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Page 1358 : NORTH CAROLINA, UNIV. OF — NORTH DAKOTA


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became a royal province in 1729, and so remained until May 20, 1775, when it declared its independence, the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence (q. v.) being passed in convention at [[../Charlotte, N. C.|Charlotte]] on the date named.  It was the 12th state to ratify the constitution.  It was the last of the 11 states to secede from the Union in 1861, but earnestly supported the Confederacy, furnishing soldiers to the Confederate army in excess of the voting population of the state.  North Carolina has advanced greatly in recent years, in trade and manufacturing industries.  Population 2,206,287.

North Carolina, University of, was the second state-university founded in America.  Its charter was granted in 17893 it began teaching in 1795, and work went on uninterruptedly till 1868.  In 1875 work was renewed, the old college course of Greek, Latin and mathematics replaced by modern courses, and (in 1877) the first summer normal school of the south started.  The university has always played a considerable part in southern education.  Its departments include the college, the graduate-schools, the law-school, the medical school, the school of pharmacy and the school of mines.  Its productive funds are $200,000, its receipts from benefactions in 1906 were $30,000 and its income was $110,000.  Its faculty numbered 80, the students 775 and the library 50,000 volumes.

North'cote, Baron, Hon. Henry Stafford, G. C. M. G., G. C. I. E., C. B., governor-general and commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth of Australia, is the younger son of the late Sir Stafford Northcote and was born in 1846.  He early took to diplomatic work, as private secretary to [[../Salisbury, Robert A. T. Gascoyne Cecil|Lord Salisbury]] on his mission to Constantinople.  Later he became financial secretary to the English war office, served a term as governor of Bombay, and in 1903 succeeded Baron Tennyson in the Australian governorship.  He is a man of character and statesmanlike views.

North Dako'ta.  A northwestern state of the Union, originally part of the [[../Louisiana Purchase, The|Louisiana purchase]] and admitted in 1889.  It is bounded on the north by Manitoba and Saskatchewan; on the south by South Dakota; on the east by the Red River of the North, which in part separates it from Minnesota and by Minnesota; and on the west by Montana.  Its area is 70,795 square miles, its length being 210 and its breadth 360 miles.  Its chief river is the [[../Missouri (river)|Missouri]], which courses from the northwestern extremity of the state to its border in the center, and is fed by a number of streams, chiefly falling into it from the west.  The population by census of 1910 was 577,056; capital, [[../Bismarck, N. Dakota|Bismarck]] (5,443).  The other chief towns are Fargo (14,331), [[../Grand Forks, North Dakota|Grand Forks]] (12,478), [[../Jamestown, Va.|Jamestown]] (4,358), Valley City, Wahpeton and Grafton.

Surface and Climate.  North Dakota in considerable part has a fertile belt of producing land, especially in the northeast of the Red River tract, where the soil is a rich, black loam, with a deep alluvial deposit, once covered by ancient Lake Agassiz.  In the north-central part are Turtle Mountains, which extend southward from Manitoba over a considerable area of the state; portions of this region are covered with timber, while southeast of the mountains is Devil’s Lake, whose area of salt water, without outlet, is about 40 miles in length and from 6 to 8 in average breadth.  Elsewhere the characteristics are those of the treeless prairie with various grasses and forage plants, and underlying this in the northwestern region are tracts of lignite, clay, lime, salt, building-stone and occasional traces of iron.  The climate is a dry and bracing one, with temperature varying between 20° to 40° below zero in the winter months and 110° to 114° in summer.  For the most part the rainfall is sufficient for farming, though light in the west and northeast.

Natural Resources.  In 1910 the leading crops of the state were as follows: wheat, 36,105,000 bushels; oats, 11,396,000 bushels; flaxseed, 5,778,000 bushels; hay and forage, over 3,000,000 tons; barley, 5,428,000 bushels; corn, 2,996,000 bushels.  Wheat is by far the most important crop, representing in both acreage and value nearly two-thirds of all cereals combined.  Most of the wheat crop is common spring wheat, but considerable durum or macaroni and a little winter wheat is also raised.  With the exception of sheep and lambs, which decreased greatly in value, all live stock increased during the last decade, but in widely different degrees.  In 1910 North Dakota had 650,599 horses, 484,589 neat cattle, 259,173 dairy cows, 293,371 sheep and 331,603 swine and 7,695 mules.  Little fruit is raised, and little development of mineral ore, though lignite coal is said to be plentiful in the western parts.

Manufactures.  The industries are of minor importance, and what there are represent, in the main, flour and grist mill products, with the kindred industries of butter, cheese and condensed milk.  The value of the total manufacturers in 1909 was but $19,138,000.  Printing and publishing are growing trades and in 1909 yielded a gross value of $1,910,000.  Fargo is the chief center of manufacturing.

Commerce and Finance.  The export trade of the two Dakotas in 1905–06, from returns of the Pembina customs, reached a value of $15,000,000, while the imports were but $1,500,000.  The railway mileage in North Dakota in 1910 was 4,201 miles, representing the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie roads.  The total assessed valuation of the state, in 1911, amounted to $278,594,193, the realty property assessment amounting