222 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The timber consists of lime, buckeye, 

 hickory, poplar, box elder, black locust, 

 chestnut, beech, dog-wood, iron-wood, 

 horn-bean, sugar-tree, hackberry, cedar in 

 limited quantities, and all the oaks and 

 elms. AJl the valleys of the county were 

 once covered with cane thirty feet high, 

 and even now the plowman, who pene- 

 trates the soil to any considerable depth, 

 turns up masses of cane root. The soil 

 is as rich as any in the State, and it is not 

 unusual to gather 1,000 Bos. of seed cotton 

 to the acre, as much as 2,000 lbs. having 

 been raised. A fair, average price for 

 these lands ranges from $10 to $50 per 

 acre. 



The corn crops of Lincoln are gener- 

 ally very fine. Perhaps no other county 

 in the State can make a better average 

 showing of this great staple. Wheat, 

 also, when properly put in, gives very 

 satisfactory returns ; it being by no means 

 remarkable for the yield to reach 20, and 

 sometimes 33 bushels to the acre. Timo- 

 thy grass grows with great luxuriance on 

 the moist bottoms, and millet, of every 

 variety, yields abundantly. Some of the 

 heaviest millet crops ever harvested in the 

 State were grown in this county, so says 

 the report of the State Bureau of Agricul- 

 ture for 1874. Cotton, too long the sov- 

 ereign of Southern planters, has been, in 

 the main, a great crop, and too many sac- 

 rifices have been made to its culture. 

 Our people, however, profiting by experi- 

 ence, are abandoning it as rapidly as possi- 

 ble, and favoring other productions less 

 injurious to the soil and more renumera- 

 tive in the end. 



Everything goes to prove that this coun- 

 ty is well adapted to stock raising. The 

 blue grass that clothes the slopes of the 

 hills, and the well watered valleys, the 

 natural facilities offered by the soil for 

 producing forage, and the abundant yield 

 of corn, show how eaisily and how cheap- 

 ly stock of the best quality can be raised. 

 There is a growing inclination on the 

 part of our best farmers to abondon cot- 

 ton and substitute therefor stock raising, 

 and many of them are even now enabled 

 to make a splendid display of shorthorns, 

 as an evidence of tlieir pra(;tical reforma- 

 tion in this respect. Considerable atten- 

 tion is being paid to sheep, and some of 

 the best breeds in the State are to be 

 found in Lincoln county. 



Our farmers, as a class, are well inform- 

 ed, intelligent, substantial, and industri- 

 ous. The farms will probably average 

 from twenty to fifty acres of arable land. 

 The farm-houses and improvements are 

 about as good as are to be found in other 

 portions of the State. Wliile the low 

 bottoms are not well adapted to the 

 growth of fruit, which is liable to be 

 killed by late frosts, the flat laads and 

 hilly regions grow almost every variety- 

 to be found in the temperate zone. Espec- 

 ial attention is being directed to the cul- 



ture of the grape. The admirable drain- 

 age, and broken surface of certain sections 

 of the country, together with the abund- 

 ance of wild grape vines, show a peculiar 

 fitness in the soil for the growth of this 

 fruit. 



While the water power is not the best 

 in the State, it is fully equal to all the 

 present and probable future demands 

 of the country. Elk river is not an un- 

 governable stream by any means, and 

 it is now utilized, or can be, at every few 

 miles. 



There is one rail-road, forty miles 

 in length, in the county, connecting 

 Fayetteville, the county seat with Nash- 

 ville and Chattanooga Railroad, the main 

 thoroughfare of Southern travel. 



Lincoln county has more than once 

 been the banner county of the State in the 

 leading products, as well as in the higher 

 evidences of prosperity and substantial 

 progress. It has produced the greatest 

 number of pounds of wool, the greatest 

 number of horses, the largest number 

 of sheep, and had more capital invested 

 in live stock than any other county in the 

 State. It has been second only in quan- 

 tity of rye produce, and in pounds of 

 butter. It has been third in corn and 

 fourth in wheat. 



Lincoln county does not desire a dense 

 or a promiscuous population, but a suffi- 

 cient influx of steady, substantial citizens, 

 to carry on every branch of human indus- 

 try for which there are natural facilities, 

 unsurpassed in any other portion of the 

 State. We invite men representing everj- 

 class of honest industry and skill, regard- 

 less of previous political predilections, 

 to settle in our midst, and to all such, 

 who come among us with fair and lauda- 

 ble intentions, seeking in good faith their 

 own and the material prosperity of the 

 county, we vouchsafe a cordial welcome. 



We can speedily disabuse their minds 

 of partisan prejudice, and convince them 

 under our roofs and around our hearth- 

 stones that we are a people worthy of 

 fraternal alliances, and capable of appre- 

 ciating merit, whether it comes from the 

 looms of Massachusetts or the rice-fields 

 of South Carolina. We make no section- 

 al distinctions and we know but one coun- 

 try and one flag — the Union of our fath- 

 ers and the starry emblem of its sover- 

 eignty. Whatever miserable political 

 marplots may say, we cherish no bittei- 

 recollections of the late unhappy war. 

 We have buried our dead, dried up our 

 tears and put the past in our rear and out 

 of sight. We belong to tlie future and 

 to our country, we are in search of peace 

 and prosperity, and Mason and Dixon's 

 line has passed out of our sight and 

 memory forever. Gentlemen, of the 

 North, come among us ; partake of our 

 hospitality ; be our friends and brothers, 

 and the soil of old Lincoln will repeat 

 the welcome of her sons. 



