68 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Mercer county, perched upon the slope of the Alleghanies, is drained by the 

 Kew or Kanawha river and several small tributaries. Great Flat-top mountaiu 

 extends along the northwest border. Excellent pasturage exists wherever for- 

 ests are girdled or felled. But one-sixth of its farms are improved, yet its 

 yearly exhibit of animals slaughtered is $58,132, and its corn amounts to 

 131,654 bushels, wheat 4.3,131 bushels, and oats 55,843 bushels. 



Ealeigh, with 110,945 acres in farms, has but 11,632 acres which are im- 

 proved ; consequently the average value is reduced to S3 54. Its cereals make 

 a proportiv)nally small exhibit. Quite a prominent place is givcu to tobacco, of 

 Avhicli 34,827 pounds arc cured. Of flax, 2,002 pounds are prepared. It is 

 drained by the head streams of Coal river, and bounded on the east by New 

 river, and slojies toAvard the northwest. 



Boone county is drained by Coal and Little rivers and Laurel creek. It was 

 named in honor of Daniel Boone, and is yet to a great extent as wild a forest as 

 that adventurous pioneer could desire. Yet it has 15,054 improved acres, and 

 218,873 unimproved in liirms, valued at $2 22 per acre. Its live stock is valued 

 at $120,589 ; its corn yields 143,808 bushels, about ten bushels to every acre 

 of improved land, in addition to a variety of other fai'm products, including hay 

 and some pasturage, although woods and pastures are adequate to a fair support 

 of stock in summer, and a partial supply of winter feed. A good idea of the 

 dependence placed upouAvinter pasturage and corn fodder may be had from the 

 fact that only 74 tons of hay are cured for the use of 8,994 farm animals — a 

 surfeit of 16 pounds to each animal for the winter. This c<?rtainly does not in- 

 dicate a poverty of pasturage, or extreme severity of weather or depth of snows. 

 Again, there is produced $30,879 from slaughtered animals, about two dolhirs 

 [)er acre for the entire area of improved lands, exclusive of forests, in addition 

 to other farm products. 



Cabell county, on the Ohio river, is intersected by the Guyandotte river, and 

 has more improved lands than Boone; this degree of improvement, small as it 

 is, with somewhat better facilities for transportation, makes the assessed value 

 of farms about ten dollars per acre. It has some fertile lands ; is a fine region 

 for fruit, and already derives some revenue from orchards ; grows sorghum 

 finely, sweet potatoes, &c. This county is also very rich in minerals. 



Wayne county occupies the southwest corner of the State, and is separated 

 fi>om Kentucky by Sandy river. The surface is much broken, well covered 

 with valuable timber, aSbrding some excellent soil ; and the earth beneath is 

 rich with a variety of coals, including cannel. It is here that the enterprise of 

 Eli Thayer was inaugurated, at Ceredo, which terminated in failure from causes 

 having no connexion with the intrinsic value of the resources there ready for 

 development. 



Logan, Wyoming, and McDowell are drained by the tributaries of the Sandy, 

 and by the Guyandotte, and occupy the extreme south of West Virginia. This 

 region is rough, but fertile, rich in woods and mines, scarcely available or valu 

 able at present for want of water or other cheap transportation. It is immedi 

 ately valuable, however — aside from the close proximity of rebel territory and 

 the danger of rebel marauding — for wool-growing. Lying between the latitude 

 of 37° and 38°, on the same parallel with the southern point of Illinois, and yet 

 elevated above miasmatic iullucnces — a country of genial sunshine and bracing 

 air, of trout brooks and running streams — it is eminently a fit and healthful 

 locality for sheep. Ample pasturage for extensive flocks is afforded in the 

 openings of the forest, in which nutritious grasses spring up spontaneously, and 

 grow vigorously. A commencement has been made, and this district, of eight 

 counties, unsettled as it is, and comparatively unpeopled, had, in 1860, 36,983 

 skeep, producing 65,183 pounds of avooI. This does not fairly exhibit the wool- 

 producing ability of the region, as the sheep, roaming in the forests, arc little 

 cared for, and lose much of their wool upon bushes and briers when warm 



