Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-09-27
I'll PINE COUNTRY.
Value Ofthe Pine Regions Of the
Atlantic Coast Of Tia South
erm States.
FIRM the GALAXY for october.l

fr0m the galaxy Tor October.l
Along the eastern coast Of North Caro-
lima, from the Virginia line, on the north
to the South Carolina line, on the south
stretches a remarkable belt Of country
1t is from forty to fifty miles wide b,
two hundred long, and comprises abou
a fifth of the whole area of the State
Although within forty-eight hours o
New York by rail, and three days by sea
this region is, perhaps, less known thar
the eastern slope Of the Rocky Mountains
just opened to the world by the Pacific
Railway. Yet within the extended lin.
its of these United States there is. per
haps, no tract Of country which offers 4
more comfortable home 10 the emigrant
or a more profitable Investment to the
capitalist
Following the sinuosities of the coast
it has a waterfront of several hundred
miles, protected from the violence of the
ocean BY a chain of islands, portions Of
which are suited to the culture of sea.
Island co ton, and the whole admirably
adapted to the growth of the grape. The
mainland Is penetrated by numerous short
rivers, deeper than the sounds into which
they empty, and, therefore, sluggish in
their flow; and furnishing, with their
branches, 3 complete system of canals
useful for transportation and drainage.
and excelled only by the canals Of
Holland.
This tract Of country comprises the
counties Of Currituok, Camden, Pasauo-
tsnek, Gates, Hartford, Northampton.
Halifax, BERTHE, Chowan, Perquimons,
Tyrrel, Washington, Martin, Edgecomb.
Pitt, Beaufort, Hyde, Craven, Greene,
Lenoir, Jones, Carteret, Onslow, Duplin,
New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus,
and Bladen. Thirteen of these counties
are trSersed by railways, bringing them
within fOrty-eight hours of New York.
Twelve Of them lie upon AlbemarIe and
PamllcO sounds; and so numerous are the
estuarles setting back from, and the
rivers flowing into these sounds, that
there Is scarcely q farm which might not
have its own wharf, and be its own port
of entry. The ports Of Washington,
N~ewbern, Beaufort, and Wilmington
forward the products of these counties to
New York by steamers in three or four
days. By means Of the Dismal Swamp
Canal, thirteen of these counties have
easy and frequent communication with
Norfolk. You will look on the map of
the United States in vain for any region
Of country, equal in extent, with superior
facilities for sending its products to
market. So great is this advantage
that the farmer Of Chowan, BERTHE, or
Hyde gets seventy-fve cents a bushel
for his corn when his brother of Illinois
and Iowa gets but thirty.
But the sounds and rivers of eastern
North Carolina are full of many varieties
of excellent fish, which are taken in vast
numbers, as many as two hundred thou
sand herring having been brought to
shore at one haul in a seine twenty FIVE
hundred yards long. Oysters, turtle, and
terraPin abound; mullet, shad, bass, and
many other choice varieties of fish, are
caught in great quantities, the water
teeming with an in~exhaustible supply of
kind Of food. Nor is game less
abundant. A getleman we'll acquainted
with the country writes
There are ducks of various kinds, Of
the canvas-back is the most
esteemed; geese and swans, which con
gregate in numbers exceeding all coneep-
ton Of any person who has not been
informed. They are often so numerous
entirely to cover acres of the surface
Of the water, so that observers from the
beach would only see ducks and no water
between them. These great collections
ire termed traits" The shooting sea
commences in autumn and continues
through the winter. The returns in
game killed and secured through any
certain time TO . skilful, patient, and
enduring gunner, are as sure as the
Of any labor of agriculture and
rade, and far larger profits for the capt.
and labor employed. The following
particular facts l learned from the per-
onal knowledge of a highly respectable
Gentleman and proprietor on Currituck
sound. The shooting, as a business, on
lis shores, Is done only by gunners
tired by himself and for his own profit.
nd who are paid a fixed price for every
owl delivered to him, according to its
ind, from the smallest or least-prized
pecies Of ducks to the rare and highly
swan. He has employed thirty
unners through the winter. He pro-
and charges for all the ammunition
hey require, which they pay for out of
heir wages. In this way he can tell
xactly how much ammunition he issues.
nd 1t may be presumed the gunners do
OF waste 1t unnecessarily at their own
In this manner, and for his
En gunners and his own premises only, 1
n winter he used more than a ton Of {
unpOwder, and shot in proportion, and '
thousand percussion caps. From
lis expenditure along the shore of one i
rye farm only, there may be formed a /
inception of the immensely of the opera s
ons and the results along the shores
ltending for full one hundred and Fifty '
lies, and on all of which the same e
is regularly pursued" a
But man does not live by fish and S
wi alone; and the object of this articR t
not to tell the sportsman that on the B
stern shore of the Old North State he q
n find abundant food for his powder in T
me of every variety, from the quail to t
e stag of ten; and that though all a
~ not be fish that comes to his net, it P
all be good, either to boil, broil, or O.
?. The land which these numerous p
unds, rivers and bays, not only bring tt
thin easy access to = market, but also b
dow with a picturesque beauty rarely q
yields to the farmer a most
return for the labor which he /
slows upon it. 1t is worthy of con- a
le%ration, too. when comparing this e1
,ion with others, that the soil, once al
spared for cultivation, is so mellow 81
] friable, that one man with a mule IN
! till as much ground as a man and a an
7 with a yoke of oxen viii do at the in
est; while the expense for agricultural an
plements of every kind is less than in
f clay soils. fa
In 1867, General Gwynn, one of the II
st eminent and experienced civil su
in the United States, and who lei