SOILS OF FENDER COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. 5 



According to the census reports, Fender County produced in the 

 year of 1879, 159,064 bushels of corn, 2,269 bushels of oats, 835 bales of 

 cotton, 248,622 pounds of rice, 116,559 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 

 7,851 bushels of cowpeas. The census of 1900 gives the following fig- 

 ures for the important agricultural products for the year 1899: 

 Corn, 194,060 bushels; cotton, 776 bales; peanuts, 85,425 bushels; 

 Irish potatoes, 14,552 bushels; sweet potatoes, 107,256 bushels; sor- 

 ghum sirup, 4,208 gallons; peas, 10,448 bushels; and strawberries, 

 1,965,690 quarts. There were 470 acres in miscellaneous vegetables 

 and a considerable acreage in oats, cowpeas for hay, and a small area 

 in rice and tobacco. Farm live stock, valued at $144,234 in 1879, had 

 increased in valuation to $211,674 in 1899. 



Aside from the production of general farm crops a great many 

 farmers are interested in the growing of strawberries and truck crops 

 industries which have been marked by rapid development within the 

 last fifteen to twenty years, especially in the vicinity of Burgaw. 

 This was long one of the most important strawberry sections of the 

 South. The crop proved profitable from the beginning, though there 

 were occasional bad years, the result of poor markets, and years of 

 small production, due to unfavorable weather conditions. The pro- 

 ducers, as a rule, however, find strawberries a paying crop. On ac- 

 count of two successive bad crop years a number of berry growers 

 became so discouraged that in the last few years this industry has 

 been somewhat checked. Present indications, however, point toward 

 renewed activity in the production of this crop. Strawberries are 

 usually groAvn in matted rows. The plants are hoed, runners cut, 

 and the middle plowed out two or three times during the summer. 

 It is usually the better plan to replant after the third crop. 



The important truck crops are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, 

 radishes, and Irish and sweet potatoes. Many other vegetables could 

 be successfully grown. Lima beans, eggplant, garden peas, snap 

 beans, cantaloupes, beets, turnips, cabbage, collards, kale, okra, squash, 

 onions, and watermelons do well. 



The well-drained Norfolk soils are admirably adapted to the gen- 

 eral farm crops, such as cotton, corn, oats, forage, peanuts, and to- 

 bacco, and to a great variety of vegetables. The Portsmouth soils, 

 especially the fine sandy loam, are, when drained well, suited to the 

 production of corn, forage, cabbage, strawberries, lettuce, onions, and 

 flower bulbs. In the adjacent county of Duplin there is, on the Ports- 

 mouth fine sandy loam, one of the largest flower-bulb farms in the 

 world. 



Two or three crops a year are frequently grown in the same field. 

 Radishes and turnips planted in January are usually shipped, re- 

 spectively, from the 10th to the 15th of March and from late March 



[Cir. 20] 



