16 The Bulletin. 



it. When frost conies you can see its effects above and below this belt 

 while the belt is still green, and in the spring it will revive before the 

 other land. It is the home of the finest apples and grass. 



The National Department, in cooperation with the State Department, 

 is making a survey to locate the boundaries of the belt and ascertain 

 to what the absence of frost is due. The thermometers frequently record 

 a lower temperature at the base than at several hundred feet altitude, 

 sometimes extending to the top of the mountain. It is located in Polk, 

 Henderson, Transylvania, Buncombe, Haywood, Mitchell, Watauga 

 and Surry counties. 



Drainage. 



A company is noAV draining the Mattamuskeet lake district, which 



embraces one hundred thousand acres, sixty thousand of which is now 



accessible to drainage; and the bed of the lake is now being drained by 



pumps as is done in Holland. The project will require 125 miles of 



. large size canals, sixty per cent .of which are completed. 



Wilkinson Bros, cut a canal 65 miles long, 14 by 10 feet, and then 

 cross-cut and draining in sections of 50 acres. Drainage districts are 

 formed by landowners in localities, bonds issued for expenses and com- 

 jnissioners appointed to manage the affair. The bonds are good security 

 and so far have been easily sold and the interest never defaulted. Some 

 would say this is a malarial country and full of mosquitoes, but it has 

 been shown in Panama and elsewhere that drainage takes off mosquitoes 

 as well as water. 



How long will this land remain productive? There are farms here 

 Avhich have been cultivated seventy years and still produce good crops. 

 The main requisite is lime; there are large quantities of marl and lime 

 accessible in beds, the oyster and other shells. 



Many of the Piedmont counties have formed districts to straighten the 

 creeks and reclaim land which has been abandoned, because not accessi- 

 ble for drainage. Perhaps a million acres will be restored to cultivation. 



The Department has no connection with the general drainage, but in 

 connection with the N^ational Department has engineers to give advice as 

 to farm drainage, and laying tile, after it is in fanns. Several hundred 

 acres of land, in the Piedmont section, has been drained by the drainage 

 district plan, and will increase the corn crop several million bushels, 

 and render the section free of malarial complaints. 



Cotton. 



The N'orth Carolina farmer is the best cotton fanner in the nation, as 

 has been proven by his leading in acre production, for the last five suc- 

 cessive years. It is true that he uses fertilizers, but that shows his 

 knowledge, as the use of fertilizers is profitable, if the fertility of the 

 land is presented. The custom to sample cotton by simply considering 

 color of staple and freedom from trash has been a great injustice to the 

 farmers. The true value of cotton is the length of lint and tensile 



