234 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



and salubrious air, the grandeur and sublimity 

 of the mountain scenery, the gaiety of the se- 

 veral watering places render these mountains 

 the most delightful summer retreat that it has 

 ever been my good fortune to encounter. The 

 refreshing coolness of the mornings and even- 

 ings, or the healthful influence of the mineral 

 waters, or perhaps both combined produce a 

 lightness and buoyancy of spirit, that impart 

 the highest pleasure to mere animal existence. 

 Indeed, it is this universal cheerfulness and gaiety 

 of spirit that distinguishes the company at these 

 springs from the frequenters of any other fash- 

 ionable resort I have ever seen, and it is this 

 genial flow of life's current, that imparts to these 

 mountains their greatest charm. 



It is true that the extraordinary fascinations 

 of the watering places rendered my excursion 

 less of an agricultural one than I had intended, 

 but I did not fail to penetrate the mountain re- 

 cesses of Alleghany, Greenbrier, and Monroe. 

 I quitted the high roads and followed the moun- 

 tain paths into the very heart of the settlements, 

 and I visited the estates of some of the most 

 distinguished farmers and graziers in the three 

 counties. 



No where can finer grass lands be found than 

 in Greenbrier and Monroe, and no where that I 

 have seen does a more indifferent system of cul- 

 tivation prevail. It is provoking to see so fine 

 a country so sadly abused, and the gifts of Pro- 

 vidence so wantonly thrown away. There are 

 of course several honorable exceptions, but the 

 general system (if the loosest and most irregular 

 mode of cultivation be entitled to the name) 

 struck me as the very worst I ever saw. When 

 we see poor exhausted lands indifferently tilled, 

 we pity the owner, but when we behold the 

 most fertile meadows overrun with weeds and 

 bushes, we are provoked at the folly of the 

 proprietor. 



As to farming proper, with a rotation of crops 

 and all that sort of thing, it is neither to be 

 looked for nor desired. Stock raising must ever 

 form the chief business of this region, and even 

 if you were to penetrate the country with rail- 

 roads and canals (which can only be done at 

 the greatest expense) the people would still find 

 it to their interest to send their products to mar- 

 ket in the shape of cattle, horses, mules and 

 other stock. I think they are well satisfied of 

 this themselves, and all they ask for is a few 

 more McAdamised turnpikes, which, with my 

 old fashioned notions, I believe to be better and 

 more suitable to the present state of the coun- 

 try than either railroads or canals. 



The climate here is, I think, very similar to 

 that of Connecticut or the western part of New 

 York. The winters, from what I hear, are long 

 and pretty severe, and their summer bursts forth 

 at once without waiting for the mediating in- 

 fluence of spring. Vegetation is rapid and lux- 



uriant in the extreme. One-half of the country 

 is composed of precipitous mountains, and it is 

 chiefly the valleys and gorges that are culti- 

 vated. Many of these mountains are wonder- 

 fully fertile, as is evidenced by the maple, poplar 

 and walnut, with which they are covered, and 

 where they are not too precipitous to be brought 

 into cultivation, they afford the richest and finest 

 pasture that can be imagined. 



The clouds are always gathering about these 

 mountain tops, and such a thing as a drought 

 is almost unknown to these fertile valleys. — 

 Hence the corn is planted very thick, and where 

 ever the land is tolerably cultivated, the product 

 is very great ; but in several places I have seen 

 the weeds taller than the corn, and in some they 

 had almost extirpated it entirely. I am aw T are 

 that in such a soil and with such a climate, it 

 is almost impossible to suppress the luxuriancy 

 of vegetation, and that it is much easier to keep 

 your corn clean on land where nothing will 

 grow, but still, even here, the weeds needn't run 

 away with the crop. From fifty to seventy-five 

 bushels of corn with good cultivation can be 

 easily made to the acre, whilst I presume thirty 

 or forty is nearer the average. They have not 

 yet begun to know the value of manure ; the 

 soil is generally a light friable reddish or choco- 

 late loam on a stiff clay foundation, and well 

 managed would be inexhaustible. 



T have never seen a country so admirably 

 adapted to sheep. Every mountain ought to 

 be filled with them and every mountain stream 

 ought to turn a thousand spindles. If a man 

 were to ask another to chew his food for him, it 

 would not be more ridiculous than for these peo- 

 ple to get others to make their woollen cloths. 

 The day must come when this will be the great 

 manufacturing district of America. With the 

 most boundless capabilities of growing the raw 

 material, with the most unlimited number of 

 never-failing waterfalls, with every facility for 

 cheap living, they need only a dense population, 

 which they are fast acquiring, to enable them 

 to clothe the world. 



At present, with all their advantages their 

 lands are held too high. I was really astonished 

 to find these valley slips estimated, and selling 

 too, for from thirty to a hundred dollars an acre. 

 For farming purposes they are too far from mar- 

 ket to be worth the half of it, and for grazing, 

 for which they are better adapted, the present 

 price of beef does not justify it at all. I can 

 only account for this inordinate estimate from 

 the fact, that when beef brought five and six 

 cents a pound, a good deal of superfluous wealth 

 was accumulated, and landed property is the 

 only investment afforded by the circumstances 

 of the country. I am told, however, that in 

 Fayette and Nicholas, which are more sparsely 

 settled, lands of equal fertility may be bought 

 for two or three dollars an acre. If this be so, 



