NORTH CAROLINA. 



091 



century. Within the lost ten years factories 

 have been built in various portions of Central 

 Carolina for the manufacture of wagon-spokes, 

 hubs, and axe-handles, that require a tongh 

 hard wood, using for this purpose the oak and 

 hickory that are the peculiar growth of that 

 section. Considerable quantities of locust pins, 

 iKoiL in ship-building, have been shipped from 

 depots on the Western North Carolina Rail- 

 road. The yellow locust is found abundantly 

 along the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge and 

 in the mountain gorges, in the entire western 

 district of the State. Within the last two years 

 large quantities of hlack-walnut lumber or 

 rather trees, for it is shipped in the log have 

 been sent to the Eastern markets, and even 

 to France, to be manufactured into furniture, 

 pianos, organs, ete. These are but a very small 

 portion of the useful trees that are to be found 

 in the forests of the State. The white walnut 

 or butternut is largely used as trimming for 

 black walnut. The white ash is another wood 

 that is used in the manufacture of light-colored 

 furniture, or combined with dark woods for 

 decorative purposes. The wild cherry is found 

 in the mountains in great abundance and of 

 fine quality, and is susceptible of a higher pol- 

 ish than the same variety that grows in the low- 

 lands. In addition to these are the maples, the 

 birch or mountain mahogany, suitable for arti- 

 cles that require a fine-grained wood suscepti- 

 ble of a high polish, the poplars and the differ- 

 ent varieties of oaks for the ordinary uses of 

 lumber, and the white pine found in the moun- 

 tains, that is only equaled by the forests of 

 Maine and the Northwest. In the arts where 

 a wood of a soft character and fine grain is 

 needed, the Magnolia, acuminata or wild cu- 

 cumber-tree is all that could be desired, and 

 grows abundantly in the mountains west of 

 the Blue Ridge. 



There are no great valleys in the State com- 

 parable to the Valley of Virginia or the Valley 

 of East Tennessee. But each of the numerous 

 rivers has hewn out a narrow valley for itself, 

 in the bottom of which lies its present channel. 

 The most considerable and best defined of these 

 are found in the mountain regions. The most 

 notable and the largest among them is the val- 

 ley of the French Broad, which is about fifty 

 miles long, and has a varying breadth of from 

 nineteen to twenty-fivo miles, having in Tran- 

 sylvania County a great extent of level and 

 very productive bottom-land ; but for the most 

 part it is traversed by many spurs or ridges and 

 secondary chains of mountains, from whose in- 

 tervening valleys and gorges come the numer- 

 ous tributaries of the French Broad River. The 

 other mountain valleys are of the same descrip- 

 tion, but are generally narrower and basin- or 

 trough-like, and have been excavated in the 

 same manner by the rivers which drain the 

 successive areas between the transverse chains, 

 and are flanked by numerous projecting spurs 

 and ridges of the surrounding mountains, be- 

 tween which a multitude of subordinate tribu- 



tary streams ramify. Eastward of the Blue 

 Ridge, in the Piedmont region, are the valleys 

 of the upper Catawba and Yadkin, which may 

 in a general way be considered as consisting 

 of the entire basins or troughs between the par- 

 allel chains which inclose them, and so are fif- 

 teen or twenty miles wide ; but the level lands 

 along these streams are interjected between 

 the mountain spurs, often quite to the foot of 

 the Blue Ridge. 



The State embraces an area of 54,000 square 

 miles, over which are distributed 1,300,000 

 souls. The length from east to west is 600 

 miles, and the average breadth of the State is 

 a little over 100 miles. Nearly 4,000 square 

 miles' surface of the territory is covered by 

 the water of the rivers, bays, and sounds of 

 the east. The water-transportation facilities 

 of that section, improved and unimproved, are 

 not surpassed in any State. No State possesses 

 greater manufacturing facilities; her agricul- 

 tural resources are unlimited ; her products as 

 varied as they are valuable ; soil rich and inex- 

 haustible ; climatic advantages not approached 

 by the neighboring States ; while in mineral 

 wealth North Carolina stands without a rival. 

 The mountain region embraces an area of 5,400 

 square miles, of an average elevation of 2,600 

 feet; the Piedmont region, 6,000 square miles, 

 elevation 1,000 feet ; the middle section, 12,000 

 square miles, 650 feet elevation ; the sub-east- 

 ern region, 9,000 square miles, 200 feet eleva- 

 tion ; the coast region, 15,000 square miles, with 

 an average elevation of 50 feet. Almost if not 

 quite every crop produced in the United States 

 is grown in one region or another of the State, 

 so that the widest diversification is practicable. 

 Corn, cotton, and tobacco claim the first atten- 

 tion of the people, three fourths of all classes 

 of whom are engaged in agriculture ; but fruits, 

 grasses, stock, and grapes are largely cultivated, 

 returning a rich and satisfactory yield to the 

 industrious husbandman. Mining and manu- 

 facturing are beginning to attain a magnitude 

 of no small importance, and the work of gen- 

 eral development of all the varied industries 

 and resources is progressing with advancing 

 spirit. The annual value of farm products is 

 sixty millions, and of manufacturing twenty 

 millions of dollars. The cash products of those 

 engaged in mining, other labor than that en- 

 gaged in agriculture and manufacturing, the 

 professions, together with those employed in 

 trade, transportation, and commerce, should, 

 it is estimated, swell the annual product of 

 North Carolina to as much as a hundred mil- 

 lion dollars. 



There are seven large rivers east of the Blue 

 Ridge, and seven west of it, the former navi- 

 gable more than 1,000 miles, and one of the 

 latter (the Tennessee) 1,000 miles to the Mis- 

 sissippi. The Cape Fear is navigable to within 

 115 miles, in a straight line, of the Blue Ridge. 

 Some sixty years ago the tributaries of the 

 Yadkin and Catawba were navigated almost to 

 the foot of the Blue Ridge. The water-power 



