[40] 



will make a satisfactory yield. It has already been men- 

 tioned that one of the best that can be grown by the sheep 

 husbandman is the pea. Fodder enough could be readily 

 made from the haulm of the pea to keep large flocks through 

 the winter. Turnips also grow well upon the mountain, 

 and in some sections oats arid rye yield well. Besides these, 

 corn-fodder could be raised in any desirable quantities, and 

 sorghum. The fatal impression with most of those who 

 have attempted to raise sheep on the mountain has been 

 that sheep could subsist through the winter without feeding. 

 Practising such a belief three fourths of those who have 

 tried sheep raising on the mountain have ignominiously 

 failed, and it is retributive justice that they did. There 

 ought to be no success without watchful care. The raising 

 of sheep successfully in large flocks cannot bean avoeation; 

 it must be a vocation, demanding the time, care and patient 

 attention required in other pursuits. 



My own impression is that the Merino sheep, if properly 

 cared for, would prove a profitable investment on these 

 mountain lands. One precaution would be necessary, and 

 that is to keep the bucks from the ew^s until about the 

 middle of November, so that the lambs would come after 

 the rigorous winter weather is over. 



On the rim-lands surrounding the Basin the soils generally 

 are more fruitful of the domesticated grasses, and in certain 

 localities, particularly in Dickson, Humphreys, Lewis, 

 Hickman, and Lawrence, the wild grasses grow quite as 

 well as upon the Cumberland Table- land. The surface is 

 generally very level (except where cut by stream beds), 

 where the wild grasses flourish most abundantly, and the 

 woods are open. Many parts of the Highlands are very 

 fertile, as is Warren, Franklin, Stewart, Montgomery, 

 Robertson, Clay, and considerable areas in Putnam, Over- 

 ton, Coffee, Houston, and Lawrence. Humphreys. Dickson, 

 and Hickman have also many fertile areas. Sheep are very 

 healthy on these uplands, and require less care in winter 



