School History of North Carolina (From 1584 to the Present Time) | Page 3

Middle or Piedmont section, and the Eastern or Tidewater section. The first consists of mountains, many of them rising to towering heights, the highest, indeed, east of the Rocky Mountains. It is bounded on the east by the Blue Ridge and on the west by the Smoky Mountains. The section inclosed within these limits is in shape somewhat like an ellipse. Its length is about one hundred and eighty miles; its average breadth from twenty to fifty miles. It is a high plateau, from the plane of which many lofty mountains everywhere rise, and on its border the culminating points of the Appalachian system--the Roau, the Grandfather and the Black--lift their heads to the sky. Between the mountains are fertile valleys, plentifully watered by streams, many of them remarkable for their beauty. The mountains themselves are wooded, except a few which have prairies on their summits, locally distinguished as "balds." This section has long been one of the favorite resorts of the tourist and the painter.
5. The Middle section lies between the Blue Ridge and the falls where the rivers make their descent into the great plain which forms the Eastern section of the State. Its area comprises nearly one-half of the territory of the State. Throughout the greater part it presents an endless succession of hills and dales, though the surface near the mountains is of a bolder and sometimes of a rugged cast. The scenery of this section is as remarkable for quiet, picturesque beauty, as that of the Western is for sublimity and grandeur.
6. The Eastern section is a Champaign country; relieved, however, by gentle undulations. Its breadth is about one hundred miles. Its principal beauty lies in its river scenery and extensive water prospects.
7. The cultivated productions of the Mountain section are corn, wheat, oats, barley, hay, tobacco, fruits and vegetables. Cattle are also reared quite extensively for market. In the Middle section are found all the productions of the former, and over the southern half cotton appears as the staple product. In the Eastern section cotton, corn, oats and rice are staple crops, and the "trucking business" (growing fruits and vegetables for the Northern markets), constitutes a flourishing industry. The lumber business, and the various industries to which the long- leaf pine gives rise, tar, pitch and turpentine, have long been, and still continue to be, great resources of wealth for this section. Of the crops produced in the United States all are grown in North Carolina except sugar and some semi-tropical fruits, as the orange, the lemon and the banana. The wine grapes of America may be said to have their home in North Carolina; four of them, the Catawba, Isabella, Lincoln and Scuppernong, originated here.
8. The physical characteristics of the State will be better understood by picturing to the mind its surface as spread out upon a vast declivity, sloping down from the summits of the Smoky Mountains, an altitude of near seven thousand feet, to the ocean level. Through the range of elevation thus afforded, the plants and trees (or what is comprehended under the term flora) vary from those peculiar to Alpine regions to those peculiar to semi- tropical regions.
9. The variety of trees is most marked, including all those which yield timber employed in the useful and many of those employed in the ornamental arts. Indeed, nearly all the species found in the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, are found in North Carolina. Her wealth in this respect will be appreciated when the striking fact is mentioned that there are more species of oaks in North Carolina than in all the States north of us, and only one less than in all the Southern States east of the Mississippi. This range of elevation affords also a great variety of medicinal herbs. In fact, the mountains of North Carolina are the 'storehouse' of the United States for plants of this description.
QUESTIONS.
1. Of what does this chapter treat? Give the latitude and longitude of North Carolina. What are its eastern and western boundaries? Give its dimensions.
2. What is said of the climate of North Carolina? Name the causes of this mildness of climate.
3. What is said of the seasons? Of fogs, snow and ice? Of the rainfall?
4. Into how many natural divisions is the State formed? Name them. Describe the Mountain section. Point it out on the map.
5. Give a description of the Middle or Piedmont section. Locate this section on the map.
6. What is said of the Eastern or 'Tidewater' section? Point it out on the map.
7. What are some of the productions of the Mountain section? Of the Piedmont? Of the Tidewater? What is said of the grapes of North Carolina?
8. How may the physical characteristics of the State be easily understood?
9. What is said of the plants