Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-07-12
EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
BY JUDGE WALTER CLARK, IN ORPHANS
FRIEND.

and fertile acres on WHICH lnC
sun first shines as its rays fall
upon North Carolina. There,
many and navigable streams are
commercial arteries which defy
the burdens which corporation
exactions can place upon ship
ments from less favored regions.
For no section of the State, or
indeed of the whole republic, has
nature done more. But it must
be confessed that its material de-
velopment has not been i'll pro-
portion to it's manifest natural
advantages. The towns are not
large, the manufacturing element
is not conspicuous, its enterpris-
ing young men too often remove
towards the setting sun, and few
come from elsewhere to build UP
fortunes and prosperity IN this
highly favored region.
The reason is obvious. Ask
any man at random in Eeastern
North Carolina as to the health
fitness of his place of residence.
His loyalty to his town or his
neighborhood will cause him to
reply, in good faith. "There is
no healthier spot anywhere, but
lust a little lower down.,
And it is just those sickly places
"a little lower down" which pre-
vent the immigration of young,
active men from other sections
and hold back the development
of what is naturally one of the
finest sections in the whole
Union. And the obstacles could
be so easily removed! Those
who have travelled West and
South and made inquiries know
that the valleys of the White, the
Wabash ara countless other
rivers i'll the Northwest were
formerly in the homes of deadly
miasma and malaria. Now they
are almost free from it. In the
Mississippi bottoms in places
where formerly a white MAN
could not with safety spend a
night, now white men reside
with immunity the year round.
The change is due to the fact
that science ascertained that ma
laria is not in the air but it is EN- =
bodied in the water.
Our State Board of Health
took the matter up, and proofs
and demonstrations that this is
also true of Eastern North Caro-
lima will be found in the very i'm
teresting report of that board for
1894. 1t is there demonstrated
that driven wells of IS to 40 feet
were a great benefit to those who
could not bear the expense of
deep wells, while artesian and
deep wells were a sure remedy.
One of the most interesting let
tiers there published is Oh page
2o7, from DR.. w. H. L. Good
man, of Franklin, Va. He states
that when he removed to that
place in 1885 ,nalarial troubles
were prevalent In 1887 the
first artesian we'll was put down,
with an immediate improvement
in health, and now the town has
twenty-five wells, averaging
each a flow of fifteen gallons per
minute and over 100000 gallons
per day. The population has
doubled and malaria is unknown.
The wells average I4o feet deep
and the temperature of the water
is 60 degrees. In letter since
to the writer of this he reiterates
this statement, and adds that
these are all overflow wells,
spouting up four feet above the
surface, the size of pipe two inch
es. The water is light and can
be drunk in large quantities
without any unpleasant results.
The average total cost OF these
wells is only 500. At that place,
about 90 feet below the surface, a
hard sandstone is struck which is
IL to IS inches thick. Below
that, clay, black sand and finally
white sand are passed through by
the borer, when the OVERLOOKING
stream of living water, pure and
health giving is found.
While the particular strata at
any given place, or the depth at
which water may be found, may
differ, there is no doubt a belt
more or less wide, on our ocean
front clear across our State in
which these chief overflow wells
can be put in by little enter
prise, rendering such belt abso-
lutely as free from malaria as the
tops OF our grand old mountains
i'll the West, which are gilded by
the rays of the uprising and the
setting sun. Between this belt,
where artesian wells can be put
in, and the foot hills which
stretch along from the falls of
the Roanoke to the falls of the
Tar, the Neuse, the Cape Fear
etc, (Which biologists say mark
where the shore formerly STOOD
between this artesian belt and