Eastern North Carolina Encyclopedia
of hard surface roads, which will soon be completed, and a program for future construction of around thirty miles. All of the main roads run east and west and north and south, and connect with various adjoining counties. A program for intensive maintenance of dirt roads will be put into effect at an early date, which, when completed, will give Pitt County 500 miles of improved highways passable 12 months in the year.
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
Pitt County is taking the lead, in a number of ways, in her educational system and is attracting the attention of other parts of the State. Pitt has 109 grammar schools, with a total enrollment of over 14,500; 11 high schools with a total enrollment of 893. The rural and city schools together employ 325 teachers. The school census of the county is 17,000. The county has six modern consolidated schools, which require 30 school trucks to transport 900 children daily. An additional high school will be built by the opening of 1924–1925 term, which will make available high school instruction in every township in the county except two.
The East Carolina Teachers College, which is located at Greenville, the county seat, is now in the midst of an expansion program, which calls for a total expenditure of $1,025,000.00. When completed, the college will be in position to care for between 700 and 800 students. The East Carolina Teachers College is the only institution in the State that devotes all of its resources to training teachers.
TRAIN SERVICE
Pitt County is traversed by three branch lines of the Atlantic Coast Line, the main line of the Norfolk Southern, East Carolina and the Shelmerdine railways, all of which are located as to serve the interests of the county in a splendid manner. Eastern cities can be reached within 12 to 18 hours.
WATER TRANSPORTATION
Pitt County is almost centrally divided by Tar River, which, in times past, was the only medium of transportation. In fact the county was served by the Old Dominion Steamship Company, the Clyde Line and others. Pitt is in the center of the most wonderful inland waterway system in the entire United States, unless it be around the Great Lakes. It is the consensus of opinion that there will soon be inaugurated a movement to make actual our present potential river transportation possibilities.
AGRICULTURE
Pitt County, according to the 1919 census and based on agricultural and live stock values, took second place in the entire State of North Carolina, and was excelled only by Robeson. Pitt, in keeping with this report, was also given the thirty-fifth place in a selected list of the fifty best counties in the United States. The value of crops for Pitt for the year 1919 was $21,486,117.00. Tobacco and cotton are the two main money crops, with a normal annual cotton production of 20,000 to 25,000 bales and a
