56 FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



WATAUGA COUNTY. 



Watauga, with an area of 211,200 acres, is an upland county of 

 rather rugged topography. The range of elevation is from 2,000 feet 

 near the foot of the Blue Eidge to 5,964 on the top of Grandfather 

 Mountain, while the greater part of the county has an elevation of more 

 than 3,000 feet. The crest of the Blue Kidge runs along the south 

 boundary or a few miles within it. North of this the county is again 

 divided by the Rich Mountain Ridge, which runs north and south 

 through the middle of the county, shedding the western drainage into 

 Watauga River and the eastern into the North Fork of the New River. 



The rock of the county is principally freestone, ranging from a fine- 

 grained granite to mica and chlorite schists. The soil is a gray sandy 

 loam almost free from the red clay which is usually prevalent in the 

 mountain counties, and is fairly deep even on the mountains, and does 

 not easily erode. 



Watauga has no railroad within its border, the nearest station being 

 Elk Park, five miles outside. Yet the public road system is good, and 

 the roads are for the most part well graded and well kept. 



Lumbering is prominent and the lumber can be profitably hauled long 

 distances, even more than 30 miles. The chief shipping points are Elk 

 Park and Pineola, in Mitchell County, Lenoir in Caldwell County, and 

 Shouns and Butler in Tennessee. One large company with a band mill 

 at Butler, Tenn., is operating a tram road in the western end of the 

 county. Of the remaining 20-odd mills, none cuts as much as a million 

 feet, and most are small portable or water mills with a cut of less than 

 250,000 feet per year. These mills are pretty evenly distributed through 

 the county. 



No pulp or extract wood is cut, though in the vicinity of Beech 

 Mountain considerable hemlock bark is gathered and taken to Elk Park 

 and Butler. Probably a thousand cords were taken out in 1909. 



Farming is the chief occupation in Watauga. It is famous for its 

 grass, and for its sheep and cattle. There are good farms in all parts of 

 the county except on the rocky slopes of the Blue Ridge in the southeast- 

 ern corner. Even a large part of the present forest occupies good agri- 

 cultural land, but this can well be kept so as to furnish fuel and lumber 

 for the farms. Probably 20 per cent of the forest is in farm woodlots. 

 Most of the cleared land used for farming is, strangely enough, on steep 

 mountain sides. Such slopes in a clay county would wash badly, but 

 here, owing to the deeper and more porous soils, and to efficient farm 

 management, there is no serious erosion. 



