The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-06-14
THE PIEDMONT COUNTRY.
Correspondence of The CECIL WING.

| Co. reSpondence of The CECIL WING.
The belt of country lying above the
tide water level and skirting the Blue
Ridge. extending from Virginia to Geor-
| gia, is known as the Piedmont country:
and for health and general farming pur-
poses is. perhaps, when it's many advan-
| tageous points are considered, the best
farming region in the Southern States.
That portion of this region lying west of
| the Air Line K. r. and embracing the
foot hills and outlying, rolling country
of the Blue Ridge, is the most desirable
for mixed husbandry, for the variety Of
of its staple crops, its elevated healthful
position, it's numerous swlft-running
streams of pure, soft water, steadily flow
ing down from the inexhaustible foun-
tainS that gush out of the mountain sides,
and its tempered climate.
From Charlotte, N. c.. to Georgia,
above or west of the railroad. extending
10 to 20 miles. embracing the foothills,
| is susceptible of being made perfect
agricultural paradise, with liberal out
lay of money, industry and brains. The
soil is composed of red clay and sand-a
happy blending for receiving and retain
ing the highest state of fertility. This
country is the home of the clovers, and
by rotation of clover with other crops,
and an economical use of the mineral
phosphates, found so abundantly on the
coast of the above named States could
be brought up in a short time to con-
dition of almost uneqnaled fertility.
But this whole. fine region has been
murdered with cotton and corn, cotton
and corn, with tobacco and wheat and a
miserable, shiftless mode of cultivation
thrown in to help complete the general
agricultural wreck. The winters are
mild and so far exempt from frost as to
allow clover to retain it's hold in the soil
if once established and properly pro-
tected. By a judicious system of "green
manuring'-t least expensive and best
of all systems where it can be applied
with the aid of the phosphates so abund-
ant and easily obtained, the heaviest crops
of wheat, corn, cotton and hay could be
made; and winter pastures provided
which would almost sustain farm stock
through the closed season, when the
mild, southern winter reigns supreme.
The face of the country is unduating,
affording the best of drainage, and the
soil contains enough sand to adapt it to
the production of heavy crops of sweet
potatoes and melons. No better country
for gre pes and peaches can be found east
of California. ard the further up among
the foot-hills the better the fruit region.
In passing through this country on the
cars, the observing traveller is agreeably
surprised with the number of little towns
that are springing up, at short distances
from each other; and almost every one of
these little centres of industry occupies
a beautiful dry rolling site, overlooking
a wide stretch of country. Manufacture
ing interests are steadily developing in
these little centres which must grow till
they present such busy hives OF industry
as similar centres, that are found every
where along the railroads in the Western
States. Northern men and capital are
steadily drifting into this country, and
quietly developing its undreamed of re-
sources. Hard woods of all kinds are
abundant in the mountains, ready to be
appropriated by the manufacturers of
this line Of goods. While Gotten is pro-
duced on every side, inviting the loom
and spindle to work it into cloth on the
spot where it grows.
Here we find a country susceptible of
being brought up to high state of pro-
ductiveress, where the most useful and
valuable staple Northern and Southern
crops can be profitably blended, and pro-
duced in abundance; having climate the
most healthful, and though rather long,
warm summers, it is compensated and
offset by short, mild winters, through
which farm stock can be carried at
minimum cost.
Such is the Piedmont country, or that
part Of it comprising a belt of 20 to 80
miles in width and stretching from Viz
GINA to Georgia.
South Carolina has recently taken one
advanced step in agriculture, which is
the adoption of the no-fence law. 1t is a
novel sight to witness the plows running
and crops growing up to the road side
while the stock is safely confined inside
the fenced fields. The people everywhere,
and with scarcely dissenting voice pro-
nounce the nO-fence system, and every
man take care of his own stock, the
grandest innovation that has ever entered
into the rude destruction of old methods
and wasteful habits. Under the new
regime, thousands of acres are available
for cultivation that would not pay to
fence and cultivate, while tens of thous-
ands of dollars are saved by the aband-
onment of the old custom of fencing,
which had outgrown its day of usefulness
and become q wasteful burthen to farm
ers. Scrub cattle and elm peeler hogs