78 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



The data for the chemical industries lacks the data for water-puri- 

 fication plants, metallurgical plants and the gigantic plant of the 

 Aluminum Company of America, located at Badin, which have not 

 been reported for publication for some time. 



Fertilizers. The entire fertilizer manufacturing industry of North 

 Carolina entails an investment of approximately $79,750,000, an esti- 

 mated plant valuation of $39,700,000 and a yearly production value 

 of 31,920,000. Eighteen hundred ninety-five men are employed on 

 an annual payroll of $1,950,000. The state ranks second in the Union 

 in this important industry', outranked by Georgia alone. 



The industry was started by the Navasso Guano Company at Wil- 

 mington and Selma in 1869, the next operations locating in 1890 at 

 New Bern where two more fertilizer plants were erected by the same 

 company. Then followed an expansion and extension of the industry 

 throughout the state as follows : in 1900 there were fifteen plants ; in 

 1910, twelve ; in 1918, twenty-seven ; while an increase to fifty-seven 

 resulted by the end of 1922. The industry is divided up into the 

 fish-scrap industry, located around Beaufort and Wilmington, the 

 superphosphate industry located in the cotton and tobacco belt and 

 the mixed fertilizer plants scattered throughout the state. The larg- 

 est single corporation in the fertilizer business in North Carolina is the 

 Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, which established in 1893 nine 

 plants with an investment of capital valued at $48,000,000. These 

 plants are located at Charlotte, Durham, New Bern, Raleigh, Salis- 

 bury, Wadesboro, Wilmington, Washington and Winston-Salem. 



Cotton Seed Products. The by-products from cotton-milling have 

 given to the state an enormous industry. There are at present fifty- 

 six plants engaged in producing and refining cotton seed oil, entailing 

 an investment of over $12,000,000, a plant valuation of $28,000,000, a 

 yearly output of $133,600,000, with 2,350 employees drawing salaries 

 aggregating $1,665,000 a year. With an investment of but one-thirty- 

 second that of its parent, the cotton industries, the cotton seed in- 

 dustry yields more than one-half in value of products. 



The first cotton seed products plants were incorporated in 1898 

 by the Southern Oil Company at Wadesboro and Gastonia, and by the 

 New Bern Cotton Oil Comj^any at New Bern. The progress of the 

 industry is indicated by the following growth in plant development : 



