No. 8. 



On Sheep Husbandry, ^c. 



237 



rather the more elevated portion of it — 

 informed me that the thermometer did not 

 rise on the hottest day above 76°. 



You ask, in the next place, if the surface 

 of the ground is so much covered with rocks 

 as to render it unfit for pasture 1 The re- 

 verse is the fact ; no portion of the county 

 that I have passed over is too rocky for cul- 

 tivation, and in many sections of the county 

 one may travel miles without seeing- a sin- 

 gle 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 culti- 

 vation. Even as one ascends the higher 

 mountains, he will find occasionally on their 

 sides, flats of level land containing 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 du- 

 ring the greater part of the year. The as- 

 cent to it is so gradual, that persons ride to 

 the top on horseback from almost any direc- 

 tion. The same may be said of many of the 

 other mountains. The soil of the county 

 generally, is uncommonly fertile, producing 

 with tolerable 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 fetlock. The 

 fact that the soil is frequently more fertile 

 as one ascends, is, I presume, attributable 

 to^the circumstance that the higher portions 

 are most 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 a 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 sa- 

 vanna of the low country. 



The soil of every part of the county is 

 not only favourable 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, and 

 clover succeed equally well ; blue-grass has 

 not been much tried, but is said to do re- 

 markably well. A friend showed me seve- 



ral spears, which he informed me were pro- 

 duced in the northern part of the county, 

 and which by measurement were found to 

 exceed seventy inches in length ; oats, rye, 

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

 greatest abundance. 



With respect to the prices of land, I can 

 assure you that large bodies of uncleared 

 rich land, most of which might be culti- 

 vated, have been sold at prices varying from 

 twenty-five cents to fifty cents per acre. 

 Any quantity of land favourable for sheep- 

 walks, might be procured in any section of 

 the county, at prices varying from one to 

 ten dollars per acre. 



The few sheep that exist in the county 

 thrive remarkably well, and are sometimes 

 permitted 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. 



I have been somewhat prolix in my obser- 

 vations 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. Haywood has about the same 

 elevation and climate as Yancey. The 

 mountains are rather more steep and the 

 valleys somewhat broader; the soil gene- 

 rally not quite so deep, but very productive, 

 especially in grasses. In some sections of 

 the county, however, the soil is equal to the 

 best I have seen. 



Buncombe and Henderson are rather less 

 elevated — Ashville and Hendersonville, the 

 county towns, being each about 2,200 feet 

 above the sea. The climate is much the 

 same, but a very little warmer. The more 

 broken portions of these counties resemble 

 much the mountainous parts of Yancey and 

 Haywood, but they contain much more level 

 land. Indeed the greater portion of Hen- 

 derson is quite level. It contains much 

 swamp land, which, when cleared, with 

 very little if any drainage, produces very 

 fine crops of herds-grass. Portions of Ma- 

 con and Cherokee counties, are quite as fa- 

 vourable, both as to climate and soil, as those 

 above described. I would advert particularly 

 to the Valley of the Nantahalah, in Macon, 

 and of Cheoh, in Cherokee. In either, for 

 a comparative trifling price, some ten or fif- 

 teen miles square could be procured, all of 

 which would be rich, and the major part 

 sufficiently level for cultivation, and espe- 

 cially fitted, as their natural meadows indi- 

 cate, for the production of grass. 



