The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-01-27
FIELD FOR CAPITAL.
The Inducements In North Car
olina--T Water PoWe-
or, and Cotton for Manufac-
tories.


or, and Cotton for Manufac-
/ tories.
North Carolina is probably the be.
timbered State In the world. | mea
that from it seaboard to its western limi
its $4,000 square miles probably contain
a greater abundance and variety of goot
timber than any other region ofthe lik
extent. All the trees found in tn,
United State east of the Mississippi grow
there and attain large sizes. Some o
its eastern timber has long been usec
for ship building, and Of late some oi
its walnut and other trees are being
sent to Philadelphia to be manufactur-
ed into furniture and returned to our
people at handsome profit To the max
er5. Last summer | saw In the streets
Of Asheville many vehicles which had
4 been made In the Wisconsin and sent a
thousand miles and sold to our citizens
And yet in Buncombe and the adjoin
ing counties there is growing IN great
abundance walnut, cherry, maple, hick-
ory, and all other kinds of hard wood,
as we'll as white pine, balsam fir, &c.
There are trees of black walnut, three
and four feet In diameter, which are
without limbs sixty and eighty feet
from the ground. Oaks, poplars, or
tulip trees, as well as chestnuts, are
sometimes twenty and even thirty feet
in circumference.
Within two miles of Asheville there
is more available water power than the
Merrimac affords at Lowell. Why,
then should not some of your citizens
who have money to invest erect an es-
tablishment and make furniture for the
Southern States? As one railroad
reached Asheville last year, and two
others will probably get there during
the present year, this furniture could
be conveniently sent to all parts of the
country.
A competent engineer at my request
made an estimate OF the cost of dam
and race sufficient to carry the greater
part of the Frencc Broad River so as to
afford fall of at least sixteen feet
This river has at Ashevile probably
twice as much water as the Merrimac
at Lowell, and yet he said it would be
available at cost ten thousand dollars.
dffaGc dffacinfihg ignh2hgo t6Wfn. fl As the river is not
liable to be frozen, as those in New
Eng land are, and as cotton Is near, and
therefore rather cheaper than at the
North, such an enterprise would proba-
bly, turn out to be very profitable, as
many kinds of manufacturing could be
carried on. AS both iron and timber
are convenient. | have often thought
that this would be the best location for
arge factories to make railroad cars, as
N IL L, al II
also ought to be remembered that pro-
visions and labor are much cheaper
than in New England.
may add that the tobacco trade,
which is building up such towns as
Durham and Winston, is now helping
Asheville.
You will observe that the census
shows an increase in North Carolina of
about thirty-three per cent, which is
up to the average increase of the United
States for the last ten years. | observe
also that there are only ten of the
States ahead of North Carolina In the
number of cotton factories, she stand |
ing as the eleventh on the list. All
the factories in the State are, think,
making handsome dividends.
The chief reason why we have not
more factories is that, all the surplus
money in the State having been lost
during the war, though we have great
ly improved, yet the accumulation Of
capital has as yet not been sufficient for
investment in manufacturing to any ex-
tent. The false statements published
about our people for party purposes
have tended to deter emigrants from
going into our State Though loo, 90
persons, propable from the North, have
been in our State since the war, l have
no reason to believe that any one of
them has been molested or treated with
inciyiity in our borders, and few who
settled among US are doing well.
[ have sou etimes said that if some
one would publish statement that,
owing to the extreme wickedness of the
Southern people, the sun for the last
fifteen years had refused to shine on
any Of these States, and that the peo
pie cultivated their farms only by the
aid Of tallow candles and pine torches,
he would cap the climax, though such
statement would not be more absolutely
false than some that have been pub
lished yet it would be more strlklngly
so and as no one could beat it, the III
ventive genius of the manufacturers OF
fal.ehood need not be further taxed.
The right to express opinion on all
subjects, to vote as one pleases, and all
other rights of person and property, are
as well secured and exercised as freely
in North Carolina as in any other State
of the Uniop-and have been SO ever
since the close Of the war.-T L. Cling
man, IN Neao York Sun.