SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SC UTH. 43 



feed for stock. In this last particular, it would be, as I have before sa'd, 

 an important auxiliary in sheep husbandry. 



The adaptation of most of this region to sheep husbandry is too ob\ioui» 

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

 tion of profit and loss, whether it is expedient to introduce it.* Lit us turn 

 therefore, to the adaptation of the mountain region to this branch of industiy 



Tlie altitude of the southern mountains, with a few exceptions, is not 

 very considerable. The loftiest, the Black and the Roan, in North Caro- 

 lina, are respectively 6,476 and 6,038 feet in hight. The Peaks of Otter, 

 the highest, and summits (»f the Blue Ilidge in Virginia, are 4,250, and the 

 highest Alleganies 2,500 feet high. Talile Mountain in South Caroliiia 

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

 about l,500.t The hight of the Cumberland Mountains, the most western 

 chain, 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 southena 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 naiTOW bases into steep pyramidal forms with conical peaks ; 

 and from their geological formations and their shape (resulting probably 

 from that formati(jn,) they are uncommonly free from exposed rocks, preci- 

 pices 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 

 the southern mountains, if cleared, to their very summits ; and this is time, 

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

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

 ciaggy rocks," and in these statements he has been followed by more 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 sidesf 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 greater 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 

 fertility in the superincumbent soils than the ordinary Primary formation. || 

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

 ern New-York, and subtracting climatic and other§ effects of elevation, 

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

 ducts, with the latter.^ 



* This question will be fully discussed in a subsequent letter. 



f 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 sufFciently fertile to sustain herVage of any kind 

 are peculiarly adapted to the production of sweet grasses: Ijt mountains of this formaiicjn aie usiiallj 

 *teej)er, from the slower decomposition of granite, gneiss, and Jther Primary rocks, and their steepness ex 

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

 •nd are of a meatrer and lixivinted character. 



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

 a Utile lime to the soils formed irora these rocks, and thus supplied, measurably, a want existing in all of 

 them for mn^X tillage crops. 



^ For example, the '• .Slate Hills." which rise on the west of Augusta. Rockingham, Shenandoah, Fred- 

 erick and some other coiiniics in Virginia, are composed of the same rocks (Hamilton croup, including 

 Genesee slate of the New- York sy»tem.y whi'^h underlie some of the best soils in New-York ; nr d much 

 of the land between these h\\\i> and the Alle.--nuies rests on the same rocks, (Chemung,) which underlie 

 the BO'ilhern crazing region of New York. 



