four feet 
thick. The Deep River bed is better known, and probably more extensive. It 
is described in detail in the geological reports of Dr. Emmons for 1852 
and 1856; and also by Admiral Wilkes, in his report to the Secretary of 
the Navy, in 1859. According to these authorities, this coal is of the 
best quality, well adapted to the manufacture of iron and of gas, and it 
is inexhaustible in quantity. They represent it as extending over an area 
of more than forty square miles, and containing more than 6,000,000 tons 
to each square mile. This bed, therefore, would yield more than 1,000,000 
tons annually, for several hundred years."

   Other writers speak in even higher terms of these coals, their 
characteristic being a very dense, heavy and rich bituminous coal, without 
sulphur, and admirably adapted to gas making. It has been said for years, 
that this North Carolina bed from Deep to Cape Fear Rivers, would 
ultimately exceed in value that at Richmond, Virginia, with which its 
position shows a general similarity. A condensed report on the facility 
with which this coal can be mined and transported, will be found in the 
Appendix.