690 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



mon. In the House, he received 77 votes to 

 39 for Buxton and 2 scattering. On the 28th 

 he tendered his resignation of the office of 

 Governor, and on February 5th was succeeded 

 hy Lieutenant-Governor Thomas J. Jarvis. Mr. 

 Jarvis is a native of the State, born in 1836, 

 and the son of a Methodist minister. His ear- 

 ly education was achieved under many disad- 

 vantages, owing to the straitened circumstances 

 of his father, but he managed to take a full 

 course at Randolph-Macon College, and grad- 

 uated with honor in 1860. Soon afterward he 

 entered the Confederate service, and remained 

 in the field until May 17, 1864, when he was 

 badly wounded near Drury's Bluff, Va., and 

 compelled to retire from the army. Subse- 

 quently he studied law, and began to practice 

 in 1866; was member of several Legislatures, 

 an elector from his district on the Seymour 

 ticket in 1868, also elector at large on the 

 Greeley ticket, and a member of the Constitu- 

 tional Convention of 1875. James Lowrie 

 Robinson, Lieutenant-Governor, is also a na- 

 tive of the State, served through the war with 

 more than ordinary gallantry, and has since oc- 

 cupied various positions of public trust. 



It was enacted for the benefit of land-own- 

 ers whose land had been sold for taxes before 

 January 1, 1879, that any person who shall 

 within one year from date of this law pay to 

 the Public Treasurer the taxes due at time of 

 sale and ten per cent, upon that amount, all 

 subsequent taxes, and costs and expenses, shall 

 be entitled to a deed of reconveyance. This 

 the Secretary of State will issue upon exhibi- 

 tion to him of the necessary tax-receipts and 

 the payment to him of $1 for the deed. An- 

 other act makes provision for land -owners 

 who have inadvertently failed to redeem their 

 lands until the day of grace has expired or is 

 about to expire. In such cases the law ex- 

 tends the time to January 1, 1881. For re- 

 demption of any such land (provided the title 

 is yet in the State), it is necessary for the dis- 

 possessed owner to pay the taxes due at time 

 of sale and the percentage required by law, all 

 costs of advertising and executing a deed, and 

 all taxes that would have been due had not the 

 land passed into the State's possession. 



It is alleged in the preamble to an act to reg- 

 ulate marriageable kinship that " many persons 

 in this State, in estimating what degree of kin- 

 ship is nearer than first cousins, compute kin- 

 ship by the half blood as being only half so 

 near as the same degree of kinship by the 

 whole blood." Wherefore, on February 27, 

 1879, it was enacted that " hereafter, in this 

 State, whenever the degree of kinship shall be 

 estimated with the view to ascertain the right 

 of kinspeople to marry, the half blood shall be 

 counted as the whole blood." 



The session closed on March 1 8th. It con- 

 sisted of sixty-six working days, during which 

 some nine hundred bills and resolutions were 

 introduced and considered an average of near- 

 ly fourteen per day. Of the whole number, 



about four hundred and fifty one half were 

 ratified and became laws, an average of seven 

 per day. This amount of work was believed 

 to be unparalleled in the history of legislative 

 sessions in the State. 



By the public records it appears that 1,973 

 pieces of real estate have been sold for taxes 

 amounting to $17,404, and bid in by the State 

 The time allowed for their redemption has ex- 

 pired. 



The United States Fish Commission has com- 

 menced operations in the State. About six 

 million young shad were hatched in the spring 

 by the Commission in the Albemarle Sound, 

 all but a sixth of which were placed in the 

 waters of the State. The total number released 

 since the beginning of their introduction is 

 about eight million. Of these the Roanoke and 

 Neuse have received seven hundred thousand 

 each ; the Cape Fear and Tar half a million 

 each ; the Meherrin, Nottoway, and Black- 

 water over two hundred thousand each, with 

 several millions released at their mouths ; the 

 Yadkin and Catawba two hundred thousand 

 each above Salisbury. In the latter streams 

 the General Government and the State of South 

 Carolina, which has now an established com- 

 mission, have placed between two and four 

 hundred thousand. 



An election for three Judges of the Supreme 

 Court and for those for some circuits occurred 

 during the year. For the Supreme Court, a 

 Democratic Convention nominated William 

 Nathan Harwell Smith for Chief Justice, and 

 Thomas S. Ashe and John Henry Dillond for 

 Associate Justices. They were all elected. 



The crops of the State were much retarded 

 by the cold weather of the spring. The area 

 of corn was equal to the average, and the yield 

 was ample for the home supply. The acre- 

 age of cotton was increased in fifteen counties 

 and diminished in two, yet there was a full 

 crop. The crop of tobacco was a fair average 

 yield and unexcelled in quantity. The area 

 devoted to grasses has been increased within 

 the past three years not less than 50 per cent. 

 Clover, lucerne, orchard, timothy, and red-top 

 are being introduced and tested in all sections 

 of the State with encouraging results. 



The desire for improvement in agriculture 

 has brought out very full information of the 

 condition of the State. Over 60 per cent, of 

 her entire area is in woodland, one county, 

 Brunswick, having over 90 per cent., and no 

 less than eleven others between 80 and 90. 

 Some of these are near the seacoast and oth- 

 ers among the mountains, with a difference of 

 altitude of more than 6,000 feet, which, with 

 a difference of latitude, surface, and soil, ren- 

 ders the State remarkable for the variety of its 

 flora, ranging from the palmetto to the pine, 

 from tropical or semi-tropical forms to those 

 purely Alpine in character. Eastern North 

 Carolina has furnished the world with nearly 

 all the pitch, tar, turpentine, and rosin that 

 have been consumed as naval stores for the last 



