190 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



the tops of the higher mountainy that rocky precipices are to be found. A large por« 

 tion of the surface of the county is a sort of elevated table-land, undulating, but 

 Beldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one ascends the higher mountains, he 

 will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land containing several hundred 

 acres in a body. The top of the Roan (the highest mountain in the county except 

 the Black) is covered by a prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during 

 the greater part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual that persons ride to the 

 top on horseback from almost any direction. The same may be said of many of the 

 other mountains. The soil of the county generally is uncommonly fertile, producing 

 with tolerable cultivation abundant crops. What seems extraordinary to a stranger 

 is the fact that the soil becomes richer as he ascends the mountains. The sides of the 

 Roan, the Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation even of five or six thousand 

 feet above the sea, are covered with a deep rich vegetable mould, so soft that a horse 

 in dry weather often sinks to the fetlock. The fact that the soil is frequently more 

 fertile as one ascends is, I presume, attributable to the circumstance that the higher 

 portions are more commonly covered with clouds; and the vegetable matter being 

 thus kept in a cool moist state while decaying, is incorporated to a greater degree 

 with the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the north side of a hill 

 is richer than the portion most exposed to the action of the sun's rays. The sides 

 of the mountains, the timber being generally large, with little undergrowth and 

 brushwood, are peculiarly fitted for pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many 

 places as luxuriant as it is in the rich savanna of the low country* 



The soil of every part of the county is not only favourable to the production of 

 grain, but is peculiarly fitted for grasses. Timothy is supposed to make the largest 

 yield, two tons of hay being easily produced on an acre, but herds-grass, or red-top, 

 and clover succeed equally well ; blue grass has not been much tried, but is said to do 

 remarkably well. A friend showed me several spears which he informed me were 

 produced in the northern part of the county, and which by measurement were found 

 to exceed seventy inches in length. Oats, rye, potatoes, turnips, &c., are produced 

 in the greatest abundance. % 



With respect to the prices of land, I can assure you that large bodies of uncleared 

 rich land, most of which might be cultivated, have been sold at prices varying from 

 twenty-five cents to fifty cents per acre. Any quantity of laiid favourable for sheep- 

 walks might be procured in any section of the county at prices varying from one to 

 ten dollars per acre. 



The few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and are sometime* 

 permitted to run at large during the winter without being fed and without suffering. 

 As the number kept by any individual is not large enough to justify the employment 

 of a shepherd to take care of them, they are not unfrequently destroyed by vicious 

 dogs, and more rarely by wolves, which have not yet been entirely exterminated. 



I have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, because some of 

 your inquiries were directed particularly to it, and because most of what I have said 

 of Yancey is true of the other counties west of the Blue Ridge. Haywood has about 

 the same elevation and climate as Yancy. The mountains are rather more steep, 

 and the valleys somewhat broader; the soil generally not quite so deep, but very 

 productive, especially in grasses. In some sections of the county, however, the soil 

 is equal to the best I have seen. 



Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated ; Ashville and Ilendcrsonville, 

 the ounty towns, being each about two thousand two hundred feet above the sea. 



