Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-30
HEFLIlV
Cleborne the An-Round County in the State-Review of Her Mineral, Fruit,
 Stock and Farming Interests.

z Hehih, Ala, April 29.-(special Corre- spondence)- )-High winds are sweeping this section.
 Plenty of sunshine and dust.
 Fish can be bought on our streets most any day.
 The woods are green with heavy foliage and bright with pretty flowers
 There will be some peaches and plumbs in this section, though the apple crop is badly injured. Apples blcomed before the leaf came. The peaches were as large as oceans when the last cold snap came. but the heavy foliage protected them. The men who run the local freights from Birmingham and Atlanta say there is big fruit crop all along their line. Merchants have already put $ in good supply of fruit jars.
 Our farmers are reaching out to i'm prove their farms in various ways. Many of the yards are we'll stocked with the improved chickens They make a study of their habits and their adapta- bility to individual surroundings. The white leghorn is a great forager and re- quires a big range, yet we see a great many of them in the town of Hefiin Most every person has a Jersey COW. The 4 Polan China hog, too, put in an. appear ance and seems to rout in his native dirt
 Cleburne county could make the most brilliant display at the Tennessee Gen. tennial of any county in the state. She has gold, silver, mica, kaoline, copper Her agricultural and horticultural dis play, her poultry and livestock would be grand Her historious relic would be a little museum all their own, could they be gotten up..
 For several years past people have been giving considerable attention to grape culture. You find fine private vineyards all over the county. Of these grapes are made the finest favored and most transparent jelly I have ever seen and quantities of home brewed wine are found in many of our mountain homes It is often brought to Hefiin by the bar rel by small farmers to help buy fam fly supplies
 Kentucky boasts of her fine whisky publicly, but behind the screen there is said to be found the finest article or mountain dew produced in Cleburne of any section known to the civilized world. There is a government still in full force in three miles of Heain, yet there is an absence of the flavor in all government whisky which is said to belong to the mountain dew" alone. Distilled by mountaineers, guarded by the nymphs of the mountain with TO company save the streams and the falling dew. Fossil bly, all these sundries give the magic touch that no revenue officer can ever under stamp.
 Our merchants buy great deal of gold in exchange for goods. This Is weighed  course there is a regular system of min ing in some of the many mines which are run in southern Cleburne, yet gold ex- ists to some extent in most all of the solE in and for several miles around Arpacoo- chee.
 There has recemtly died in that section an old man who owned an entire Ssctlon of this land, but would never give pros peotors leave to test It's richnSss, would never have any mining done-thcugh 1t
 
 gold He r5nItsd his land to be cultivated in the usual way of land in thlS sec tion. This man was named Davis Cra- mer He was rather eccentric but gen. erous He gave his terants .he priv ilege to use any gold which th7y might find on their portions of the land, and many were the crude devices used 70 collect the precious metal. Some of his tenarrts sold enough gold dus. at the country stores tc buy msat and flour to run their crops
 After tweny years rest in repose and darknces the famous Wood copper mires" are TOW being actually worked These were once ccasidered the most no.ed and richest mines in the world Their richness has never been disputed but the great depth of the copper and the big expense of getting it to the surface has been the trouble. The changing of ownership of dhe mines few years, say twerty years go, meaEt millions of dol lars. The opsrlng of and the working of these mines meant great deal to the country people about .hat section. Pro- duce was in great demand the women in that sec ion had never known anything like it. They o-rlld sell their sweet milk in less than an hour after it was mlked, owing to the distance from their homes to the mines, ard buy speckled calico and make a dress and wear it at evening to entertain their swell beauX from the mills It marked a new era for all that section. There were more pretty calico quilts made than the owners had ever dreamed of possessing. The material was mostly bought with eggs, which always brought a good price. A great many girls who prepared their marriage portion of pfdtty quiNs by selling produce at the mines now have young lady daughters, 4and the flush" days of the copper mines twenty years ago is part of the history 'A of that country.
 ,s, There is la.tle varying in depth and width of red bend" running diagonally across from eas. to southwest in the south of Cleburrs. To the uninitiated this lcoks just like worthless old clay but it is the fras't corn producing land in the state. Cereals of all kinds grow naneously. To own land in the sred . belt is one of the highest ambitions of the east Alabamian This laro was bought by .he first settlers of this coun- try, who had heavy purses. To a great 5 extent '5he red belt south of Haf1in is owned by the Blal1es and Howels. having been handed down from father to son. Bee raising is a very profitable industry n every corner of Cleiburne. Our couny Is the Switzerland of Alabama noin,ls the Snow-cEad Alps. It's appearance on the map is rather odd shaped, but from center to boundary lines it is a perfect little bonanza