Connecticut western news., 1878-02-14
NORTH CAROLINA LETTER,
NUMBER II.

EDITOR NRws:-I have travelled some years in this state, and honestly think North Carolina will in time, be one of the Garden spots of the United States. With plenty of the best farming lands, and good cli- mate, nearly all the small grains grown in the country can be raised with very little trouble and expense, and like Connecticut, always have more or less of a crop each season. Apples, peaches. plums and grapes grow abundantly in localities, and directly on the coast t s mature finely.
 The principal crops raised are cotton. to- bacco, corn, wheat, and sweet potatoes Cotton is raised mostly Tn the eastern and middle sections of the state. Tobacco from Warren and Granville counties, west to the mountains. The latter county pro duces very fine grade of tobacco. and it brings high prlce. The tobacco raised is of ,a different quality than your Connec- ticut seed leaf. The leaf is small and takes its color from the soil. A brownIsh sandy soil produ es tobacco of a beautiful golden color, which commands when properly cured. fancy prices. and is generally used as wraEpers tor plug tobacco for the for eign and southern markets; and it IS also manufactured extensively into 8 brigh: smoking tobacco for same markets. 1n that section ot the state and Orange county there are many factories and warehouses where the tobacco is manufactured and shipped to other markets. Fortunes have been, made handling the article, and some goode,zed villages sprung up. Durham is one of them, and is known over the world. It has many factories and ware houses, and some do an extensive business. The we'll known firm of w. T. Blackwell & Co is located there. Mr. Blackwell is one ot the original manufacturers of the celebrat- ed Durham Bull" smoking tobacco. They do a business of about million dollars a a year, receive orders from nearly all sec tlOns of the world where good smoking to- bacco is used; and their production is con sidersd by goou judges of ''tne weed" the best tobacco for everyday smoking manu- factured.
 Not much plug tobacco is manufactured LII butS oSoSCO NhBAulo to0S0 ShO AS0A hA1 thaL arlicIe, but Quantities of it are manu- factured trum North Carolina tobacco.
 Wheat grows we'll throughout the state. The farmers in the middle and western D rts give it more attention than in the eastern section. Oats grow well, also corn and sweet potatoes. Hyde and aujulning counties on the coast are the great corn counties of the stale. Thousands of bush els are annually raised aud sold to the smaller cities further south. The lands in those counties are mostly rich sw mp lands. and I an informed w,ll averag. from thirty to fi,ly bushels of corn to tue acis in a good season. The quality of corn raised is similar to the western; large whit corn, and lhe stalks grow quite large. Corn iD the South is planted Une stalk in hill, the hills about four feet apart, and early in the fall the leaves and tops of stalks are cut off, bound up in small bundles, and is about all (wilh httie cOrn) that the mules, horses and stock are fed on. Very little hay is raised. Farmers give It no attention. 1 notice they fight grass in their fields same as the Connecticut farmers do Canaua this ties. and frequently pay large prices for northern hay, when they can wllh ease get three crops ot clover and other glasses each season. More anon. $.