44 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



In ascertaining the particular products of these mountains, their climate, 

 and general adaptation to sheep husbandry, I will first call your attention 

 to the often quoted letter from Hon. T. L. Clingman, of North Carolina, 

 lo John S. Skinner, Esq., in 1844. Mr. Clingman says : 



" You state that you have directed some attention to the Sheep Husbandry of the United 

 States, in the course of which it has occurred to you that the people of the mountain regions 

 of North Carolina, and some of the other Southern States, have not availed themselves suffi- 

 ciently of their natural advantages for the production of sheep. Being myself well acquaint- 

 ed with the western section of North Carolina, I may perhaps be able to give you most of 

 the information you desire. As you have directed several of your inquiries to the county 

 of Yancey, (I presume from the fact, well known to you, that it contains the highest mouik- 

 tains in any of the United States.) I will, in the first place, turn my attention to that county. 

 First, as to its elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow 

 River, the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its center, was about 2,200 feet 

 above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he found to be be- 

 tween 2,800 and 2,900 feet above it. The general level of the country is, of course, much 

 above this elevation. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise above the hight of 

 6,000 feet. The climate is delightfully cool during the summer; in fact there are very few 

 places in the county where the thermometer rises above 80 on the hottest day. An intel- 

 ligent gentleman who passed the summer in the northern part of the county (rather the 

 more elevated portion of it) informed me that the thermometer did not rise on the hottest 

 da ~s above 76. 



' You ask, in the next place, if the surface of the ground is so mucn covered with rocks ae 

 to reader it unfit for pasture ? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the county that I have 

 passed over is too rocky for cultivation ; and in many sections of the county one may travel 

 miles without seeing a single stone. It is only about the tops of the higher mountains that 

 rocky precipices are to be found. A large portion of the surface of the county is a sort of 

 elevated table-land, undulating, but seldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one as- 

 cends the higher mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land con- 

 taining 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 tolera- 

 ble 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 fet- 

 lock. The fact that the soil is frequently more fertile as one ascends is, I presume, attrib- 

 utable 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 incorpo- 

 rated to a greater degree with the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the 

 north side of the 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 savannah of the low country. 



44 The soil of every part of the county is not only favorable 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, ami clover succeed equally 

 well ; blue-grass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably well. A friend 

 showed nie several spears which he informed me were produced in the normern part of the 

 county, and which by measurement were found to exceed TO inches in length. Oats, rye. 

 potatoes, turnips, &c., are produced in the greatest .abundance. 



44 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 25 cents U 

 50 cents per acre. Any quantity of land favorable for sheep-walks might be procured in 

 any section of the county at prices varying from one to ten dollars per acre 



44 The few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and are sometimes per- 

 mitted 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. 



41 1 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. Hay wood has about the same elevation 

 and climate as Yancey. The mountains are rather more steep, and the valleys somewhat 



