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

Chapter X

 CHAPTER X survey of counties continued.— the southern group. THE COUNTIES SOUTH of the Kanawha—Boone, Cabell, Wayne, Logan, Wyoming, and McDowell—are mountainous, covered in great part with original forests heavily timbered, well watered by the Guyandotte , Sandy, and other rivers, and exceedingly rich in iron, coal, and other minerals. The minerals will at some not distant day be valuable, and the soils available for the production of fruit, wool, and butcher’s meat. It is intersected by mountains in continuation of the Cumberland range, and nearly all of it included in the great coal measures of the Ohio Valley. The Guyandotte River region abounds in bituminous coal, some of which, upon analysis, is shown to contain but one and a half per cent. of refuse or ash—rivalling the best Lancashire for illuminating purposes. Cannel coal of excellent quality exists here in the hills, and in the river bed, at different altitudes. Professor Rogers once called the attention of the board of public works of Virginia to the extraordinary mineral wealth of this region. Other explorers have made equally favorable reports, making the principal coal vein ten feet in thickness, lying above the water level, and cropping out on the banks of the river.  west vrgna All the counties of the southern group are rich in coal of various qualities, including the best cannel. The coal of this region, as will be seen from samples described is remarkable for the amount of oil which it contains. Not only coal,but iron,lead,arsenic,sulphur,salt,gypsum,and even silver, are claimed as a part of the resources of this group. Rough as the surface seems, a large population will one day be sustained, engaged in mining, manufactures, and the various branches of agriculture, especially in pastoral pursuits. The soil of the narrow“bottoms,”partly alluvial,is generally strongly impregnated with lime, sometimes pretty stiff with clay, and quite productive . It is a durable soil, and in some localities has been thoroughly tested by many years of defective culture. The upland soil is almost equal to that of the valleys, and the mountains preserve their fertility to the summits, affording excellent pastures of natural blue grass wherever the smallest space is cleared for it, and a gleam of sunlight can fall upon it. Here, as elsewhere in the State, the soil of the north sides of the mountains is a rich loose loam, while on the south the surface seems to have been denuded of its humus, leaving the underlying stratum, a clay loam, or mixture of clay and shale, with more or less of lime. This peculiarity has been attributed by some to the effect of the sun’s rays striking vertically upon the south hill sides. Boone County is drained by Coal and Little Rivers and Laurel Creek. It was named in honor of Daniel Boone, and is yet to a great extent as wild a forest as that adventurous pioneer could desire. Yet it has fifteen thousand and fifty-four improved acres, and two hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-three unimproved in farms, valued at two dollars twenty-two cents per acre. Its live stock is valued at one hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and eighty-nine dollars; its corn yields one hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred and eight bushels, about ten bushels to every acre of improved land, in addition to a variety of other farm products, including the southern group  hay and some pasturage, although woods and pastures are adequate to a fair support of stock in summer, and a partial supply of winter feed. A good idea of the dependence placed upon winter pasturage and corn fodder may be had from the fact that only seventy-four tons of hay are cured for the use of eighty-nine hundred and ninety-four farm animals—a surfeit of sixteen pounds to each animal for the winter ! This certainly does not indicate a poverty of pasturage, or extreme severity of weather or depth of snows. Again, there is produced thirty thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine dollars from slaughtered animals, about two dollars per acre for the entire area of improved lands, exclusive of forests, in addition to other farm products. Wayne County occupies the southwest corner of the State, and is separated from Kentucky by Sandy River. The surface is much broken, well...