Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-02-18
THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF
NORTH CAROLINA.
Address by President X. Il. Battle, oft Q
Sintc University, Before the Farmers
Convention ut Greensboro.
Correspondence of the Raleigh Observer.

advantages OF our State as that made by
President Battle at the recent Farmers
Convention. 1t was a capital speech,
well delivered and well received. 1t
ought to printed and circulated over the
United States and Europe by the Board
of Agriculture. send very brief and
inadequate summary:
''North Carolina has, as farming
country, many extraordinary advant-
ages.
81. Range of productions-th same
as if the State stretched along the sea-
coast from the Gulf of Mexico to New
York.
''2. The cllmate-Our average isother-
NAL is that of South France, Florence,
YeddO. Dakota's range of temperature
is 105 degrees +. in summer to So de-
greeS below zero; Kansas from 90 degrees
to % below; indianapolis from 100 de-
grees to % degrees below zero; West
Texas from 1902 degrees to below zero.
In Pennsylvania and New York farming
operations are hindered about five months
in winter.
"3 North Carolina has no billiards.
and as the cold waves start from the
northwest, the telegraph gives our peo-
pie one or two days notice of their
coming
"a. We have pure air and pure water
i'll most of the State, and therefore good
health. With cistern water the eastern
counties are also healthy.
''5. North Carolina has comparative
freedom from drought. We have AZ
inches per annum of rain, while Dakota
has only 81, and West Texas only 1S.
At vi Paso there were one year only
II 1-2 inches, and about one-third of this
fell in one month.
"With deep ploughing and good cul-
tivation we need not suffer from
drought.
''6. Grasshoppcrs (called locusts in the
Bible) flourish where there is dry land
near rich vegetation. They will always
infect Kansas, etc. while North Carolina
is free from them.
81 We have good, orderly popula-
ton, composed of the best blood of Eng
land, Germany, France, Highland and
Lowland Scotch, ETC., who have been in
the State long enough to become homo
geneous. No religious denomination is
dominant. All are represented.
''S. Our geographical situation is ex-
cellcnt. The most civilized nations, with
240, 900, 0e0 of people, with ten thousand
million dollars of imports and exports
per annum are clustered around the
North Atlantic. North Carolina is on
the water r-front of this great lake of the
nations
SO. As the mountains opposite the
Southern Chesapeake have been recently
pierced by railroads, the building of
great city somewhere on its waters is in
the near future. But even if the predic-
ton be not verified, New York is now
the second commercial city in the world
On Manhattan Island alone there were
siXty-seven millions Of dollars worth of
new buildings last year Counting Brook
lyn, Jersey City and other places, there
are clustered here already about two aud
three-quartcr millions of people, with
wealth beyond conception. Between
here and New York are other pOpulous
cities, rapidly growing, 50 that it will
not DC long before the lands of North
Carolina will be adjacent to forty mil
liDIN VI lHS III tMtHtl-
four hours of New York should now be
worth 500 per acre. They have not
only the advantage of ready market for
their productions, but they are in close
proximity to the storehouses and manu-
factories whence they get their supplies
''What are the disadvantages of North
Carolina?
81. The presence of slavery excluded
men unaccustomed or avcrse to that in
stitution. After the great civil war the
uncertainties of Reconstruction and the
bitterness of party feeling have retarded
!hc influx of Northern men. 1t will not
be long before these disturbing elements
will have passed away.
80 Some unaccustomed to colorcd
labor do not like to settle where negroes
are large portion of the population. To
this there is "a sufficient answer-first.
that many counties are largely white,
and in the eastern counties the negro ele-
ment is superior to that in the South,
becarse for many years it had been the
custom TO sell TO that region the turbu-
lent and vicious slaves. And lastly, the
proportion of the colOred must rapidly
diminish, because they have no accessions
from immigration.
''Want of schools is urged as an OBJ
lection, but that does not result from
hostility on the part Of our people, but
from sparsencss of population and pow
crty. When settlers come schools will
spring up.
"3. High railroad freight will disap-
pear when our farmers demand it. The
railroad companies will lower their rates
from policy whenever farm products in
crease in bulk.
a. All these objections TO North Car
oliua are rcmcdiable. We come lastly to
the most serious, viz. that our lands are
not naturally fertile.n
As TO this, President Battle contendcd
that If our lands are not naturally rich,
they are cheap and easily made rich, so
that the total cost will be only ne-half
or one-third Of the cost Of land at the
same distance from New York in any
other direction. He quoted from letter
of friend in Kansas City TO the effect
that the lands in Western Missouri and
Eastern Kansas brings thirty to sixty