The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-03-07
North
Carolina

Granville, Casweil, Person. Orange
and. Forsythe weressthe great tobacco
counties, raising III 1870, 1,44J,09O
pounds, worth ten cents per pound, eX-
cept that of Orange. which was estima-
ted at nine cents. Chatham, Davidson,
Randolph and Guilford We're the prin-
cipal wheat counties. Guilford raised
the most oats, Irish potatoes and wool;
Mscklenburg the most corn: Wake the
most cotton and rice IS, 933 poundS,l
and Moore the most sweet potatoes.
4 Scotch gentleman residing in
Wake SAYS, half q bale is an average
crop, but two bales can be grown. and
every pound short OF this is short of a
full crop" This result can be obtained,
however, only by the judicious use of
fertilizers and the highest cultivation.
Bituminous coal beds of considera-
BILE extent exist on the Dan and Deep
rivers, the former similar to the Farm
vile and the latter to the Richmond
cOal-tields. One seam in Rockingham
and Stokes is four feet thick, but those
beds have been little explored. The
Deep river bed is much more ex-
t~ensive, and has been described by DIR.
Emmons and by Admiral Wilkes III a
report to the Secretary of the Navy in
1859. They state the coal to be OF the
best quality, we'll adapted to the man
ufacture of iron and gas, and ex-
tending over an area of more than
forty square miles containing more
than c, 5000, 900 tons to the squar mile.
The veins of iron are similar to those
described in Middle Virginia, and ira
verse North Carolina in the same man
ner. Its largest development is in
Chatham IN the neighborhood of the
coal, at Buckhorn, Lockville, Ore Hill.
Egypt, &c" Much of it is 1.-The
'~Blackband' iron, nearly resembling
that of Scotland Iron can be made
there to-day" writes Duncan Stewart
to the Hamilton (Scotland Advertiser.
'of a quality as good as No. 1 Gdrtsher-
RE at $40 per ton, currency value" A
second vein Of Specular, magnetic and
hematlte ores extends through Gull
ford. Randolph and>Montgomery, and
is also found in heavy veins along the
outcrop of the sandstone near the Dor
der of Piedmont, from Kings noun
tain. through CASTOR. Lincoln and Ca
tawba, to Stokes and Surry.
The latter is one of five or six paral-
lei belts of sandstone and Quartzite,
belonging to the older rocks, which
~traverSe the State ia a southwestern
direction, and in which are found vari-
Gus grades Of buildingstones. frestones
and grlndstones. One belt passes to
n east of Raleigh, one a few miles
west. and another through Orange.
randolph and Montgomery. In the
latter county the quartzite takes the
form of buhrstone. valuable for mill
stones. The bituminous states are
associated with the coal and, saws DIR.
Emnlons, from thirty to forty gallons
of crude kerosene oil exists In every
ton of these states. They are from fit
ty to seventy feet thick. and it is pro-
per to state, that it is q better oil than
Is furnished from coal"
In Wake county, under the sand
stone, are famous beds of graphite or
plumbago which have been worked to
d considerable extent. and which are
pronounced by DR.. Emmons and Prof.
Olmsted the most important known.
1t also occurs in the Catawba belt al
ready spoken of. In the Montgomery
and Chatham belts agalmatolite is de-
VelOpeu on a large scale. and in no
part OF the world Is it found in greater
purity or extent. It's uses in the arts
as a pigment, cosmetic, l~ubricator.
substitute for sOapStone. etc. are man
-AoA1. SAA ~ ISS OCC4l GAkDDiSGu To
Germany and New York for the man
ufacture Of fine porcelain. Barvtes
and manganese are both found in Ca
barruS and CASTOR, the former also
in Orange and M~ecklenburg. and the
latter in Catawba. Lincoln and Cald-
well. Tungsten occurs in Cabarrus.
The gold district proper extends
from Guilford, Randolph and Moore,
westward and southwestward 10 the
Blue Ridge, and includes these and the
intervening counties. The mines are
of precisely those OF California and
Colorado, and have been worked, gen
orally in a rude way, for sixty years,
yielding, with the adjoining counties
of South Carolina. up to June 20,
1874, gold, 81, 263, $50. II, silver,
81 az SO Tho aytanr ar
region embraced in these gold fields is
upUar1S Of five thousand SDlara m lies