The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-01-23

dy-Malaria, Chilis and Fever Caused
By the Drinking Water and Not the
Air We Breathe-With Pure Water
the Eastern Part of North Carolina
Would be as Healthy as any Other
Section.
Judge Walter Clark. in The Orphans
Friend.l
That is fair land, with broad and
fertile acres on which the sun first
shines, as its rays fall upon North Car
olina. There, many and navigable
streams are commercial arteries which
defy the burdens which corporation
exactions can place-upon shipments
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 ma
terial development has not been in
proportion to its manifest natural ad-
vantages. The towns are not large,
the manufacturing element is not con-
spicuous, its enterprising 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 Eastern North Car
olina as to the healthtulness of his
place of residence. His loyalty to his
town or neighborhood will cause him
to reply, in good faith: "There is no
healthier spot anywhere, but just a
little lower down." AS it is just
those sickly places ga little lower
/ down" prevent the immigration of
young active men from other sections
and hold back the development of
what is naturally one of the finest Sec
tions in the whole Union. And the
obstacles could be so easily removed!
Those who have travelled West and
South and made enquiries know that
the valleys of the White, the Wabash
and countless other rivers in the
Northwest were formerly in the homes
of deadly misasma and malaria. Now
they are almost free from it. In the
Mississippi bottoms in places where
formerly a white man could not safely
spend night, now white men reside
with immunity the year round. The
change is due to the fact that science
ascertained that malaria is not in the
air but it is embodied in the water.
Our State Board of Health took the
matter up, and proofs and demonstra-
tons that this is also true of Eastern
North Carolina will be found in the
very interesting report of that board
of 1894. 1t is there demonstrated
that driven wells of IS to 40 feet were
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
letters there published is on page 2o7,
from DR.. w. H. L. Goodman, OF
Franklin, Va. He states that when he
removed to that place in 1885 mala-
rial 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 popu-
lation has doubled and malaria is un-
known. The wells average 40 feet
deep and the temperature of the water
is 60 degrees. In letter since to the
writer of this he reiterates this state
ment, and adds that these are all over
flow wells, spouting up four feet above
the surface, the size of pipe two inches.
The water is light and can be drunk
in large quantities without any un-
pleasant results. The average total
cost of these wells is only 500. At
that place, about 90 feet below the
surface, hard sandstone is struck
which is IL to15 inches thick. Below
that, clay, black sand and finally white
sand are passed through by the borer,
when the overflowing 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 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 absolutely
as free ftom malaria as the tops Of our
grand old mountains in 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 10
the falls of the Tar, the Neuse, the
Cape Fear, etc.. (Which geologists say
, mark where the shore formerly stood, y
between this artesisn belt and these
. foot hills, deep wells of $50 to goo
feet can be sunk cheaply by the ma
chinery now used for that purpose.
The water will not overflow as in the
: artesian belt but when the proper
strata is struck the water will rise to
within a few feet OF the surface and Car
be pumpted up. This is the result in
the valleys of the rivers of the North
west and West where the artesian Of
overflow wells are rare, in the cane
brake region of Alabama and in many
other places, and the water has prover
as healthy as that of the overflow wells
1t has made every community using it.
free from malaria. There is not :
spot between the falls Of rivers and tn.
ocean shore line where one class or th'
other of these wells cannot be pu
in. Special machinery is built for th'
v purpos-, and throughout the Northwes,
:, West, and Southwest it is a Tegula