The grape,
apple, and potato grow to perfection, better than in the valleys, and
are all never failing crops; so with rye and buckwheat. Corn grows
well, very well in selected spots, and where the land is made rich
by cultivation. The grasses are rich and luxuriant, even in the wild
forests, and when cultivated, the appearance is that of the rich farms
of the Ohio or Connecticut Rivers, only here they are green and growing
the greater part of the year; so much so that sheep, and in the mild
winters the young cattle, live by the wild grasses of the forests the
whole year. The great stock raisers of the Sequatchee and Tennessee
Valleys make this the summer pasture for their cattle, and drive them to
their own farms and barns or to market in winter. The whole Cumberland
table, with the exception of that small part which is under cultivation,
is one great free, open pasture for all the cattle of the valleys.
Thousands of cattle graze there whose owners never pay a dollar for
pasturage or own an acre of the range, though, as a rule, most of the
well-to-do stock farmers in the valleys own more or less mountain lands.
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