THE ALPINE REGION. 103 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES 



are restricted here almost exclusively to one — frost. Caterpillar is un- 

 known. A little rust and shedding occur on ill-drained soils, but there 

 is no general complaint regarding them. The vegetable enemies of the 

 plant are crab grass, with now and then complaints of rag weed and May- 

 pop vine. 



GINNING 



here differs in no regard from the accounts already given of it in the other 

 regions. The weight aimed at for the bale is four hundred and fifty 

 pounds to five hundred pounds, and the average obtained, from the state- 

 ments made, is four hundred and eighty-three pounds. 



Farmers sell their cotton to the merchants at the nearest railroad sta- 

 tion, without charges of any kind, and make no estimate as to the cost 

 of shipping and selling. 



The cost of production is estimated at eight cents to ten cents per 

 pound. No itemized statement of the cost of culture could be obtained 

 from this region, and it probably differs in no wise from that in other 

 regions. 



Abstract of the reports of township correspondents for the Piedmont 

 Region : 



Oconee County. 



Wagner Toionship {E. D. 120): Lands hilly and rolling, embracing 

 Stump House mountain, the slopes of which are very fertile ; below the 

 mountain there is much table or level land. The soils are, 1st, a gray, 

 sandy soil, underlaid by stiff clay, with partially decomposed slates at a 

 depth of fifty feet ; this soil is well adapted to cotton : 2d, a mulatto 

 soil, producing tobacco well, the culture of which is found very re- 

 munerative and is yearly increasing : 3d, black, loamy soils of creek and 

 branch bottoms, ver}^ productive in corn, oats and the grains. The 

 growth is pine, oak, hickory, very large chestnut, and dogwood ; the last- 

 named wood is being sawn into blocks for shuttles, and shipped north by 

 the carload. One-half mile from Walhalla there is an inexhaustible 

 quarry of very fine building granite ; very large plates of mica are also 

 found here. Numerous swift, clear streams afford abundant water powers 

 not developed. Land is cheap, but is not priced by the acre. Stock 

 13 



