Eastern North Carolina Encyclopedia
vided by trunk lines of the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line Railroads.
GEOGRAPHY
Halifax County is situated partly in the Coastal Plain and partly in the Piedmont Plateau. It has an area of 676 square miles or 432,640 acres. In the vicinity of Weldon, Littleton, and Roanoke Rapids the country is rolling to hilly, while in the south end of the county around Scotland Neck and Hobgood the country is less rolling to flat with gentle slopes toward the bottom lands. The general slope of the county is toward the southeast. According to the records of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Hobgood is 88 feet above sea level, Scotland Neck 96 feet, Halifax 101 feet, and Enfield 99 feet. Points in the western part of the county reach an elevation of 400 feet.
SOILS AND SEASONS
The climate and soils of Halifax County are well suited to a wide range of general farm products. The winters are short and comparatively mild; the summers long but not excessively hot. The mean annual rainfall is 47.22 inches and the mean annual temperature is 59.8 degrees F. There is a normal growing season of 195 days which is sufficiently long for all ordinary crops. Based on such facts as the above, it is only natural that Halifax County should be one of the best agricultural counties in North Carolina.
FARMING
Diversified farming is the chief occupation of the majority of its more than 40,000 inhabitants. Tobacco, cotton, peanuts, corn, soy beans and sweet potatoes comprise the principal growing crops, with yields per acre which are surpassed by no section of the South, while hogs, sheep, cattle, and poultry are prominent in the live stock activities of the farms. Halifax County has the highest average acreage yield of lint cotton in the South. Two agricultural agents are employed by the county to look after its diversified agricultural program.
SHEEP AND POULTRY
During the past year sheep and poultry raising has become quite an industry; scores of farmers throughout the country having become successfully interested in this branch of industry, which is a part of the program which is being pushed to meet the situation which will be brought about by the advent of the boll weevil. The progress in these two industries has surpassed even the fondest hopes of the originators, and they bid fair to become a large economic factor in the county in the next few years.
HALIFAX COUNTY ANTICIPATES BOLL WEEVIL
As an evidence of the progressive spirit which animates the citizens of this section, Halifax County is the first one in the South which has begun the fight against the boll
