The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-03-14

y ~ - ~E ~ A"5 H|@& 1880" - -
square mile. Of whom hut e.s4l were
COlOTed. Wherever the black man
i found. however. lie is industrious.
faithful. aHd usually qlIite prosperous.
They Ifoduc, Il IN 1870. &fu. 900 bushels
Of wheat. I.9cf.2:G bushels of corn.
3O6. 2U9 bushels of oats. lab. aSS bushels
of Irish potatoes. Jo.512 bushels of
sweet POTATOES. 197. 915 pounds of wool.
and 10l $50 pounds of tobacco. besides
ra. buckwh heat. hay. flax. peas. sor-
ghum. maple sugar. honey and bees
wax, butter and cheese. and fruits.
Buncombe alone raised 60. Gj6 bushels
Of wheat. AZ. 80 bushels IF oats. 324,
566 bushels of corn, 1916 bushels of
Irish potatoes. 20. $50 pounds of to-
hacco. and 24.3t7 pounds of wool, be-
sides more than 60 ons of butter and
a great amount Of fruit and ginseng.
Macon produced 1925 bushels OF
sweet potatoes, and more than $4,000
pounds Of honey. Ashe and Transyl-
vania are great counties for stock.
sheep and wool. Haywood produced
the most hay, GauCey the most rye,
and Watauga the most buckwheat,
flax and maple sugar.
There Is little danger of over esti-
mating the mineral wealth of this
mountain country; it is really very
great. There are stores of gold, silver.
iron, copper, zinc, corundum, coal,
alum, copperas, barytes and mari.
which seem limitless. There are fine
marble and limestone quarries whose
value was unsupported until the rail
road pioneer disclosed 1T. The lime
stone belt of Cherokee county, a wild
and romantic region still largely IN
habited by Cherokee Indians, contains
stores of marble. iron and gold Jack
son county possesses a vast copper
belt: and the iron beds of the Yellow
mountains are attracting much notice.
The two most remarkable gold regions
are in Cherokee and jackson
ties"
Oyerman. in his work on Metallurgy,
has recorded his conviction that these
mines. as well as those in the gold belt
east of the Blue Ridge, would, under
proper management, be more profit
able than those of California. An inn
portant copper belt in Ashe and Allie
ghanv contains the mines of Elk Knob.
Ore Knob, Peach Bottom, Gap Greek
and others which have been long and
profitably worked.
AS to iron, King says, "There is no
| DENYING the richness of Cherokee,
Mitchell, Buncombe, Haywood, Jack
son and Macon counties in that min
eral. In Cherokee the hematite ores
outcrop in immense quantities along
the Hiwassee n Valley rivers, and,
when wrought in the commonest
county bloomeries. have yielded an as
tonishing per cent. Rivers flow direct
" through the iron regions of this sec
ton. furnishing every needed facility
for transportation and limestone and
forest fuel abound. Magnetic ores are
found in Madison. Haywood and Macon
counties and there are large outcrop-
pings of hematite in BuncOmbe."
The astonishing fertility of this
mountain region, already alluded to,
is the surprise and delight of the trav-
eller. Prof. Richard Owen, of Indiana,
reports that the sides and tops of the
mountains are, in many cases. covered
with a thick, vegetable mould, in
which grow fiourishing trees and rank
grasses. Prof. w. c. Kerr, State &c
ologist, states that four ions Of hay per
acre is no uncommon yield, and says:
"These grasses escape from cultivation
and propagate themselves everywhere.
| have seen a field near five thousand
feet high that was seeded, some twenty
years ago, with timothy, and has not
been under fence in fifteen years,
lin ilAc otIIi q Sooo ~ $780,
Oats grown at this place weighed forty
two pounds per bushel. In the higher
parts of the mountains (above $500
feet there are three species of peren-
NAL grasses, which send up their new
shoots. or stools. in November, and
remain green all the year so that cat
tie and sheep require little care even
in winter, except in case of a deep
fall of snow, which does not happen
more than once in eight or ten years.
The new Japan clover, as it is called,
QeSpedezd stildtd.) has spread over the
whole of this region. have found it
in a few cases on the tops of noun
tains five thousand feet high"
King in The Great South, notes these
and similar facts with enthusiasm, and
says: I'm the rich coves in Jackson
county the black mould is more than
two feet in depth, and the most pre-
cipitous mountain sides are grazing
pastures, from which thousands of fat
cattle are annually driven down to the
seaboard markets. In the ranges too,
where the winter grass grows with
Eden-like luxuriance; the apple is
supurb, and on the thermal belt in all
this section the fruit crop never fails.
The great rocky wall of this paradise
have thus far kept railroads from out
its boundaries, but from every direc-
ton they are stretching forth their
iron fingers to grasp the golden APP
pies of this new Hesparides. The
Western North Carolina railroad IS
already within twenty-one miles OF
Asheville, and is now tunnelling the
mountain at Salamanca Gap, through
which the traveller now passes IN
the old fashioned stage COACH or
rather on it, if he would enjoy the
grand scenery through which he rides.
The Carolina Central is within seven
ty miles of Asheville, and will cross
into Henderson through Hickory Nut
Gap, 1.-the grandest pass in the whole
line of the Blue Ridge" The Spartan,
burg. Union and Columbia is graded
to HendersOnYiIle and the IRON Is be-