Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 257 
7 stills, capacity, 400 to 500 barrels crude turpentine; J. R. Blossom and 
Evans, 4 stills, capacity, 200 barrels ; Eagle Distillery, and three smaller 
distilleries. The products of these works are spirits, turpentine, rosin, rosiu oil, 
varnish, &c. 
Througliout the eastern, part of the State there are many single stills. 
Factories and other Industrial Pursuits. — There are uo ]jeople more 
easily stimulated by wages or profit than the labouring and manufacturing 
population of North Carolina. Their enterprise and jDcrseverance in making 
cotton and woollen cloths for themselves and families, during the late 
war, are beyond praise. In many liumble dwellings might be seen hand 
and loom-wrought goods which would attract notice in any market ; 
and, in point of intelligence and quick apprehension, these people are behind 
none. 
The want, hitherto, has been home capital sufficient to employ the thousands 
who at present are compelled to live, or barely subsist, upon a soil in many 
places poor, but always poorly cultivated. There is a general belief ])revalent 
that North Carolina is to become a great manufacturing State ; and this belief, 
of itself, will tend to make it so. There is no reason why it ought not also to 
predominate in agriculture. In the meantime wages are low, and labour for 
money wages is abundant. A rapid improvement is looked for, if only capital, 
foreign or domestic, be obtainable. 
TEXAS. — Galveston, 1867. — In a State of such vast extent as Texas, there 
will naturally be a large variety of climate, soil, and production. Some products 
are common to all parts of the State, of these, corn (Indian) is not only the 
most important, but is the most easily raised, and conduces, in a large degree, 
towards the home support of the people. Potatoes and vegetables are also 
cultivated with little labour and expense. 
Cattle, sheep, horses, and hogs, thrive in nearly all parts of the country. 
The western jxirtion of Texas, although not well adapted for cultivation, 
furnishes pasturage for innumerable herds of cattle, which can be reared to an 
illimitable extent, and sent to market with no other expense, the year round, 
than that of herding and branding. 
Some of the finest sheep ranges may also be found in th is part of the State 
and men of small means have amassed large fortunes by caretul attention and 
a judicious mixture of stoclt. 
The cotton region of Texas comprises about one-third of its area : the bottom 
lands of the Brazos, Colorado, Oyster Creek, Old Cauey, Sabine, the Trinity 
and Red River, are the best adapted for its production, and, in ordinary seasons, 
will yield one bale of 500 pounds per acre. 
The vast wealth of the cotton region of Texas is still undeveloped, and 
millions of acres of the finest cotton lands are still lying useless, as they were 
50 years ago. 
The cotton crop of the whole State, for the past year, will amount to 200,000 
bales, averaging about 490 lbs. to the bale : the average crop, before the war, 
nearly 300,000 bales. A large portion of the cotton produced in Texas, in the 
absence of railroads, which would otherwise convey it to this city, is taken to 
New Orleans by way of Red River and the Mississippi ; the remainder is chiefly 
shipped from this port. 
The wheat region of Texas, though not so large as that adapted to cotton, 
comprises some 30 counties, having an area of more than 27,000 square miles, 
including the north-western portion of the State, whore the soil and climate 
are exceedingly well adapted for its successful cultivation. 
Some idea of the steadily increasing importance of this product may be 
formed from the fact, that more than 7,000,000 bushels of wheat were produced 
during the past year against 50,000 bushels in 1850 ; yet this quantity will be 
VOL. Y. — S. S. S 
