668 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



NEW COTTON COUNTIES, BROUGHT UNDER CULTIVATION 

 SINCE THE WAR. 



Wake County produced the most corn, 608,- 

 052 bushels. Rowan comes next, producing 

 592,639 bushels, and is first in the yield of oats, 

 140,443 bushels. Davidson produced the most 

 wheat, 174,271 bushels, and Ashe the most rye, 

 33,809. Greenville is the first in the production 

 of tobacco, 4,606,358 pounds. Greenville, Per- 

 son, Caswell, and Rockingham produced over a 

 third of the entire tobacco-crop of the State. 



A striking feature in the agriculture of the. 

 State is the great change that has been made 

 in the cultivation of tobacco, both in the char- 

 acter of the plant grown and in the greatly 

 extended area of culture. Prior to the war, 

 tobacco was grown in only six or seven coun- 

 ties bordering on Virginia, and the variety then 

 cultivated was known as " shipping tobacco," 

 a black variety, which was grown exclusively 

 on heavy soils of rich alluvial composition. 

 Since the war, from the superior value of the 

 product, the attention of growers has been 

 turned exclusively to " yellow tobacco " the 

 world, in fact, deriving its largest supply of 

 this variety from North Carolina. The culture 

 of the plant has been extended from the bor- 

 der counties into the central part of the State, 

 along the Piedmont belt to the western limits 

 of the State not uniformly, but in certain lo- 

 calities. 



Of late years the cultivation of upland rice 

 has grown into a great industry, and this crop 

 now forms one of the staple productions of the 

 State. Anterior to the war, rice-culture was 

 confined to the lower valley of the Cape Fear 

 and to the water-grown variety, but the culti- 

 vation of the upland crop is now prosecuted 

 with the most encouraging results. The cult- 

 ure of the vine is now an established industry, 

 and is being prosecuted with excellent results. 

 The principal vineyards are situated at Fayette- 

 ville, Entield, Kittrell, and near Salem, nearly 

 in the central part of the State. The produc- 

 tion of silk is also carried on in several of the 

 central counties. In the fruit district much 

 attention is given to the preparation of dried 

 fruit. The State stands second in the manu- 

 facture of smoking-tobacco and fourth in man- 

 ufacture of plug-tobacco. In 1880-'81 it man- 

 ufactured 4,379,565 pounds of the former and 

 6,405,585 of the latter. 



The receipts into the State Treasury during 

 the year ending September 30, 1881, were $645,- 

 743.05. The expenditures for all purposes ag- 

 gregated $625,416.59. Of the disbursements, 

 $41,952 were on account of the Agricultural 

 Department, being taxes on fertilizers, which 

 are required by law to be paid into the State 

 Treasury for the benefit of that department, 

 but are no part of the general fund. 



Of the $71,179.55 paid on account of the 

 Insane Asylum at Raleigh, $21,179.55 was for 

 the year 1880, which was not drawn till the 

 close of that fiscal year (September 30, 1880). 

 Of the expenses of the Institution for the 

 Deaf, Dumb, and the Blind, $32,500 was for 

 the year 1880. These amounts aggregate 

 $95,632.29, which, being deducted from the 

 total disbursements, leaves the expenses legiti- 

 mately chargeable to this fiscal year $529,- 

 784.30. 



The following is a summary of business of 

 the port of Wilmington, for the calendar year 

 1881 : The receipts of cotton foot up 128,096 

 bales, as against 106,156 bales for last year ; 

 spirits turpentine, 84,873 casks, as against 89,- 

 954 casks for last year; rosin, 431,121 barrels, 

 as against 480,984 barrels for last year; tar, 

 60,540 barrels, as against 54,186 for last year ; 

 crude turpentine, 91,444 barrels, as against 

 108,281 barrels for last year. The exports foot 

 up as follows: To domestic ports 63,341 bales 

 of cotton, as against 40,348 bales for last year ; 

 29,067 casks spirits of turpentine, as against 

 33,272 casks for last year ; 40,160 barrels rosin, 

 as against 48,361 barrels for last year ; 44,479 

 barrels tar, as against 39,409 barrels for last 

 year; 2,335 barrels crude turpentine, as against 

 3,356 barrels for last year. To foreign ports 

 5 7,664 bales of cotton, as against 65,718 bales 

 for last year ; 58,477 casks of spirits turpen- 

 tine, as against 69,453 casks for last year; 

 445,659 barrels of rosin, as against 399,349 

 barrels for last year; 14,909 barrels of tar, as 

 against 14,032 barrels for last year ; 102 barrels 

 crude turpentine, as against none for last year. 



