Plateau gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Tenn.) 1883-1884, 1883-07-14
More About The cumberlands.

The following extracts are from the
New York Sun, of last week:
pomona, Tenn, June 9.-The
mountain ranges of this region run in
a northeasterly direction. They begin
in West Virginia and pass entirely
through Tennessee, terminating in
Alabama. The face of the mountains
Is almost perpendicular Sometimes,
for many miles, they present the APP
pearance of strong and high fortifca-
tions. This is due to the limestone
formation of the mountains. On the
top Of these ranges are broad plateaus
or table lands, sometimes fifty and gen
erally more than forty miles in width,
wherein are good farming lands, fine
timber, and the purest air. The val
leys between the ridges are fertile and
delightful, and have been in times past
attractive as summer resorts.
The entire range is, or has been, Gov
cred with thick forests of fine timber.
Wherever farmers have settled, clear
ings have been made for agricultural
purposes, but on the roads everywhere
a traveller can ride for miles through
virgin forests where the trees almost
shut out the blue sky. The principal
timber on the rolling table lands of the
heights is oak in all its varieties, chest
nut, hickory, ash, black walnut, and
some pines. Black walnut formerly
abounded, but it has been sold by the
impecunious landowners at the rate of
a dollar per trunk until comparatively
little is left. In the spring Towering
trees make Of the mountain slopes i'm
mense bouquets, and give honey to
myriad bees. For landscape gardening
alone, with their wealth of gorgeous
bloom, they would make nurseryman's
fortune. The air is filled with perfume,
and when you look for it's source it is
found in the snowy flowers of the
Comus, the wild grape, the apple, the
wild plum, the sassafras, dewberry,
blackberry, gooseberry, wild cherry, the
black gum, the linden, the tulip tree,
the June berry, azaleas, and kalmias.
1t is land of bloom, and later in the
season a land of fruit. " ~
One of the questions askedrepeatedly
by San readers is, Can sheep be herded
with profit thereT Sheep can lie bought
here for 50 per head, and at present
herd themselves. They would do much
better if cared for by regular herders.
In this immediate vicinity there are
few who keep sheep in large numbers.
A native says; 'Not even the fertile
plains and rolling heights and mountain
Businesses Of the Spanish peninsula are
better suited to sheep growing than the
high table lands of the Cumberlands.
The streams of pure spring water that
issue from every cove; the juicy shrubs
holly, rhododendrons, wild honey
suckle, and the like-that grow along
these streams, the tempered heat of
mountain breezes, and refuge from cold
storms in forest depths the freedom
from annoyances of flies that infest
lower lands all these contribute to
make it the land for sheep ranching
The quality of wool on native sheep is
fine, being white, soft, elastic, and lus.
trous, with an abundance of yolk aud
Of uniform fibre. 1t sells throughout
eastern Tennessee for five or ten cents
more per pound than valley grown
wool, and is known lin the market a,
Wakauga wool Upon this plateau
covering more than five thousand square
miles, millions of sheep could be sus
tanned, as well as goats and cattle
Sh ep are here as healthy as the wild
deer. No foot rot, no diarrhea, no i'm
paired digestion, no third staggers af
fects them; and this arises from the
dryness of the sandstone soil, from the
purity of the air, the freshness of the
water, aud from the abundance of nu
tritious vegetation. Grass of all kinds
grows here in abundance, though blue
grass is not as common as clover, white
and red, evergreen, mountain meadow
and a beautiful grass, like velvet, thai
covers the ground like a carpet