Agriculture.-The climate of this state is very favourable to agricultural pursuits. Cattle and hogs run wild in the woods. All the different kinds of grain cultivated in the northern states grow here in perfection. Indian corn, which grows well every where, is less productive; but it is sweeter and more easily cultivated. In the low parts near the sea, where the country is inundated by the overflowing of the rivers, rice and indigo are successfully cultivated. The swampy land on the south side of Albemarle Sound is the most valuable for this purpose in the United States. The chief products of the hilly country are wheat, tobacco, rye, oats, barley, and flax. Along the rivers there are fine tracts of meadow land covered with flocks of cattle. Wheat is cut in the beginning of June, Indian corn early in September. * Cotton is cultivated and

Price of Provisions, &c. at Wilmington, in July 1816.

thrives on high sandy dry places. The labour of one man will produce 1000 pounds in the seeds, or 250 pounds fit for manufacture. Tobacco is raised in places where the soil is favourable to its growth. An insect of the curculio genus devours the seeds of the wheat in the ear before it is ripe. A species of grasshopper, known by the name of locust, appears at intervals of fourteen or fifteen years. In June 1816 they were so numerous that their noise rendered the sound of the cow-bell inaudible at the distance of 200 yards. The crops of Indian corn are exposed to injury from the woodpeckers which frequent the neighbourhood of villages and plantations. There are two species of them, the one with a white bill, black body, and a fine tuff of white feathers, the other with a head and neck of a red colour, with black belly and wings, and a white stripe below. An agricultural association has been formed for the purpose of establishing plantations on certain parts of the Alligator swamp, which are found to surpass all other lands of the state in strength and richNo lands can be purchased from the Indian natives but on behalf of the public, by authority of the general assembly.

ness.

Value of Lands and Houses as ascertained by the direct tax:

Of this increase 11,000,000 was in the value of lands and houses, the value of the slaves at 300 dollars each, amounting to about 50,000,000, taking their number as it stood in the census of 1810.

Products of Mineral Substances in 1810.

Gunpowder, pounds, 3000,

Salt,

value 2,550 dollars.

3,800

Iron works are established in Lincoln and Johnson counties, on the Yadkin river, in the counties of Guilford, Surry, and Wilkes. Gold.-In 1810 about 1341 ounces of gold were delivered at the mint of the United States, amounting in value to 24,689 dollars, which was chiefly obtained from the gravelly beds of streams in Cabarrus county. The purest is twenty-three careets fine, and is superior in quality to the metal used in the English and American coins.*

From the pitch pine (Pinus tæda, Lin.) which covers the high sandy soil of the low country, an immense quantity of turpentine, tar, and pitch, is extracted. These commodities formerly enriched many farmers, who gained from the labour of one man between L. 100 and L. 200 a-year. The turpentine is obtained by the simple process of making two slits in the

Bruce's Mineralogical Journal, Vol. I.

trunk of the pine, each about a foot in length, under which vessels are placed to receive the resin, or gum, as it flows. For extracting tar, a circular basin, or floor of potters' earth, is made, and so perforated as to allow the escape of the resinous matter, which is received in carts placed underneath as it runs from the burning pine. Pitch is formed by boiling the tar in pots of iron, or in vessels formed of potters' earth. Staves of a superior quality are made of the white and red oak. Brandy is made from peaches, as in other states; and whisky from rye, corn, and barley, for home consumption. Wine is made from the wild grape of the country. There is a paper-mill at Salem belonging to a company of Moravians.

Products of Animal Substances.-The rivers furnish great plenty and variety of excellent fish, several of which are cured dry and salted. There is a great consumption of bacon and pork, both salted and smoked, the quality of which is excellent. The whole · amount of manufactures in 1810, according to the marshal's report, was 5,323,323 dollars.

Commerce. In the year 1753 the exports amounted to upwards of L. 80,000 Sterling, and a number of articles were omitted. (See Account of European Settlements, Vol. II. p. 260.) The ports of entry are six in number, Edenton, Cambden, Washington, Newbern, Wilmington, and Plymouth. The average exports for 1785, and the three succeeding years, were nearly as follows:

Shingles,

Staves and heading,

quantity, 20,000,000 2,000,000

Bacon, wheat, skins, furs, tobacco, snake-root, bees wax.

The exports consist of live cattle, tar, pitch, and turpentine, lumber, Indian corn, cotton,' and tobacco, pork, lard, tallow, bees-wax, myrtle wax, ginseng, and medicinal roots and plants; a great portion of which is sent to the markets of South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. In 1805 the direct exports amounted to 779,903 dollars; in 1810, to 403,949 dollars, of which 401,465 were of domestic, and 2484 of foreign produce. t

*In the early period of this colony quit-rents and other debts were paid in deer skins, hides, tallow, pork, rice, or tobacco. In 1740, when North Carolina offered 400 men for an expedition projected against the Spaniards at Carthagena, the poll-tax of 3 shillings was discharged in tobacco at 10 shillings the cwt., rice at 7s. 6d. Indian dressed deer skins at 2s. 6d. the pound; bees wax at 10дd. tallow at 4d.; pork at 275. the cwt.; current paper at 7 for 1.

+ The exports from the port of Wilmington for six months, commencing the 1st of October 1815, and ending the 31st of March 1816, of the produce and manufactures of the United States, were, lumber, (boards and hewn,) timber, staves, shingles, hoops, &c. 157,200 dollars; tar, turpentine, spirit of do. rosin, pitch, 131,000; produce of live cattle, horses, hogs, bacon, hams, &c. 4,800; wheat, flour, Indian corn and meal, 29,500; rice, 48,000; tobacco, 92,000; flax-seed, 54,000; cotton, 216,000. Total amount of exports for six months, 732,500 dollars. Value of produce transported