Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-06-02
The mountains of North Carolina.

The Mountains of North Carolina.
We make the following extract from a late
article by Professor Buckley, published in
Silliman's Journal:
"From the great height of the southern AL
leghanies, there being "a peaks higher than
Mount Washington. it viii be readily inferred
that they have a northern climate. Some
years ago cur guide to the top of Roane told
us that be had been on its summit when it
was covered with snow on the 18th of June.
There is a table land extending from near the
Roane to the head of Turkey Cove and Lin
vile Falls, distance of twenty or thirty five
miles, on which the Inhabitants succeed with
difficulty in raising Indian corn sufficient for
| their own consumption. Occasionally they
have frost during every month in the year.
and then they resort on horseback or on foot
| to the valleys for corn. About the first of
last May we saw the mountains in Haywood
covered with snow about six inches deep.
! The wheat harvest at the Forks of Pigeon
| begins about the first week in July; and we
/ know of no better criterion for isothermal
lines than the time of ripening wheat. We
| kept record Of it in western New York, and
in ten years TIE annual time of beginning the
wheat harvest did not vary three days from
the 10th of July.
1.-The valleys in the Carolina Mountains
vary in elevation from two thousand to up
wards of three thousand feet, hence a few
miles travel will often take one to much
warmer or colder climate. This we expert
enced very sensibly in going from the valley
of Jonathan's Greek to that of the Soco Riv-
er. The former has mean elevation of
! about three thousand feet and the latter near
| two thousand. The Chinese sugar cane
| (SOTghum) is extensively grown. and may be
| regarded as a decided success. There are few
portions of the Union where such a prcduc-
ton is more needed. The absence of rail-
| roads and the cost of transportation render
sugar and mOlasses dear; hence the introduce
| ton of the Chinese sugar cane in that Sec
| ton is a great blessing, aud will enable many
| a poor family to have sweet coffee.
"In no section of the United States have
| we seen finer apples and they are mostly
| from seedlings originally planted by the In
dams. Silus Mcdowell, of Franklin, in Ma
| con county, has devoted more than twenty
years to the selection and grating of those
best native apples, and he now has an orchard
of more than 600 apple trees, which bear fruit
| equal if not superior TO the best northern
| kinds. There is said to be line or belt on
| the mountain sides about three hundred feet
above the adjoining plain or valley, and eX-
| tending upwards several hundred feet where
| fruit trees always bear, because the belt is
| free from frost. If this be true,-and we be-
| lieve its truth has been well tested by eX-
perlment,-tne mountains OF North carolina
might supply the South with an abundance
of the choicest fruit, if the means OF transpOr-
tatior were good. By the cultivation of
more grass, and the introduction of the i'm
| proved breeds of cattle into those mountain
valleys, butter and cheese might also be made
| for The Southern market. One great draw
back to the raising of sheep is that they are
destroyed by wild animals, and also killed
by the dogs. Still we think it would even
pay well to keep sheep. herd them at night,
and have a shepherd with his dog to guard
them by day, and thus revive old Arcadian
| times among those delightful mountains.n