188 THE ALPINE REGION. 



GROWTH. 



The prevailing growth is oak, chestnut, and short leaf pine. Proceed- 

 ing toward the mountains, the following trees mark the ascent in the 

 order here named : Rock chestnut, oak (quercm primus mmiticold), cucum- 

 her tree {magnolia accuminatar), mountain laurel {rhododendron maximum), 

 white pine (piniis strohus), hemlock or spruce pine {abies canadensis). The 

 forest products are shingles, tan bark, and dogwood, with other hard 

 woods, besides abundant timber for building purposes. The Indians 

 once gained their chief livelihood here by gathering and disposing of 

 medicinal herbs, such as spigelia marylandica, ginseng and snake root, 

 which are to be found in great abundance. 



STATISTICS. 



The Alpine region of South Carolina embraces an area of 1,250 square 

 miles, and is, therefore, the smallest division of the State here treated of. 

 The population numbers 34,496, an increase since the census of 1870 of 

 sixty-six per cent. This gives the density of the population as twenty- 

 seven to the square mile which is below the average of the State, and 

 less than in other regions — the sand hills and lower pine belt alone 

 excepted. Twenty-six per cent, of the population is colored. 



Eighty per cent, of the land is wood land and forest, sixteen per cent, 

 is tilled, and four per cent, is in old fields. The area of tilled land has 

 more than doubled since 1870, being now 132,791 acres, and then, only 

 64,802 acres. This is 3.8 acres per capita of population, against 3.1 acres 

 in 1870, showing that improvement has more than kept pace with the 

 increase of the population. 



The number of farms is 4,646, which gives an average of twenty-eight 

 acres of improved land to the farm. Of this number, forty-three per 

 cent, is under fifty acres, and may be considered as in the hands of small 

 farmers. Nevertheless, there are some large landholders in this region. 

 For instance : Mr. James E. Calhoun owns a body of 100,000 acres* of 



*0n the marjiin of his plat of these lands, Mr. Calhoun remarks : " Well timbered, 

 soil good, scenery superb. It is so healthy that no physician ever lived in that part of 

 the country. There are mineral springs. Cultivation is exclusively by white labor. 

 It is a plateau within the ' thermal belt,' where fruit is never affected by frost Gold, 

 iron, lime, hydraulic cement and kaolin are known to be abundant. Report adds 

 silver, copper, lead and corundum. The Blue Ridge railroad runs twelve miles through 

 it. In its lentrth of twenty-two miles and width of fifteen miles, it would be difficult 

 to find a single spot two miles distant from water powers, of which there are 

 more than eighty miles in direct line, and which, if developed, would be e.vempt from 



