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The Resources of North Carolina:
Its Natural Wealth, Condition, and Advantages, as Existing in 1869.
Presented to the Capitalists and People of the Central and Northern States:
Electronic Edition.

Bannister, Cowan & Company.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
supported the electronic publication of this title.

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First edition, 2001
ca. 330K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2001.

        © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

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(title page) The Resources of North Carolina: Its Natural Wealth, Condition, and Advantages, as Existing in 1869. Presented to the Capitalists and People of the Central and Northern States
(cover) Resources of North Carolina, 1869
Bannister, Cowan & Company.
viii, 116 p.; 24 cm
Wilmington, N. C.
Bannister, Cowan
1869.

Call number NCC 917 B21(North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

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Illustration

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THE
RESOURCES OF NORTH CAROLINA:
ITS NATURAL WEALTH, CONDITION, AND ADVANTAGES,
AS EXISTING IN 1869.
PRESENTED TO THE CAPITALISTS AND PEOPLE OF THE CENTRAL
AND NORTHERN STATES.

BY
BANNISTER, COWAN & COMPANY,
Real Estate and Financial Agents,
NEW YORK AND WILMINGTON,
48 Broad Street, New York; Front Street, Wilmington.

WILMINGTON, N.C.
1869

Page iii

PROSPECTUS
OF
BANNISTER, COWAN & COMPANY.
Real Estate and Financial Agents.

        Established for the purpose of negotiating the sale of Southern lands of all descriptions, and other property; also to induce Immigration, organize joint stock companies, negotiate loans, etc. etc.

        Principal Offices located at Wilmington, N. C., and 48 Broad Street, New York Branch offices will be established in other cities of the North and South.

TO THE PUBLIC.

        We would respectfully state to capitalists and others desiring profitable investments in real estate, mining, or manufacturing interests, timber lands, water power, etc., that we are prepared to offer them greater inducements than can elsewhere be found.

        The principal fact which led to the establishment of this agency was the existence in the South of so many very important, and, in most cases, wholly undeveloped resources, which for their proper development require capital, and which, by such development, would undoubtedly result in great prosperity and wealth. The capital, in abundance, is in the North, seeking opportunities of profitable investment, while the opportunities, in like abundance, are in the South, awaiting the capital. What is now needed is a means of bringing them together. This our Agency proposes to furnish.

        We are also prepared to negotiate loans upon the best of securities, and at liberal rates of interest. There are numerous industries in the South which are crippled, to a great extent, for the want of a little more capital. Loans can readily be negotiated upon abundant security, bearing interest at from ten to fifteen

Page iv

per cent. per annum. We invite attention to this branch of our business.

        It is our intention to publish, at an early day, a catalogue of lands and other properties placed in our hands for sale; and also to solicit from all who desire to see a complete schedule of such properties, permission to place them in our lists, in order to exhibit, as completely as possible, a classified statement of mill sites and mill properties, iron mines, gold mines, timber tracts, and other conspicuous properties, to which the attention of capitalists is invited.

        This catalogue will be frequently corrected and extended, making, a new issue at intervals of not more than two months, and it will therefore be a reliable guide to the development of all the properties to which it will refer.

For copies of these Catalogues, please address, at Wilmington or New York,

BANNISTER, COWAN & CO.


Page vii

Page 5

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

Page 6

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

Page 7

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

Page 8

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

Page 9

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

Page 10

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

Page 11

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

Page 12

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

Page 13

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,

Page 14

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

Page 15

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

Page 16

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

Page 17

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

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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

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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:--

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  Wheat Corn Oats and Rye. Cattle and Sheep Butter and Wool
Ashe 3,500 bus 110,000 bus 100,000 bus 11,000 105,500 lbs.
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

        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

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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.

        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

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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

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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

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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,

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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,

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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$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

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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.

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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.

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Iron Ores and Iron Works.

        There are various localities furnishing unusually good iron Ores in North Carolina, and the finest wrought iron has been made there in small quantities since colonial times. The iron of Lincoln County has been particularly celebrated for its strength and toughness. In the report of the American Iron Association for 1859, no less than fifty-one furnaces forges and bloomaries are enumerated as having been in operation at various recent periods, about one-half of them being at that time at work. Some of the ore beds are among the most promising in the United States, and that in Guilford County, near Greensboro, is just now being put in operation, making iron with ten Catalan forges, a steam hammer weighing eight tons, and three hundred workmen.*

        *"Greensboro, North Carolina, May 25th, 1869.

        The North Carolina Central Steel and Iron Manufacturing Company, in this county, are just receiving their machinery. The ponderous steam hammer weighs over eight tons. The Company is now erecting ten Catalan forges, and will in a time give employment to three or four hundred skilled iron workers, the most of whom will be from Pennsylvania."--Bulletin of the American, Iron and Steel Association, May 26, 1869.


        The accounts given of the iron ore beds of this State are here condensed from Prof. Emmons' reports, and from the reports of the American Iron Association.

        Beginning at the western part of the midland counties, or those between the foot of the Blue Ridge and the low counties of the coast we find three valuable belts of magnetic iron ore the first passing within six or seven miles of Lincolnton, in Lincoln County, on the Catawba.

        "The beds of ore are seen on the north side of the plank road, seven miles from Lincolnton. The limestone is a mile west of the ore. The ore is usually near the crest of a ridge, or traverses parallel ridges very obliquely . . . The veins of Lincoln County are lens shaped, with knife edges lapping each other, increasing, to six or eight feet thick in a length or depth of fifty or sixty feet . . . The ore is usually fine grained, soft, easily crushed in the hands, strongly magnetic, easily smelted . . . The veins have been wrought for many years, and have made a celebrated iron, strong and tough"


        This ore bed extends into Gaston County, at King's Mountain, and at this point the Briggs' vein is forty feet thick.

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Iron has been made here for half a century. Beds of hematite ore occur on both King's Mountain and Crowder's Mountain, and Prof. Lesley says that "the resources of the present veins are so vast that no inducement is held out to active exploration." Twelve or fifteen furnaces and forges have long been at work on these splendid ore banks; and in one of them the ore contains nickel, this ore being worked by Columbia furnace and forges. In Cleveland County, just west of Lincoln and Gaston, six forges were at work in 1859 on fine magnetic ores, obtained from the mountains east of and near the First Broad River. There are other works in Rutherford County, adjoining. This whole district is rich almost without parallel in magnetic and hematite ores of the best quality.

        Next are the belts of ore in and near the valley of the Yadkin River, and occurring chiefly in Montgomery, Randolph, Davie, Guilford, Stokes, and Surrey Counties. Near Troy there are some fine masses; one occupies a low hill a quarter of a mile in length, and fifty feet wide--a fine, heavy peroxide. Beds of specular and of magnetic ore lie near each other north of Troy. (Prof. Lesley.) These are near the Carter gold mine. "Three or four miles southwest of Franklinville, and near Deep River, heavy black masses of magnetic ore lie in abundance loose about the uncultivated surface, near a fine ore bed." "In Stokes County four bloomary forges, within ten miles around Danville, work up magnetic ore . . .A magnetic ore bed, one mile from Danbury, is six feet thick, nearly vertical, strike northeast; percentage of iron 77; depth of shaft fifty-seven feet. The Dan River coal basin is within ten miles." (Lesley.) Some of these works have long been in operation, but without adequate capital. In Surrey and Yadkin Counties, near the localities just mentioned, the same beds are found, and twelve or fifteen forges have at various times been in operation. In Catawba County, some distance southwest, there are also several works, and fine magnetic beds; but in Guilford County, near Greensboro, and east of the counties last above named, there are "several veins of black and middling coarse, valuable magnetic ore, unmixed and pure, which have long been known." This is

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the locality of the extensive new works just referred to, and the extraordinary opportunity offered to make the best iron at very cheap rates, might be much more largely improved.

        The third belt of what Lesley calls primary iron ores is found on the Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers, in Chatham, Johnston, Wake, and Orange Counties. In Chatham County is "Ore Hill, a famous locality of hematite ore, traversing a knob three hundred feet high in east and west belts of talc slate, quartz, etc., forming the pinnacle of the hill. Here old excavations show where, in the times of the Revolutionary war, the large concretionary masses of ore were extracted." A portion of the ore of Chatham County is said to be identical with the celebrated Blackband of Scotland. Various extensive beds of hematite ore are reported in the other counties named, and a less number of magnetic ore beds. A valuable bed of carbonate of iron, in a vein containing gold, exists on the Uwharrie River. (Dr. Emmons' Rept. 1856.) West of the Blue Ridge there is also plenty of valuable ore. No less than twenty bloomaries and furnaces have been established in Ashe, Wautauga, and Cherokee Counties, representing both extremities of the mountain valley region. Some of the ore beds were magnetic and others various forms of hematite.

        Altogether, although the quantity of iron made in any one year heretofore has not been large, there is no part of the Union more promising for the establishment of works. In 1856 there were 36 forges at work, making 1182 tons of blooms; while 3 furnaces made of charcoal pig iron 450 tons, and one rolling-mill only was at work. The census reports are very incomplete, yet they return, in 1850, 1200 tons of bar iron made, value $127,849; and in 1860, 1096 tons, value $99,656. The Briggs Iron Works, and two other mills just below King's Mountain, in South Carolina, have long made excellent bar iron for use in the counties adjoining.

        The following account of the iron ore beds of the western counties is from Prof. Kerr's report of 1866, and it is so clear and forcible as to require transcribing in full:--

        "Iron is found in some of its various forms of ore in most of the western counties, but its most important localities are in Cherokee and Mitchell, These are worthy of being mentioned with the Iron Mountain of Missouri.

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The ore of Cherokee belongs to the class known as hematite. It occurs along with each of the parallel subdivisions of the limestone, sometimes on both sides of them. It outcrops in immense masses along Notteley, on Hiwassee at the junction of Valley River, on Peachtree Creek, and the whole length of Valley River, an aggregate distance of twenty-five miles. One of these beds, which appears on Peachtree, is a soft, uncompacted brown ochre, which has been mined for paint. This bed is well developed in the upper portion of the valley of Valley River, on Paint Creek, and again above Valleytown. The ores from many of these beds have been wrought in the common bloomaries of the country (of which there were, perhaps, half a dozen in the county), and even under this mode of treatment are said to yield a large percentage of metal of good quality. And those beds of slaty ore, which are not workable in such open forges, would be easily smelted in a blast furnace.

        "It is apparent, therefore, that there exist in Cherokee County the most favorable conditions for the manufacture of iron on an indefinite scale. Three large rivers flow along and over the edges of these iron mountains furnishing unlimited power, and at all points; the ore is interstratified with limestone for fluxing; and the neighboring mountain slopes abound with fuel. And if this were not sufficient, the distance is only twenty-five miles to the State line, where a railroad will shortly bring mineral fuel from Chattanooga. Nothing is wanting but transportation to develop here a manufacturing interest equal to any on the continent.

        "The other principal iron bed is that of Mitchell County, near the head of Toe River. This ore is found in the gneissic series of rocks, and is magnetic or gray ore. It occurs in an immense bed of hornblende slate and syenite, near the base of the Yellow Mountains and a few miles from the State line. The outcrop is on the lower slope of the mountain, perhaps 200 feet above its base, and reveals a network of heavy'veins'or beds, extending over several acres of surface. It is inexhaustible in quantity. The iron manufactured in the bloomaries of the neighborhood has been long celebrated for its tenacity and durability, and is admirably adapted to the manufacture of steel. It is known as the Cranberry iron, from a small stream near the ore banks. Here, also exist the best natural facilities for the manufacture of iron. Water power and fuel in the greatest profusion are at hand, and the only difficulty here, too, is in the matter of transportation, which, however, could be readily overcome.

        "Magnetic ore is found in many other localities, and no doubt this Cranberry ore will be discovered in other outcrops in these mountains. Ore of the same character appears at the western base of the mountain at Flat Rock, which is probably a continuation of the same series of beds. Magnetic ore occurs near Marshall also, in Madison County, and again near Fines Creek, in Haywood; in each case, having the same association of hornblendic rocks. It is also found in Macon County at several points, here in a garnetiferous mica schist. Hematite ore occurs, at one or two points in Buncombe, and a bed of it also overlies the limestone in Transylvania County, appearing again with it on the North Fork in McDowell. This association with limestone, which occurs so frequently, is not accidental, but points to the origin of these ores."


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Gold Mines.

        North Carolina has been celebrated for half a century as a gold-mining country, and the reports of the U. S. Mint show that more than ten millions of dollars' worth of gold has come from this State to the Mint for coinage. Previous to 1869 there had been coined at the Branch Mint at Charlotte, North Carolina, $4,520,730 of North Carolina gold, and at the U. S. Mint at Philadelphia, $4,666,026 of the same production. These items, with $147,756 assayed at New York, and $99,585 coined at Dahlonega, represent a known addition to the gold coin of the country of $9,434,097, while it is probable that at least $2,500,000 in value passed into use in the arts, was sent abroad, or was retained in some way from the mint. Since the war about $400,000 in gold has been received at the Mint and Assay offices from North Carolina, the amount in 1868 being about $100,000. In 1866 it was over $140,000. The gold mines of the State are all in positions of very ready access, and, whatever their production may be, are very easily and cheaply worked. The quartz veins, and other gold-bearing rocks, are all up-tilted and broken down by the great geological forces which swept over the State east of the Blue Ridge. They all stand on edge over a surface generally very little broken up into hills or mountains, and, with good machinery, any vein promising a fair return, should be worked with profit.

        The principal mines are west of the centre of the State, and about half way from Raleigh to the foot of the Blue Ridge. Cabarrus County is distinguished as the place of original discovery, and one piece of pure gold, weighing twenty-eight pounds, was found there. All the counties of that section of the State, which is drained chiefly by the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, abound in gold. It is also found as far east as Franklin County, north of Raleigh. Not only are all the primary rock formations of the State east of the Blue Ridge often found to yield gold, but the mountain counties west of the Blue Ridge also show valuable gold deposits. Prof. W. C. Kerr, the present State Geologist, says in his report for 1860, that Cherokee and Jackson Counties,

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in the extreme southwest show gold freely at the western foot of the Blue Ridge.

        "There are two principal gold regions in the mountain section, one in Cherokee, and the other in Jackson. The gold belt of Cherokee is in the same body of slates which carries the limestone and iron. It is found both in the veins and in superficial deposits. The sands of Valley River yield it profitably through a large part of its course, and some very rich washings have been found along its tributary streams on the north side. The origin of this gold is very near the limestone. A remarkably rich vein has been opened near the town of Murphy, known as No. 6, which immediately underlies the marble. This is a silver-lead quartz vein in which is imbedded a large percentage of free gold. There is a strong probability of other similar veins having furnished the golden sands of the river and streams above mentioned.

        "On the southeast of the limestones is also a series of diggings along the lower slopes of the mountains from near Valley Town to Vengeance Creek, a distance of twelve or fifteen miles. The gold is found here in the drift which covers the lower spurs and terminal ridges of the mountains south of Valley River. . . . The continuation of this gold belt sent westward is rendered probable by the existence of several valuable mines in this direction beyond the Hiwassee, as the Warren mine on Brasstown, Creek, and others on Notteley River, in Georgia. . . . The gold of Jackson County is also obtained almost entirely from washings . . . The most important locality is Fairfield Valley, where Georgetown Creek, one of the head streams of the Toxaway, is said to have yielded between $200,000 and $300,000. The deposits extend several miles."


        The latest Geological Report of Professor Kerr, which has just been issued, May, 1869, has an interesting description of the gold producing districts of the east side of the Blue Ridge, and along the South Mountains, which we extract from as follows:--

        "In the Piedmont section there are three gold placers of considerable note. One of these is at Sandy Plains in Polk County. The gold is found in the gravel from the debris of denuded hills of mica schist. This gravel is found in the beds of small streams, over an area of several miles. These diggings are still wrought in a small way. No veins have been discovered. The most extensive and notable deposit in this region, and in the State, is found in the South Mountains on the head waters of the First and Second Broad, and of Silver and Muddy Creeks. It is divided into four principal districts, on the above mentioned streams, which are named respectively Whiteside, Jeanstown, Brindletown, and Brackettown. The whole area occupied, interruptedly, by this deposit, is between one and two hundred square miles. These mines were opened about the year 1830, and were operated on a large scale, but in a rude way, until the discovery of the California mines. Some thousands of laborers were at work here for a number of

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years, and no doubt several millions of gold were obtained. Work is still carried on at a great many points, and several thousands of dollars are annually mined. The deposits were originally very rich, and yielded frequently ten dollars a day for each laborer. The gold bearing drift or gravel is accumulated along the beds of the streams, on the benches of the hills, and in all the various situations which have, in California, given rise to the division into river, hill, bench, flat, and gulch diggings. Some of the deposits on the larger streams are quite extensive, and of considerable depth. Many of them have been worked over several times. The processes heretofore employed were of the rudest kind, and no doubt the introduction of the improved California methods would render the mines again very profitable. Many of the hill and bench deposits have never been worked, and could not be except by the hydraulic process. The gold of these placers has evidently been derived from the numerous small veins in the, slopes of the adjacent hills and mountains. The gangue of these veins is usually a granular white quart (saccharoid). They are small, and have not been mined hitherto. Machinery has been put up, however, near Brackettown for the purpose of working one of these saccharoidal veins, which seems to be nearly a foot in thickness.

        "The third gold field referred to is in Caldwell County, on Lower Creek. Operations have been carried on here on a considerable scale on both sides of the creek, but mostly on the north side, along the beds of the tributary streams, which come down from the terminal spurs and ridges of the Warrior Mountains dividing the waters of Lower Creek from John's River . . . . There are many other places where gold has been obtained from gravel in considerable amounts, as in the beds of some small streams on the slopes of the hill, three to four miles west of Morganton, where gold washing is still carried on profitably; also in the waters of the Second Broad, in Rutherford; on Pacolet River, in Polk County, and in several parts of Cleveland and Lincoln Counties.

        "The Shuford mine in the eastern part of Catawba, which contains both placers and veins is situated in the King's Mountain belt. It has been worked for a number of years with very satisfactory results, and operations are to be resumed shortly. These are dry diggings, and the difficulty is in procuring a supply of water. Vein mining has never been extensively carried on in this region. The Mountain Mining Company were erecting machinery during last summer to operate the quartz vein already mentioned, and were about to reopen a mine some four miles south of Shelby which is neither a vein nor a placer mine. The gold-bearing rock is a heavy ledge of brown, ferruginous mica-schist, which is impregnated with iron pyrites in a state of minute subdivision, and abounds in garnets. There is no semblance of a vein proper. Dr. Emmons reports that gold is found in the conglomerates of Montgomery, and the very intelligent superintendent of the Rhodes mine in Lincoln assured me that he obtained gold from the common gray gneiss of the country, which constitutes the wall rock of that vein; and at the King's Mountain in Gaston, large quantities of the limestone are stamped and washed. And I have seen gold-bearing felspathic slates from Moore County, and talco-quartzose slates from Montgomery; so that, although the gangue rock of gold in this State is usually

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quartz, compact, or saccharoidal, it is far from being universally so, nor is the occurrence of these auriferous rocks limited to veins.

        "There are two other mines in the Piedmont section that are worthy of mention, the Baker (or Davis), and the Michaux, both on John's Rivet, near the Caldwell and Burke line. The latter has yielded some very fine cabinet specimens, the veins being numerous, small, and in places very rich . . . . If we pass beyond the Piedmont group into the King's Mountain slates, there are many famous gold mines along this formation, and the gneissic rocks between it and the Lower Catawba; several of which have lately been reopened under favorable auspices; the King's Mountain mine, the Rhodes, Beattie, and two or three others. These are now operated by companies and under superintendents of California experience, in several cases with the most improved California machinery, manufactured in San Francisco. From these facts, and especially from the superior engineering skill which is now employed in these and several other such enterprises of the Mountain Mining Company, I infer that a new era is opening upon the mining interests of one State."


        But the most celebrated gold mines are in Cabarrus County, particularly the Reed mine, discovered in 1799, and from which more than a dozen nuggets, weighing, together more than 120 pounds, have been taken at different, times. The best of these mines are veins of quartz, or of slaty veinstone, with iron and copper pyrites associated. Many of these veins are as promising as those of California or Colorado, and if worked by powerful machinery, would, in the opinion of most persons who have compared them, yield better than those celebrated districts of the Pacific coast. Quartz crushing machinery has been but little tried, however, the people having heretofore passed these rich districts by to waste their energies on a more distant field. A great deal of successful placer or surface mining has been done in Burke and other counties at the eastern part of the Blue Ridge. It is estimated that more than a million of dollars has been so obtained in Burke County alone. It is a peculiarity of most of the previous washing of sands in search of gold in North Carolina, that only the rudest processes were employed, and not only was the separation of the gold imperfect in such as was washed, but much rich material has been left untouched.

        It will be an inviting field to an Eastern or Northern man who would like to try gold mining without going to California, to buy a tract in this tempting region, and while he prosecutes

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farming or any other business as a general pursuit, try his hand at leisure times in obtaining gold from his own lands. Some of the best and most profitable of gold mining in the State, heretofore has been conducted by thrifty farmers in the intervals of other employment. The present writer has personally seen several who have thus saved money, and who were, at the time, travelling in the Northern States, and designing still to return and continue the double employment by which their wealth had been acquired.

        We would be able to give, a more complete directory to the gold mines and gold-producing localities, were the written accounts heretofore published as definite as they should be. The best way is to go to Salisbury, a town of easy access by the North Carolina Railroad from Raleigh by way of Greensboro; and on reaching Salisbury, make examinations, first in Cabarrus, Stanly and Anson Counties, for vein mining; next westward to Burke County for the surface "diggings," and also beyond the Blue Ridge, if possible, to the washings at the western foot of the Blue Ridge, in the extreme southwest, before described. The North Carolina Railroad is being rapidly extended in the direction of the passage of the Blue Ridge, at Swannanoa Gap, and the road to Asheville by way of this gap is not at all difficult.

        There are valuable and interesting, mines of gold and copper near Greensboro, also, which are described in the list of vein mines.

        The annual production of gold in North Carolina is now, probably, about twice the value of that which reaches the mint. This amount sent to the mint was, in 1868, $89,805 in value. While it may be much more, it cannot be less than $180,000; and probably a better estimate would be about $250,000 as the present annual value of these gold mines. The list of vein gold mines on page 47, following, will give as good an account of the condition of that branch of gold mining in the States, as is practicable now to be obtained.

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Silver Mines.

        Silver mining is of sufficient importance in several counties to justify an allusion to it. In Davidson County, at a locality known as Silver Hill the Washington mine is the most valuable of those. While silver was in demand for coinage, a small annual product came to the mint from North Carolina; the whole in three years 1859 to 1861, reaching $41,888. But four times as much would go into use in the arts, even then, and now it all takes that direction.

        Silver is found here, as elsewhere, in combination with various other metals; with gold, copper, lead and zinc. The silver-bearing rocks are the slates at their line of contact with the granite, and along the line of this contact, both northeast and southwest from the Davidson County mines, there are many localities where silver is found. The principal mines southwestward are the Conrad, McMakin, and Stewart mines. Prof. Kerr's references to these mines are so clear and brief that we reproduce them. In the report of 1866 he says:--

        "SILVER.--It will be observed that the richest gold mines lie along and near the line of contact of the slates and granite. And it is also along this line that the principal silver mines of this State are found. The most noted of these are at Silver Hill, in Davidson County. The combination of metal here is quite complex, including, with the silver, gold, lead, copper and zinc. A chain of similar mines runs southwest along the western border of the States, including the McMakin and Stewart mines. During the war the first named of these mines yielded a considerable quantity of lead. It had been previously worked chiefly for silver and gold. The same association of metals occurs in Cherokee."


        Also in the report of Prof. Kerr just published (1869) the following reference is made:--

        "SILVER AND LEAD.--These two metals are associated in their ores in this State. On the north slope of the Beech Mountain in Watauga County, on the waters of Watauga River at two points galena has lately been discovered which is rich in silver . . . A similar outcrop of galena was found a number of years ago at Flint Knob, in Wilkes County. The ore is of good quality, containing both gold and silver; but no exposure of the vein has been effected, from which a reasonable conclusion can be drawn as to its extent and value. The ore, so far as exposed, is in a coarse slaty gneiss."


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Copper.

        Ores of copper are very frequently found in almost all parts of the State, and at some points they have been mined very successfully. A few years since quite a fever of speculation raged in regard to copper mines, and in the pursuit of the mineral gossan, which is supposed to indicate the locality of veins of ores. This gossan is a showy sulphuret of iron, or iron pyrites, found on the surface after the decomposition and waste of copper veins, and from which no metal can be extracted. The ore is always in the vicinity, however, and can be worked with profit when opened. Prof. Kerr, in 1866, says:--

        "I am not aware of the existence of copper in the mountain section, except in what I have called the Jackson belt; because it is in this county that the formation receives its principal development, although it crosses the whole breadth of the State, and has yielded copper at several points in Macon on one side, and Hayward, on the other . . . The copper belt occupies the whole middle portion of Jackson County, from the head-waters of Tuckasegee River, northward to Scott's and Savannah Creeks, and probably several miles beyond . . . Many of the deposits are of the most promising character, and the veins are of unusual size. The principal points where mining has been carried on are Cullowhee, Waryhut, and Savannah; although work has been done, and symptoms of the presence of copper discovered at many other places--as at Shell Ridge, Scott's Creek, Sugar Loaf, Panther Knob, Wolf Creek, etc. The great Cullowhee, where the best exposure has been made, is eight or nine feet thick; at Waryhut, five or six feet; at Savannah, where there are several veins or beds of ore, the largest which has been opened is nine or ten feet. In several of the above localities copper was found within a few feet of the surface. The outcrop, in all cases, is the mineral known among miners as gossan--really an ore of iron, resulting from the weathering and decomposition of the exposed ore, which is yellow copper, or copper pyrites . . . These copper deposits will, no doubt, under a judicious system of mining, give rise to many valuable mines."


        Many of the gold mines first worked were abandoned because of the greater abundance of copper pyrites than of gold ores, and they have since been reopened as copper mines. They are, therefore, abundant in all the central counties, in Chatham, Guilford, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus, and Mecklenburg. The Greensboro mines are valued now as much for copper as for gold. The Gillis mine, in Person County, on the border of Virginia, is a noted copper mine.

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        "The three most noted copper mines in the northwestern part of the State are the Elk Knob, Peach Bottom, and Ore Knob. The first is one of the most promising outcrops of copper ore in the State. It is a large vein of the yellow sulphuret imbedded in the most extensive body of hornblendic rocks in the State. The vein rock is a dark-colored micaceous quartzite, nine or ten feet in thickness. It is situated on the northern slope of the mountain from which it is named, at an elevation of about four thousand feet . . . The Peach Bottom mine is situated on the west side of the mountain range of that name in Alleghany County, and a few miles south of the New river. This mine was well furnished with machinery for the elevation and concentration of the ore; it has been wrought to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet . . . A portion of the vein also yields lead. Large quantities of the ore were sent to the smelting works at Petersburg during the war. . . Ore Knob is in the southeast part of Ashe County, quite near the Blue Ridge, in the same character of rock formations as the last. It is said to have yielded several thousand tons of ore within a depth of 60 or 70 feet. The vein is said to be a large one. The ore is'yellow copper,'as in the other mines. I have no doubt that all these mines could be profitably reopened, but for the difficulty of transportation to market. In the southeast corner of Ashe County is another mine of some note, known as Gap Creek. Dr. Emmons visited it when first opened, and reports that at'a depth of 50 to 60 feet the ore is vitreous, which will probably be twice as rich as the yellow sulphuret."(Prof. Kerr, 1869.)


        The results of copper mining heretofore can scarcely be stated. In 1860 the county of Alleghany reported one establishment, employing twenty men; and Guilford County also reported one, with a capital of $60,000, employing 180 men and ten women, and producing copper to the value of $100,000. The aggregate value is now twice what it was in 1860, and a little capital employed in developing the present mines could be richly repaid. This form of the ore is far less refractory in reduction than most others in Virginia, and the States northward, where the very hardest of state veins form the copper-bearing rocks. In the very brief list of copper mines which follows, but a small proportion can be named, and it will be seen that almost every gold mine is also a copper mine, the Gardner mine in Guilford Count being a conspicuous instance.

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LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL GOLD, SILVER, AND COPPER MINES.
Where th