8 The Bulletin 



Union County is favored with a high elevation, excellent natural sur- 

 face drainage, and healthful and abundant supplies of water from open 

 and driven wells. The latter type of well is rapidly supplanting the 

 open ones, being more sanitary and healthful. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Union County has been settled since the latter half of the eighteenth 

 century. It has always been an agricultural region, though the manu- 

 facture of cotton has grown to considerable importance. 



Agriculture has passed through several stages from the mere growing 

 of a few necessaries through the commercial production of live stock and 

 small grain to the production of cotton mainly, with corn next in impor- 

 tance, and a varied list of minor products, grown chiefly to supply the 

 local markets. Not until 1800 was cotton grown commercially. This 

 was near Waxhaw, and cotton became an important crop in the western 

 part of the county between this time and the opening of the Civil War. 

 It was not grown to any extent in the eastern part of the county until 

 after the war. 



About 1820, German farmers living in the northern part of the county 

 grew tobacco as a commercial crop, rolling the product in hogsheads to 

 Fayetteville. During the same period, 1820 to 1830, wheat was an im- 

 portant product. Prevalence of the Hessian fly caused a practical cessa- 

 tion of wheat growing about the latter year, though the crop was im- 

 portant for a time later, as will be seen. Flax was another of the crops 

 important in the early agriculture. 



The following table, compiled from the reports of the Federal census, 

 will serve to indicate roughly the agricultural evolution of the county 

 since 1850. The statistics also have significance as showing the crops 

 that have from time to time been profitable to the farmers, and that, 

 therefore, may un,der certain economic conditions existing or to arise 

 again become important. 



PRINCIPAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF UNION COUNTY, 1850 TO 1910 CENSUSES. 



