The Bulletin. 15 



Corn is the most valuable crop and the advances from selecting seed 

 and applying culture have been great, the amount per acre having ad- 

 vanced 12.8 bushels per acre in 1900 to 20.3 in 1914. 



The Black Lands of Eastern North Carolina. 



These embrace several thousand square miles, and when drained 

 produce corn at an astonishing rate as to quantity and cost of produc- 

 tion. When the lands are drained, in the fall or winter the land is 

 cut over broadcast, for about seven dollars per acre. In March this 

 land is burned over and in April a man will take a "hand spike" and 

 throw the partially burned logs in the most convenient position for 

 his purpose; then with a small bag or pocket full of corn, he will go 

 over the field about as corn rows would be run, and making holes with 

 the spiJce about 18 inches apart, drop two grains of corn, which he 

 covers with his foot. This is called a stuck crop. Nothing more is 

 done except keep the weeds and sprouts down. The corn will fre- 

 quently make 100 to 150 bushels per acre, and 25 to 40 bushels of soja 

 beans additional. Often the stuck crop of corn will pay for the purchase 

 money and clearing of the land and producing of the crop. 



This seems to my audience as a wonderful statement, but I speak 

 that I do know and testify that I have seen, and any one who doubts can 

 have doubts removed by visiting this section in August next. 



The Sawd Hills. 



This is also a noted section of the State, embracing several hundred 

 square miles in the counties of Moore, Cumberland, Richmond and some 

 adjoining counties. It has from earliest times been regarded as the 

 poorest part of the State and the equal in poverty of any part of the 

 earth. The atmosphere of the piuey woods (the long leaf pine covered 

 the country) was found beneficial to persons suffering with pulmonary 

 diseases. Resorts were erected, the attention of men of wealth was 

 attracted to the country and large hotels were built, also cottages or 

 dwellings by individuals. 



The land is fine for grapes, peaches and plums, and large orchards 

 are cultivated, some of several hundred acres in extent. Then followed 

 experiments in agriculture which have been a revelation ; with applica- 

 tions of properly prepared fertilizer the land yields fifty or more bushels 

 of corn or a bale of cotton to the acre. The country grows burr and 

 German clover, rye and vetch, which are all valuable crops for land 

 improvement and furnish in addition fine winter pasture. Mr. Tufts' 

 Berkshire hogs and Ayreshire cattle are esteemed the equal of these 

 breeds to be found anywhere. 



The Thermal Belt. 



There is along the eastern face of the Blue Ridge Mountains a strip 

 of land known as the Thermal Belt, because frost does not occur upon 



