The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1888-03-22
NORTH CAROLINA.
Its Attractions and Advantages.

eloquent a presentation OF the natural
advantages CT our State as that made
by President Battle at the recent Far
mers' Convention. 1t was a capital
speech, well delivered and well received
1t ought to be printed and circulated
over the United States and Europe by
the Board of Agriculture. | send a
brief and inadequate summary.
North Carolina has, as a farming
country, many extraordinary adran-
t2ges.
I, Range Of produCtions-the same
Is if the State stretched along the sea
coat from the Gulf of Mexico to New
York.
2. The climate-our average isother
nal is that ofSouth France, Florence,
! Yeddo. Dakota strange oftemperature
is los degrees +. in summer to 38 de-
grees below zero Kansas from 90 de-
gress to IS below; Indianapolis from
100 degrees to 22 degrees below zero ;
West Texas from 1o2 degrees to be-
low zero. In Pennsylvania and New
York farming operations are hlndered
about five months in winter.
3. North Carolina has no billiards,
and as the cold waves start from the
Northwest the telegraph gives our
people one or two days notice of their
| coming.
| 4. We have pure air and pure water
in most of the State and therefore good
health. With cistern water the Eastern
counties are also healthy.
s. North Carolina has comparative
freedom from drought. We have AZ
inches per annum Of rain, while Da-
kota has only 81, and West Texas only
IS, At FL Paso there were one year
only 11H inches and about one-third
of this fell in one month.
With deep ploughing and good cul-
tiyation we need not suffer from
drought.
6. Grasshoppers called locusts in
the Bible flourish where there is dry
land near rich vegetation. They will
always infect Kansas, etc, while North
Caralina is free from them.
7. We have good, orderly popula-
ton, composed of the best blood of
England, Germany, France. Highland
and Lowland Scotch, etc, who have
been in the State long enough to be-
come homogeneous. No religious de-
nomination is dominant. All are rep
resented.
8. Our geographical situation is ex-
cellent. The most civilized nations
with FAC, ooo, 900 Of people, with ten
thousand millions of dollars of imports
and exports per annum are clustered
around the North Atlantic. North
Carolina is on the water front of this
great lake of the nations.
9. AS the mountains opposite the
Southern Chesapeake have been recent
ly pierced by railroads the building of
great city somewhere on its waters is
in the near future. But even if the
prediction be not verified, New York
is now the second commercial city in
the world. On Manhattan Island alone
there were sixty-seven millions of dol
lars worth Of new buildings last year.
Counting Brooklyn, Jersey City and
other places, there are clustered here
already about two and three quarter
millions Of people, with wealth beyond
conception. Between here and New
York are other populous cities, rapidly
growing, SO that it will not be long
before the lands of North Carolina will
be adjacent to forty millions of non
producers. Farms in twenty-four hours
of New York should now be worth 500
per acre. They have not only the ad
vantage of a ready market for their
productions but they are in close prox-
: unity to the store houses and manu-
factories whence they get their aup-
plies,
What are the disadvantages ofNorth
Carolina?
l. The presence Of slavery excluded
men unaCCustomed or averse to thai
! institution. After the great civil war
the uncertainties Of Reconstruction anC
the bitterness Of party feeling have re
tArded the influx of Northern men. Il
will not be long beforethe disturbing
clements will have passed away.
?. Some unaCcustomed to Colored
labor do not Ike to settle where ne
groes are a large portion of the popu,
lation. To this there is a sufficient
answer-frst that many counties are
largely white and in the Eastern coun
ties the negro element is superior tc
that in the South, because for man,
years 1t had been the custom to sell t
that region the turbulent and vicious
slaves. And lastly, the proportion o
the colored must rapidly diminish, be
cause they have no accessions from i'm
migration.
Want OF schools is urged as an OBJ
} lection, but that does not result from
hostility on the part Of our people, bu
from sparseness OF population ant
poverty. When settlers come school
will spring up.
: 5. High railroad freight will disap
| pear when our farmers demand it. Tn
railroad companies will lower thei
rates from policy whenever farm pro
ducts increase in bulk.
i. All these objections to Mort
} Carolina are remediable. We con,