SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 415 



feed for stock. In this last particular, it- would be, as I have before said, 

 an important auxiliary in slieep husbandry. 



The adaptation of most of'tliis reirion to slieep husbandry is too obvious 

 to require extended comment ; and it liecomes, therefore, simply a ques- 

 tion of profit and loss, wliether it is expedient to introduce it.* Let us turn 

 therefore, to the adaptation of the mountain re2;if)n to this branch of industry 



The altitude of the soutlieni mountains, with a few exceptions, is not 

 very considerable. The loftiest, the Black and the Koan, in North Cai-o- 

 lina, are respectively G,476 and G,03S; leet in hi^ht. The Peaks of Otter, 

 the liighest, and summits of the Blue Rido;e in A'irtrinia, are 4,2.'30, and the 

 highest Alleganics '2,rA)0 feet high. Table Mountain in South Carolina 

 is about 4,000, and the terminal masses of the Blue Ridge in Georgia are 

 about l,-300.t The hight of the Cumberland Mountains, the most western 

 chahi, I nowhere find stated, but they are not reputed as high as some of 

 the preceding. It will be seen, therefore, that none of the southern moun- 

 tains rise above the range of the grasses. They are usually broad at the 

 base, easy of ascent, and rounded or flattened on their summits, instead 

 of rising from nanow bases into steep pyramidal forms with conical peaks ; 

 and from their geological formations and their shape (resulting probably 

 from that formation,) they are uncommonly free from exposed rocks, preci- 

 picos and abrupt acclivities. With the exception, perhaps, of the Cum- 

 berland chain, large, exposed rocks abound far less, on most of these 

 mountains than in many parts of New-England, or even the Old Red Sand- 

 stone region of Pennsylvania, which are not only pastured, but plowed ! 

 Indeed, a side-hill plow, drawn by oxen, could be used on very many of 

 t^ie southern mountains, if cleared, to their very summits ; and this is true, 

 singular as it may appear, of some of the loftiest of them.| The Cumber- 

 land Mountains are spoken of by Doct. Morse, as " stupendous piles of 

 craggy rocks," and in these statements he has been followed by moi-e re- 

 cent geographers. But if this description applies to some portions of the 

 chain, it certainly does not to others, as I shall have occasion to show. 



On the sides, and sometimes on the summits of the mountains in differ- 

 ent parts of this whole region, extensive plains or table lands, already 

 pretty well covered with wild and domestic grasses and nutritious escu- 

 lents, not unfrequently occur. Esculents suitable for sheep are to be 

 found in gi-eater or less quantities on nearly all of them. 



West of the summit of the Blue Ridge, the geological formations, as 

 has before been stated, belong to the Transition period — a rather unusual 

 circumstance in mountain ranges, and undoubtedly more indicative of 

 fiertility in the ssperincumbent soils than the ordinary Primary formation. }[ 

 Indeed, they are the same with those of the best grazing lands of South- 

 ern New-Yoi'k, and subtracting climatic and other§ effects of elevation, 

 they shoTild possess a general correspondence in their properties and pro- 

 ducts, with the latter.^ 



* This quostion will lie fully discu??pd in a subsequent letter. 



t For these altitudes. I am indebted to Professor Mitchell. 



J For example, the Roan. 



II It is true that soils formed from Primary rocks, when sufficiently fertile to sustain herbace of any kind, 

 are peculiarly adapted to the production of sweet grasses: but mouniains of this formation are usually 

 steeper, from the slower decomposition of fn'anite, cnoies, and other Primary rocks, and their steepness ex- 

 poses them to increased abrasion, or washing. Hence their soils frequently but thinly cover the rocks, 

 and are of a moa<rer and lixiviated character. 



§ To wit, abrasion and denudation by rains. And, moreover, the " northern drift " of New-York has added 

 a little lime to the soils formed Irom these rocks, and thus supplied, measurabl}-, a want existing in all of 

 them for most tillage crops. 



TI For example, the " Slate Hills." which rise on the west of Augusta, llockingham, Shenandoah, Fred- 

 crick and some other countios in Virginia, are com))0.=ed of the same rocks (Hamilton uMoup, including 

 Genesee slate of the New-York system,) which underlie some of the best soils in New-York : and much 

 of the land between these hills and the Alleganics resti on the same rocks, (Chemung.) which underlie 

 the southern grazing region of New-York. 

 (S47) 



