THE PIEDMONT REGION. 147 



similar symptoms of disease have appeared in the red and black oak, and 

 fears on this account have been entertained. The distinctive growth of 

 the region is the short leaf pine, with a large variety of oaks and hickories. 

 On the water courses, willow, beech, birch, black walnut, ash, poplar and 

 gum abound. In sections, of Laurens the long leaf, formerly unknown in 

 this section, has, within the last ten years, appeared among the old field 

 pines. The sycamore sometimes attains a great size, one in York being 

 twenty-eight feet in girth. The tulip tree, also, is often very large. 

 The sugar maple is found, and another maple of larger growth and yield- 

 ing a superior sugar, both as to quantity and cjuality, is known in Lan- 

 caster, under the name of the sugar tree (Mills). 



PRODUCTIONS. 



The skins and furs of wild animals were the earliest products which 

 the upper country gave to commerce. About the middle of the 18th 

 century "the cowj)en keepers" and the "cow drivers," led thither by' 

 the representations of the trappers, hunters and Indian traders, built their 

 cabins among these pastures, and made large enclosures, into which their 

 niimerous herds were driven for marking, handling, &c. The business 

 was a large one, and numl^ers of neat cattle were driven annually to the 

 markets of Charleston, Philadelphia and New York. Horse raising, also, 

 was largely engaged in, and so highly were the qualities of the Carolina 

 horse of that early day esteemed, that a statute of the provincial Legis- 

 latures forbids the introduction of the inferior horses of Virginia 

 and other northern plantations. Around the " cowpens " of the stock 

 drivers the agricultural settlers appeared. Their crops of wheat and 

 Indian corn formed, for many years, a considerable item of export from 

 the province. Hemp, particularly between the Broad and Saluda rivers, 

 was largely cultivated, and Dr. Brahm says it was the finest and most 

 durable grown anywhere in the world for the cordage of vessels. The 

 cultivation of tobacco was engaged in, but was restricted by the difficulty 

 of bringing so bulky an article to market in the then condition of the 

 country roads. It was packed in casks, trunnions fastened to each head, 

 shafts attached, and drawn by a horse several days journey to market, as 

 a large roller. Silk was grown, and the vine successfully cultivated by 

 the early settlers of New Bordeaux, in Abbeville. It is noteworthy that, 

 within the last few years, since the French vineyards have suffered from 

 the phyloxera, besides the scuppernong roots, hundreds of thousands of 

 cuttings of the Warren grape, natives here, have been ordered from France, 

 and being planted there they have yielded a wine of excellent quality. 

 In 1801, Col. Hill, of York, made forty-eight tons of red clover on eighteen 



