SHEEP HUSL^NDRl IN I HE SOU FH. 45 



broader; the soil generally not quite so dee)), but very productive, especiady m grasses. la 

 some sections of the county, however, the soil is equal to the best I have scon. 



" Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated; Ashville and Hendersonville, the 

 county towns, being each about 'J,200 feet above the sea. The climate is much the same, 

 but a vei-y little wimner. The more broken portions of these counties resemble much tha 

 momitainois pai'ts of Yancey and Haywood, but they contain much more level land. In- 

 rfc'cd the greater portion of Henderson is (piite level. It contains much svvam[) land, vvhicli, 

 alien cleared, with very little if any drainage, ])roduces very fine crops of herds-grass. Por- 

 tions of Macon and Cherokee counties are ()uite as favorable, both as to climate and soil, as 

 those above described. I would advert particul'.irly to the valley of the Nantahalah. in Ma- 

 con, and of Oheoh, in Cherokee. lu either, tor a compaialively trifling pnce, some ten or 

 nlteen miles square could be procured, all of which woidd be ricii, and the major part suf- 

 ficiently level for cultivation, and especially fitted, as their natural ineadows indicate, for the 

 production of gi-ass. 



" In conclusion, I may say, that as far as my limited knowledge of such matteis authoi-izes 

 me to speak, I am satisfied that there is no region that is moie favorable t(j the j)roductiou 

 of sheep than much of the country I have described. It is everywliere healthy and well 

 watered. I may add, too, that there is vvater-y)ower etiough in the ditlerent counties com- 

 I>osing my Congressional District to move more machinery than human labor can ever place 

 there — enough, perhaps, to move all now existing in the Union." 



A writer in the Albany Cultivator, Mr. S. B. Buckley, of Yates county, 

 New- York, who has visited these mountains, thus objects to the views of 

 Mr. Clinginan : 



" These mountains have a cold, damp climate, the summits of the highest being covei-ed 

 with clouds and mists a large porticni of the sinnmer season. Cold rains iU"e of fre(]ueut oc- 

 currence, doubtless causing the deeji vegetable mould alluded to by Mr. C. A large por- 

 tion of the county of Yancey is au elevated table-land which is so damp and cold that the 

 inhabitiuits do not raise corn .sufficient for their own consumption Mr. Husted in- 

 formed me that in many seasons there was scarcely a month in the yeai- without host .... 

 that he had been on the top of the Roan on the 2.5th of .lune, when a snow stonn arose and 

 completely covered the mountain, and that there wero iew days in the year but that it was 



foggy on the Roan I have ascended most of the high mountains in tliat State, and 



rarely without encountering a storm, or finding their tops coveted with mists, which disap- 

 peared iu the cool of the e\cning, to be resumed by the warnn'ng rays of the morrow's sun 

 In encaui[)ing on tlie mountains, I generally found the thermometer to range hom 45° to 60° 

 uid on the high mountains, during the day, it seldom rose above (55°. The inhabitants of 

 the valleys pay great attention to the raising of cattle and horses, which, in the summer sea- 

 Bon, are ttmjed ujion the mountains in what is termed 'the range,' which consists of tall 

 weeds, native grasses, and in many jilaces white clover has become naturalized. * * * » 



" These remarks will apply more or less to the mountainous region of Haywood and Ma- 

 con counties, from which we conclude that they are not suitable t(j the laising of fine-wooled 

 sheep, judging from their elevation, damp and cold climate, which, as before remarked by 

 Mr. C, creates a deep vegetable mould, in wliich a horse will sink uj) to the fetlock. And 

 would not sheep sink in also, and be liable to have the 1i)ot-rot ? And in yeaning time would 

 not many lambs be lost from the frequent cold rains so connnon there during the month of 

 May?"* 



In a previous comtnunication in the Cultivator the same writer says : t 



" On the 12th of May I airived at Ashville, (the capittd of Buncombe countv'.) iTitendin'^ 

 to visit Mt. Pisgah, a high conical monntaiji ui full view, about twelve miles di-^tajit, ovei- 

 to[)phig its neighbors I was told that the season was not far enough advanced to bring 

 vegetation forward on the high mountains. . . . The climate of this i-egion is not much, if 

 any, wanner than that of Western New-York. Dui-ing .he summer of 1842, the thennome- 

 ter ranged generally from 70° to 85° in the valleys, while on the mountains it was frequently 



about ()0°, and sometimes much lower When I left the souihenn portion of Alabama, 



it was the middle of March; the woods were green, with their full expanded leaves; in 

 about a week 1 had reached the elevated region south of Huiitsville, in the northern part of 

 tl:6 State, where the leaves had not yet attained half their u.sual size. From the 1st to tlio 

 lOlli of April, in Middle Tennessee, the leaves were nearly full grown and the inhabitants 

 wore l)usy in planting corn ; but at the middle of April, for thirty miles on the table land of 

 the Jumberlaud Mountains, the trees had just begun to put forth their leaves, and the ground 

 vras white in the moining with a severe frost. 



" On descending into the plains of East Tennessee, the country was green with verdure, 

 and the farmers were there also bu»v in planting com, and now, the middle of May, among 



• See Albany Cultivator, 18-16, p 242. t lb., 1846, p, 174 



