Madison’s Eldorado
Another extract from “Heart of
llie Alleghenies.” published in 1881.
In Graham county, a northern
gentleman having purchased the larg¬
est and one of the finest farms in that
locality, discovering that the surround¬
ing range was admirably adapted for
sheep raising, on a large scale, shipped
in a flock of 800 merino sheep. They
were ill attended by ignorant shep¬
herds. and all of them soon died.
Through care in the purchase of a
valley farm, adjacent to fair upland,
and bald, mountain-summit pastures,
and in the matter of selecting com¬
petent hands, together with some per¬
sonal attention to the business on the
part of the operator, there is no rea¬
son why large profits might not flow
from a venture in this line.
The remarks upon stock-raising in
Watauga and Ashe counties, will ap¬
ply in general to every other county
of the intermontanc division of the
state, though, of course, some counties
are more favored than others, and the
natural conditions vary in detail in
each. Yancey and Mitchell have large
tracts adapted to this industry. The
experiment of raising tobacco has been
found successful in the lower and more
sandy portions of Mitchell. This re¬
munerative crop is no longer an ex¬
periment in Yancey, the soil and cli¬
mate in the western part being well
adapted to it.
The French Broad valley, from an
agricultural point of view, is deserving
of special attention. The territory em¬
braced is divided into four counties
— Madison. Buncombe. Henderson,
and Transylvania.
I was riding with a friend one after¬
noon in September, through the canon
of the French Broad. We were occupy¬
ing the steps to the back platform of
the last car. feasting, for the twentieth
time, upon the ever-changing display
of beauty. "This." said my friend,
interrupting the silence, "is all very
impressive. No one. whose feelings
have any communion with nature, can
escape the charm of these bold preci¬
pices. robed with vines, and crowned
with golden forests. These curves are
the materialization of beauty. That
surging, dashing, foaming, torrent,
gradually eroding its channel deeper
into the adamantine granite, is a grand
demonstration of the superiority of
force over matter. The great draw¬
back to this valley is its poverty of
useful productions. Western North
Carolina, it strikes me. may be com¬
pared to a great picture or poem; we
never fail to derive pleasure from it,
yet there is nothing in it to make
money out of. or even to furnish a
respectable living. While the scenery
here is all that can possibly be de¬
sired. and the climate is almost per¬
fect. this country can never be any¬
thing more than it is now. except,
perhaps, in the number and size of its
summer hotels. It hasn't the re¬
sources."
"What is the extent of your knowl¬
edge of this country?" I inquired.
"Oh, merely what I've seen from
the railroad line, but I suppose
it’s pretty much all alike.”
My friend was mistaken, in suppos¬
ing that the wealth of the Southern
Alleghanies consists wholly in scenery
and climate. He was also mistaken
in supposing that railroad views had
afforded him any considerable knowl¬
edge of the country.
Madison county, back of the river
bluffs, is almost wholly a succession of
hills, coves and narrow valleys, ninc-
tenths of it timbered with a heavy
growth of hard and soft woods. The
slopes are remarkable for fertility,
there being small particles of lime per¬
colated through the soil. The cultivated
grasses grow rank, and the cereals
yield satisfactory harvests. But owing
to the limited area of the valleys, and
the almost entire absence of level land,
ordinary farming can never be carried
on in Madison with remunerative re¬
sults. Too much labor is required to
cultivate an acre of the slopes for the
ordinary return in wheat or corn. It
is in tobacco that the Madison county
farmer has found his Hldorado. I know
of no industry which offers so much
inducement to the poor laborer as the
cultivation of this crop. There is no
staple product which derives its value
so exclusively from labor, or yields to
that labor a larger return. A few
figures will serve to illustrate. Un¬
cleared land can be purchased at an
average price of $3 per acre, in small
tracts. About one-third of the purchase
will be found adapted to tobacco,
making the cost of tillable land $9 an
acre. Basing our estimates upon the
production of the last three years, a
yield of $200 from each acre planted
may be expected. In addition to such
other small crops as arc needed to
yield food for his family, an industrious
man and two small boys can clear,
prepare the soil, and cultivate four
and one-half acres a year, which, if
properly cured, will bring in the mar¬
ket $900 — money enough to pay for
three hundred acres of land.
The sunny slopes arc considered by
planters best adapted to the crop. Sand
and gravel is the needed composition
of soil, and a forest growth of white
pine indicates auspicious conditions.
The east side of the French Broad has
been found to have more good to¬
bacco land than the west, but the ratio
we have given is not too great for
either side. The crop leaves the soil
in excellent condition for w'hcat and
grass after four years’ cultivation,
though at the present prices of land,
planters would find it economical to
sow in wheat and seed to grass after
two years’ cultivation in tobacco. The
gross aggregate of the crop of 1882
in Madison county will probably be
$250,000. W. W. Rollins, of Marshall,
is extensively engaged in the business,
the number of his tenant families being
about sixty.
Up the river, into Buncombe county,
the valleys widen, and the acreage of
comparatively level land increases; the
settlement becomes denser, and the
proportion of cleared land to native
forest, is greater than in any county
west of the Blue Ridge.
The valleys of Hominy creek. Swan-
annoa, and Upper French Broad, con¬
tain several thousand acres which
could be cultivated with improved ma¬
chinery. The soil is of average fertility
— well adapted to the cereals, grasses
and tobacco but in many localities
its capacity has been lowered by use
and abuse. Some valleys, naturally
fertile, arc almost wholly exhausted.
There has been, however, marked im¬
provement, both in farming methods
and farming machinery, within the last
five years.
12
THE STATE. AuOUOT 23. 19SB
