DISEASES OF SHEEP. 189 



hilly, and the mountainous portions of those States and of Maryland, must be pecu- 

 liarly adapted to the constitution of an animal which appears to have a natural 

 appetency for rolling and elevated pastures. Or is it that the mountains in Yancey 

 county for instance, are almost exclusively covered with rocks and timber or wood, 

 affording no scope either for the plough or for grazing? Its elevation of some thou- 

 sand feet above the sea secures it, without doubt, against the autumnal diseases of 

 the tide-water country. Is it that the price of the land there forliids investment in il 

 with a view to such employment of capital ? Or why is it that the swarms of hardy 

 yeomanry that annually migrate from the North should not settle down in districts 

 described by the latest and ablest geographical authority. Darby, as being "highly 

 salubrious and well watered," instead of wending their weary way to regions less 

 blessed with health, and so remote from the comforts of denser populations? 



If time will allow you. Sir, to answer according to your knowledge and observa- 

 tion how far my impressions are correct, as to the resources of North Carolina in the 

 particulars to which I have adverted, you will much oblige me ; and the earlier you 

 can favour me with an answer, the more will the kindness be esteemed, by 



Yours, with great respect, 



J. S. SKINNER. 



House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 1844. 



Dear Sir, — Your favour of the 30th ultimo was received a day or two since, and I 

 now avail myself of the very first opportunity to answer it. I do so most cheerfully, 

 because, in the first place, I am happy to have it in my power to gratify in any man- 

 ner one who has done so much as yourself to diffuse correct information on subjects 

 most important to the agriculture of the country; and, secondly, because I feel a 

 deep interest in the subject to which your inquiries are directed. 



You state that you have directed some attention to the sheep husbandry of the 

 United States, in the course of which it has occurred to you that the people of the 

 mountain regions of North Carolina, and some of the other southern States, have 

 not availed themselves sufficiently of tlieir natural advantages for the production of 

 sheep. Being myself well acquainted with the western section of North Carolina, I 

 may perhaps be able to give you most of the information you desire. As you have 

 directed several of your inquiries to the county of Yancey, (I presume from the fact, 

 well known to you, that it contains the highest mountains in any of the United 

 States), I will, in the first place, turn my attention to that county. First, as to its 

 elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow river, 

 the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its centre, was about twenty-two 

 hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he 

 found to be between two thousand eight hundred and two thousand nine hundred 

 feet above it. The general level of the country is, of course, much above this eleva- 

 tion. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise above the height of six thou- 

 sand feet. The climate is delightfully cool during the summer; in fact there are very 

 few places in the county where the thermometer rises above eighty degrees on the 

 hottest day. An intelligent gentleman who passed a summer in the northern part 

 of the county (rather the more elevated portion of it) informed me that the thermo- 

 meter did not rise on the hottest days above seventy-six degrees. 



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? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the 

 county that I have passed over is too rocky for cultivation ; and in many sections 

 of the county one may travel miles without seeing a single stone. It is only about 



