Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-09-13
Letter from the South.

EDITOR CHRoNICLE.-My letter pub
lished in your paper some weeks since,
has called forth 30 many letters from
your readers, that 1 propose Cby your
assistance to make one letter suffice for
many queries.
Owing to the location OF this county
among the mountains, 1t possesses as
great a variety Of surface, soil and pro-
duction, as the whole State Of Ohio, and
1 think I may also add Of farms and
farmers. While some Of our farmers
are useing the best and most approved
machinery of the day, others seem to
be trying to follow the footsteps of the
antediluvians.
Our virgin soil is superior to that OF
old Trumbull, with similar adaptations,
except that this is superior to Trumbun
for wheat and clover. Here red-top can
be killed out-there, hardly. Farms OF
every size and grade, from fifty acres at
two dollars per acre, up to five hundred
acres at fifty dollars an acre. But the
plantation hat We read of" where our
fancy has been taught to see scores OF
ebon laborers bending to the task Of an
over-exacting master, never graced %
our county.
Unlike III Western Reserve, this
country is, TO a great. extent, divided
into neighborhoods by high ridges, some
Of which assume the dimensions OF
mountains. The settlements are mostly
in the valleys, and n of these valleys
I propose to describe to your readers.
Pleasant Valley (aliGs Greasy Cove
proper, is about ten miles In length by
one in width. About three miles of the
southeast end Of this vale is washed
by the Nola-chuckey, swift WATER the
northeast end by the n. Indian Creek,
marked on most maps Doe river,) which
is, perhaps, one Of the most remarkable
streams in America. 1t has a volums
sufficient to fill a weir thirty by thirty
inches, and I have traced it for ten miles
without finding q place of a rod in length
that ran without a ripple; and the banks
are so low that for the whole ten miles
the water can be taken out in races at
intervals Of every thirty rods, and given
a fall OF from four to eight feet. Though
a valley as it is, among the mountains,
yet it has its hills, dales, and vallies ;
and for mountain scenery it Is prob
ably unsurpassed in the United States.
Many noted peaks are in full view
among which are Bald Mountain, which
lifts its head far above the region of tim
Der, and the Devils Looking Glass"
a most unsightly mass Of rock, Of many
hundred feet in height, standing upon
the left bank OF the "Chuckey" river
On all sides, mountain behind noun
tain, and peak beyond peak, are in full
view from every part Of the Cove.
And for good soft water, New England
does not excel US. OF the hundred or
more houses in the Cove, there are very
few but what can be supplied with run
ming water in each room, at a small ex
pense. Beside the small springs whose
name is legion" there are three others
volumes would fill weirs respee-
lively sever by eight, nine by nine, and
by ten inches, and each at a sufficient
elevation to afford power for a merchant
mill. And with all this power at on
feet, i~nexhsustible forests Of timber and
Of iron and lead, we go be-
yond u borders for everything that Is
made by machinery. In a word, we can
say that WI have any skilled
with us. Hemmed in on all sides
by mountains, our ingress and egress,
meandering, is not rugged
From the Cove to the railroad Is thirteen
miles.
In schools, I think this has always
been behind other parts OF the county.
The Echoolmaster is needed.
Finances are at a discount. At the
beginning of the rebellion there were
few better places to forage, and both par
lies foraged till neither grain or stock
was left, except. perhaps, a broken down
cavalry horse, that could no longer " tote
d Johnny" And from the effects Of the
war this Cove has n~otreeoVered, nor will
It for years to come. Our best farmers
were the worst rebels, and have had to
and their lands have fallen into
he hands Of the |" slothful and lazy"
The Republican elemsntof this county
strongly predominates. The rebel ele-
ment was always in the minority, and is
growing beautifully less.
There are many Pennsylvania farmers
in the northern portions Of the
county, who to be doing well and
we'll satisfied. The better portion Of our
citizens make northern people more
than welcome
The K. K. X. has become beautifully
if not entirely extinct
The crops in this section are below an
average. Though wheat promised, early
In the spring, an extra crop, the thresh-
srs report a very light me-. Corn, in
some neighborhOods, is an entire fail
ure; but we among the mountains have
4 very good crop. Here, among the for
est covered mountains, We seldom want
for rain. Peaches are an average crop,
but the apple crop is light. Sweet pota-
toes seem to be in their element here,
and Irish potatoes are cultivated with
success. Z. s. HULIN.