The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-08

at Wilmington and Chadbourn, North
Carolina strawberries are the first to go
in great quantity to the North. Some,
of course, come from further South, but
the great season for these berries opens
with the North Carolina crop, which
comes along in succession northward on
the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
The strawberries are sent about
the same time as the early cab
bage crop, which covers many
hundreds of acres, and then the
great crops of garden peas and early
Irish potatoes make traffic by rail and
water lively for weeks, followed by the
cucumbers and melons and beans, after
which the truckers in that favored re-
gion have plenty of time to grow large
CROPS of corn and COW peas for feeding
stock The advantage which the warm
soil and long summer give in the coast
plain can hardly be realized by those un-
acquainted with the region. After the
early truck crops are sold, the farmer
can as we have said, raise corn or peas
but if he simply let's his land lie he gets
luxuriant crop of hay from the crab
grass, which is equal to the best timothy
of the North when cut at the right stage.
Bulb Culture.
Another important interest in the
eastern coast plain is the production or
bulbs for the Northern florists to use in
winter forcing. About Magnolia and
few other points on the Atlantic Coast
Line Railroad the tube rose grows as it
grows nowhere else, and this section
now supplies the markets of the North
and of England for these bulbs, millions
of them being sent out every spring
Lately other bulbs and tubers have been
grown largely. such VAS caladiums, can
mas and gladiolus, and there is every
prospect that the millions of dollars
worth of lilies that are now imported
from Bermuda will be grown here. Won
derful as is the capacity of the coast
plain for horticultural products, it is be-
coming no less famous for the crops of
bright tobacco that are being produced
there. This culture, formerly confined to
the northern counties along the Virginia
border, has of late years grown into
larger proportions in the east and bids
fair to become there the great farm crops
along with the peanuts, for which tnat
section has long been famous. In fact
the catalogue of the products that the
coast country can grow with profit would
make this article too long.
The Sand Hill Fruit Region.
Beginning near the Cape Fear river
near Fayetteville there is range of
sandy rolling uplands long covered with
a vast forest of the long leaf pine. Vita
the clearing of the timber it was thought
the land was utterly worthless. But
Northern invalids were attracted by the
dry soil and mild winter climate, and
the towns of Southern Pines and Pine
hurst grew up. Many Northern people
found that they could live at Southern
Pines and they made homes there. Nat
urally they wished to grow something
Then it was discovered that the sandy
soil would grow grapes of remarkably
fine quality, and the business attained
commercial Importance. More recently
it has been found that other fruits are
equally at home on the sand hills. es-
pecially the peach, and now the peach
interest is the great one in that section
and bids fair to rival the great Georgia
peach sectionA
The Cotton Country.
While the coast plain is naturally the