The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-06-02
Western North Carolina Railroad
COmDauY.


fertile mountain districts of the western part
of the State. 1t commences at Salisbury
and runs west and south to the Tennessee
State line, in the county of Cherokee. 1t
passes through the counties of Rowan, Ire
dell, Catawba, Burke, Mcdowell, Buncombe,
Haywood, Macon, Clay, Jackson and Chero.
kee, with a branch from Asheville down the
French Broad through Madison county to
Paint Rock. The great object of this road,
by its founders, was to give to those people
an outlet to market No part of the State
possesses so great variety of soil, produc-
tions and climate. The productions are
wheat, corn, rye, oats, Irish and sweet pota-
toes, fruit, sorghum, peas, tobacco, cotton,
wool, flax, hay, butter and cheese. The
timber is maple, oak, hickory, ash, walnut,
chestnut, pine, locust and poplar. And the
minerals are iron, marble, gold, silver, cop
per and lime Thus it will be seen, that
this part of the State has great demands for
means of rapid and commodious communi-
cation.
Since this road was chartered great
changes have taken place in this coun-
try which will not only benefit this road,
but call for its rapid completion. The first
change is the Pacific railroad. The
Union Pacific railroad is now COM
pleted, but it cannot answer the
demands of the country. The local
trade of the States and territories must keep
the road busy. To this add the trade of the
Western coast and that from China, Japan
and India and one line of road cannot do
the business. The Union road cannot Law
new track without nearly as great cost as
it took to make the road in the first place,
owing to the fact that the grades and curves
through the mountains are so great. At
some points the grade is 116 feet to the
mile, and the curves are from 500 to 700
feet radius. During the last winter the
Union Pacific road was closed for several
weeks by the snow, and this will never do, as
the Pacific road must be military and post
road, and in case of war, either foreign or
domestic, the government would be in
very unfortunate position, with her troops
snow bound In the Rocky Mountains These
and many other reasons have convinced the
general government that new road to the
Pacific must be built at the earliest possible
day, and the road must be a Southern line
There are three points where it is proposed
to strike the Mississippi river-Memphis,
Vicksburg and New Orleans. The latter
point is out of the question, as road can
not be built so near the coast without great
expense, and there is no good reason why it
should go to New Orleans. The great OBJ
ject is to reach the Atlantic ocean. This
must be done East of Florida, thus saving
the 1900 miles which would have to be
overcome should it strike either New
Orleans, Mobile or Pensacola.
In going East, let us look for harbor
that will draw direct trade, and hold it
against all competitors. Neither Florida,
Georgia nor South Carolina can do this.
One thing must be kept in view-that is,
that no aid will be given by the general
government to build the roads east of the
Mississippi river. Hence the lines that are
now completed or can be completed with as
little cost as possible, will control the east
ern termini. This excludes Florida. Sc
vaunah and Charleston have not sufficient
depth of water, while Brunswick and Port
Royal have no railroads. The harbor, then,
that stands pre-emiuently ahead of all 9TH
ers is Norfolk. Then Memphis or Vicks-
burg must and will be the point of connec-
ton, we think Memphis; but in either case
twill be seen by glancing at the map that
the W. N. G. R. R. Company must haul
this freight over the entire length of their
road. If the point is at Memphis the road
must tap the Memphis and Charleston road
near Chattanooga, and the line is complete
and direct. The East Tennessee and Geor-
gia Railroad cannot compete with the W.
N. G. Railroad because the former has no
direct communication with Norfolk The
same will he the case should the terminus
be at Vicksburg. for they would compete
with the air line from Atlanta, by the con-
nectien south from Chattanooga. No State
is so much interested or will receive more
direct benefit by the building of the South
ern Pacific Railroads than North Carolina
The next change that has taken place
since the road was chartered is the emancipa-
ton of the slaves, thus breaking up the large
plantations into small farms. This calls
into the State good farmers with men of
capital. Let us see what inducements the
country through which this road passes
holds out to settlers and what will be the
amount of local trade that will be brought
over this road. We have taken the pro-
ducts of the twelve counties through which
this road passes. In these twelve counties
there is population of 92,625. The num-
Der of acres of improved land is $4,000; of
unimproved land, 2,76S,955, acres, which is
but 81 acres per head of improved land and
2sS acres per head of unimproved land.
Then there are several hundred thousand
acres belonging to the State that do not
come into this calculation. There are but
1914 farms. The yearly crops are as fol-
lows: Corn. oats and rye, $3,212,S62; po-
tatoes, s4s2, 900 peas and beans, $4,000;
butter, $26,2sO hay, $7e9,5OO; cotton,
SS16,75O; fruit, $4,000; flax, s64,25O;
wheat, s459,Oe9 tobacco, $111, 900; wool,
s112,5Co; hay and beeswax, s6s,375. The