44 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



In ascertaining the particular products of these mountains, their climate^ 

 and general adaptation to sheep husbandry, I will first call your attention 

 to the often quoted letter from Hon. T. L. Clingman, of Noith Carolina, 

 to John S. Skinner, Esq., in 1844, Mr. Clingman says : 



•' You state that you hare 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 regiona 

 iif Noi-th Carolina, and some of the other Southern States, have not availed themselves sutii- 

 ciently of their natural advantages for the prtjdnction of sheep. Bein" myself well acquaint- 

 ed with the western section of North Carolina, I may perhaps be able to srive you most of 

 the infonnation you desire. As you have directed several of your inquiries to ttie county 

 of Yancey, (I presume from tlie fact, well known to you, that it contains the hij;liest moun- 

 tains 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 

 Hiver, the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its center, was about 2,200 feet 

 above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he found to be be- 

 tween 2,800 and 2,900 feet above it. The general level of the country is, of course, much 

 above this elevation. In fact, a number of the moiuitain summits rise above the hight of 

 6,000 feet. The climate is delightfully cool during the summer; in fact there are veiy few 

 places in the county whei-e the thermometer rises above 80*^ on the hottest day. An intel- 

 ligent gentleman who passed the summer in the northern part of the count}' (rather the 

 more elevated portion of it) infonned me that the thermometer did not rise on the hottest 

 da -9 above 76°. 



' You ask, in the next place, if the surface of the ground is so mucn covered with rocks a^ 

 to reader it unfit for pasture ? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the county that I h-av.i 

 passed over is too rocky for cultivation ; and in many sections of the county one may ti-avel 

 miles without seeing a single 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 cultivation. Even as one as- 

 cends the higher mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land con- 

 taining several hundred acres in a body. The top of the Roan (the highest mountain in the 

 county e.xcept the Bl;ick) is covered by a prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich [jastiire 

 duiing the greater part of the year. The accent to it is so giadual that persons ride to the 

 top on horseback trom almost any direction. The same may be said of many of the other 

 mountains. The soil of the county generally is uncommonly fertile, producing with tolera- 

 ble cultivation alDundaiit crops. What seems e.Ytraordiniiry 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. ai-e covered 

 with a deep, rich vegetable mould, so soft that a horse in dry weather often sinks to the fet- 

 lock. The fact that the sod is frequently more fertile as one ascends is, I presume, atti-H> 

 utable to the circumstance that the higher portions are more commonly covered with clouds ; 

 and the vegetaljle matter being thus kept iu a cool, moist state while decaying, is incori)o- 

 rated to a gieater degree with the surf;K-e of the earth, just as it is usually found that the 

 north side of the hill is richer than the portion most exposed to the actiou of the sun's rays. 

 Tiie sides of the mountains, the timl)er being generally l;u-ge, with little undergrowth and 

 brash wood, are pecuharly fitted for pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many places as 

 luxuriant as it is in the rich savannah of the low country. 



" The soil of eveiy part of the county is not only fai'orable 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 ec|Uiuly 

 well ; bUie-gi-ass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably well. A tiiend 

 showed me several spears which he infonned me were produced in the northern part of the 

 county, and which by measurement were found to exceed 70 niches in length. Oats, lye, 

 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 cultivated, have been sold at jmces varying from 2.3 cents to 

 50 cents per acre. Any quantity of land favorable for sheep-walks might be procured in 

 any section of the coutity at prices varj-ing from one to ten dollars per acre 



"" The few sheep thatexist in the county thrive remarkalily well, and are sometimes j;-«r- 

 mitted to run at large during the whiter without being fed and without suffering. As tto 

 number kept by any uidividual is not large enough to justify the employment of a shepherd 

 to take cai-e of them, they are not unfrequently desti-oyed by vicious dogs, and more rarely 

 by wolves, which have not yet been entirely exterminated. 



" I have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, because some cf year 

 inqu'ries were directed particularly to it, smd because most of what I liave said of Yancey in 

 true f the other counties west of the Blue Ridge. Haywood has about the same elevation 

 and climate as Yancey. The mountains aie rather more steep, and the valleys somewhal 



