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south, is the region for wine production east of the Alleghanies. Its capabilities 
have been fully tested. Its soil is various, but productive, and easily improved. 
Much of it is of a reddish color, overlying a deep red, tenacious, clayey subsoil, 
susceptible of the highest improvement. ‘There is a vineyard near the summit 
of the Blue Ridge which produced last season 6,000 gallons of wine, and 4,000 
gallons of brandy. A farmer, in another location, from the wild grapes picked 
from his own acres, made 7,000 gallons of brandy, during one of the years of 
the late war. In Nelson, our correspondent says, “ the soil is rich, and judging 
from the size and quantity of the wild grape-vines indigenous to our soil, is well 
adapted to grape culture. We have no vineyards, but the wild grape grows 
spontaneously, in our fields and forests, to a large size, climbing to the tops of 
the tallest timber.” 
Eastern Virginia offers superior inducements for fruit-growing, not only in 
soil and climate, but particularly in facilities for freighting to northern markets 
by water. Numerous instances of profit might be noted. A lady near Norfolk 
received ten thousand dollars last season from thirty acres of pears. <A 
gentleman in the same locality sold apples from an orchard of eighteen acres for 
three thousand dollars ; and in Princess Anne county, an orchard set out three 
years yielded four hundred and four dollars. Northern fruit-growers have al- 
ready commenced operations upon these promising fruit lands in different sections 
of the State. 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
1. Reports from forty-one counties represent a very general decrease in values 
of real estate. Madison and McDowell report no decrease from prices of 1860, 
while the latter shows an actual increase on those of 1866. Onslow reports no 
decrease on well-improved farms, but all others estimate a decline varying 
from five to seventy-five per cent., and even more, especially at forced sales. As 
a general rule small and improved farms have decreased less than large and 
neglected ones. The general average may be fairly rated at about fifty per 
cent. The causes are variously stated, as war, change in system of labor, 
scarcity of money, unsettled state of public affairs, and the unrest of doubts 
regarding the future. 
2. Wild or unimproved lands are reported in three general classes: first, 
lands exhausted, abandoned, and grown up to bushes; second, virgin uplands, 
generally well timbered; and third, law or swamp lands, (“pocosin,” ) often 
well timbered. The first, once fertile, can again be restored in time, and by good 
management ; the second generally requires only clearing and tillage; and the 
third needs drainage in addition. ‘The second and third can be had at prices 
varying from fifty cents to ten dollars per acre; the first at even lower rates. 
Pitch and turpentine lands abound in Duplin, Lincoin, Cabarras, Hertford, 
Sampson, Onslow, and Moore counties, and can be had for from two dollars to 
five dollars, according to quality and facilities for working and marketing. 
“ Pocosin” or swamp lands are reported in quantities in Duplin, Onslow, and 
a few other counties; in the latter, one body of “ white-oak pocosin”’ of sixty 
thousand acres, extending into several adjacent counties, and other tracts nearly 
as large, requiring combined capital to drain. Another says of these, “the prices 
are from two dollars to three dollars per acre, and clearing and draining will cost 
as much more. They are among the most fertile lands when brought into cul- 
tivation.” Macon county has thousands of acres at State price, (twelve and a 
half cents per acre,) large tracts of which are held by speculators at higher 
rates. Wilkes reports ridge or rolling lands with branch bottoms, one hundred 
acre farms one-fourth cleared, cabin, running water, plenty of wood, at two dol- 
lars per acre ; mountain lands well wooded, generally fertile, and water-power too 
abundant to be appreciated, at one dollar per acre; Camden county virgin for- 
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