tfiEi^RESTS, Ml§E^ AND FAGfORIES. Steam fisHiiso boAj Rand, McNALLr i, Co., Printers ano Engravers. V v^ . r>y HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA, WITH LLUSTRATIONS AND MAP. STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. RALEIGH : PRESSES OF EDWARDS & BROUGHTON. 1893. P R E FA C E . At the request of T. K. Bruner, Secretary to the State Board of Agri- culture, in the month of May last I undertook the work of preparing a new edition of the Hand-Book of North Carolina. Two previous editions, hy different compilers, had been issued, each one of which was 4 considered satisfactory presentation of the varied conditions of the State as they then existed ; but as there had been a great increase in the industries, population and prosperity of the people of North Carolina from the issue of the first edition in 1874, to that of the second in 1883, so it was to be reasonably assumed from the latter period until the pres- ent the changes had been equally as marked; greater, in fact, because the greater the removal from that era of poverty and desolation which had followed the war, and the subsequent agitated and uncertain con- ditions, the greater the incitements, aids and encouragements to rapid and full recuperation. It was desirable to prove the extent of this recuperation, the magni- tude and extent of the onward progress, the addition to the subjects of industry, and, perhaps, more interesting and valuable than any other subjects, the progress of intellectual enlightenment, and the extent of the educational advantages extended to tiie youth of the State. An event was approaching which was particularly calculated to call from the State an intelligent exhibit of its resources, an outline of its transactions, and a picture of the field in which the capacities and the aspirations of the people were most apt to illustrate themselves. This was the great Columbian Exposition to be held in Chicago during the coming year, and in which it was not only desirable that North Car- olina should take part, but anticipate the part she was expected to take by such publication of her natural and improved conditions, her topog- raphy, climate and products, her institutions, her manufactures, her internal improvements, her ores and her minerals, as would satisfy IV P R E F A C P: . public expectation and justify the ambition of her own people to enter into friendly rivalry with her sister States, and with the world. It is believed that the present Hand-Book will contribute largely to correct many misapprehensions about North Carolina, the growth of its former timid modesty, and the absence of information which men of energetic public spirit could have earlier imparted. The extent of information given, the great number of subjects treated of, the great- ness and liberality of its public institutions, the generosity and com- prehensiveness of its educational systems, the extent of its internal improvements, the number and variety of its manufactures, the curious admixtures and value of its agricultural pursuits, the extensive diffusion of its ores and metals, precious as well as the industrially useful, and also the universally salubrious and temperate climate, which is enjoyed from the sea-coast to the mountains, will certainlv awake the interest due to the many subjects brought to view. It may be added that the}'' are brought to view with rigid regard to facts, with laudable object to give them wide publicity; with truthful purpose to present them as they are, without the coloring of exagger- ation, and without the distortion of untruthfulness or detraction. A large portion of the facts are drawn from official records and the state- ments of statistics; and such being the case, it was impossible to have presented anything entirely new, since such facts as relate to topogra- phy, mineralogy, forestry, climate and kindred topics, once ascertained admit of few changes. Therefore to Prof. W. C. Kerr, the Rev. Dr. M. A. Curtis, Professor Holmes, Mr. Hanna, and other scientific authorities, and also to the reports of the various State departments, are due a large portion of the information conveyed in this publication. Acknowledg- ments are also made to the edition of 1883, from which, in some instances, copious extracts are made. I have, in addition, secured nuuh material by personal research, particularly in relation to the fisheries, manufactures, some subjects of agriculture, tiie mountains and rivers, and some of the newly introduced subjects of industry, such as truck farming, canneries, viticulture, etc. To information on climate, I am largely indebted to l)r. H. B. Battle; and to the articles on ores and minerals, gold, iron, copper, etc.. to Prof. C i>. Hanna and Prof. J. A. Holmes, State Geologist. PREFACE. V More space than is due, in proportion to tlie extent of tlie work, is given to the description of counties. It is to be regretted now that it was so applied. It is a great, a fruitful, and a very important subject, and in point of usefulness merits a distinct work, for elaborate special description of the counties will be of more value to them and to the State than any other mode of inviting attention to their resources and characteristics. As it is, too little is said of such counties as could not be visited, and also too little of those which were visited, and had thus their importance demonstrated. The number of ninety-six counties is too great to be treated incidentally, and yet the}^ could not be wholly omitted. I think the attention of the Legislature may properly be called to this subject. I cannot close this subject without reference to the generous aid extended by the officers and attaches of the Agricultural Department, to Commissioner John Robinson, to Secretary T. K. Bruner, and to Dr. H. B. Battle, Director of the Experiment Station. Drawn more closely in eonnection with Mr. Bruner, it is pleasant, as it is just, to render tribute to his interest in the Hand-Book, to his energy, his intelligence and his industrious research, by visits and by correspondence, to comprehend every subject that was attainable, that, in a publication designed to illustrate North Carolina on the wide stage of the world's survey, could add to the honor and interest of his native State. Circumstances beyond my control compelled a somewhat hurried and abbreviated presentation of the subjects embraced in the present volume. Nevertheless, I believe the Hand-Book will aid in giving that publicity to the conditions of North Carolina sought to be obtained by bringing it to the knowledge of the visitors to the Columbian Exposition. J. D. CAMERON. AsHEViLLE, N. C, December 18, 1892. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. General Sketch 1 The Mountain Section 1-3 In Cross-Chains 3-5 Elevation of Mountains 5-8 Middle and Piedmont Sections 8-11 Eastern Section 11-17 Rivers 17-23 Lakes 23-24 Sounds and Bays 24 Swamps 25 Forests 26-42 Climate 42-45 Rainfall 45 Snow 45 Frosts 45 Population of the State 46-53 Government and Taxation 53-57 State Debt 57-59 Religion * 59 Public Institutions 60-72 Bureau of Labor Statistics 72 Geological Museum 73 Railroad Commission : 73 Public Buildings 74-75 Education 75-78 Higher Education 78-80 Denominational Colleges 80-84 Secondary Instruction 84-85 1'rivate Schools and Colleges 85 Higher Fk.male Education 86-91 ('olle(;f:s for the Colored People 91-96 TAP.LE OP ('ONTKNT8. VIE PAOE. Description OF Counties 96-205 Agricultural Products 206-208 Tobacco 208-213 Tobacco Production for 1889 213-214 Rice 214-216 Cotton 217-220 Cotton Crop for 1889 220 Peanuts 221-222 Ports and Harbors of North Carolina 223-227 Truck Farming 228-233 Silk 233-235 Mineral Springs OF North Carolina 236-241 Fisheries 241-247 Oysters and the Oyster Survey 247-251 Nurseries, Etc. 251-253 The Grape in North Carolina 253-256 Vineyards 256-258 Resorts, Hotels 259 Seaside Resorts 259-261 Mountain Resorts 261-267 Manufactories in North Carolina 267-269 Cotton Mills 269-272 Woolen Mills 272 Tobacco Factories 271-273 Wood-working Establishments 273 Paper Mills '-"^ Knitting Mells 275 Canneries 2/5-^/7 Cottonseed Oil Mills 277-278 Fertilizer Factories 278-279 Pine Leaf Factories 2<9 Bucket Factories -'^ Rice Mills '-'^ Potteries, Etc. 2/9 Iron Manufactorip:s 2/9-280 VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. Railroads 282-286 Canals and Aktikicial Navigation 289-200 Newspapers 290-291 Building Stones 292 Granite 292-293 Sandstone . 293-295 Marble 295-29G Slate 296 Gold Mining in North Carolina 296-310 Silver, Lead and Zinc 310 Copper 310-311 Iron Ores 311-320 Manganese 320 Chromic Iron 321 Cobalt and Nickel 321 Economic Minerals 321 Pyrite 321 Mica 321-322 Kaolin and Fire-clay 322 Talc 322 A(;almatolite 322 Barytk 323 Whetstone 323 Millstone AND Grindstone Grit 323 Corundum 323-324 Mai;ls 324 Grai'Hite 324-325 Coal 325-326 (Jkms and Pkkcious Stones 326 328 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH MROLINA. GENERAL SKETCH. The State of North Carolina is bounded on the north by Virginia, east by the Atlantic Ocean, south by South Carolina and Georgia, and west by Tennessee. It is 'included nearly between the parallels 34° and 36|^° north latitude, and between the meridians 75^° and 84|° west longitude. The extreme length of the State from east to west is 503^ miles; its average breadth is 100 miles; its extreme breadth is 187| miles. Its area embraces 52,286 square miles, of which 48,066 is land, and 3,620 is water. Its topography may be best conceived by picturing to the mind's eye the surface of the State as a vast declivity, sloping down from the summits of the Smok}^ Mountains, an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The Smoky Mountains constitute a part of the great Appalachian chain, which here attains its greatest height; the greatest, indeed, in the United States, east of the Rocky 'Mountains. This slope is made up of three wide extended terraces — if that term may be allowed; the first a high mountain plateau — dis- tinguished as the Western or Mountain Section; the second, a submon- tane plateau, distinguished as the Middle Section, of which the western half i^ further distinguished as the Piedmont Section; the third, the Atlantic plain, distinguished as the Low Country or Eastern Section, and that part from the head of the tides downward as the Tide-water Section. From the first to the second section there is a sharp descent through a few miles only of not less than 1,500 feet; from the middle to the low country a descent of about 200 feet; through the two latter, however, there is a constant downward grade. THE MOUNTAIN SECTION. This is so sharply and distinctly defined, and embraces so large a portion of the territory of North Carolina, as to merit a somewhat extended reference to its magnitude, its elevation and its character- Z HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. istics. Broadly considered, it may be treated as a high phiteau, bounded on the east by the irregular chain known as the Blue Ridge, t-xtending across the State in a general direction from north-east to south-west, until, reaching the south-eastern border of Henderson County, it turns to the west and forms for a long distance part of the southern boundary of the State, passing at length by a south-west projection into the State of Georgia, and again reuniting with the chain of the Smoky Mountains, to which it had made near approach on its entry into North Carolina in the counties of Ashe and Watauga. The average elevation of the Blue Ridge is nearly 4,000 feet, though on the southern and northern extremities it drops to 3,000 feet, its lower :gaps being a little above 2,000 feet over the main level of the piedmont -country. Seen from the east, the chain presents the aspect of a steep :and rugged escarpment springing suddenly from the piedmont }^la- leau to an altitude of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above it. From the west the appearance is that of a low and ill-defined ridge, in some places, as in parts of Henderson and Macon Counties, presenting almost a smooth, unbroken horizontal line: again uplifting itself in bold prominence, attaining the height of nearly 6,000 feet, as in the Grandfather, and the Pinnacle, the conspicuous summits so attractively visible near Round Knob, on the Western North Carolina Railroad. The western boundary of this division is that long chain known under the various names of the Iron, the Smoky, and the Unaka Moun-. tains, and forming the dividing line between North Carolina and Ten- nessee, and enclosing with marked definiteness the plateau of Western North Carolina. The .area of this division approximates (5,000 square miles. The plateau is the culminating region of the Appalachian sys- tem, and contains not only its heaviest masses, but also its liighest sum- mits. It is divided by a number of cross chains, and consequently with a number of smaller plateaus or basins, each bounded on all sides by high mountains, and having it^ own independent system of rivers or drainage. It is this connection or interlacing of the outside bounding chains by the agency of the numerous cross chains that gives Western North Carolina its marked mountain character, its alternation of high mountain ranges with corresponding valleys and their attendant rivers, and the numerous lateral spurs, penetrated also by their valleys and their mountain torrents, and all arranged with an order and a symme- try as rare as it is beautiful, and also presenting facilities for commu- nication from the opposite sides of these chains of inestimable value in THE MOUNTAIN SECTION. O the construction of works of internal improvement not often possessed by mountain countries, in their general aspect tumultuously upheaved in defiance of human advance among their recesses. THE CROSS CHAINS. — The chief of these in exceptional elevation is known as the Black Mountains, consisting of two chains — the North- west and the Main chain — the united length of which is about forty miles, extending in a north-west direction from the Blue Ridge through the counties of Buncombe and Yancey, and forming a link of connec- tion between the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains. These united chains comprise twenty-five peaks in all, twenty of which are upwards of 6,000 feet in height. Between the French Broad and the Pigeon River stretches the long chain of the Pisgah and the New Found Moun- tains, interrupted by the valley of Hominy Creek, the opening of which offers convenient passway to the next parallel range, the Balsam Mountains, which extends in unbroken continuity from the South Carolina line on the south to the Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee border on the north. This range has a mean elevation of about 5,500 feet, with fifteen summits exceeding 6,000 feet; and across the range are only two passways or gaps suitable to the passage of wheeled vehi- cles, one of which, traversed by the Western North Carolina Railroad, is 3,357 feet above sea-level; the other, Soco Gap, being 4,341 feet high. Then comes the Cowee chain, extending nearly across the State, and separated from the Smoky Mountains by the narrow valley of the Tuckaseegee River. The mean height of this chain is about 4,800 feet, the highest summit, at the southern end, being Yellow Mountain, 5,133 feet. Then succeeds the massive and ver}' bold double chain of the Nantahala and Valley River Mountains, with a mean height of 5,000 feet, the two branches of which lie in close parallelism from the Georgia State line on the south as far as the Red Marble Gap on the north, where they separate, one branch directed westward and known as the Long Ridge, and uniting itself with the Smoky Mountains in Cherokee County; the other extending to the north-east, under the name of the Cheoah Mountains, and ending without definite connection in undefin- able chains or isolated peaks. On the east side of the Blue Ridge are a series of independent chains with probable geological identity, but physically detached. Among these are the Saluda, Green River, Tryon and Hungry Mountain ranges, nearly parallel with the Blue Ridge, but separated by the deep valleys or gorges cut through them by the angry torrents which have cut 4 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. through them to unite with the waters flowing toward the Atlantic; the waters on tlie Avest of the Blue Ridge, on the contrary, all directing their courses towards the Mississippi or its tributaries. Another series of ranges in general parallelism with the Blue Ridge, but with wide interval of plain and valley between (he two, may be considered as one, but with capricious outcrop, at one point appearing in bold continuous chain, then disappearing, and, at wide interval, rising again and pur- suing a south-easterly direction, to unite itself with the mother range. This is the range which lifts itself abruptly in Stokes County as the picturesque kSauratan, with a mean elevation of 2,200 feet, to sink and rise again in the solitary monument of the Pilot Mountain; then again to disappear to give place for the broad, fertile valley of the Yadkin, to rise again and expose to view the lengthened chain of the Brushy Mountains, again to sink, then rise again in solitary height near Con- nelly's Springs, and then rise again in southern Burke to dominate a very beautiful landscape as the South Mountains. The Linville Mountains, though distinct from the Blue Ridge, are so coincident with it in perspective and in general characteristics as to need no mention as a distinct range. In the southern part of Randolph County, and extending into the county of Montgomery, appear the comparatively insignificant range of the Uwharrie Mountains, nowhere attaining an elevation of more than 1,500 feet, — rough, rocky and barren, except in mineral wealth, gold being found at many points in the range, and having been worked wath great profit by many investors. East of these mountains, in the counties of Orange, Durham and Person, appear frequent outcrops of mountain formation reaching in general characteristics almost the dignity of mountains, but nowhere rising to the elevation of 1,200 feet above tidewater. These detached outcrops may be grouped in the general term of the Occoneechee Moun- tains, and are the last efforts of the forces of upheaval in the direction of the sea to lift the earth above its normal level. The above embrace the whole mountain system of North Carolina, and in the western section unmistakably present the culmination of the great Appalachian system, as illustrated by the highest summits lifted up in all the territory of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also as the source from which many large rivers radiate to flow towards the opposite directions of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi River and its tributaries. THE MOUNTAIN SECTION. O Along the Blue Ridge, along the Smoky Mountain range, and along the cross chains are found the following summits which exceed 6,000 feet in elevation : IN THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS.— Mount Buckley, 6,509; Chngman's Dome, 6,660; Mount Love, 6,449; Mount Collins, 6,188; Mount Alexander, 6,447; Mount Henry, 6,373; Mount Guyot, 6,636; Tricorne Knob, 6,188; Ravens Knob, 6,290; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Luftee Knob, 6,238; Cataloochee, 6,159; Roan (High Knob), 6,306; Roan (High Bluff), 6,296; Grassy Ridge (Bald), 6,230; Cold Spring, 6,130. IN THE BALSAM MOUNTAINS.— Enos Plott's Balsam, 6,090; Jones' Bal- sam, 6,224; Rockstone Knob, 6,002; Brother Plott, 6,246 ; Amos Plott's Balsam, 6,278; Rocky Face, 6,061; Double Spring Mountain, 6,380; Richland Balsam, 6,425; Chimney Peak, 6,234; Spruce Ridge Top, 6,076; Reinhardt Mountain, 6,106; Devil's Court House, 6,049; Sam's Knob, 6,001; Cold Mountain, 6,063. IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS. — North-west Chain — Blackstock's Knob, 6,380; Potato Top, 6,300. Main C7i«m— Black Dome, 6,502; Mount Gibbs, 6,501; -Mount Hallback or Sugar-loaf, 6,406; Mount Mitchell, 6,717; Balsam Cone, 6,671; Black Brother, 6,619; Cattail Peak, 6,611; Hairy Bear, 6,610; Deer Mountain, 6,203; Long Ridge, Middle Point, 6,259; Bowlen's Pyramid, 6,348. IN THE CRAGGY RANGE.— Big Craggy, 6,000. In all forty-three peaks of 6,000 feet and upwards. And there are eighty-two mountains which exceed in height 5,000 feet, and closely approximate 6,000, and the number which exceed 4,000 and approxi- mate 5,000 is innumerable. '-^^ The general contour of all these mountains is gentle, the summits generally presenting smooth rounded otUlines, occasionally rising into sharp pointed peaks, and, except on the southern border, presenting little of precipitous formation. There, some of the most stupendous cliffs or precipices east of the Rocky Mountains present themselves, such as Csesar's Head and Whiteside Mountain, the latter presenting a sheer perpendicular front of naked rock eighteen hundred feet in height. Otherwise the mountains are covered with deep rich soil, clothed with massive forests to their tops. To this general condition there is the remarkable exception presented by the locally named balds, natural meadows found on the rounded tops of many of the highest mountains. 6 HAND-BOOK OF XORTH CAROLINA. Their elevation is generally near, or above, 6,000 feet. The heavy forest growth of the valleys and lower slopes of the mountains is gradually dwarfed towards the bald summits, so that these are sur- rounded by a fringe of stunted, scrubby oaks, beeches, &c., the balds themselves being covered with a rich herbage of grass, pasturage to which large herds of domestic animals are annuall}^ driven to remain until the return of cold w'eather. The great elevation of these mountain heights is indicated by the botanical features of the vegetation, which shows a predominance of firs, hemlocks, white pines, and other trees of high latitudes. In respect to those timber trees found here, in common with the other sections, the Mountain Section has the advantage of possessing an unbroken forest. In comparison with the extent of forest lands, the clearings hei'e are mere patches. There is little hazard in saying that there is nowhere in any of the States an equal area of land covered with timber trees of such various kinds, and of such value. The walnut, tulip trees (poplars), and oaks attain a size that would hardly be credited by one who had not seen them. The preservation of this magnificent forest is due to the fact that it has hitherto been inaccessible to transportation. Within the past few years much of it has been brought into connection with the markets of the world. One railroad line passes entirely through this section, and another branching off at Asheville and leading to the extreme southwest of the State, is in great part com- pleted. Into the northwestern part of the State also a railroad has been completed and others projected, of which two are partially gi-aded. The cultivated productions of this section are the same with those of the Middle Section, cotton and rice excejited. Its garden vegetables are the same, but the cabbage and the Irish potato gi-ow here to a degree of i>erfection that cannot be excelled any- where. Among the fruits, its apples are noted for size and flavor. Peaches and grapes grow well generally ; but, for their higliest perfection, nature has made pro- visions by a suspension to some extent of her ordinary laws. Throughout the moun- tains, in certain localities and at the surface and impart to the soil a high degree of fertility. This is the case from the eastern part of Jones county to the Cape Fear. The greater proportion of the good lands in Jones depends upon the fact that this formation is largely developed there. The rich lands of Onslow, and of Rocky Point, in New Hanover, owe their excellence to the same cause. Another class of land in point of fertility equalling any in the world is that reclaimed from some of the lakes of this section. To two of these the process of drainage has been applied — Lake Mattamuskeet and Lake Scuppernong (Phelps). By canals dug from the lake to the nearest stream which afforded the necessary fall a wide margin entirely round the lake has been brought into cultivation. These lands seem to be absolutely inexhaustible. The cultivation of three-quarters of a cen- tury has made no change in their productive capacity. To the lands reclaimed from the borders of marshes — so frequent near the sea-shore — the same remark may be strictly applied. Another class of land remains to be mentioned which will be a resource of inestimable value in time, perhaps not distant. Bordering on the sea and sounds are extensive tracts of country designated as swamps. Though so-called, they differ widely in their characteristic features from an ordinary swamp. They are not alluvial tracts, neither are they subject to overflows The land covered by many of them lies for the greater part quite low; but this remark seldom applies wholly to any of them — to some does not apply at all. On the contrary many of them occupy the divides or water sheds between the rivers and sounds, and are elevated many feet above the adjacent rivers of which they are the sources. These latter are susceptible of drainage, and when reclaimed have every element of the most exuberant and lasting fertility. Bay River Swamp, between Pamlico and Neuse Rivers, and Green Swamp, in Brunswick and Columbus Counties, may be men- tioDed as examples. The elevation of the latter is forty feet above the sea level. The work of drainage is simple. From the border of the swamp, which is always the highest land, the bottom slopes in every direction gradually, almost imperceptibly, to the centre. A canal cut through this border into the swamp, and carried to some neighboring stream, lays bare an extensive belt along the entire border. The 14 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA, aggregate territory in the State known as swamp lands is between three and four thousand square miles. AVhen drainage shall be properly carried out over this gr^at territory — a work which, on account of the slight difficulties to be encountered as compared with those which they encountered and overcame, would be deemed trifling by the laborious North German and the indefatigable Hollander — hundreds i-f square mih'S of land of surpassing fertility will be added to the area now in cultivation. Throughout this entire section cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, peas, potatoes, especially swet-t potatoes, are the staple crops; the culture of tobacco has been lately introduced with success. Upon the rich allu- vions and the reclaimed lake and swamp lands, corn, with peas planted in the intervals between the c "/rn, forms the exclusive crop. Occasionally on the broad low-grounds of the Roanoke, wheat is grown to a con- sider.ible extent. In the counties on the north of Albemarle Sound it is one of the staple crops. On the low-grounds of the lower Cape Fear rice has long been the staple crop, and during recent years its culture has been extended northward along the low lying lands of the rivers and sounds. The upland variety of rice has been introduced within a few years pist with entire success. The cultivation of jute also has been the subject of experiment with like success, and it only needs proper encouragement to be grown to any extent. This section is everywhere underlaiil with marl — a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay formed by the decomposition of the imbedded shells — sufficient in quantity, when raised and applied to the surface, to bring it to a high pitch of fertility a;id maintain it so. . ■ The only metallic substances that have been found within this section are some of the ores of iron — the bisuljihuret, hydratcd oxide, and sul- phate, or copperas. In the counties of Du})lin and Sampson valuable deposits of phos- phates have been discovered, which are now being mined and ground for fertilizing purposes. They are known to exist in the adjoining counties, but to what extent has not been yet ascertained. From the similarity of the geological conditions throughout the Eastern Section, there is little doubt that a systematic ex})loration there will lead to fur- ther extensive discoveries. The use of marl, on account of its lower value in comparison with its bulk and consequent cost of transportation, must be mainly, if not whollv, confined to the section in which it is found. Phosphates, on EASTERN SECTION. 15 the other hand, on account of their high fertihzing power, admit of transportation to any distance, and may be used anywhere. Dr. Emmons remarks: "The swamp soils of North Carolina show a greater capacity for endurance than the prairie soils of Illinois, not- withstanding the annual crops are somewhat less per acre; and, on the scord of location, we are unable to see that the Illinois soils have the preference. Nor, as regards health, are our swamp soils more subject to malaria than the country of the prairies." He refers to the remark- able fact that "persons live and labor in swamps with impunity or free- dom from disease." This statement is fully sustained by the reports of our engineers who have had charge of the construction of railroads in that section. The swamps, in their natural state, afford abundant pasturage. They are covered by a dense growth of reeds, which supply excellent food for cattle, winter and summer. That eminent agriculturist, Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, who studied this section of the State with care, expressed a high apprecia- tion of the tidewater region for the cultivation of grasses. He said: " There is no better country for grasses east of the mountains. In small lots I saw dry meadows of orchard grass and clover that would have been deemed good in the best grass districts." It is evident, from the humid character of the climate in that region, and from the fact that the heats of summer are tempered by sea-breezes, owing to the prox- imity of the ocean, tJjat the conditions are such as to favor the growth of this family of plants. Among the resources for future use along the seaboard country, peat is entitled to a prominent place. It exists over hundreds of square miles in area, and to the depth of many feet. At no distant day it will be extensively used, both as a fuel and fertilizer. If the indications of nature are to be relied on, North Carolina was plainly marked out as the land for vineyards. In the sober narrative of the voyage of Amidas and Barlowe, made in 1584, to North Carolina, then an unbroken wilderness, the author tells us: " We viewed the land about us, being, where we first landed, very sandy and low towards the water-side, but so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them, of which we found such plenty as well there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the green soil, on the hills as in the plains, as well on every little shrub as also climbing towards the tops of high cedars, that I think in all the world the like abundance 16 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. is not to be found ; and myself having seen those [)arts of Europe that most abound, find such difference as were incredible to be written." Upon the visit of the voyagers to the house of the Indian King, on Roanoke Island, wine was set before them by his wife. It is further mentioned that, "while the grape lasteth, they (the Indians) drink wine;" they had not learned the art of preserving it. Harriot, a dis- tinguished man in an age of distinguished men, of whom it was justly said that he cultivated all sciences and excelled in all, visited the same coast in 1580, where he was struck with the abundance of grape vines, and he was impressed with the fact that wine might be made one of the future staples of the State. " Were they," he writes, " planted and husbanded as they ought, a principal commodity of wines might be raised." This State has proved to be far richer in this respect than it is probable even he suspected. Grape vines were found in ecjual pro- fusion in the original forest throughout the State. They often inter- laced the trees to such an extent that they were a serious impediment to the work of clearing away the forest, catching and suspending the trees as they were felled. At this day, if a tract of forest is enclosed, and cattle of every kind excluded, they spring up spontaneously and thickly over the land. Some of the finest wine grapes of the United States, the Scuppernong, the Catawba and the Lincoln, are native to this State. But it was long before the bounty of nature in this regard was improved. This was probably due to the fact that the State was settled almost wholly by emigrants from the British Isles, who knew nothing of the culture of the vine. It was planted here and there to yield grapes for table u.se; but it was not until within thirty years that a vineyard was known in the State. Within that period several of large and a great number of small extent have been planted. Grapes in season are abundantly supplied for domestic con.sumption, and ship- ped in hundreds of tons. The wines of the established vineyards are held in high and just repute. All the cultivated fruits and berries grow here in great perfection with the exception of the apple. This, though by no means an inferior fruit, is yet not equal in size and flavor to that of the Middle and Western Sections. Among the swamps the cranberry is found in pro- fusion. The melons are of every variety and of peculiar excellence. KIVEKS. 17 RIVERS. The river system of the State is determined by ils peculiar topography. Its rainfall is copious, the fountain of numerous streams in all sections of the State; and, owing to the fact that the rivers in the ^liddle and Western Sections have their origin among the highest mountains and on the highest table-lands on the eastern side of the American conti- nent, these rivers, in their descent towards the sea, develop an immense amount of mechanical power. Those in the Eastern Section, with equal abundance of rain as a source of water-supply, but with more gentle descent towards the ocean, offer facilities for navigation not pos- sessed by the rivers of the Middle and Western Sections, and towards their mouths expand into wide estuaries, connecting with the sounds and bays which provide the ports and harbors available for exterior commerce, foreign and domestic. Topographical causes also largely influence the course and direction of these rivers. Those rising west of the Blue Ridge are diverted by that barrier towards the north and north-west and towards the Valley of the Mississippi with ultimate destination to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Those rising east or south of the Blue Ridge, or the upper part of the Piedmont Section, after a general direction towards the east, ultimate'y pass out of the State in the middle portion of the Middle Section, and find their way to the Atlantic Ocean through the State of South Carolina; while those having their sources in the belt on the eastern extension of the Middle Section find an entrance into the tide- waters of the Eastern Division. The general river system is naturally divided into three subordinate cues entirely distinct from each other. The most characteristic of these is that originating on the plateau of the Blue Ridge, or on its western slope, the superior elevation of the high culminating masses of the great Appalachian chain throwing off the rivers to all the points of the compass. From this culminating height the Tennessee River, with its length of twelve hundred miles, drawls its chief supply; and the Ohio, with equal length, from the same source, draws one of its chief upper tributaries. The volume of water poured out from this mountain reser- voir is very great. Thus, the most western of them, the Hiwassee, with its tributaries, the Valley and. Nottely Rivers, draining two counties, Clay and Cherokee, an area of about 650 square miles, passes into south- eastern Tennessee, a powerful stream with a breadth of one hundred 9 18 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. yards, with a descent, from their sources to the State hne, a distance of about 75 miles, of from 800 to 900 feet, providing great and continuous water-power. The Tennessee River, united with the Cheoah, the Nan- tahala, the Ocono Luftee and the Tuckaseegee, all large streams with a width of from 50 to 150 yards, with united volume and resistless power, cuts its way through the Smoky Mountains at the point of their greatest elevation, and constitutes one of the principal branches of the greater Tennessee, which unites with the Ohio a short distance above the junction of that river with the Mississippi. The united drainage of the Tennessee in North Carolina is about 1,500 square miles, with a united length in this State of 300 miles. The fall of each of these, from their sources to the State line, is about 1,000 feet. The Pigeon River drains a separate area of about 500 miles. It has a course of about 70 miles in North Carolina, with a width of about 80 yards, and a fall, from its upper valleys to the borders of Tennessee, of about 1,000 feet. The French Broad River is nearly as large as the Tennessee, and is fed by several large affluents, such as Davidson's River, Little River, North River, Swannanoa, Ivy and Laurel, and drains a territory of about 1,400 square miles. The fall from the mouth of Little River, in Transylvania Count}'', to the State of Tennes-^ee, is about 1,000 feet. The Nolechucky, formed by the union of Caney River and North and South Toe, unites with the French Broad after that stream has entered the State of Tennessee, becoming a broad and deep stream in size little inferior to the river with which it joins its waters. Its drain- age is about GOO square miles, and its fall is about 1,500 feet. Elk and Watauga Rivers are smaller streams, with a course of only twenty miles or more in this State, but chief tributaries of the impor- tant Holston River in Tennessee. The New River, alone of all the rivers of the State, flows north, or north-west, into Virginia, and uniting its waters with those of the Kanawha, empties at length into the Ohio. Its aggregate length in North Carolina is nearly 100 miles, and its fall about 700 feet, and its drainage surface within the State is about 700 square miles. This is one of the larger mountain rivers, of the size of the Iliwassee, Ten- nessee and French Broad. Of the characteristic features of these mountain rivers, Prof. W. C. Kerr, former State Geologist, has remarked: "There is a common feature of these streams that is worthy of remark, viz.: that through a RIVERS. 19 very considerable part of their very tortuous course across the plateau from the Blue Ridge to the Smoky, the amount of their fall per mile is frequently quite small, not greater than that east of the mountains, the greater part of their descent occurring within the gorges through which they force their way across the Smoky chain, so that many of them present navigable channels of considerable extent. The French Broad, for example, has a fall of less than 3 feet to the mile from Brevard to Asheville, a distance by river of 40 miles." And he says: "The dominancy of the western chain of mountains frequently asserts itself in a very striking manner, notwithstanding it is obliged, sooner or later, to give passage to all the streams of the plateau. The French Broad is a striking illustration, as well as North Toe and New River (South Fork), all these being thrown off by the steeper slopes and more rapid torrents from the western escarpments and hurled against the very crests of the Blue Ridge, along which they wander lingeringly in slow and tortuous course, as if anxiously seeking the shorter passage to the sea; but finally turn, as if in desperation, and plunge with roar and foam against the frowning ramparts (of the Smokies) which bar their way to the west." There is, on the south and a portion of the east slope of the Blue Ridge, another system which has, in the course of its streams, almost direct outlet into Georgia and South Carolina, viz.: the Chatooga and Toxaway, which are the chief head streams of the Savannah River, the upper waters of the Saluda; and the Green and First and Second Broad, which unite to form the Broad River of South Carolina, uniting with the Saluda at Columbia to form the Congaree. Another and a more important system is that which drains the northern half of the Piedmont Section, and which is represented by the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers. These streams have a general course a little north of east until they leave the plateau, when they turn at right angles to their former direction, and pursue nearly a southerly course, and pass into South Carolina broad and placid streams, the Yadkin then taking the name of the Pee Dee and the Catawba that of the Wateree. Both of these streams receive their chief affluents from the north side, and many of these are large streams. Into the Catawba flow North Fork, Linville, John's River, and many others of less volume; while the Yadkin quickly gains consequence b}'^ the admission of Reddy's, Roaring, Elkin, Mitchell's, Fisher's, Ararat and Little Yadkin. The combined drainage of these two great streams is more than 2,500 square miles. 20 HAND-BOOK OF XOKTH CAROLINA. The Yadkin receives in its lower course a larger number of affluents than the parallel stream the Catawba, lias a greater fall in its course, and drains a wider and more continuous valley. Both are navigable in their upper courses, interruptions by shoals being infrequent, and Avhich are readily surmounted, works to that effect having been begun nearly three-quarters of a century ago, but never perfected. The course of the Yadkin presents remarkable features of fluctuation in placidity, in width, and in contrast of characteristics, its upper course, almost from its source, having a very slight fall, then interrupted by Bean's Shoals for a mile or more, where it expands to the breadth of 200 yards, then resuming its gentle course, attaining a width of several hundred yards, with its flow interrupted by numerous willow-covered islands, until, as it approaches the gorge formed by the encroachment of the Uwharrie Mountains upon its channel, it suddenl}^ plunges, a bold cataract of 10 or 12 feet, into the head of the Narrows, through which it passes for a distance of 3 miles, compressed into an incon- ceivabl}^ swift torrent of a width of not more than 60 feet and 2 miles or more in length. Emerging from that, it at once expands into a channel of 1,000 yards in breadth, soon loses itself in the herbage of the Grassy Islands, expands, a sea of verdure, to the width of a mile, again emerges, and passes on to the South Carolina line through a channel of seveial hundred yards in breadth, torn by rocks and inter- rupted by numerous islands, many of them large enough for profitable tillage. Another important system is that of the Dan and its tributaries. The Dan is the largest river in the State, measured along its course from its sources in the county of Stokes to its mouth, a distance of more than 300 miles; and is further remarkable as the only river in the State rising in the Blue Ridge and reaching within the State the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It empties into Albemarle Sound. A large por- tion of this river is navigable; from its mouth by steamboats up to Weldon, thence past the rapids by canal to the smooth waters above (Jaston, thence by canals past other similar obstructions to the bor !ers of Stokes Count}', in which it has its rise. There is another important system, having its origin in the Middle Section, discharging its waters into the sounds and bays of North Carolina, and giving to the people of the interior eas}' access to the sea and to the advantages of exterior commerce. This system includes Tar River, Ncuse River, Ilaw River, Deep River and the Cape Fear RIVEBS. 21 River, which is formed by the junction of the two hist-named streams. The Tar River rises in the western part of Granville and among the semi-mountainous hills of Person, flows towards the south-east, drains most of the area of eight cninties, embracing about 5,000 square miles. Its fall from its sources to tidewater is upwards of 400 feet. Its greatest water-power is demonstrated ne ir Rock}^ Mount, for three-quarters of a century the seat of one of the largest cotton fiictories in the State. It is navigable to Tarboro. At Washington it expands into a broad estuary, navigable for sea-going vessels, and thence takes the name of Pamlico River. Neuse River has its sources in the highlands of Person and Orange Counties. It becomes navigable for steamboats at Smithtield in John- ston County, all obstructions having been removed to that point. At Newbern it is 2 miles wide, and it is there joined by the Trent River, and the united streams soon widen to a width of 8 miles, emptying at length into Pamlico Sound. It is navigable for vessels drawing 14 feet water as far up as Newbern. Its length is about 200 miles, and it drains an area of about 5,000 miles. Haw River and Deep River, which unite at Haywood, in Chatham County, to form the Cape Fear River, rise, the first in Rockingham, the other in (ruilford County, and are important from the great water- power provided by them, utilized in Alamance and Randolph Counties by numerous coUon-mills, upon which streams there is a greater con- centration of manufacturing industry than elsewhere in the State. The Cape Fear River, formed by the junction of these streams, becomes navigable at Fayetteville to Wilmington, a distance by water of 120 miles, giving an interior navigation not equalled by any other river in the State. It became a very important avenue from the earliest settle- ment of the country for the ingoing and outgoing trade of the interior, and was early made the object of improvement by an incorporated company organized in 1795; thence by the State, which, at different times, spent nearly a million dollars in attempts to improve the upper waters above Fayetteville; and in late j'ears by the General Govern- ment, which has taken in charge the maintenance of continuous naviga- tion between Fayetteville and AVilmington. The aggregate length of the Cape Fear and its tributaries is about 600 miles, and its area of drainage not less than 8,000 square miles. Among the larger tributaries to the Cape Fear River are the Black and North East Rivers, both large, navigable streams. 22 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. In the south-east corner of the State are Luraber and Waccamaw Rivers, both bold, navigable streams, entering South Carolina, uniting with the Pee Dee, and emptying into Winyah Bay near Georgetown. In the North-eastern Section are numerous broad, navigable rivers, draining an area of about 2,500 square miles, and emptying into Albe- marle Sound. Of these the Chowan is the largest. It is joined by the Meherrin, the two having a united length of about 100 miles, and giving practicable navigation into Virginia. The chief of the other streams are Perquimans, Little River, Pasquo- tank and North River, all navigable, with little fall, and therefore unavailable as water-power. The Alligator and the Scuppernong are broad, deep but short streams, emerging from the great swamps of Hyde and Tyrrell Counties. They also empty into Albemarle Sound. Pungo, Bay River, and, between the Neuse and Cape Fear, several other short tidal streams, such as Newport and North River in Carteret County, White Oak River in Jones County, New River in Onslow County, and Lockwood's Folly and Challotte in Brunswick Couht}^, contribute their testimony to the extent of the water area of the coast region, and to the evidences of a bountiful, but not excessive, annual rainfall. The total aggregate in the length of the rivers in North Carolina — not including innumerable small rivers and creeks — is about 3,300 miles, and their total fall is about 33,000 feet, or an average of 10 feet to the mile. The total water-power furnished to this State by these streams is estimated at 3,370,000. That furnished by the Roanoke River within the State is 70,000; of the Yadkin 255,000, giving a capacity to turn 10,200,000 spindles; of the Catawba 184,000, with capacity to turn 7,360,000 spindles; for Deep, Haw and Cape Fear Rivers an aggregate of 130,000 horse-power, with power to move 5,200,000 spindles, or a total of 600,000 for the rivers named, and to reach this result actual measurements were taken. Of remarkable water-powers which merit special notice, tluit of the lower falls of the Roanoke River, which terminates at Weldon, is the most conspicuous. Of this. Professor Kerr sa3's: The whole force of this magnificent river, developed by a fall of 100 feet in about 10 miles, could easily be made available by the canal which has its outlet at Weldon. The power of the Merrimac at Lowell is not comparable to this, and it is in the midst RIVERS — LAKES. 23 of cotton fields, and yet has never turned a spindle. Another fine water-power is found on the Catawba at Mountain Island, 13 miles from Charlotte, the fall being at least 40 feet, and having the advantages of a similar canal. The reproach resting upon the Roanoke no longer exists, or is in process of effacement, a wealthy company being now engaged in con- verting the enormous power and admirable facilities into profitable uses. Of another remarkable water-power, already referred to in the sketch of the Yadkin River, that of the Narrows, Professor Kerr speaks in particular terms worthy of quotation. He says: At this point the whole of the immense water-power of this, the largest river in the State, is suddenly compressed into a naiTow, rocky gorge of the Uwharrie Moun- tains, a broad, navigable eximnse of more than half a mile in width contracted into a defile of about 60 feet in breadth, through which the torrent dashes with an impet- uosity to which the "arrowy" swoop of the Rhine in its most rapid mood is but sluggishness itself. The total descent of the Narrows and the Rapids, in a distance of some two miles, is not less than 50 or 60 feet ; at the termination of which, at the confluence of the Uwharrie, the river attains a width of more than one mile. At the time the above was wa-itten, the localit}^ was about 30 miles from the nearest railroad. Now one, recently constructed, is within 10 miles; and as the locality is within, or on the margin, of the cotton zone, such unequalled water-power must fix the attention of the energetic manufacturer. LAKES, Which are naturally comprised in the water system of the State, com- pose a very small area in the water surface. They are found onl}^ in the Eastern Section, and are comparatively of small size. In the Mountain Section, evidentl}^, in a former geological era, they had filled the areas now occupied by numerous narrow valleys ; but the barriers which once confined them long since gave way, and the tumultuous streams which now drain those valleys give no present token of their former languid life. In the Middle Section there are now^ no lakes, nor any evidence that they had ever existed. They must be looked for in the Eastern Section alone. Here are to be found 15 in all, of various dimensions. The largest is Mattamuskeet, in Hyde County, with an area of nearly 100 miles, with elliptical form, and in dimen- sions about 15 miles in length and from 5 to 7 in breadth. This, and Lake Phelps, Alligator Lake and Pungo Lake, are all situated in the great swamp between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds; and all of 24 HAXD-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. them are of smaller area than Mattamuskeet. In the White Oak Swamp, in Jones and Carteret, is a group of small oval lakes, a few miles apart, and united with each other naturally or artificially. The largest of these, North West Lake, has an area of 10 or 12 miles. In the Gum Swamp, in Bladen and Columbus Countie-, is the Waccamaw Lake, 8 miles long by 5 broad. These lakes, being situated in the highest part of the swamps in which they lie, have no feeding waters, but most, if not all, of them discharge full and exhaustless streams. They all have sandy bottoms, and a depth of from 8 to 10 feet. Most of them seem to have originated in the ignition during long continued dry weather of the peaty beds which compose the body of the swamps. The aggregate lake surface of the State is estimated at al)0ut 200 miles. SOUNDS AND BAYS. These have been referrtd to in the sketch of the Eastern Section, but their extent and commercial and economical value entitle them to more extended notice. The coast of North Carolina, for a distance of nearly 300 miles, is separated from the ocean by a succession of long narrow islands, in width from half a mile to a mile or more, composed largely of pure white sand tossed up by the winds into dunes or hil- locks; occasionally there are extensive areas of marsh, covered with coarse grass, wild oats and other vegetation, forming the pasturage of the herds of wild ponies which abound on some of the banks. Through this narrow barrier the sea makes its irruptions to the sounds within, forming the inlets and outlets through which the operations of com- merce are conducted. These sounds are of various dimensions, two of them being important inland seas. Of them all, Pamlico and Albe- marle Sounds are the most extensive, the former lying parallel with the coast, with a length of abcniL 7<3 miles and from 15 to 25 miles wide; the other lying east and west, with a length of GO miles and a breadth of from 5 to 15 miles. These two sounds are connected with each other by Croatan Sound, 4 miles wide and 10 long, and also by the narrower Roanoke Sound. Currituck Sound extends from Albe- marle Sound to the waters of Virginia through a shallow channel of 4 or 5 miles wide. By a canal of a few miles in length it forms a con- nection between the inland watei's of North Carolina and those of Virginia, and becomes the avenue for the pa.ssage of a very large com- merce. These larger sounds, all navigable for vessels drawing from 15 SOUNDS AND BAYS — SWAMPS. 25 to 12 feet water, besides being important for the carriage of a great outward and inward trade, are the localities of the largest and most productive fisheries along the Atlantic coast, abound in o^^steis and other shell fish, and are the haunts of innumerable wild fowl of the most desirable varieties. South of Pamlico Sound there is a contiuuit}' of narrower and shallower sounds to within a few miles of the mouth of the C.ipe Fear River, where they are interrupted by a narrow isthmus of sand. These smaller sounds are Core, Bogue, Stump, Topsail, and others. All are connected with the ocean by numerous but somewhat capricious inlets, dependent f6r their stabiliiy upon the condition of the ocean, but in their caprices offering no permanent obstruction to navigation. This inland water system is connected with the waters of Chesapeake Bay by the Dismal Swamp and Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, and with the connection of the waters already made through Delaware and New Jersey, can easily be made pirtof agreat interior waterway of inestimable value to the United States in the event of war with foreign nations. The bays are chiefly enlargenients or ))rojectiuns inland of the sounds. SWAMPS. Of what are known as Swamp Lands, there is an area of be ween 3,000 and 5,000 square miles. They li-- chiefly in the counties border- ing upon the sounds or upon the ocean. They are not alluvial lands or subject to overflow, but are, as a rule, elevated above the adjacent streams of which they are the sources. Some of them are peat swamps, with an accumulation of decayed or decaying vegetation of considerable depth. The value of these lands is indicated by the character of the vegetation upon them. The prevalent growth of the best swamp lands is black gum, cypress, poplar, ash and maple, and also a luxuriant growth of cane. These lands have for many years furnished an abundant supply of timber from the species of trees above mentioned. The largest area of swamp land is known as the Hyde County Swamp, although it occupies a part of five counties. It has an area of nearly 3,000 square miles. Owing to elevation above the adjacent surface drainage is easy, and large bodies of it have been subdued to cultivation, and are among the finest farming lands in the State, the chief crop being corn. The water, after drainage, is so near the surface as to make these lands independent of drought. 26 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAEOLINA. About 100 square miles of the great Dismal Swamp lie within this State. Dover Swamp, between the Neuse and Trent Rivers, has an area of 150 square miles. In its central part it is 60 feet above the sea, and therefore susceptible of easy drainage. But the reclaimed land is of very unequal value. The other principal swamps are Holly Shelter and Angola Bay in Onslow, Duplin and New Hanover Counties, Gum Swamp in Brunswick and Columbus, and White Marsh and Brown Marsh in the same section. All of them abound in valuable timbers, cypress, juniper, poplar, maple, oak, &c., and the industries of shingle- getting, staves and other products of the forest are very actively pursued. The most productive farms in the State have been reclaimed from the borders of many of these swamps, and have proved practically inexhaustible. Lands in Hyde County, cultivated for a period of one hundred years continuously in corn, without the application of manure, show no apparent loss of fertility. The swamps themselves, and also the country around them, seem conducive rather than prejudicial to health — the timber-getters, engaged in the very depths of mire and water, appearing to be peculiarly exempt from malarial poison, if, in fact, it exists in the swamps. FORESTS. The forestry of North Carolina is remarkable for its extent, its variety, the number of its species, and also for its contrasts. For in this State is presented the only instance where the influence of latitude is displaced by that of longitude; where the ascent from the shores of the ocean to the heights of the mountains produces the same effects as are wrought elsewhere by advance from the semi-tropical airs of the South to the frozen regions of the North, Thus, standing near sea- level, where the shores are washed by the tepid waters of the (lulf Stream, we meet the semi-tropical palmetto and the evergreen live-oak congenial to the soil and climate of Florida; thence, advancing to the west, and ascending the summits of mountains, a mile and a quarter above the sea, we encounter the different forms of the fir, the balsam, the hemlock and the white pine, clothing those summits with such dense, sombre, Canadian verdure as to give color to the land.scape and names to the mountains. The whole country is thus not only adorned with arbored forms of great beauty and scientilic interest, but witii trees of great value in all that conduces to the gratification of human FORESTS. 27 wants, and a powerfal fector in industrial pursuits and in the inter- changes of commerce. The many distinguished botanists who have studied this subject — from Bartram, who made liis tour in 1776, the elder Michaux, who visited it in 1787, the younger Michaux, who came in 1802, down to the later botanical explorers, Dr. De Schweinitz, Nuttall, Dr. Gray and Mr. Carey, who explored the higher ranges of our mountains in 1841, and our own Dr. Curtis, whose wide excursions were made at a later period — all agree that on no part of the American continent were trees to be found of such beauty, value and variety as were to be found throughout North Carolina. Many of the trees and shrubs now familiar to European ornamental and economical uses were introduced from this Slate; among which are the locust [Robinia pseudacacio) ; the tulip tree {Liriodendron) ; the rose locust (i^. Hispida); the rhododen- dron in its various forms, the ivy (Kalmia Latifolia), and many others, confirming what Dr. Curtis has said, that "in all the elements which render forest scenery attractive, no portion of the United States presents them in happier combination, in greater perfection, or in larger extent than the mountains of North Carolina"; and, he might have added, throughout the whole State; for no portion of it is deficient either in the number and varieties of species, or in the size and value of the trees. In order to realize the extent to which this i-ichness of forest development is con- centrated within the area of this State, it is only necessary to call attention to the distribution of a few kinds which are dominant and characteristic. Of species found in the United States (east of the Rocky Mountains), there are Oaks 22, and 19 in North Carolina. Pines (trees) 8, and 8 in North Carolina. Spruces 5, and 4 in North Carolina. Elms 5, and 3 in North Carolina. Walnuts 2, and 2 in North Carolina. Birches - 5, and 3 in North Carolina. Maples - 5, and 5 in North Carolina. Hickories - - 8, and 6 in North Carolina. Magnolias 7, and 7 in North Carolina. And as to the first and most important group of the list, Dr. Curtis has called atten- tion to the very striking fact that there are more species of oaks in this State ' ' than in all of the States north of us, and only one less than in all the Southern States, east of the Mississippi." THE PINES, which include all the species found in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, are the most widely diffused, and the 28 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. most valuable from their numerous use?, in lumber and other products, to which the}' are applied. That variety which has the most uses, and which is also the most widel}' diffused, occupying dense forests — or what were once dense forests — throughout a large portion of the Eastern Section, is the Long-leaf Pine — P. ausfralis. Of this tree. Dr. Curtis says: "The invaluable tree by which the country, and this State especially, have so largely {)rofited, is generally known among us by the name here given, though it sometimes is called yellow pine. In the navy and dockyards of the country it bears the latter name, though this designation there includes also the swamp or ro.semary pine, as well as the species first described in this list. It begins to appear in the south- eastern part of Virginia, and from thence to Florida it is eminently the tree of the lower districts of the Southern States, occupying nearly all the dry sandy soil for many hundred miles. It is from GO to 70 feet high, in favorable situations still higher, and 15 to 20 inches in diameter. The leaves are 10 to 15 inches long, on young stocks sometimes much longu', and clustered on the ends of the branches like a broom. The cones are 6 to 8 inches long. The wood contains very little sajx The resinous matter is distributed very uniformly through it, and hence the wood is more durable, stronger, and more compact ; which qualities, in addition to its being of fine grain, give it the preference over all our pines The quality of the wood, however, depends upon the kind of soil in which it is grown, as in a richer mould it is less resinous. This inferior kind is, in some places, distinguished as yellow pine — another case in })oint, illustrating the vague and indiscriminate ap[)licalion of the popular names of our forest trees. In some soils the wood is of a reddish hue; and this, in the northern dockyards, is denominated red pine, and considered better than the others. I am informed that trees W'hich have a small top indicate a stock with the best heart-wood. "The great value of this tree in both civil and naval architecture is too well known to justify a full enumeration of its uses, and statistics of trade in it belong ratlier to a gazetteer than to an essay like this. But it is not the wood only that gives value to this tree. The resinous matter, in various forms, is shipi)ed from our ports in large quantities to all parts of tlie United States and to foreign countries. Turjientine is the sap in its natural state as it Hows from the tn.'C. When it hardens upon the trunk, and is gotten off by j)roper inij)lements, it is called scra])inji-^. of very inferior value to the virgin article. Tar is made by FORESTS 29 burning the dead limbs and wood in kiln^. Pitch is tar reduced about one-half by evaporation. Spirits of turpentine is obtained by distil- lation from turpentine, including scrapings. Rosin is the residuum left by distillation. The greater part of these articles in the markets is derived, I believe, from this State." The supply of this valuable tree is steadily diminishing, as proved by the diminution of the receipts at the ports from which its products are exported. P'or a hundred and fifty years the pine forests had been the chief reliance of the people in whose section the long-leaf pine abounded to such extent as have been characteristic in national familiar nomencla- ture. For a greater part of that long period only that was used which was conveniently acce-s-sible, and the products readily transported to the markets ; and, until within the past forty years, little apparent encroach- ment had been made upon the seemingly inexhaustible store. Since that period, railroads have penetrated all parts of the country, steam saw-mills have displaced the old water-mills, and when they had exhausted the supply readily attainable, tram-roads have been built, connecting wiih the railroads, the steam mills transported to fresh ter- ritory, and thus the work of consumption and actual denudation has been carried on to such extent as to perplex and concern the patriot and statesman as to the measures to be taken to stop the waste, or find a substitute for the destroyed forests. The White Pine, the great timber tree of the North and North- west, is found somewhat sparingly in our Mountain Section, but is inaccessible to market and is little used. The Yellow Pine — Pluus mitis — is kuown most generally as short- leaved pine, or spruce pine, and is found from the coast to the moun- tains. It is from 40 to 60 feet high, with a circumference of from 4 to 6 feet. The timber is extensively used for house and ship- building, though less valued for these purposes than the long-leaf. The Jersey Pine, the Prickly Pine and the Pitch Pine are less valuable varieties; the second of these common in the Piedmont and Mountain Sections, and to some extent in the rough hilly country in the northern part of Durham County and the southern part of Person County. The Pond and the Old-field PixVE are also common an ] little valued varieties. The Slash or Rosemary Pine grows only on low, moist land, and is somewhat sparingly diffused. It is the principal and largest timber 30 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. pine on the low, flat bjat firm lands bordering on Albemarle Sound, and also farther south. In the rich swampy lands on Roanoke River it is the giant of the forest, towering many feet above the surrounding trees. It is to be lamented that this fine tree is becoming rare; but the attraction to its height and diameter was irresistible and must lead to its rapid extirpation. Some of these trees were 5 feet in diameter, and attained a height of from 150 to 170 feet. The Cypress — Taxodium distichum — is found exclusively in the Eas'ern Section, growing in swamps, frequently rising out of the water, in w'hich location it appears surrounded by its singular grouping of "cv press knees," rising in sharp, naked cones to the height of from 1 to 3 feet, and awaking curious specula i'in as to their uses in the economy of the growth of »he parent tree The height of the cypress tree is from 60 to 100 feet, with a circumference above its swollen base of from 20 to 35 feet. The wood is strong and elastic, fine-grained, with liitle rosin, but very fragrant. It is liitle affected by heat or moisture, and is very durable. It is deciduous. It is largely used for shingles and wooden-ware, and often for the frame and woodwork of houses. A tree similar in its uses to the cypress is the White Cedar — Cupressus ihyoides — known generally, though improperly in its botanical relation, as juni{)er. In this State it is found in the Eastern Section exclusively, and is confined to swamps. It is an evergreen, with rich foliage and strikingly picturesque form, and is from 70 to 80 feet high, with a diameter of from 2 to 3 feet. The wood is fine-grained, liglit, easily worked, fragrant, and in color of a light, rosy pink. It is used in the making of shingles, which are preferred above all others for their freedom from splitting and their durability. They are largely used in the manufacture of churns and pails, and are the chief stock used by the recently established bucket factories in the State. Somewhat similar to the juniper is the Hemlock Spruce — AMcs Canadensis — known in our mountains almost universally as spruce pine. It is confined to the mountains, and found on the margins of torrents, or diffused, somewhat thickly, through the cold swamps. The younger trees possess much beauty in light-spreading sj)ray, feathery foliage and lively color, and as ornamental trees are unsurpassed in charm, liut in the older trees the limbs are short and few, and the foliage is confined to the upper extremities, thougii still a tree of savage picturesqueness. The height often attained is from 80 to 00 feet, with a diameter of from 3 to feet. The timber is lijzht and somewhat FORESTS. 31 porous, but is often used in the interior work of buildings. Its bark is valuable in tanning, but the forests of the spruce pine or hemlock are not of sufficient density in this State to rival other and more prolific sources of the supply of tan-baik. The Balsam Fir — Abies Frqscri — is one of those semi-Arctic trees which testify equally to high latitude or to great altitude of locality; for it is found only on mountains whose elevation exceeds 5,000 feet, and seldom forms a forest at a less elevation than 6,000 feet. On the Black Mountains, the peaks of which all exceed this latter elevation, it covers the ground to the exclusion of all other forest trees, and its sombre hue gives a name to that stately group. It is found on the highest summits of the Balsam Mountains, between the counties of Jackson and Haywood, and gives that range its characteristic name. It is found also on the high summits of the Smoky Mountains, there intermingled with deciduous trees; and also there attaining, in this State, its greatest size, being from 75 to 100 feet in height and 2 feet in diameter, while elsewhere the height is not more than 50 feet and the diameter 18 to 20 inches. The wood is white, soft and easily worked, yet little used because of its inaccessibility. From the smooth bark of this species issues a clear thin liquid, known as balsam, of an acrid taste, used as an ointment on cuts and sores, and also as an internal remedy in pulmonary and kidney troubles. It is found in small thin blisters which appear on the bark of the tree from top to bottom, and from each of which is obtained about half a teaspoonful of the liquid by the tedious process of perforating each blister with a small horn or metal scoop. The tree has a close pyramidal top, and is densely covered with plumes of flat narrow leaves, green above and white beneath, and very attractive in their light feathery forms and disposition. Another variety, the Black Spruce — A. nigra — is found intermingled with A. Fraseri, of similar form, but of smaller dimensions. Its bark is somewhat rough, and it exudes no balsam. The wood is strong, light and elastic, and is much used at the North and abroad for yards and topmasts of vessels; in the future, perhaps, to find the same uses in this State. The trees last named are peculiar to the Mountain Section. All the others to be specified are diffused throughout the State, common in greater or less degree to all the sections, and will be mentioned without reference to special section or locality, with the exception of the 32 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. LIVE OAK — Qaerciis virens — and that, not because of its abundance, but as illustrating the extremes of the climate of North Carolina, which permits the growth and perfection within its territory of a tree appropriate iu its habits to the soil and climate of warmer and more genial Florida. This tree is found on the coast from the vicinity of ISouthport, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, as far as the northern coast limits of this State, flourishing vigorously in the sandy loam and drawing vigor from the exhilarating breath of the adjacent ocean. It is a tree of spreading habit, the branches extended low over the ground', the small evergreen leaves forming a dense impenetrable shade, and presenting a mass of foliage of striking beauty. The tree attains the height of from 40 to 50 feet and a diameter of trunk from 1 to 2 feet. The timber is closer-grained and more durable than that of an}^ other species of oak, and, before naval construction had adopted iron and steel as its principal material, was above all others valued for ship- building. It does not so abound on our coast as to have given induce- ment to its use; and the forests, or rather groves or specimens we have, may long remain as happy testimonials to the wide and happy range of North Carolina climatic conditions. Of the other oaks it may be said that North Carolina contains more species than in all the States north of it, and only one less than in all the Southern States east of the Mississippi. Of these, the White Oak— ^^. alba — is one of the most widely dif- fused, one of the greatest in size, the most pleasing in appearance, and one of the most useful in its application. It is found from the coast to the mountains; en the coast, or in the Eastern Section, found in or on the borders of swamps, but in the other sections diffused promiscuously through the forest. It is cluiracterized by a straight trunk, compact and rounded head, light, pleasing foliage, and clean, light-colored bark. Its height is from 70 t) 90 feet, with a diameter of from 4 to 5 feet, which, however, is not common, except on the borders of streams, or in the Mountain Section. The u.ses of this variety are so many that it is universally recognized as the most valuable of its species, being used for house frames, mills and dams, vehicles, agricultural implements, cooper's ware, ship-building, and for all purposes where strength, dura- bility and elasticity are required. Its bark is highly valuable in tan- ning, where light color in leather is sought to be attained. The Swamp Chestnut Oak — (^. Prinus — and the Swamp White Oak — Q. disc'ilor — are slight variations of a tree similar in size and FORESTS. 33 uses. They grow to the height of from 80 to 90 feet with corresponding diameter, with timber of great strength and durabiht\% and a foliage of pleasing, graceful character, the leaves being 6 to S inches long, with coarse rounded teeth on the edges, with a soft ashy-green tint which contrasts them with the usual vivid green of the quercus family. The Post Oak — Q. obtusiloba — is a tree of wide diffusion, having general similarity to the white oak, but is a smaller tree, with a height rarely exceeding 50 feet and diameter of 18 inches. It has a fine grain, great strength and elasticity, is largely used for fence posts, is highly valued by wheelwrights, coopers and ship-builders; and, with the white oak, supplies materials for liquor casks without a superior. The oaks which appear to have the widest distribution through the State are those carelessly or erroneously classed as red oaks, but with such points of difference as, in many sections, often in the same section, to command different names. Among these is the Spanish Oak — Q. Falcata — also known as the red oak, sometimes the turkey oak, from a fancied resemblance of ifs leaves, with its three divisions, to the track of the turkey. This is one of the most common forest trees from the coast to the mountains, and is of a height of from 60 to 80 feet with a diameter of from 4 to 5 feet. The outer bark is dark-colored, and the wood is reddish and coarse-grained. The wood is not very durable, and little used in building or the mechanical arts, but the bark is highly valued for its excellent qualities in tanning. The Black Oak — Q. Tindoria — of the same family, differs from the preceding in having a deeply furrowed dark bark, and the leaves, which are cut into several divisions, from 5 to 7, and also from the number of small glands which roughen the surface in the spring and part of the summer. This tree attains a height of from 80 to 90 feet, with a diameter of 4 to 5 feet. The wood is reddish and coarse- grained, but is stronger than others of its family, and, as a building material, is often used as a substitute for white oak. It is largely used in making staves. The bark is rich in tannin, largely used in tanning, and is also the material from which is obtained the qucrcifron of com- merce, so largely used for dyeing purposes. The Scarlet Oak — Q. cocclnea — of the same family, is similar to the above, the chief external difference being in leaf, which is more deeply cut, smooth on both sides, of a brighter green, and turning bright scarlet after frost. Tlie wood is not durable, and the bark is inferior for tanning. The other principal variety of oaks is the Willow Oak — Q. P/ic//os— remarkable for the narrowness of its leaves and its pleasing 3 34 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. form; it grows in favorable cool moist situations to the height of from 50 to 60 feet, with a diameter of 2 feet or more. Its wood is coarse- grained, and has small economic value. The Laurel Oak — Q. laurifolia — resembles the above in general characteristics. Its leaves are broader. This is the shade tree of Wil- mington and other eastern towns. The Shingle Oak— Q- imbricaria — much resembles the preceding, but is a western or transmontane tree, not being found east of Burke or "Wilkes. It is 40 or 50 feet high, 12 to 15 inches in diameter, with low spreading branches, casting a deep shade. The wood is hard and heavy. The Upland WilloW' Oak — Q. cinerea — is found only in the sand barrens of the Eastern Section, and attains the height of only about 20 feet, with proportionate diameter. The Water Oak — Q. aquatica — is abundant in the Eastern and parts of the Middle Section, and has little value. The Black Jack — Q. nigra — is a small and rather unsightly tree, with broad, dense leaves and limbs often hanging to the ground. It has little value except for fuel, in which capacity it is unexcelled. Besides these there is the Chestnut Oak, a tree of majestic size and beautiful foliage almost identical with that of the true chestnut, but so sparingly distributed as to have had few tests of its value; the Rock Chestnut Oak, found only on rocky hills and knolls, and is a handsome tree from the luxuriance of its foliage. Like the other, it has limited distribution, and is little used, though its bark is among the best for tanning purposes. Elsewhere it is used for certain purposes in ship-building. THE HICKORY, which is peculiar to North America, is represented in this Stateby six, perhaps seven, outof the nine species found on this continent. The general qualities of all of them are alike. For use in the mechani- cal arts, and domestic uses, the hickory family is universally valued; and some of the varieties are esteemed for their rich and flavored nuts. For weight, strength, and tenacity of fibre, we have no wood sui)erior : but its value is impaired by a tendency to rapid decay on exposure, and its pecuHar liability to injury from worms. Hence it cannot be used in buildings. But the wood of the different species is indiscriminately used for axle-trees, axe-handles, carpenters' tools, screws, cogs of mill-wheels, the frames of chairs, whip-handles, musket stocks, rake teeth, flails, etc., etc. For hoops we have nothing equal to it. These are made from young stocks. For fuel, there is no wood which gives such intense heat and heavy long-lived coals. For this use, although discrimination is seldom made, the common hickory is said to be the liest, and the bitter-nut hickory the poorest. For timber, shell-bark and pig-nut liickories are rcputrd tlic best. FORESTS. 35 The varieties are Shell-Bark Hickory — Carya alba — nearly absent from the Eastern Section, and abundant nowhere. It grows to the height of 60 or 80 feet, with small diameter. The tree is valuable for its white, thin- shelled, well-flavored nuts, surpassed only by those of the pecan of the same family. The Thick Shell-Bapk Hickory — C. sulcata — is a rare tree, found, however, in Orange County, and resembles the above, except in the quality of the nut, whicli is harder and of less sweetness. Common Hickory — C. tomentosa — common everywhere in the State, is the largest and the most valued of the whole family. It exceeds 60 feet in height, with a diameter of about 20 inches. The Pig-Nut Hickory — C. glabra — is only thinly disseminated. It is about 80 feet high. The Small-Nut Hickory and the Bitter-Nut Hickory close the list of this family. THE WALNUT is found of only two species in this State. The most common, the Black Walnut — Juglans nigra — is not found in the Eastern Section, but occurs in comparative abundance in the Middle and Western Sec- tions. In the Western it attains great size, especially along the base of the Smoky Mountains, where a diameter of 7 feet is sometimes attained. It occurs singl}^ and is never grouped in large bodies. It is sought for eagerl}'' for cabinet work. The wood is of a dark-brown color, strong and tenacious, with fine grain, frequently curled, and takes a fine polish, and is largely used for the interior finish of dwellings. The foliage is handsome, and it makes a fine shade tree. The leaves are highly aromatic, and the nut, which is of annual abundance, is rich and sweet. The thick husk of the nuts is used in dyeing woollens. The White Walnut — Juglans alba — is the butternut of the North- ern States. It is found in this State only among the mountains, and there found only upon bottom lands and river banks. It is a smaller tree than the black walnut, with smooth whitish bark and leaves of lively verdure. The wood is valuable, though the tree is comparatively rare and little use is made of it. THE CHESTNUT, found somewhat sparingly as far east as the counties of Randolph and Guilford, appears in the greatest abundance and attains its most majestic dimensions on the sides of the high mountains of the Western Section, and on the tops where the elevation does not much exceed 4,000 feet. In such locations its height is often 100 feet and its diameter from 6 to 9 feet. Its wood is light, strong, elastic and 36 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. durable, largely used in making rails for fences, which last for half a century. It is also used for making boxes, and has come into use as an ornamental wood both in household furniture and in the interior woodwork of houses, its color being very agreeable, and the veining being quite beautiful. The Chinquapin is a dwarf variety in the South, found all over this State. It is usually a shrub from 6 to 12 feet high, branching thickly from the ground, and bearing profusely a small edible nut enclosed in a prickly burr similar to that of the chestnut. In frequent localities it assumes the form and dimensions of a tree, some specimens attaining a height of from 30 to 40 feet, with a diameter of from 15 to 20 inches. THE BEECH is represented in this State by only one species — Fagus ferrugliica — and is a very handsome tree, with its smooth, mottled gray bark and its shapely leaves, which, even in the winter time, and, changed by the frost to a delicate fawn -color, cling all through the winter to the boughs and retain a delicate and very attractive beauty. The tree is found rather sparingly in the Eastern Section, though fine specimens are found in the county of Pasquotank. In the Middle Section it is more abundant. In the Western Section it is abundant, and there reaches its greatest dimensions, being from 80 to 100 feet in height, with a diameter of from 2 to 4 feet. The wood is white, com- pact and tough, of uniform texture, and extensively used for plane stocks, shoe lasts and the handles of tools. THE BUCKEYE. — This tree greatly resembles the horse chestnut, an ornamental tree introduced from Asia, but scarcely more beautiful or desirable than its American cousin, which has not been thought worthy to be introduced into parks or pleasure grounds. There are two varieties in this State, one of which — JEsculus Jiava — is found among the high mountains of the Western Section, and there attains a great size. It is there a straight, tall and very handsome tree, with a trunk unobstructed by limbs or foliage for a great distance upward. It is often from 80 to 100 feet high, with a diameter of from 3 to 5 feet. It loves a deep fer- tile soil. Its foliage is of a rich deep green, and in the spring it is covered with clusters of large, showy, yellov/ish flowers, similar to those of the horse chestnut. Its wood is heavy but porous, and is little esteemed. The Red Buckeye — uE. Pavia — is the variety common to the Middle and Eastern Sections, found growing chiefly on the rich margins of streams. It has clusters of dull reddish flowers, and except that it is a mere shrub, from 10 to 12 feet high, it closely resembles the giant buckeye of the mountains. FORESTS. 37 THE LOCUST — Robinia Pseudacacia and the E. Viscosa — are the chief representatives of this family in North Carolina. The first is the larger tree, attaining a height of bO feet or more, and is found in its wild state among the mountains. The wood is hard and compact and takes a high polish. It is largely used in ship-building for trunnels, which, instead of decaying, grow harder with age. These are exported in large quantities from Western North Carolina. • The wood is used by turners as a substitute for box in the manufacture of bowls, salad spoons, &c. The foliage is airy and graceful, of a translucent green, and the profuse clusters of drooping white and fragrant tiowers entitle it to the favor it has gained as an ornamental tree. The Rose Locust is a shrub only, with foliage similar to the pre- ceding, and flowers of the same form, but of a deep rose color. This is found in all the sections, though that in the Eastern Section is much dwarfed. The Honey Locust is distinguished by its thin foliage, its thorny branches and its worthless wood, but tolerated for the profusion of its long honey-bearing pods, much used in making beer, and not unpal- atable as a fruit. The Catalpa is a valuable and handsome tree, of great beauty of foliage and flower, and is found sparingly in its wild state in some of the counties west of the Blue Ridge. It is widely distributed as an ornamental tree, and, as the timber is almost imperishable, might be cultivated to advantage for certain uses. MAPLE. — There are five varieties of this valuable tree. The Red Maple — Acei' rubrum — is found in all the sections, and everywhere welcomed as the harbinger of spring with its early bloom- ing, bright, scarlet-winged flowers, and equally admired in the autumn when touched b}^ the frost, and its leaves blaze with the splendors of its crimson hues. This tree grows to the height of 40 or 50 feet, with a diameter of 2 or 3 feet. The wood is of close fine grain and takes a high polish. Its many uses are well known. The Curly Maple is not a distinct variety, but is the wood of the same tree where the grain of the wood has a winding direction. The White or Silver Maple is found only in the mountains, and is of smaller size. It is desirable as an ornamental tree from its spread- ing habit and from the beauty of the leaves, green above and white beneath. The sap of this tree produces a finer sugar than that obtained from the sugar maple, but in far less quantity. The Sugar Maple — A. mccharinv.m — occurs abundantly in the Mountain Section and sparingly in the other sections. It is a large 38 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. and very handsome tree, with a fine close-grained wood, but from its high value as the producer of sugar it is not much used for other purposes. This tree has a curled variety like the red maple, and also another and more precious than the curled maple, known as the bird's eye, well known in ornamental wood-work. The other varieties of maple are small, and rank only a little higher than shrubs. THE ASH is found in several varieties, all of which have the distin- guishing qualities of strength and elasticity, furnishing one of the most valuable timbers to be found in the State. These varieties are Water Ash — Fraxinus Platycarpa — found only along the marshy bottoms of streams in the Eastern Section. Green Ash — F. Viridis — found along the banks of streams in the Middle and Western Sections. The tree is of moderate size. Red Ash — F. Pubescens — somewhat rare, found chiefly in the Middle Section, attaining a height of from 50 to 60 feet. The wood is redder than that of the white ash, harder and less elastic, but used for the same purpose: and White Ash — F. Americana — found in all the sections, nowhere abundantly, thriving best along streams and the borders of low grounds. It is from 50 to 80 feet high with a diameter of 2 or 3 feet, with straight stem and gray furrowed bark. The wood is strong and elastic, and is largely used by carriage-makers, wheelwrights and others, and is highly prized by those who use it. THE ELMS are found throughout the whole State, and need no descrip- tion. The largest and most valued is Ulmus Americana, prized for its beauty as a shade tree, but its wood has not much value. Small-Leaved Elm — U. Alata. — It has no beauty nor large dimen- sions, but its wood is tough, compact and fine-grained, and is valued by wheelwrights for the making of naves. Slippery Elm — U. Fulva — found in all the sections but most abun- dantly in the Middle. It is from 50 to 60 feet high. The wood is coarser than that of the other species of elm but is stronger, and is of the highest value in making ship's blocks. Its inner bark furnishes a mucilaginous preparation much used in colds and bronchial affections and for emollient plasters. WILD CHERRY — Pnmus serotina — is found all over the State, but dwarfed in the Eastern and Middle Sections. Among the mountains, on rich and cool declivities, it assumes a different appearance. Its trunk, no longer crooked and distorted, erects itself to the height of from 70 to 100 feet, straight as an arrow, and without a limb for three- FORESTS. 39 fourths of its height above tlie ground ; the diameter is from 3 to 5 feet. The wood is of a light red tint, compact and close-grained, and little apt to warp or shrink. It is highly valued for cabinet work, being equal to some of the most highly prized foreign woods, and since the mountain forests have been made accessible by the construction of railroads, the demand for cherry timber has greatly increased. When found at all it is abundant, the chief component of large forests. THE GUMS are useful trees, most common in the swampy lauds of the Eastern Section, but some of the varieties are found in the other sections. Black Gvu—Nyssa aquatica — from 30 to 40 feet high and 12 to 20 inches in diameter, is found in the swamps of the lower Middle and Eastern Sections. The wood has its fibres so interlaced as to make it difficult to split, and is therefore largely used for hubs of wheels, hat- ters' blocks and other uses requiring great toughness. Tupelo Gum — iV. multiflora — grows mostly in the moist rich uplands, and is a larger tree than the preceding, attaining a height of GO feet and a diameter of 2 feet. Its wood is similar in quality to that of the above, and in addition to the uses mentioned are now largely used by the manufacturers of wooden plates, berry baskets, &c Cotton Gum — N. auriflora — is confined to the deep swamps of the Eastern Section, and is a larger tree than the preceding. Its wood is similar to those in toughness, but is much lighter and is easily worked, being manufactured into light bowls and trays. The roots furnish a substitute for cork as floats to buoy up seines. Sweet Gum — Liquid amber — is of a different species from the pre- ceding. It is found all over the State. It is from 40 to 70 feet high, and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The wood is reddish, compact, fine-grained, and takes a high polish, and is applicable wherever toughness and solidity are required. Its beauty, when dressed, commends itself to the favor of the furniture maker. The beautiful star-shaped leaves, and the fine shape of the masses of foliage, make the tree very desirable as an addition to ornamental planting. The leaves have an aromatic fragrance, and the bark exudes an aromatic, transparent gum, very grateful to the taste, and of medicinal virtues. TULIP TREE, OR POPLAR — Liriodendron Tulipifera — is unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, by any other tree in the American forest. Majestic in size, graceful in form, the proportions of the giant clad in the vest- ments of a queen; mighty trunk and stalwart limbs softened into gen- tleness by a foliage dense, beautiful and singularly unique, and adorned with a profusion of yellow tulip-shaped flowers — Hercules masquerading in the graceful drapery of Omphale— a combination of size, strength, grace and delicacy presented by no other tree of the forest. 40 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. The tulip is found in all parts of the State, less common and of less size in the Eastern Section than elsewhere. In the Middle Section it grows abundantly and attains great size. But it most abounds in the Mountain Section, and there it attains its greatest height and largest diameter. Trees of ICO feet high and 6 feet in diameter are common, and instances of 8, 9 and 10 feet are well known. Near Clyde, on Pigeon River, in Haywood County, close by the track of the Western North Carolina Railroad, stands a church, the materials for the con- struction of which were drawn from a single tree of this species. The church is 50 feet long by 30 in width; all the timbers — the framing, the flooring, the roofing, the steeple, and also the shingles — were pro- vided by one mammoth tree, the diameter of which was 10 feet. The wood, white or yellow, according to the character of the soil, moist or dr}^, is yellow in the first and white in the other, and is largely used fur building material, for coach pauneling and other uses requiring lightness, strength and durability. The exportation from the Mountain Section to the Northern States and to Europe, in logs or sawed timber or lumber, has attained ver}' large proportions. Very many other trees, from their abundance, size and value, might be added to the above. But it is deemed sufficient to give such as are described as just illustrations of the magnitude of the forest wealth of North Carolina. Of the others it need only be said in addition, that of the magnolia there are 7 varieties, including grandiflora, and the cucumber tree; of the poplars 3; of the birch 3, including, in the Western Section, the black birch or mountain mahogany, a large tree, with highly valuable ornamental wood ; of the linn or lime 4, besides sycamore, hackberry, persimmon, mulberry, holly, dogwood, sassafras, and others valuable, all of them, in the mechanical arts. Of the shrubbery which falls below the dignity of trees there is infinite variety; and there is infinite variety in form, foliage and flower. Among these is the Staartia Virginica, found in the Eastern Section, the only representative on this continent of the Camellia family or the tea plant; of graceful Ibrni and foliage, with Inrge, pearly-white trans- lucent flowers, silky on the outside, covered within with a circle of stamens and bright purple filaments and blue anthers; a very beautiful plant, worthy of cultivation, yet unknown beyond its native habitat, and without a popular name. The Snow Drop Tree — Ilalcsla letrapicra—\s found sparingly in the western part of the Middle Section, and abundantly among the moun- tains along the water-courses. In some places it attains the dimensions khoCjwUEuukuu at-vU azalea FORESTS. 41 of a tree; its foliage closely resembles that of the ox-heart cherr3^ Its branches are thickly hung with white or pink bell-shaped flowers, in size and shape similar to the snow drop of the gardens. It appears to be unknown to cultivation, but is eminently deserving of consideration. (3f the Rhododendron, or Laurel, there are four varieties, including the splendid rose-colored Caiaivbiense. It grows most luxuriantly among the mountains in cool sequestered shades, covering large tracts with impenetrable " laurel thickets," the retreat of wild animals, and the barrier to the hunter. The laurel is found sparingly east of the mountains, small groups of it being found on the rocky banks of Mor- gan's Creek, near Chapel Hill, and on the shaded north side of the Occoneechee Mountains near Hillsboro. The Ivy — Kalmia latifolia — often called calico bush, conspicuous for the profusion of its white or pink angular bell-shaped and delicately dotted flowers, covers many parts of the mountains with dense thickets, and is frequent in the Middle and parts of the Eastern Section as far as Fayetteville, growing on the steep banks of streams with a northern exposure. The WiCKY, a smaller variety of the iv}', is found in the Eastern District in the small pine-barren swamps. The plant is more erect than the ivy, less dense, but the flowers are similar, though more deeply tinted. The Azalea presents several varieties, among which are the orange and lemon colored, peculiar to the mountains, growing in large dense clusters, and adding singular beauty to the landscape from the con- spicuous glow of its masses of bloom. There is also a white variety peculiar to the mountains, in its growth clinging close to the water- side, and of great and delicious fragrance. In all sections the pink azalea, or honeysuckle, abounds, and in the Eastern Section, among the pine barrens, is found the white or clammy honeysuckle, of ques- tionable fragrance and undecided beauty. The Fringe Tree — Chionanthus Virghiica — often called old man's beard, draped with plumes of snow-white, fringe-like flowers; the white and snowy hydrangea, the syringa, the mock orange, with flowers on loose nodding racemes, white and very fragrant, in size and form much resembling the blossom of the orange; the strawberry bush (Euonymus Americana), with its long slender green branches, long pointed leaves, and the fruit — its chief beauty — of a bright crimson color, with rough warty surface, exposing, when mature, bright scarlet seeds, before bursting resembling a ripe strawberry ; the sweet shrub (Calicanthus floridus), common in the Middle and Western Sections, 42 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. admired for the vinous or fruity odor of its chocolate-colored flowers; and the wax myrtle of the Eastern Section with fragrant leaves — all these are some of the many plants which adorn the floral wealth of all parts of North Carolina, and make its sections so rich a field for the research of the botanist or the pleasure of the amateur. Among the rare vegetable products peculiar to North Carolina, and in it restricted to narrow limitations, is Venus' Fly Trap {Dloncea mus- cipula), found only in marshy places near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, a flesh eater, catching the living fly, and deriving its chief nutriment from the body of the insect ; and the Shortia, found in a very small space in Alexander County, remarkable as the surviving member of a prehistoric flora, and found elsewhere only in Japan. CLIMATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. It will be conceded without question that the influence of climate on human progress is supreme, because, in its happy or adverse conditions, are involved all that relates to comfort, health, energy and success in the occupations which enlist human effort. The regions that most abound in fertile soil, exuberant vegetation, and which favor the production of the most valued and most profitable subjects of agriculture, are those that most often have those treasures closed against the efforts of industry by those extremes of heat and those excesses of moisture against which the physical frame of the cultivator is unable to contend; and the most prolific lands of the most abounding regions of the world are so oppressed with heat, saturated with moisture, or poisoned with miasma, as to make the attainment of their treasures the evidences of their cost in vigor, health, or of life itself. That land is a happy one which enjoys the just mean between cold and heat, drought and moisture, arctic sterility and tropical exuberance ; a land in which energies are stimulated by the bracing breath of a tempered atmosphere, cool enough to inspire physical action and elastic vigor; warm enough to assure the rewards of labor by the certainties of healthful maturity and abundant yields as returns for the labors bestowed, carried on under the happy conditions of a genial air, a friendly sun, and of a responsive soil. Such are the conditions which North Carolina enjoys, with no portion of it either too cold on the one hand or too hot on the other to obstruct work at any sea.son of the year, while at the same time presenting most remarkable apposition of the high temperate atmosphere of the North and the balmy breath of the semi-tropical South. In passing from east CLIMATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 43 to west, from tlie low lands of tiie coast, only a little elevated above the tide, to the high summits of the mountains, a mile or more above the sea, there is found the same gradation in temperature, in soil, in prod- ucts, as if the same territory, instead of stretching from east to west over a number of degrees of longitude, had extended itself from south to north over the same number of degrees of latitude, thus giving to the State not only a soil which gives something of every product yielded by all the other parts of the United States, but a climate not alone favorable to its own people, but inviting the invalid from every other part of the country, North, South, East and West, to seek under its recuperative influences the blessings of renewed health, the restora- tion of impaired vigor, or the arrest of insidious ailments. The eastern margin of the State is thrust far out into the ocean and brought within the soft influences of the Gulf Stream, assuring thereby not only the vegetation of a more southern latitude and its earlier and more rapid development — an important element in the success of the now great interest of truck farming — but of a climate so modified by a not excessive degree of heat and moisture as to be more constantly mild and genial, if somewhat more debilitating, than that enjoyed in the interior or farther west. On the other hand, the western margin lifts itself up to such heights as to gain all the advantages of a high latitude — a cooler climate, more invigorating atmosphere, more hardy and more vigorous vegetation, and a general healthfulness not sur- passed on any portion of the globe. Intermediately lies that great zone, between the coast and the Mountain Section, emphatically a warm and genial temperate zone, with neither extremes of heat or cold, with a healthfulness unequalled over so extensive a territory, and with such general favoring conditions of soil and climate as to emphasize its special adaptation for the perfection of all the grain?, field crops and fruits of the temperate zone. HEALTHFULNESS. — Malarial diseases occur in summer and autumn in the Eastern Section, and in the lower portion of the Middle Section, chiefly along the river courses, but not of a malignant or dangerous type. And in latter years, with increased clearing of the lands and the greater and more perfect drainage, these have decreased in frequency and intensity. The general salubrity of the Eastern Section is indi- cated by the vigorous and robust appearance of the population, and the numerous instances of high stature and corpulent person, not found in the same region in the admittedly more salubrious climate of the Mid- dle and Western Sections. These last are remarkably healthful, only in the Middle Section along some few rivers being found any degree of 44 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. deleterious malarial influences. In the sanitary department of the Census Reports, it is pronounced that one or two of the three most healthy localities in the United States are found in Western North Carolina in the mountain region. And it may be said here that in this latter region pulmonary consumption has never been known to origi- nate, though that fatal disease is not there unknown. This feature of the climate has given celebrity for its remedial agency in such diseases, and caused the resort to it from all jjaits of the Union of invalids, find- ing in numerous instances decided amendment or perfect cure. Epidemics of fatal diseases are unknown. The visitations of Asiatic cholera, scourging in its various visitations almost every other section of the country, have spared or overleaped North Carolina, with not even the exception of sporadic cases. The yellow fever has only at rare and distant intervals visited a few of the seaports, notably Wilmington in 1862. The grippe, so universal within the past two years, has partaken of the character of an epidemic, rarely however in a fatal form. The temperature, the rainfall, the snowfall, the relative humidity, and other climatic features will be illustrated by scientifically elaborated tables appended to the end of this chapter. Here, it may be said in regard to the first that July is the hottest month of the North Carolina year; that for the spring the average temperature for the whole State is 57, for summer 77, for autumn 59, and for winter 41; the lowest winter mean being at Boone, in the mountains, and the highest at Southport, on the coast, which is 50. Or, taking typical points in each section as comparative points, we find the mean annual temperature of Raleigh, in the Middle Section, to be 60, its summer temperature 76, and its winter temperature 44, which, compared with Florence, Italy, shows the latter to have respectively the temperatures 59, 75 and 44. In the Eastern Section, Beaufort, on the coast, shows as the mean 62, 78, 46; while Genoa, Italy, has 61, 75 and 47. In the Mountain Sec- tion, Asheville shows mean temperatures for the year, for summer and for winter, of 54, 71, 38, compared with Venice, Italy, which has 55, 73,38 — an unexpected similarity of temperature with that of far-famed sunny Italy. The cold of our winters is never prolonged and rarely excessive— in the Eastern and Middle Sections rarely falling below 10"^ Fahrenheit, though in the latter it has reached zero. In the mountain plateaus it is somewhat colder, there being a difference of about 10° in favor of the Middle Section. The heat in summer is not near so excessive in mid-summer as in the States farther north; and while these are sub- jected to brief epidemics of deadly sunstroke, here it is ver}-- rarely experienced. CLIMATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 45 THE RAINFALL varies throughout the State with the different sections. For the whole State the average varies Httle from 53 inches, annually, subject to the fluctuations of what may be called wet or dry years; for there is no fixed uniformity, though observations made through a long series of years gives the average here stated. The] average for the Mountain Section is the smallest, that of the Eastern and Coast Section the greatest, and that of the Middle Section intermediate between the two. More minute details will be given farther on. SNOW. — So far as observations have gone, the average annual snow- fall in the State is assumed to be 6 inches. The amount in the Eastern or Coast Section is hardly appreciable, 4 inches in the Mountain, and Gh in the Middle and a portion of the Eastern Section. In some win- ters the fall of snow is very small; in others there occur single phe- nomenal storms, so rare as to be referred to as eras; in such cases a depth of from 2 feet to 30 inches having been attained. Contrary to popular belief the snows, while more frequent, are le.ss deep among the mountains than on their eastern slope and in the Middle Section. As there is less rainfall so there is less snowfall in the Western than in the Middle Section. North-east winds and storms are unknow^n in the mountains. The wind-bearing clouds are from the south-east, dis- charging themselves most often in rain, with a sufficiently low temper- ature in snow, sometimes of considerable depth, but rarely covering the ground for a week at a time. Upon the change of wind from the south-east to the north-west, the inevitable course of a mountain rain or snow-storm, there is a sequence of violent snow-squalls, lasting through 24 to 36 hours, but rarely ever accumulating to the depth of more than an inch. The well-remembered blizzard, which ushered in the meeting of the Southern Interstate Immigration Convention, held at Asheville on Deceiiber 17, 1890, was a signal and very violent exception. FROSTS rarely occur before the 10th of October, and in the Eastern Sec- tion are frequently delayed until the middle of November. The cutting of tobacco is very rarely, though sometimes, anticipated by a killing frost. Late frosts, as late even as the 5th of May, the sequence of abnor- mally hot weather, closed with violent atmospheric disturbances, occa- sionally occur to the great injury of fruits and truck farms. What is known as the thermal belt of the Mountain Section may properly be referred to in connection with frost on the principle of lucus a non lucendo; for in this thermal belt, so elevated, frost is unknown, or so light in its formation as to be of no detriment to fruits and vege- tation. This belt, or locality of exemption, is found on both sides of 46 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. the mountains, the most noted of which is on Tryon Mountain, in Polk County: and so sharply defined are the lines of exemption that it stands out before the eye a horizontal belt of verdure between parallel lines above and below of blasted flower and foliage. Professor Kerr, in explanation of the cause of the phenomenon, says: "Suffice it to say, that it is due to the nocturnal stratification of the atmosphere of these mountain-enclosed basins, the different horizontal belts having differ- ent degrees of humidity whereby the surface radiation is controlled." Or it njay be explained by the conflict in those mountain-enclosed basins between the stratifications, the lower stratum, heated by the raj'S of the sun during the day, rising by the force of natural laws into the upper air, the colder body ; while the upper stratum, under force of the same laws, continually descends until towards dawn they meet at 'a point of equilibrium when farther descent is arrested by the influence of the rising sun, and the formation of frost is no longer possible. The fact remains that within the limits of these frost belts, fruits never fail, and at the height of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet frosts never fall. Such localities are found along the face of the Blue Ridge in Burke and McDowell Counties, along the face of the South Mountains in Burke, in the Brushy Mountains in the several counties through which that range passes, and at many points in the mountains west of the Blue Ridge In the future, this phenomenal section must become of inesti- mable value in frait and viticulture; for nowhere else is there such certain assurance of the security and maturity of peaches, and other tender fruit crops, or of the grape; to the successful cultivation of the grape the soil and the general conditions of the climate ofler numerous inducements. THE POPULATION OF THE STATE. This is a topic of interest to the people of North Carolina from the mnrked fact of their present homogeneousness, excepting, of course, the important and large element of the African race, and the smaller and inferior remnant of the aboriginal Indian, still in possession of a large territory in the western part of the State, and the still smaller body of half-breeds known as the Croatans, occupying a portion of Robeson County, and believed, fancifully or otherwise, to be the descend- ants of the lost members of the lost colony of Captain John White, the first effort at permanent settlement made by Anglo-Saxon whites on the American continent. Tiie whites of this State, now so intermingled and blended by intermarriage and industrial intercourse as to present THE POPULATION OF THE STATE. 47 between them few distinctive traits of their origin, are the descendants, mediately or immediately, of the dominant European races coming directly to our shores, but more largely the ofF-shoots of the northern colonies grown populous and powerful enough to indulge in that early development of the American characteristic, love of change and adven- ture, or the more practical motive of bettering their condition by the acquirement of new lands, unrestricted in limit, of nearly nominal cost, and with the fame of unbounded fertility and unequalled salubrity. Of those coming direct to our shores, the immigrating colonies were small and infrequent. After the efforts of colonization on the waters of the north-eastern section of the State, under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh and his successors had failed, a long interval passed away before decided or successful effort was made to plant other colonies on our shores. Among the more ambitious and well considered schemes was that of Sir John Yeamans, who, about the year 1059-60, landed within the mouth of the Cape Fear River a body of several hundred colonists of English birth or descent from the island of Barbadoes. A settlement at about the same spot had previously been made b}'- adventurers from New England, who thus made this section favorably known, and who eventually abandoned it, disappointed in over- wrought expectation. In like manner the colony of Sir John, or the larger body of it, moved tirst to Port Royal, in South Carolina, and subsequently to the spot where they founded the present city of Charleston, but leaving behind them the impress of a good name and a high character, permanently stamped and manifesting itself upon their descendants in the present city of Wilmington and other points on the lower Cape Fear. In 1709 the Baron De Graffenreid, with a colony of Swiss, estab- lished himself at the confluence of the rivers Neuse and Trent, and there founded the present city of Newbern — a settlement destined to be permanent, but of slow growth, and receiving few farther accessions from the native land of the founder. A small colony of Huguenots found a refuge from persecution in the same section, but, beyond the impress of their principles and their names, contributed only in small degree to the settlement of North Carolina. Perhaps the largest body of native Europeans coming approximately at one time, and constituting a distinctive foreign element, was the Scotch or Highland colony, which occupied the country along the upper waters of the Cape Fear, now known as the counties of Bladen, Cum- berland, Moore, Robeson, Richmond and Harnett. These came, some voluntarily, most of them by compulsion, after the disastrous defeat of 48 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. Culloden in 1746. They have also blended with the otlier European families, but still retain in marked degree their national characteristics of piety, morality, and care of education. The Lords Proprietors, through their influence and inducements offered, added to the population, which, however, came in singly or in small groups and increased slowly, though early in the colonial history making the Eastern Section the most populous in the State. The other chief elements of settlement were refugees from religious persecution in Virginia, who gradually filled up the north-eastern peninsula around the waters of Albemarle Sound and contiguous ter- ritory. In process of time bodies of immigrants arrived from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, hearing of the rich lands and fine climate of the upper country. Some bodies of these were of German descent. A still larger body was Scotch-Irish. Both planted themselves in harmo- nious contiguity from Orange County on the east to Catawba County — as that county became eventually known — along the rich bottoms or the finely timbered uplands of the Eno, the Yadkin and the Catawba Rivers, and became the foundation of that population destined to prove in coming years its love of liberty, its hostility to oppression, its indomitable courage, its wakeful care of education, its intense religious fervor, its energies and its industry; a population, withal, so widely diffused as to have been greatly instrumental in forming the character of the North Carolinian by the domination of these leading traits and qualities. The location of his large colony of Moravians by Count Zinzendorff, in 1754, in the present county of Forsyth, is the only instance of attempted complete isolation, of the seclusion of an entire colony, and the culture of peculiar ideas and creeds — ideas and creeds more in harmony with the real aim and ends of a pure Christianity than human philanthropy has often aimed to put in practical force. This, like all other colonies, has in process of time blended with the great mass, but with the distinct and triumphant survival of its nobler characteristics — benevolence, integrity, devotion to morality, religion and education, and that untiring energy which brought prosperity to the wilderness colony, and future increase of growth and wealth to those fine towns, Winston and Salem, the matured, or rather still grow- ing and maturing outgrowths of the simple, pious, unambitious, reli- gious Moravian colony. Of the negro population it suffices to say that it is chiefly descended from the slaves captured in former years in Africa, and introduced iuto the South by English, Dutch, and, in later years, New England slave- THE POPULATION OF THE STATE. 49" ships. Importations of slaves into North Carohna was very rare after the beginning of this century. The increase, therefore, has been from natural causes, a genial climate, a humane public system and the kindly temper of the owners, a temper softened as much by humanity — very often by affection — as it was influenced by interest. Through these combined causes the negro population increased until it early attained the ratio to that of the whites it has held and still holds — about one- third of the whole. Since the emancipation of the race, the policy of the State govern- ment, sustained by a just and humane public sentiment, has done everything consistent with the existence of insuperable and ineradica- ble ethnical antagonisms, to efface all the badges of former slavery. The negro has all the rights of the citizen, and is secured and protected in the exercise of them, with the same jealous safeguard of the law as- the white citizen. He testifies before the courts without question as ta race competency; he accumulates, if he w^ill, property, personal and real; he is admitted on equal terms with the whites to the practice of the learned professions; he has the amplest freedom in the exercise of his religious beliefs, and the most absolute control in his ecclesiastical affairs. His infirm, the deaf, the dumb, the blind and the insane, are cared for by the State in institutions, proportionately to the number of patients, as large, as well built, as costly, and as well supervised by competent heads, as those of the whites. His education is well provi- ded for, and though he pays a little more than one third of the poll-tax, and one-thirtieth of such property tax as is assigned to the maintenance of the school fund, his allotment of that fund is in proportion to popu- lation, not to that of race contribution. Apart from the colleges, some, if not all, of which are largely sustained by contributions from the North- ern States, the negro shares in the Normal Institute system which is sus- tained by the State. He holds, also, his Annual Industrial State Fair, organized and controlled by his own race, but aided by annual appro- priations from the State Treasur}^, and encouraged by the good will and active co-operation of the whites, thus having conspicuous opportunity to give evidence of his progress and his capacity to maintain friendly rivalry in the industrial field with the dominant race. The Indian portion of the population is confined to the mountain counties of Jackson, Swain and Graham. They are a remnant of the tribe which was removed in 1836 to the trans-Mississippi reservation, and which obtained the consent of the government to be exempted from the decree of expatriation. They were allotted in the counties above named a tract of about 100,000 acres, and left in the enjoyment of their 4 50 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. former hab'ts and customs. A restraining influence was exeried over them, with the. purpose of bringing them gradually in conformity to the usages of the whites. They were taught the principles of Chris- tianity, instructed in the rudiments of the English branches of learn- ing, induced to abandon their nomadic habits and adapt themselves to agricuhural life. They have schools among them ; and a high school, under the supervision of the general g)vernment, is established at Yel- low Hill, in Swain Count}'', where children of both sexes are best taught, and also trained to mechanical, industrial and domestic arts. Most of the tribe are christianized, and maiiy of them speak the English language, though all retain and prefer to use their native tongue. The}' are quiet, peaceable, rarely violators of the law, but generally indolent and shiftless, and making slow progress towards the higher standards of civilization. They number between 1,500 and 1,800, and increase slowly. Of the Croatans of Robeson County, little definite can be said. Their origin is involved in doubt, though it is clear that they form a mixed and distinct class of the blended Indian and white races. They may be called civilized, engaged in agriculture, trading and the mechanical arts, with more of energy and thrift than the native Cherokees. They are ordinarily iavv-abiding, though their vivacity of temperament some- limes leads to violent individual outbreaks and development of savage and revengeful temper, as was illustrated some years ago in the memo- rable Henry Berry Lowry incident. These people are provided by the State with their separate schools, and they take great interest in the education of their children. The aggregate population of North Carolina by the Census of 1880, was 1,399,750; by that of 1890, 1,017,947— an increase of 218,197. It is classified as follows: Whites, 1,049,191; colored, 5B7,170; Chinese and Japanese, 15; Indians (excluding Croatans), 1,571. The foreign-born population is, by the same census, 3,742. The descendants of foreigners form a considorableelement,but their numbers do not materially affect the homogeneousness of the mass of population. The large bodies of immigrants which annually lodge themselves in the territory of the United States, direct themselves to other homes than are to be found in the South Atlantic States. The immigration into North Carolina is largely from the New England, Middle and some of the North-western States, and gives many and much desired and much valued accessions to sources of material development. The following table of {)opulation, as prepared from the Census Tables of 1890, is to be accepted as accurate: THE POPULATION OF THE STATE. 51 Whites. State total 1 ,055,382 Counties, Alamance 12,688 Alexander 8,588 Alleghany 6,061 Anson 10,237 Ashe 15,033 Beaufort 11,869 Bertie 7,885 Bladen 8,646 Brunswick. 6,139 Buncombe 28,640 Burke 12,378 Cabarrus 12,683 CaldweU 10,737 Camden 3,347 Carteret.... 8,528 Caswell 6,689 Catawba 16,073 Chatham 17,214 Cherokee 9,655 Chowan 4,010 Clay 4,055 Cleveland 17, 30 1 Columbus 11,804 Craven 7,175 Cumberland 14,953 Currituck 4,731 Dare 3,362 Davidson 18,174 Davie 8,769 Duplin 1 1 , 600 Durham 10,712 Edgecombe 8,513 Forsyth 19,433 Franklin. . 10,755 Gaston 12,927 Gates 5,539 Graham 3,137 Granville 12,122 Greene 5,281 Guilford.. 19,820 Halifax 9,614 Harnett 9,453 Haywood 12,829 Henderson 11,211 Hertford 5,906 Hyde 4,962 Iredell 19,516 Jackson 8,680 Johnston 19,917 Colored. Total. 562,565 1,617,947 5,583 18,271 842 9,430 462 6,523 9,790 20,027 595 15,628 9,203 21,072 11,291 19,176 8,117 16,763 4,761 10,900 6,626 35,266 2,561 14,939 5,459 18,142 1,561 12,298 2,320 5,667 2,297 10,825 9,389 16,028 2,616 18,689 8,199 25,413 321 9,976 5,157 9,167 142 4,197 3,093 20,394 6,052 17,856 13,858 20,533 12,369 27,321 2,016 6,747 406 3,768 3,528 . 21,702 2,852 11,621 7,090 18,690 7,329 18,041 15,600 24,113 9,001 28,434 10,335 21,090 4,837 17,764 4,713 10,252 176 3,313 12,362 24,484 4,758 10,039 8,232 28,052 19,294 28,908 4,247 13.700 517 13.346 1,378 12,589 7,945 13,851 3,941 8,903 5,946 25,462 832 9,512 7,322 27,239 52 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. Counties. Whites. Colored. Total. Jones ..-- 3.885 3,518 7,403 Lenoir- - 8,517 6,362 14,879 Lincoln.... .--. 10.028 2,558 12,586 McDowell... 9,114 1,825 10,939 Macon 9.436 666 10,102 Madison 17,095 710 17,805 Martin- 7,838 7,383 15,22\ Mecklenburg 23,141 19,532 42,673 MitcheU... 12,252 555 12,807 Montgomery 8,982 2.257 11,239 Moore... 13,985 6,494 20,479 Nash - 12,186 8,521 20.707 New Hanover.. 10,089 13.937 24,026 Northampton... 9,224 12,018 21.242 Onslow 7,392 2,911 10,303 Orange. 9,705 5,243 14,948 Pamlico ..... 4,767 2,379 7,146 Pasquotank 5,201 5,547 10,748 Pender 5,967 6,547 12,514 Perquimans 4,719 4,574 9,293 Person 8,251 0,900 15,151 Pitt.. 13.192 12,327 25,519 Polk 4,807 1,095 5,902 Randolph 21,848 3,347 25,195 Richmond 10,989 12.959 23,948 Robeson 16,629 14,854 31,483 Rockingham 15,197 10,166 25,363 Rowan 17,142 6,981 24,123 Rutherford 15,073 3,697 18.770 Sampson 15,960 9,136 25,096 Stanly 10,629 1,507 12,136 Stokes 14.386 . 2.813 17,199 Surry 16,926 2.355 19.281 Swain... 5,652 925 6,577 Transylvania 5,368 513 5.881 Tyrrell 3,000 1,225 4,225 Union 15,712 5,547 21.259 Vance 6,434 11,147 17,581 Wake 26,093 23,114 49,207 Warren 5,880 13.480 19,360 Washington 4,961 5,239 10.200 Watauga 10.180 431 10.611 Wayne 15.115 10.985 26.100 Wilkes 20.633 2.042 22.675 Wilson 10.884 7.760 18.644 Yadkin 12,421 1.369 13,790 Yancey 9,197 293 9,490 GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION. 53 GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION. The governmeut of Xorth Carolina is a pure democracy. It is based upon the will of the people as expressed in the Constitution, an instru- ment framed by them in their sovereign capacity through delegates appointed for that purpose. The will of the people of this and of each State, when thus expressed, and in conformity to the Constitution of the United States — for the will of the people of each State is subordi- nate to the collective will of the people of all the States — is the supreme law. The State Constitution thus made is the measure and test of all laws passed by the Legislature, and these laws must stand or fall by their agreement or disagreement with it. The Constitution is a short instrument but wide in its scope and bearing. It contains a brief statement of the fundamental principles of civil and individual liberty, creates the different departments of gov- ernment — Executive, Legislative and Judicial — and prescribes the powers of each; establishes educational, charitable and penal institu- tions; directs who shall be liable to duty in militia; and prescribes the rights of citizenship. The Legislature enacts laws. The Judiciary passes upon them when a question arises as to their constitutionality, and expounds them when a question is presented as to their meaning. The execution of the law is entrusted to the Executive. The Executive in this State possesses no veto upon the acts of the Legislature. When the law is once made, his duty, as that of every other citizen, is obedience in his sphere. The rights of citizenship is the only point for consideration here; and these depend upon age, residence and previous citizenship, A citizen of a foreign country can make himself a citizen here by becoming a resident; declaring before the proper tribunal his purpose to become a citizen; and taking the prescribed oath of allegiance. A citizen of any other of the United States becomes a citizen here by changing his residence from that State to this. All persons who are born and continue to reside within this State are citizens' thereof. The chief privilege of citizenship is suffrage. The Constitution ordains that, " every male person born in the United States, and every male person who has been naturalized, twenty-one years old, or upward, who shall l)ave resided in this State twelve months next preceding the election, and ninety days in the county in which he offers to vote, shall be deemed an elector." 54 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. Suffrage here embraces the right to vote for every officer in the State from the Governor down to constable. One only exception to this principle exists in this State — that is in the case of Justices of the Peace. These are appointed b}^ the Legislature. Logical consistency was sacri- ficed in this case to secure what, in the judgment of the Convention, w^as a point of far higher importance, namely, the sound administra- tion of justice in the county, and the administration of county finances, both of which are under the control of the Justices. In many of the eastern counties the colored population largely predominates. Newly emerged from slavery, and consequently ignorant of the duties of citi- zenship; ignorant of the law and therefore incapable of administering it; themselves without property and therefore without the judgment necessary to administer the finances of a community; it was deemed best to repose the power of making magistrates in another body; thus guarding those communities against error, wdiether of ignorance or design, until experience and education should make those colored majorities safe repositories of such power. This provision of the Con- stitution was inspired by no feeling of enmity toward the colored man ; it was a provision of safety as well for the colored as for the white man. The provision w'as made impartial in its operation; it applies to every county in the State, whether the majority be white or black, and the object was secured. No such provision was necessary in the cases of officers elected by general ticket, for there the experience of the white population accustomed to the exercise of citizenship and educated to its responsibilities would counterbalance the inexperience of the colored race. Citizenship under the Constitution of North Carolina carries with it high and important rights apart from suffrage. It confers a right to an education by the State, such as will qualify the citizen for the duties to be performed. If he be without property, it gives him a right to support from the county, if incapable of earning it by sickness or old age. If he have property and is overtaken b}'' irremedial misfortune, it exempts from execution personal property to the value of five hun- dred dollars, and vests in the owner in fee-simple the homestead and the dwellings and the buildings used therewith not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, to be selected by him. The unfortunate have thus a secure refuge in case of disaster in business. It regulates taxation by providing that the General Assembl}' levy- ing a tax shall state the object to which it is to be applied, and enjoins that it be applied to no other purpose. It establishes an equation between the property and the capitation tax by directing that the capi- tation tax levied on each citizen shall be equal to the tax on property GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION. 55 valued at three hundred dollars iu cash. The capitation tax is levied on every male inhabitant in the State over twenty-one and under fifty years of age, and shall never exceed two dollars on the head. The effect of this limitation upon the capitation tax restricts the tax on each hundied dollars worth of property to sixty -six and two-thirds cents. It further directs that the amount levied for county purposes shall not exceed the double of the State tax, except for a special purpose and with the approval of the Legislature. The rate of State tax now levied for the present year is 28 cents on one hundred dollars valuation, besides 15 cents for school purposes. In addition there are taxes levied on certain pursuit?, industries and interests devoted to certain purposes, some in aid of the general school fund, some for pensions. The following statement from the State Auditor's Report for the year ending November 30, lt91,sets forth the aggregate number and value of the various subjects of taxation in the State, and the gross amount of the State, school and county taxes derived from the same: STATE TAXES. Number. Valuation. 7,874.295 acres of land $107,031,851 $267,579 63 44,645 town lots - - ---- 34,893,805 87,234 01 139,005 horses -.' 7,279,768 18,199 42 101,609mules -- 5,790,626 14,426 56 789 jacks and jennies - 41,069 102 67 87,944goats 29,278 73 19 627,767 cattle - ---- 4,849,192 12,122 98 1,194,865 hogs - 1,561,553 3,903 88 383,601 sheep 392,142 980 35 Value of farming utensils, etc 12,134,455 30,336 14 Money on hand or on deposit 4,201,447 10,503 63 Solvent credits -- 20,166,452 50,416 13 Stock in incorporated companies 2,739,179 6,847 95 Other i^ersonal property - - 15,762,557 39,406 37 Total valuation $216,872,374 $876,265 net income and profits 2,112 34 Theatres - 405 00 Traveling theatrical companies. 60 00 Concerts and musical entertainments for profit 252 50 Lectures for reward 38 00 Museums, waxworks or curiosities 48 00 Circus or menagerie — 600 00 Sideshows 250 00 Shows under canvass, etc 700 00 Carried forward $ 366,593 74 56 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. Brought forward $ 366.593 74 Billiard saloons. 1,378 00 Bowling alleys, skating rinks, etc 518 33 Public ferries, toll-bridges, etc 248 15 Livery 625 50 Itinerant dentists, opticians, etc 100 00 ■Commission merchants 663 51 Merchants or other dealers 28,893 53 Dealei's in spirituous liquors 3,101 87 Peddlers 1,404 09 Itinerant merchants 25 00 Dealers in fruit trees 15 00 Itinerant lightning-rod dealers 50 00 Liquor dealers— Class 3 1 ,500 00 Tobacco warehouses ... 2,015 00 Marriage licenses 12,312 38 Subjects unlisted 198 87 Delinciuents 529 87 Arrears for insolvents 122 81 Double taxes 1 .068 97 Total general taxes $601,249 91 SCHOOL TAXES. 153,486 wliite polls 299,994 43 60,832 colored polls 90,420 34 Bank stock 3,278 48 Eailroad property 16,971 73 Oeneral property— white 283,953 13 •General property — colored 8,735 13 Licensed dealers in spirituous liquors 70.639 13 From fines, forfeitures and penalties 7.080 10 Prom other sources 1,416 48 Total school taxes $712,489 53 COUNTY TAXES. County purposes. 691 ,590 65 Special county taxes 202.861 49 Total county taxes $894,451 54 On white polls there is levied a tax of ^229,904. 32; on colored polls, $90,420. On general property the whites pa}' a tax of $280,904, and the colored people a tax of $8,735.36. In addition to this general tax, there is a tax on bank stock, railroad property, licensed liquor dealers, fines, (fee, and some minor sources, most of which is paid by the whites. The Executive power of the State Government is vested in a Gov- ernor and a Lieutenant Governor, elected by the popular vole for the GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION. 57 term of four years, both ineligible for two successive terms; an Attorney General, a State Treasurer, an Auditor, a Secretary of State, and a Superintendent of Public Instruction, all of whom are eligible for reelection. The Legislative department, also elected by the popular vote, elected for the term of two j^ears, and holding biennial sessions. The Senate consists of 50 members, and is presided over by the Lieutenant Gov- ernor of the State, and the House of Representatives, of 120 members, presided over by a Speaker elected from among the members of the same. The sessions are limited by the Constitution to sixty days, but may be prolonged on emergency, but with suspension of the per diem pay. Extra sessions may be called by the Governor should urgent cause make it necessary; but such sessions are limited to twenty days, but may be extended farther, under the limitations of pay that govern the regular sessions. The Judicial department consists of a Supreme Court, presided over by a Chief Justice, and, in conjunction with four Associate Justices, forming the highest court in the State. The Justices are elected for a term of eight years, and are eligible to reelection. The Circuit or Superior Court is composed of twelve members, elected by the people of a like number of districts, and are elected for the same length of term and the same eligibili'}' to reelection as the Justices of the Supreme Court. In addition to these are the criminal courts of New^ Hanover and Mecklenburg and of Buncombe, having original jurisdiction in all criminal matters originating in their respective counties, but having none in civil causes of action. The above, together with the magistrates' courts, having jurisdiction over small sums and minor offences, and the Boards of Count}' Com- missioners, having supervision over, the direction and administration of county affairs, constitute the judicial system of North Carolina. STATE DEBT. The following statement, drawn from the report of the Public Treas- urer submitted to the General Assembly at the session of 1891, exhibits the amount of the bonded debt of the State at the time of the enactment of the law of March 4, 1879, "An act to compromise, commute and settle the State debt." These bonds include only the obligations of the recognized bonds, those known as the special tax bonds having been declared unconsti- tutional and invalid. 58 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. The recognized bonded debt, recognized by the forenamed act, are the following: Bonds issued before May 20, 1861, the last date of which class is April 1, 1861, exchangeable at forty per cent $ 5,477,400 00 Bonds issued during and since the late war, for internal improvement purposes, and certificates of State Board of Education, exchange- able at twenty -five per cent. ..- 3,261,045 00 Bonds issued by authority of funding acts of March 10, 1866, and August 20, 1868, exchangeable at fifteen per cent 3,888,600 00 Total recognized debt - $ 12,627,045 00 Bonds have been surrendered and exchanged, as follows: Class 1, at forty per cent-... .$ 5,081,900 00 Class 2, at twenty-five per cent.. 2,637,€45 00 Class 3, at fifteen per cent 3,332,100 00 Total amount of bonds exchanged. $ 11 ,051 ,045 00 New four per cent, bonds have been issued as follows, in exchange: For bonds at forty per cent.... I 2,032,760 00 For bonds at twentj'-five per cent 659,261 25 For bonds at fifteen per cent 499,815 00 $ 3,191,836 25 The amount of new four per cent, bonds issued embraces certificates of fractional sums of less tlian fifty dollars given in exchange, which are receivable for new bonds of the denominations prescribed in the act. The fundable bonds not surrendered, are as follows: Redeemable at forty per cent $ 395,500 00 Redeemable at twenty-five per cent 624,000 00 Redeemable at fifteen per cent 556,500 00 Amount of old bonds outstanding $ 1,576,000 00 The following is the summary of the two cla.sses of new bonds issued: Four per cent, bonds $ 3,219,100 00 Six per cent, bonds 2,720,000 00 $ 5,939,100 00 This latter debt, $■2,720,000, was incurred for the construction of the North Caroling, Railroad, wliich is in great part owned by tlie State. The income from the dividends realized by tlie road is not only suflficient to pay the interest, but leaves a surjilus which is regularly funded from year to year, the aggregate of which will extinguish the del>t at the maturity of the bonds. This debt does not now impose, nor will it in future impose, one cent of taxation upon the people of the State. The first amount, $3,589,511.25, therefore represents the entire debt for which the property of the State is subject to be taxed. The total valuation of real and personal property in North Carolina is, according to the Auditor's Report for 1890, .$216,872,374. But the valuation of property in this RELIGION. 59 State is known to be from one-third to one-half below its real value. For the purpose of ascertaining the true value of the j^roperty of the State, an addition in that pro- jjortion nuist be made to the valuation above given. Taking, however, the valuation as given in tlie Aviditor's Report, it will be seen that a tax of seven and one-half cents upon the hundred dollars worth of property will pay the interest upon the whole State del)t. But there exists in fact no necessity for such a tax, light as it would be. The act under which the debt was compromised, appropriates certain taxes therein enume- rated, known as privilege taxes, to the payment of the iritei-est; and by the terms of the act this appropriation is made a part of the contract between the State and the bondholders, and is therefore inviolable. From this source the amount realized is so large, that the remainder of the interest is provided by a tax of only four cents on the hundred dollars worth of the projierty of the State. RELIGION, The religious denominations of North Carolina stand upon absolute equality in respect to the laws. The vigorous temper of the people during Colonial days in resisting the imposition of a State religion has never relaxed ; and the absolute severance of Church and State became a cardinal and inviolable principle in the assumption of popular sovereignty. The laws and the Constitution extend no special favor to creed or denomination, assuring freedom to all to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The following table presents as accurately as can be ascertained the present membership of the various denominations in the State. Two of them, the Cnristian and the Protestant Methodists, are classed with their denominations of other States, there being no separate State report : Methodist Episcopal Conference (white) 1 18,895 A. M. E. Zion (colored Methodist) 32,000 M. E. Church (Methodist) 7,200 Christian (O'Kelleyites) in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina 10,000 Protestant Methodists in North Carolina and Virginia. 7,000 Quakers 4,500 Lutherans 4, 150 Roman Catholics. 1 ,000 Moravians 2, 000 Presbyterians 25,553 Episcopalians 7,751 Baptists (Missionary, white) 170,335 Baptists (Missionary, colored) 150,675 Baptists (Anti-Missionary). 9,750 Baptists (Campbellites) 6,000 Baptists (Free- Will) 6,516 Whole number of Missionary Baptists 321 ,010 60 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. The machinery of the State government is aided or amplified in its operations by the assignment of certain special functions to be dis- charged by agencies adapted to their performance. These public institutions have oversight over certain penalties attached to the violation of law, and also of carrying out those methods provided for the cure or amelioration of mental suffering and physical infirmity, of those scientific investigations designed to elevate the arts of agriculture, or search into the causes of agricultural disasters, or aid the agricultural population to reap the surest rewards of their industr}^ by intelligent direction of their labor through information imparted by competent directors; and in general the public institutions comprise all such wise and enlightened principles that tend to enlighten the popu- lar mind, add to its prosperity, relieve its sufferings, mitigate its burdens, and practically illustrate the mutuality of interest existing between the State and the people, between the government and the governed. These institutions consist, in general terms, of the charitable and penal institutions, of the Agricultural Department and Agricultural College, of the Agricultural Experiment Station, of the Geological Museum, of the State Library, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the Railroad Commission, of the Orphan Asylum, and, in a literal form, of the public buildings in which to conduct the many operations incident to the institutions named above. THE STATE HOSPITALS, originally known as the Asylums for the Insane, are three in number — one for the whites at Raleigh, another for the same race at Morganton, and one for the colored at or near Goldsboro. The first is near the city of Raleigh, occupying a building, of brick, three stories in height, and upwards of 700 feet in length, and with capacity to accommodate, at the time of its construction, all the insane patients that might be presented for admission. L)r. William R. Wood is the present Superintendent, and the number of patients at the date of the last report was 290 — 142 males, 154 females. Thi-: Western Hospital.— The increasing number of applications for the admission of insane patients compelled legislative action to provide other and ampler provision for them, and the institution at Morganton was built, a structure of upwards of 900 feet in length, and with every convenience of ample grounds, water, and whatever was necessary as curative or ameliorative adjuncts to the relief of mental disease. The institution is under the super intendency of Dr. P. L. Murphy. At the last report the number of patients was 4dO — 233 males and 257 females. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 61 Eastern Insane Asylum. — Upon the addition of the colored race to the ranks of citizenship, their claims, their rights and their necessities required provision for the treatment of their insane; and a large and commodious brick structure was erected near the town of Goldsboro, a place most accessible to the centre of colored population. The insti- tution is conducted on precisely the same principles, controlled by the same rules, and furnished with the same conveniences as are provided for the institutions for the whites. Dr. J. F. Miller is Superintendent. At the last report the number remaining in the institution was 231 — males 98, females 133. DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND IWSTITUTION.— The original institution was estab- lished in Raleigh in 1846, and now occupies the whole of one of the squares reserved by the State for its own uses in the plan for the laying out of the city of Raleigh, The whole is now covered with suitable buildings, or laid out in grounds with hard shaded walks. The instruc- tion is such as is suited to make useful and self-supporting citizens out of those so unfortunate as to be denied the senses of sight, speech and hearing, and the results have been highly satisfactory. The Colored Department, under the same general supervision, occu- pies suitable buildings and grounds in a different part of the City of Raleigh, in no wise inferior, except in extent, to those provided for the whites. The last biennial report — to Nov. 30, 1890 — gives the following as the number, sex, color, and infirmity of the pupils: Deaf mutes, males, 82; females, 82. Blind, males, 71; females, 58; a total of 293. Of these there were colored deaf mute males 26, females 27. Blind males 17, females 18. Mr. W. J. Young is Superintendent. All of these charitable institutions are liberally supported by bien- nial appropriations from the State Treasury, and pupils or patients are taught or treated without charge. The increasing number of applications to the blind department in the Asylum at Raleigh, in connection with the also increasing number of deaf and dumb, enforced the necessity of ampler provision for the latter; and the Legislature, in its session of 1891, provided for the erec- tion of an additional institution at Morganton, which is not yet com- plete. THE PENITENTIARY.— Under the provisions of the Constitution of North Carolina, adopted by the Convention of 1868, provision was made for the erection of suitable buildings for the confinement, detention and employ- ment of such violators of the law as had subjected themselves to the penalties of a lengthened period of imprisonment. These buildings 62 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CARODINA. were ultimately located in Raleigh, and are at length so far completed as tp be fully applicable to their designed purposes. Architecturally they are large and imposing in style, with every safeguard for the security of prisoners — every provision for health and proper comfort, and every facility for useful employment. The policy, originally designed, to confine all the prisoners within the walls of the institution at work, or in idleness, was promptly abandoned in the change of parties in 1870; and since that period only those confined for life, or for des- perate crimes, or those under infirmity, are rigorously confined within the premises, together with such as might be usefully and profitably assigned to needed mechanical work, under the eye of the Superintend- ent. The others, the able-bodied and the shorter term convicts, were applied to such outside work as would return some revenue to the insti- tution, or diminish the costs of such work as the State was executing in its sovereign capacity. Thus in the latter, the Governor's Mansion, the Supreme Court building, and others have been constructed, bricks made, stones dressed, etc.; and in the larger field of outside work, exten- sive railroad lines have been built, canals dug, swamps drained, in all of which compensation, not always reaching full reimbursement to the State, has been made. The policy of making the Penitentiary self-sus- taining by undertaking work heretofore done at small charge on the legitimate basis of a hired labor system, and the leasing and working of large farms by a force familiar to the work, and the crops under culture has proved successful, and now, instead of being a charge upon the State, the Penitentiary is becoming a source of revenue. The system is as humane as is consistent with the idea of punish- ment of crime, but guarded against needless rigor or wanton cruelty by the periodical visits of commissioners appointed b}- the State. The number of convicts at the last report made to the Legislature of 1891, was 1,302, of which 217 were white males, and 7 white females; and 1,034 colored males, and 42 colored females, and 2 Indian males. Paul F. Faison is President of Board of Directors, and W. J. Ilieks Architect and Warden. THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. — Nothing so clearly indicated the determined and intelligent purpose of the leading minds of North Carolina to elevate its great and chiefest interest to its rightful dignity and prominence, and to prove also its claim to consideration, to respect, as an avocation employing brain as well as muscle, as when the Legis- lature met promptly and unreservedly the demands of the intelligent agricultural interest and established the Agricultural Department; and in doing so there was no half-way movement. The equipment of suit- PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 63 able and handsome and conveniently arranged buildings was ample; the appropriations for the maintenance of the various brandies of the department liberal, and the powers given for the enforcenicnt of the legislation which declared the purpose and defined its duties abundant. Therefore the Agricultural Department came into existence with the enthusiastic sanction of popular sentiment and under the shield and protection of the public law, and stands not onl}^ a monument to the enlightened spirit of the age, but a beacon light of hope and encouragement to that great fundamental interest which, more than all others, has been the victim of neglect, tlie least consideration of states- manship. It must be stated, brief!}', that the Department occupies a building in the city of Raleigh, originally large and convenient, but now arranged so as to be specially adapted to its many uses; and that in the prosecution of the work assigned to it it has done— and this will suffice to illustrate its usefulness — what is expressed in the words of another: " It has saved to the State thousands of dollars annually ; it has induced investments of large amounts in the mines, forests and agricultural lands of the State, and has developed the phosphate beds, the oyster grounds, and the mineral deposits and coal fields of the State ; it has gathered statistics and published valuable books descriptive of the whole State, and distributed them so wisely that this is among the best advertised States ; and has, as its last and greatest, effort, the organiza- tion of the successful College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts." In its relation to the former it has been, and continues to be, of inestimable value to the farmer. For as in the advancement of agriculture into the ranks of a science, so was there enormous application of the pre- sumably scientifically compounded artificial fertilizers. Here was opened a wide and gaping door to fraud, which the Department was empowered to step forward and close. This has been done so vigor- ously, watchfully and effectively that fraudulent fertilizers are banished from the market, trustworthy brands have replaced them, and at the same time a great reduction in the cost has been made. Mr. John Robinson is Commissioner of the Department, and Mr, T. K. Bruner is the Secretary and Auditor. By recent Act of Assembly, Mr. Robinson is also charged with the duties of Commissioner of Immigration, and to him all inquiries should be addressed on matters pertaining to immigration, and for information of the locality, nature and value of lands, or upon any subject inviting to investment in the pursuits and industries of this State. 64 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS, RALEIGH. The mission of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and its general purpose is to teach the principles and application of the sciences, illustrating sound theory by dail}^ practice, as to make out of its students useful and successful men, instead of mere intelligent drones. One of the special objects of the College is to foster a higher appre- ciation of the value and dignity of intelligent labor and the worth and respectability of laboring men. Some of the very best thinkers of our own time in this and other countries have acknowledged the advantage of manual training of boys and young men in well equipped schools, and institutions of this kind are now being recognized as among the practical necessities of every Co ra m on weal th . In all branches of industry the competition of the w'orld is bringing about a closer margin of profits, and demand is made upon men of every calling to study the best methods and closer economy in first production. The whole trend of such institutions is calculated to work out such economic results. The College is intended, not to produce theorists, but practical young men, who will become intelligent farmers, horticulturists, cattle and stock raisers, dairymen — men who will be interested in making their work profitable. The State also has need of good mechanics, carpenters, architects, draughtsmen, contractors and manufacturers, and the College will help to make them. While the College will give practical instruction to as many of our youth as it can accommodate, it is made the duty, as it will be the pleasure, of the members of the Faculty of tlie College to take an active part in Farmers' Institutes, which are accomplishing so much of good in many States of the Union, and which have happily been inaugurated by the Board of Agriculture and by the farmers themselves in our State. The Professors will be at the service of the farmers of the State when- ever they can impart such special information as ma}^ be sought at their hands. They will be glad to furnish the best methods of building and filling silos, of planning barns, stables, &c. They will also be expected to investigate and furnish thoroughly approved formulas for remedies in diseases of cattle, for destruction of insect pests, formulas for com- posting, ifec. Location. — Tiie College site and farm, in all comprises a tract of about sixty-two acres. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 65 Situate on a commanding eminence, on the Hillsboro road, one of the principal highways into Raleigh, at the distance of three-fourths of a mile from its corporate limits, the site is, in all respects, a suitable one. The ground slopes from the building in every direction, giving almost perfect drainage, as well as handsome views of the College build- ings from every direction. Buildings. — The present buildings are of North Carolina brick. The granite used is from Wake County, the brownstone from Anson County. The main building is 170 by 90 feet, part one story and basement. Every precaution has been taken for good sanitary arrangement. The class-rooms and dormitories are large and well-lighted, and the remaining rooms, such as dining-rooms, chapel, reading-rooms, &c., are well arranged. A carefully planned brick workshop, two stories high. This building contains a machine-shop, forge-shop, woodwork shop, carpenter shop, class-room, office, and washroom, and is equipped for thorough work in every particular. It is intended to erect, as rapidly as means will permit, barns, silos, stables and the like, which shall be models of their kind. Meanwhile, for all purposes of instruction, are already erected on the Experiment Sta- tion Farm large buildings for such purposes, that the students will have the use of, near by the Agricultural and Mechanical College. In the basement of the main College building every convenience has been provided for housekeeping, and no facility is lacking in the board- ing department. Mr. Alexander Q. Holladay is at present President of the institution. NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, ALSO THE FER- TILIZER CONTROL STATION AND STATE WEATHER SERVICE, ORGANIZED 1877, RALEIGH, N. C, is under the control of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and as now constituted is apart of the College. The officers of the Station are : H. B. Battle, Ph. D Director and State Chemist. F. E. Emery, B. S Agriculturist. Gerald McCarthy, B. Sc Botanist and Acting Entomologist. W. F. Massey, C. E ...Horticulturist. C. F. VON Herrmann (U. S. "Weather Bureau)... Meteorologist. B. W. Kilgore, B. S .Assistant Chemist. F. B. Carpenter, B. S Assistant Chemist. T. L. Blalock, B. S Assistant Chemist. J. S. Meng, B. S Assistant Chemist. Alexander Rhodes Assistant Horticulturist. RoscoE Nunn (U. S. "Weather Bureau) Assistant Meteorologist. J. L. CUNINGGIM, A. B Secretary. 5 66 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 67 The functions of the Station are two-fold : First, as a Fertilizer Con- trol Station ; second, as an Agricultural Experiment Station in the broadest sense of the word. North Carolina has always shown herself to be a pioneer in new works, and is always in the first rank in the establishment of new institutions for the advancement of her interests. She established the first Agricultural Experiment Station in the Southern States, and the second in the broad expanse of America. The Station which thus came into existence in 1877 was a portion of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. Its first work was in the control of the fertilizer trade by a chemical analysis of the fertilizing ingredients offered for sale in the State, thus preventing fraud and forcing manufacturers to furnish the materials they claim to sell. It continues to occupy this position for the protection of all classes of farmers and other buyers, and it is safe to say that in the fourteen years of its existence it has saved the farmers of the State many millions of dollars by preventino- the sale of adulterated and worthless fertilizers. In the early years of its life the chemical investigation was its main work. Besides analyzing fertilizers it also examined, free of charge, hundreds of samples of marls, mucks, soils, cotton seed products, tobacco products, phosphates, waters, home- made composts and miscellaneous fertilizing ingredients, chemicals, etc. It printed and spread broadcast hundreds of thousands of its publica- tions, giving information on almost every subject connected with agri- culture, among which especially were formulas for composts and home- made fertilizers and the utilization of waste products. It thorouo-hlv examined the natural phosphate deposits of the State, the pyrite deposits, the bye products of the rice industry, the cotton and tobacco products, the possibility of the jute industr}^ for North Carolina, the sorghum and sugar beet industry, the investigation of horn, leather and wool waste, of phosphate floats, of soja bean, and various forao-e plants, and others just as important. Later on an Experimental Farm was added to the agencies at work at the Experiment Station. Then a State Weather Service was organ- ized by the Station, and the various benefits resulting from it, such as the foreknowledge of frosts and cold waves, and weather indications, were gained to the State. During this time the Experiment Station was supported by the State from funds derived from the fertilizer tax. In 1887, however, the United States Congress passed the Hatch Act, which appropriated money from the General Government for the support of Experiment Stations in every State and Territory. It should be gratifying to all to 68 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. know that the Station (except amount required for the fertilizer control) is steadily working for the benefit of the agriculture of the State with- out the expenditure of a single cent of the State's resources, either directly or indirectly, for its support. With the coming of the govern- ment faiids the scope of the work was greatly enlarged. There are now in operation in the Station the divisions of Chemistry, Agriculture, STABLES AND DAIRY BUILDINGS— Fig. 1. Botany, Entomology, Horticulture, Meteorology, and on its staff are both scientific and practical men, trained experts who have had ample experience both in the science and practice of agriculture. The various divisions at present belonging to the Station, and some of the work which is being done in them, are as follows: 1. Chemical Z>>a'mon— including all chemical work of the Station — the fertilizer control, the analyses of milk, butter, food and fodders, marls, phosphates, mucks, soils, chemicals, waters, etc., too numerous to mention. ^i^lES and dairy BUILDINGS— Fig 2. 2. Agricultural Division.— Embraces work done in the field, stable, and dairy— in testing the various fertilizing ingredients on different PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 69 crops; the varieties of wheat, oats, cotton and corn, grasses, clovers and other forage plants. By actual feeding tests to ascertain the value of fodders and grass, ensilage, cotton-seed products for fattening purposes, the digestibility of different food stuffs, and profitable feeding. In the dairy work various implements are tested, improved methods tried, and in general to extend the dairy industiy throughout the State, recog- nizing that the judicial keeping of stock is the salvation of our people. 3. Cooperative Experiments.— To reach as many soils as possible, and to disseminate knowledge of the work, cooperative field tests have been instituted in various localities in the State. Here are tested, on the various soils represented, the various fertilizing ingredients on different crops, different varieties of field and garden crops, fruits, grapes, and in general, in conjunction with the Central Station at Raleigh, to conduct M'ork which may be helpful to those localities. 4. Botanical Division. — Tests the purity and vitality of field and garden seeds, grasses and clover, identifies plants and ascertains their value, examines diseases of plants and investigates the best remedies; disseminates practical information on the best agricultural grasses and their culture, on the most troublesome weeds and how to eradicate them. 5. Entomological Division. — Studies the various insect pests which infest the field, orchard and garden crops, and suggests remedies and methods of extermination. G. Horticaltural Division — Investigates the different varieties of fruits and vegetables, and their adaptability to our soils and climates, also the methods for cultivation, gathering and shipment to markets; originates and improves new and promising varieties wdiich may become valuable to the State. 7. Meteorological Division. — Embraces the State Weather Service, oper- ating in conjunction with the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture. Collects meteorological data from over the State, and preserves it for permanent record. Telegrams giving forecasts of weather for the following day are distributed; also cold wave and frost warnings for the protection of fruit, tobacco and truck- ing interests. A weekly bulletin, showing the effect of the weather on the crops, is issued during the growing season. 8. Bureau of Information. — Correspondence is invited on all subjects connected with agriculture, both scientifically and practically. The staff of the Station is at all times ready to reply promptly, and give the proper information wherever possible. 9. Division of Pablications. — The Experiment Station issues numerous publications, including bulletins and annual reports, which are sent free to all who request them. The matter printed in them is presented 70 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. in as plain and practical a style as possible, avoiding technicalities and unnecessary words. The bulletins are issued only when the material on hand justifies it — averring once in about five or six weeks. Over 13,000 farmers and others now receive them. The following are some of the subjects treated, and occupying, each issue, from 8 to 96 pages: Compost formulas, seed tests, stock feeding on scientific principles, cooperative field tests, Indian corn, farm and dairy buildings, weed pests of the farm (illustrated), coiton-seed meal and hulls as a stock feed, hill-side ditching, some injurious insects, value of pea-vine manuring for wheat, facts for farmers, onion and celery culture, late crops of Irish potatoes in the South, tobacco curing b}^ the leaf cure on wire and the stalk processes, &c. The chemical laboratories and the city offices of the Station occupy the entire first floor of the right wing of the Agricultural Building, Raleigh. In this building also are located the botanical and entomo- logical laboratory, and the rooms of the meteorological division con- stituting the Weather Service. Upon the roof are the meteorological instruments for recording velocity of wind, temperatures, direction of wind, &c., as well as signal flags to disseminate the weather forecasts. The Experimental Farm, on which are the Experimental barn, stable, dairy-house, plant-house (see illustration), is located adjoining the State Fair Grounds and in close proximity to the grounds of the Agricul- tural College. ORPHANAGES May be regarded as public institutions, in connection with those devoted to charity previously considered; for two of them, at least, are aided by appropriations from the State Treasury, and the omission of the others devoted to the same generous purpose, while perhaps technically right, would not be morally just; because the relief of the orphan and his equipment for future usefulness and respectability is as much the expression of the sentiment of the people through the church as through legislation, and in that view all the Orphanages become public institutions. THE OXFORD ORPHAN ASYLUM is the first of tiiese established in the State, and was organized and equipped at Oxford, (iranville County, but not originally in its present effective and useful character. The Orphanage is the siccessor of St. John's College, established by the Masonic Fraternity of North Carolina before the war, and in its man- agement and career the subject of two financial disasters; to avoid the recurrence of which, on the motion of Mr. John H. Mills, the College ORPHANAGES. 71 was converted into an Orphanage. At that time the poverty of the country was extreme, and, as one of the results of the war, the number of orphans very great. The change of character of the institution assured its inmates food, raiment and lodging, instruction and training and equipment, mentally and physically, for future self-support. The institution was largely kept alive by appeals to public aid and gen- erosity, until its importance and the obligation resting upon the State for the public charge and care of such an ever-present body of helpless unfortunates so impressed itself upon the intelligence and conscience of the people as to make the demand upon the Legislature for material aid irresistible. The State now appropriates annually from the Treasury $10,000, but the management is retained in the hands of the Masons. The Orphanage occupies the buildings and capacious grounds of St. John's College; and farm work, mechanical trades, printing, &c., together with the plainer branches of learning, are taught the boys, and also the girb, to whose course of instruction is added needle- work, housekeeping and domestic duties; and thus every year a largo number of both sexes are sent forth to earn their own living, fortified with good characters and efficient training. THE THOMASVILLE ORPHANAGE is near Thomasville, Davidson County, and is under the patronage of the denomination of Baptists. It is under the immediate supervision of Mr. John H. Mills, the founder of the preceding. The Orphanage occupies a number of well-built detached buildings, separated as a safeguard against general conflagra- tion, and for the security of health. Grounds of one hundred acres or more surround the buildings, and are cultivated by the male pupils to the extent of materially aiding in the maintenance of the Orphanage. THE THOMPSON ORPHANAGE, at Charlotte, is maintained by the Epis- copalians, occupies ample grounds, and is equipped with all necessary buildings. It is supported by private contributions or collections in the churches, and its general objects are the same in relation to the orphans as rule in the Oxford Asylum. THE PRESBYTERIAN ORPHANAGE, at the Barium Springs, in Iredell County, that the denomination of Presbyterians might care for its own helpless. Unfortunately^ the buildings were not long since burned, and have not yet been replaced, though preparations for doing so are in progress. THE ODD FELLOWS ORPHANAGE is located at Goldsboro, and was opened on the 10th of May, 18U2. As its name implies, it is under the auspices of the Odd Fellows of North Carolina, and is designed for the care and education of children of deceased members of the Order. Children of 72 HAND-BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA. both sexes are received. Thus far the children are instructed only in the plainer branches of education, but will be in time subjected to a system of industrial as well as intellectual training to qualify them for the duties of after life. The buildings of the institution are good and substantial, and twenty acres of ground are included in the property. The citizens of Golds- boro contributed liberally to the establishment of the Orphanage, which is maintained by an annual appropriation from the Grand Lodge of $3,500, and also by appropriations from other Lodges of the State a'nd from individuals. The Orphanage is under the management of Dr. W. C. Whitfield, of Wayne County. THE COLORED BAPTIST ASYLUM was established at Oxford by the colored Baptist denomination of the State, though pupils from other denomi- nations are received and cared for on equal terms. The objects and systems are similar to this in the other Orphanages. This institution has an annual appropriation from the State Treasury in aid of its private resources. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. As a })art of the machinery of the Department of Agriculture, Immi- gration and Statistics, at the session of the General Assembly of 1887 was established the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the supervision of a Commissioner, to be appointed by the Governor, who holds his office for two years at an annual salary of -^1,500. His duties are defined by the Act, as follows: He shall collect information jupon the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, their educational, moral and financial condition and tlie best means of promoting their mental, matt>rial, social and moi-al prosperity. He shall also make a full report to each session of the General Assembly of the information collected and collated by him and containing sucli recom- mendations as he may deem calculated to promote the efficiency of the bureau. The Commissioner is herebj^ directed to endeavor to obtain an accurate list of all the news- papers published in the State, and whether the same be published daily or weekly, and to forward to each and all a copy of his report promptly upon its being published; he is also directed to diligently enquire after the labor orgaTiizations of tlie .State and see tiiat none are omitte