NORTH CAROLINA THERMAL BELTS. 



The Great Fruit and Vegetable Zones ! High, Dry, Healthful Region, 



More than forty years ago Silas McDowell wrote in the Agricul- 

 tural volume of the Patent Office Report an article relating his 

 observations in Macon County. He was a man of much intelligence, 

 and had been in youth a companion of John Lyon, the English 

 botanist, exploring with him the Black, Yellow, Roan, Grandfather, 

 and Linville ranges, and caring for him until his death in 1814. 



Mr. McDowell was also a companion of Curtis, Buckley, Rein- 

 hardt, and Dow, the latter of whom perished among the mountains, 

 and his remains were never discovered. Dr. Gray was in communi- 

 cation with him more than forty years ago. 



He wrote: "When I commenced business it was as a farmer in 

 western North Carolina, in a wild valley and amid lofty mountains, 

 and for nearly fifty years my house was an open free home to the 

 scientist, particularly the geologist and botanist (my own specialties). 

 But now the light begins to burn dim in the binnacle, and is nearly 

 out." He died in 1882, at the ripe old age of 87. Honor to his 

 memory ! 



A description of the phenomena observed -by him is given in his 

 own words: "Amongst the valleys of the southern Alleghanies 

 sometimes winter is succeeded by warm weather, which, continuing 

 through the months of March and April, brings out vegetation rapidly 

 and clothes the forest in an early verdure. 



"This pleasant spring weather is terminated by a few days' rain, 

 and the clearing up is followed by cold raking winds from the north- 

 west, leaving the atmosphere of a pure indigo tint, through which 

 wink bright stars ; but, if the wind subsides at night, the succeeding 

 morning shows a heavy hoar-frost ; vegetation is utterly killed, includ- 

 ing all manner of fruit germs, and the landscape clothed in verdure 

 the day before now looks dark and dreary. 



"It is under precisely this condition of things that the beautiful 

 phenomenon of the 'Verdant Zone 7 or 'Thermal Belt' exhibits itself 

 upon our mountainsides, commencing at about three hundred feet 

 vertical height above the valleys, and traversing them in a perfectly 

 horizontal line throughout their entire length, like a vast green ribbon 

 upon a black ground. 



"Its breadth is four hundred feet vertical height, and from that 

 wider, according to the degree of the angle of the mountain with the 

 plane of the horizon. Vegetation of all kinds within the limits of 

 this zone is untouched by frost; and such is its protective influence 

 that the Isabella, the most tender of all our native grapes, has not 



