West Virginia: Its Farms and Forests, Mines and Oil-Wells

Chapter VI

 CHAPTER VI Survey of Counties Continued.— The Mountain Group. THE MOUNTAIN SECTION PROPER has an elevation from thirteen hundred to two thousand five hundred feet above the sea level, including Preston, Tucker, Randolph, Hardy, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Greenbrier , and Monroe counties. Those north of Greenbrier and west of the summit of the main ridge may appropriately be considered together. They are covered with heavy timber, with isolated patches of improved land, including but two hundred and twenty-six thousand six hundred and thirty-two acres in the four counties. Springs are abundant, though comparatively scanty in summer, and fall abruptly over precipitous ledges near their sources, and expand into quiet rivers, with occasional rapids in the lower valleys, forming valuable mill-seats. The soil is excellent for grasses, much of it containing a good admixture of clay.With indifferent culture it produces from thirty to fifty bushels per acre of corn; in some cases a much larger yield.Wheat usually gives fifteen to twenty bushels. But the greatest value exists beneath the soil, in iron and bituminous coal, and other minerals. High among the western ridges of the Alleghanies, south of the Cheat Mountains, and between the Alleghanian backbone on one side and the Black and Droop Mountains on the other, lies Pocahontas the mountan group  County, seventy-six miles in length by seventeen to twenty in breadth. The mountain springs of this elevated region contribute to swell the waters of the James, Potomac, Mengetia, Elk, and New Rivers, while the Greenbrier flows through the entire length of the county, at certain points through a beautiful valley. In their rough mountain heights, remote from railroads and navigable rivers, dwell three thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight hardy mountaineers, occupying eight hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-one acres in farms (less than ten per cent. improved), worth two million fifty-one thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars. Sheep husbandry flourishes here (numbering ten thousand three hundred and thirty-eight animals, producing twenty-three thousand and forty-one pounds of wool), and cattle abound. The total value of live stock is three hundred and twenty-eight thousand and two dollars. The production of one hundred and twenty-one thousand three hundred and ten pounds of butter and six thousand two hundred and twenty-five pounds of cheese, in addition to liberal supplies of milk for prolific households, indicates no mean capacity for dairying. Of Indian corn the product is forty-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-nine bushels; rye, ten thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight bushels; wheat, eight thousand nine hundred and thirtythree bushels; flax fibre for the supply of the old spinning wheels, one thousand six hundred and eighty-four pounds; and of home-made sweets, sixty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-five pounds maple sugar, two thousand five hundred and fifty-nine gallons molasses , and eight hundred and sixty-six pounds of honey. The value of their animals slaughtered is forty-one thousand five hundred and fifty -four dollars; of their home manufactures, fourteen thousand eight hundred and forty-six dollars. These few figures are given merely to show that the Alleghany mountain tops, among the most remote and inaccessible portions of West Virginia, may and do contain the homes of comfort and plenty, and sturdy independence.  west vrgna The mineral resources of Pocahontas are valuable. Iron ore is found, said to produce eighty-three per cent. of pure metal; and lead, copper, and silver exist. Coal crops out along the ranges of mountains on the western boundary, which is the eastern border of the great coal basin. The heavy and valuable timber of this region and abundant waterpower everywhere at hand, will at some time combine to add materially to the wealth of this mountain region. Randolph is the next county north, upon the western declivity of the Alleghanies. It is still large, though its former proportions are much reduced, having now, in farms, forty-eight thousand two hundred and forty-nine acres improved, and two hundred and seventy-eight thousand and eighty-three unimproved, with a population of a little less than five thousand. It has, of course, immense tracts of wild lands not included in farms. The soil is productive in grasses, and the few patches in cultivation support eight thousand one hundred and three cattle, and seven thousand five hundred and sixty-five sheep. The...