Southern live-stock journal. (Starkville, Miss.) 1876-1891, 1879-08-16
C!ilCllII!a!R Stock Farm.

university OF tennessee, Con-
tributes to the Knoxville Daily
Tribune, the following Ac-
count of Clnchdale Stock
Farm.
"Clinchdale is the name of the
farm owned and occupied by Judge
j. 7. Shields, titles Immediately
in view and only a mile away from
Beams Station, in Granger county.
Judge Shields has long held an
honorable position in the front
rank Of the Bar of Tennessee, and
has filed with credit to himself
and profit to the State seat on
the Supreme bench at variour
times. He owns the farm, but is
not the farmer of Clinchdale. That
position is held by his eldest son,
W. S. Shields. Judge Shields is
one of a few instances to be met
with in Tennessee, Of lawyer
keeping up q large practice with
his law Office in the country. This
practice is said to have been quite
common before the war in Virgin
ia, North and South Carolina. In
the present case it is certainly a
very pleasant one, as one may i'm
agihe who looks into the cheerful
and admirably arranged office lit
orally lined with law books.
Chnchdale embraces altogether
about three thousand acres, stretch
ing far away up and down Beans
Station Valley, and reaching across
from the crest Of Pig Ridge ON the
southeast, to the crest Of Clinch
Mountain on the northwest. A large
portion of the farm was originally
granted to Jesse and William Bean,
and has been in possession of some
member or members of the family
of its present owners since 1909.
Judge Shields came into posses
sion in 1851, since which time he
has added largely by purchase to
the sizelof the farm. The bed of
Beams Station Valley is composed
Of Knox Dolomitic limestone, inter-
sected by low hills and ridges of
Knox shale, with some Knox load
stone. The whole valley was or
iginally so noted for its fertility as
to give the name Richland to the
creek that traverses it. Most Of
the virgin soil has long since gone
the way of the waters that flow
down the Tennessee Valley, and
the bare rock or hard clay subsoil
is exposed in many wide patches.
Yet under all it's i'll treatment, the
valley still justifies it's name.
Clinchdale is an exception.
Though not so rich as it was in
the days of the Beans, tits in good
condition and growing better ev-
cry year. On the farm only about
one thousand acres are under
fence. Of these, about eight hun
dred are in grass, pasture and
meadow, one hundred in corn, and
one hundred in winter grazing
oats. No wheat or other crop is
grown. Cljnchdale, it will be seen,
is purely a grazing and breeding
farm. Rarely ever more than four
plows are seen. Indeed, only four
hands are regularly employed on
the farm. The corn Is all cut and
shocked i'll the field and husked
from the shock. TIE stalks are
hauled and fed as needed, all the
corn having been previously hous-
ed, Oats are cut and housed and
fed, without threshing, being first
cut fine, as chopped feed.
For several years wheat was ex-
tensively sown, and considerable
pains taken to grow good crops,
but the failures were so constant
that it was abandoned, and has
not been grown for a number Of
years.
Another popularity of Clinch
dale is the almost entire absence
of work horses or mules. Several
saddle and buggy horses are kept,
but the hauling of the farm, of
which very little is needed, is done
with oxen.
The barns, stables and outhOuses
Il i -, .