The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-02-28

Another View Of Eastern North
Carolina.
ST. MARTINS, WORCESTER Co., Md.
Feb. 21st, 1878.
Hon. l.. l.. Polk,
DEAR SIR:-Havlng just returned
from a four weeks visit in Pamlico
county, | find your third report on
the industrial progress of your De-
partment, which you were SO kind
to send me, and which | have read
with much pleasure. | know Of
no State in this broad Union where
nature has lavished her benefactions
more profusely, or diversified her
gifts to man more literally, than
the Old North State. For twenty
six years past | have been crossing
her soil in some direction-frst
bv your commercial emporium,
Wilmington, to the Gulf States of
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi;
and then along the eastern range of
counties bordering on the Able
marie and Pamlico sounds and the
Atlantic ocean,. In climate, soil,
productions and SANITARY condl-
tons, few, if any n of 3S
States, furnish more to interest the
intelligent mind, or reward the eff
forts of well directed labor and en-
terprise. And vet her citizens are
dubbed poverty-stricken Tarheels,
and the State chiefly known as the
land of pines, tar kilns and naval
stores generally.
That there is a great deal of in
ertness and depression bearing
heavily upon her population few
will deny: but all right thinking
minds must admit the ordeal
through which she has past in the
last Is years vas enough to sink any
State less fertile in than
North Carolina.
But there is a brighter sky be-
vond those clouds in the near flu
ture, and North Carolina ought to
be in condition to meet the first
returning wave of prosperity and
so pass on to certain wealth, as
Shakespeare has it. 1t is not my
province to make any suggestions
in this behalf, we'll knowing as | do,
that the people of North Carolina
have brain enough to know AID to
do.
During the few years | have been
operating in Pamlico county | have
removed from Md. to n. c. 60 per-
sons in number, all there now and
more will soon follow. They are
about equally divided in farming
and numbering. Also at the begin
ming of this year Is families compos-
ing 10 souls in all, removed from
Hyde county over OF my lands where
they all reside in houses built for
them. These people are very poor,
and destitute Of even the ne~cessarles
Of life, but are willing to work. They
say HYDE made a failure last year.
on account of rain and tide water,
and a large part of the county is
still under water. A few years ago
| passed through that county and
was told that no lands could be
bought at less that 800 per acre;
now many are selling out in Hyde
and moving to Pamlico county
where. | think the lands are fully
equal, if not superior, in fertility
and not subject to inundation by
tides, and with a better watershed
for the rainfall.
The %turpentine in Eastern North
Carolina is about exhausted, and
the reclamation and cultivation of
those vast bodies of swamp lands,
peculiar to that section of the State,
engrosses the efforts and capital of
the people. These swamps are very
rich IN organic matter and produce
from 90 to IS bushels corn per acre,
and 300 to 500 pounds lint cotton
per acre, and other products in pro-
portion. Besides, mari of mex
haustlble supply and great fertili-
ENG quality underlies this whole
region, IN some places cropping out
aC the surface, and in others from
n to five feet below.
10 reclaim these swamps requires
considerable amount Of capital in
The shape of labor, and the effort
must be well seasoned with decis-
sion OF purpose, mingled with a
good degree of patience for three or
lou years-and then the reward is
sure, certain and continuous for
many consecutive years. A gen.