The Texas of North Carolina
Robust Robeson
Its sprawling acres produce pro¬
digious crops and a progressive
people.
«;/
KILL
Robeson is big. rural, and robust.
Thousands of its citizens probably
have not yet heard that its 944 square
miles are slightly exceeded by Samp¬
son’s area, and they wouldn't believe
it if they heard it. For good reasons.
Robcsonians call their habitat. "The
State of Robeson." and your Robc-
sonian is the Texan of North Carolina.
It is one of the nation’s richest agri¬
cultural counties, vet the potentialities
of its flat and expansive terrain, magi¬
cal soil and long growing season have
scarcely been approached. Its crop
yield per acre is not always notable,
(though a ton of tobacco to the acre
is reported ) but. as one Robcsonian
casually noted. "It doesn't have to be;
we have so many acres."
And they have. Nearly a half mil¬
lion of them are in farmlands — rank¬
ing Robeson first in this respect — and
it grows more cotton than Cleveland,
sells more tobacco than Wilson or Pitt,
and even in its minor agricultural de¬
partments. total figures loom large
through the process of multiplying a
little by a lot. The
К.
M. Biggs farms
have the largest tobacco allotment in
North Carolina, a total of 400.2 acres.
(See State, Feb. 9. 1952.)
One-Fourth Indians
Its prodigality runs into other
spheres. The most conspicuous oddity
to a visitor — and one which immediate¬
ly sets it off from every other county
anywhere — is the fact that a fourth
of its population is comprised of In¬
dians. Not the expected Indians, ei¬
ther. with feather and beads, but white
Indians, who were living like whites
when first discovered, yet preserved
their racial integrity, and so mysterious
in origin that they do not even have a
name. Some believe they are de¬
scended from Sir Water Raleigh’s Lost
Colonists. In Robeson are more In¬
dians than in any other county in
eastern America. (See page 9.)
SHARPE
Robeson is not only big but grow¬
ing. It added 11,873 or 14.2 per cent
to its population in the past ten years,
and millions to its agricultural income
to make a 1949 total of S28.000.000.
third in North Carolina. Ranked one
of North Carolina’s more stable, cau¬
tious counties, for so long has it been
immersed in tilling the fertile loam
of the plains that few North Caro¬
linians considered it a very progressive
county.
No notion could be more contrary
to the record. In most of the matters
which interest North Carolinians.
Robeson has been a pioneer, and to¬
day it is moving forward, ponderously
as befits its bulk, and conservatively,
as befits its Scotch-backboned rural
population. It was the first eastern
county to vote out liquor; the first
North Carolina countv to install an
agricultural department, and the first
strictly rural county in America to have
a health department. It has three col¬
leges. one of the nation's four cancer
institutes (Si ate, Aug. 30, 1952),
and one of North Carolina’s largest
power plants. Its nine towns organized
the first and only county municipal
league in this state.
Plainly Plains
This is unmistakable coastal plains
land, though there are some sandy
ridges. When Fnglish. Scots and a few
French settlers arrived, they found a
vast, awesome forest. Some of the
area was in swamps, now mostly
drained. About half of the land is
still in forests, but practically all of
this is cut over.
The Lumber (Lumbee) River, ris-
THE STATE. VoL XX; No. 26. Entered at second-cla** miner. June I, 1933, al the I'oMolIlce at Italeich, North Carolina, under the art of
alarm J, I8J9. I'ublUhed by Sharpe I'ublithinc Co., Inc., Lawyers Hid* . Kalelch. N. C. Copyrleht. 191*. by the sharpr I'ulili'liiric Co., Inc
