The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-10-28

Baltimore Special to Charlotte obse

Baltimore Special to Charlotte Obse--
ver.)
Typical OF what may be termed
pioneer development work in many
parts OF the south is the activity in rail-
road extension into the virgin forests
OF West Virginia centering in Pocahon-
tas county. This activity Is due prin-
cipally TO the large timber
and already the advance has been
wonderful. Describing IL, a correspon-
dent OF The Manufacturers Record
says:
Vast tracts OF timber, logging camps
planning mills and saw mills are in full
operation, turning out millions OF feet
Of lumber that find ready market 1T
good prices in all the cities OF the east
and north. Nearly every station has
It's saw mill, stores and neat. new resi-
dences, while along the line have
sprung W within the year thrifty viii
lagos and incorporated towns where
money seems plentiful and employment
abundant at good wages. No able
bodied man who wants to work need be
idle.
Certain valuable timber is more or
less localized. From Renick in Green
brier county to near Glover Lick in Po-
cahontaS, a distance of about 30 miles
the white oak seems to abound in great
er' quantities than other hard woods.
1t is found low on the mountain slopes,
while on higher ground in the same 10
cality the red oak is found in album
dance. There also aboundS here and as
far up as CaSS chestnut n chestnut
oak with a liberal mixture Of bass wood.
! From Cass up the river to Durbin the
higher attitudes are encountered with
| hemlock in great abundance and with
| spruce still higher. Think of a spruce
| forest stretching in length 45 miles and
in average breadth seven miles and
standing so dense that it appears a vast
| mass of dark green waving tops, as far
as the eye can reach. Pocahontas coun-
ty alone has forests that cover 80 per
cent. of it's entire area and this area
is % by 73 miles"
Through these timbers is being push
| ed an ever increasing network of rail
ways, short lines or tramways connect
ing the various logging camps with the
main lines of railway and in the towns
have been established ~tanneries ~
other industries directly or indirectly
dependent upon lumber.
To get capital to come south was fol
4 ID loItS lIflC q dilAASolS NASNSA 1850
| much more difficult to induce a move
| ment of settlers in that direction. Blu
preceded by manifestations quite sim
| liar to those accompanying the peoplins
| of the west, 60 and 20 years g tn
| southwark movement is now in fui
swing and the S~eed--Sowing of many
years is beginning to make rich har
vests. Reviewing the earlier stage:
and the experiences of earlier emigrant:
to the south, Mr.. NJ. V. Richards, O.
the Southern Railway, who has beef
active in cultivating Southern immigra'
ton, is quoted in this weeks issue o
The Manufacturers Record as follows
Pioneers they certainly were, anC
very generally in the same financla
condition of the pioneers who made pos
sible the creation of the mighty west
Some of them succeed and some faile1
but back in the north and west whence
they came the failures were promptly
widely heralded, while not so much wa
heard about the successes. After /:
while. though, the story of the men wh'
had come south, often with no capita
but brains and Drawn, was told n
home, at first with some scepticism
since there was still a Discrimination t.
believe that any good could come out o
the south. But now. these reports ar
being everywhere accepted. Men ar
saying if John Doe could go south am
succeed surely we can do so. But 1t l
not alone farmers who are moving thi
way in great numbers. Timber buyers
lumber operators, pleasure seekers VIII
have a competence and who want no!
to make a permanent home in a sector
having such a genial climate as that @
much Of the south, and many others ar