North Carolina

Climate and Soil.

North Carolina has a climate which varies from that of the south-east corner, which approaches the sub tropical, to that of the Mountain region, which is like the medium continental type, except that the summers are cooler and the rainfall is greater. The mean annual temperature for the State (below an elevation of 4,000 ft.) is about 59° F. For the Coastal Plain region it is 61° F; for the Piedmont Plateau region, 60° F; for the the Mountain region, 56° F ; for Southport, in the south east corner of the State, 64° F; and for Highlands, at an elevation of 3,817 ft. in the south-west corner, 50° F. Extremes have ranged from –19° F at Highlands to 107° F at Chapel Hill, Orange county, in 1900 and again in 1902. The average precipi tation for the State is about 52 in. a year, nearly all of it in the form of rain. For the Coastal Plain region it is 54 in. ; for the Piedmont Plateau region, 48 in. ; and for the Mountain region 53 inches. On the east slope of some of the mountains the rainfall is exceedingly heavy. The winds are variable and seldom violent, except along the coast during the sub-tropical storms of late summer and early autumn.

On the Coastal Plain the soil is generally sandy, but in nearly all parts of this region more or less marl abounds; south of the Neuse river the soil is mostly a loose sand, north of it there is more loam on the uplands, and in the lowlands the soil is usually compact with clay, silt or peat ; toward the western border of the region the sand becomes coarser and some gravel is mixed with it. The entire Piedmont region is underlain by crystalline rocks, such as granite and schists. The soils are, for the most part, red sandy loams and clay loams, gravelly and sandy in spots.

Population.

The population by the Federal census of 1930 was 3,170,276, an increase in the decade 1920-30 of 611,153 or 23.9%. North Carolina in 1930 ranked, in population, 12th among the States of the Union. The population of the State at certain other censuses was as follows: 393,751 in 179o; 478,103 in 180o; 992,622 in 186o; 1,071,361 in 1870; in 1890; 1,893,810 in Iwo; and 2,206,287 in 1910. Of the total in 1930 only 8,788, or slightly over one-third of 1% were foreign-born, a smaller foreign admixture than that of any other State. According to race distribution were whites, 918,647 negroes, 16,579 Indians and 85 Japanese and Chinese. Until nearly a century after the founding of the Carolinas there was not a town in North Carolina that had a population of i,000, and the urban population of the State was exceptionally small at the beginning of the rapid rise of the manufacturing industries about 1880. In 1930 the

urban population (in places having 2,500 inhabitants or more) was 809,847 or 25.5% of the total as compared with 19.2% in 1920. The density of population in 1930 was 65.0 persons per square mile. There were 21 places in the State in 1930 having a population of I o,000 or more. The chief cities at that date and their populations were Charlotte 82,675, Winston-Salem 75,274, Greensboro 53,569, Durham 52,037, Asheville 50,193, Raleigh, the capital, 37,379, High Point City Government.—North Carolina has been governed under the charters of 1663 and 1665 (1663-1729), under commissions and instructions from the crown (1729-76), and under the State Constitutions of Dec. 1776 and of April 1868, with numerous amendments. The present Constitution, as amended, prescribes that no convention of the people of the State may be called by the legislature unless by the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of each house followed by an affirmative vote of a majority of the electors voting on the question ; and that an amendment to the Constitution may be adopted only by a three fifths vote of each house followed by an affirmative vote of the majority of electors voting on the question. The suffrage pro visions containing the famous "grandfather clause" (in Art. vi. section 4), were adopted in the form of a constitutional amend ment, ratified in Aug. 1900, and in effect July I, 1902. Since Dec. I, 1908, all new applicants otherwise qualified may place their names on the voting register, provided they can read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language.

Perhaps the most notable feature about the administration is the weakness of the governor's position. He is elected by popular vote for four years, and cannot succeed himself in office. His power is limited by a council of State, a relic of colonial days. This body is not, however, a special board, as in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, but a kind of administrative cabinet consisting of the secretary of State, the auditor, the treasurer and the superintendent of public instruction, advising the governor in the administration of his office. Judges, heads of departments, and executive boards are elected, and in most in stances in which the governor appoints to office the confirmation of the senate is necessary. Furthermore, in North Carolina the governor has no veto power. In addition to the executive officials mentioned above there are a lieutenant governor, and attorney general, a commissioner of agriculture, a commissioner of labour and printing, a commissioner of insurance and a commissioner of revenue, all elected for a term of four years.