Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1909-02-04
MOUNTAIN FARMS
Amos [. Griffith Writes in Praise
of Cumberland Plateau.
Editor News:

-
Editor News;
saw very able letter in last
weeks News by Charles A. Keffer as
IN the resources of the Cumberland
plateau of upper East Tennessee. |
will now show what HAS BEEN
DONE on top of the mountain in
Grundy and Marion counties.
e. o. Natburst, Just after the war.
paid $95 for one acre of ground in the
edge of Tracy City. He erected cot
tape of three rooms, and stable or
row stall ON it. He paid for clearing
| il up. The timber on it about paid
for clearing and fencing it. He set
ont Concord and I've Seeding grape
vines on it, cultivated garden vegeta
bles between the rows of vines. The
Irish potatoes, beans, corn and other
garden truck paid small profits each
year until the vines bore grapes. The
third wear he sold two hundred and fif-
tv dollars worth Of grapes over and
above the cost of cultivation, trans
uor+ation and commission. The fourth
wear he cleared five hundred dollars
over transportation, commission for
selling and cost of cultivation, and
gathering, the fifth year he Melted
ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS on the
fractional part of the acre unoccupied
by buildings.
On the third day of May several
years ago, / was at Altamont court.
A gentleman had half an acre lot in
red clover. | plucked handful of it
and brought it to Jasper. 1t measured
thirty inches long, while clover on the
farm where Sequachee now is located
was not six inches high. One of the
Swiss in the colony in Grundy county
raised sixty measured bushels of wheat
that weighed 81 pounds to the struck
bushel on an acre. Apples, peaches,
pears plums, cherries, grapes, berries
of all kinds grow well on top of Cum
berland mountain, besides red top or
chard grass timothy, blue grass and
clover do well.
"Uncle' Bob Owen raised 800 bush
els of Irish potatoes on his place on
the mountain on an acre of ground,
besides corn between the potato rows.
. W. q. Fullerton on the bluff opposite
Jasper, raised clover FOUR FEET
LONG, besides berries, fruits vegeta-
| bies, etc. raised clover, grapes, cab
> bage, potatoes, berries, fruits, etc,
on my place four and half miles from
Tracy City. My garden was on the
rock. I, in spading it up, hit the rock
with the end of the spade ! raised
solid head cabbage that would not &c
inside of half bushel measure, straw
Q berries ~ inches in diameter. Othel
> vegetables in proportion. / will say
: for the benefit of those who do no
D know that while the rock is close tt
u the surface, vegetables do not suffel
from drouth like they do in the valley
. l do not know the reason unless tb,
) sand rock being porous, absorbes waite
during the wet weather, and does no
: give it up so readily as land that has
I" clay foundation. Fertilizers woult
70 yield better profit on the mountain
, than in the valley. For making mon
y ely farming | would not give acre TO
acre. mountain land for the YER
BEST valley or river bottom land
> Mountain lands are valued at from on
to five dollars per acre. Valley land
at from five to twenty dollars per acre
| can take one $40 acre tract on tn
mountain and put ten dollars worth c
"a fertilizer on it so as to make it $2(
p' price of valley land. and l can rails
g enough on my mountain acre to pa
800 cash for the valley acre and pa
o cash for everything raised on the s.
NJ acre tract. When | lived on the mouI
o. tain Wash Pryor lived on his farm ca
- of Jasper and cultivated river bottol
20 land. He held his land at $25 per ac1
- while mine was only rated at 50 p'
- acre. 1 PAID FOR 1T. | offered
Al bet my four hundred acres, again:
N SlSoO tnat could put $50 worth
40 fertilizer on my acre to raise it TO 81
oo what his acre was worth, and
To- might put his acre in anything
pleased, and / would make enough {
my acre to pay him 800 cash for b
. acre and cash at market price for q
TO ne raised on his acre, and have mo-
n ely left. and he would not take my Q
ar fer.
ID Mountain land is easier cultivat
m than valley land. There are no NAL
A. rial fevers on the mountain, no pU
II, monary disease ORIGINATES on t
mountain. In fact, consumptives wi
go to the mountain for their heal
~ are greatly benefited, if not entire
is cured by using the pure ozone in {
m atmosphere and its mineral and 81
vs. waters. Taking all together. acre I
oo acre the mountain is away ahead