The Aegis & Intelligencer

Correspondence
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.

Topography, Resources, &c., of Southwestern Virginia.
No. 24.

Permit me, Messrs. Editors, for the sake of variety, as well as to relieve a rather irksome monotony, to change the character of my animadversions, and give you a chapter based upon the topography, resources, &c., of this remote corner of the Old Dominion.

Southwestern Virginia comprises that portion of the State running down, wedge-shaped, between Kentucky on the north and North Carolina and Tennessee on the south, and reaching from the Alleghanies in the east to Cumberland Gap in the west. This area is some 230 miles in length, with an average width of about 100 miles, and embraces 15 counties, beginning on the top of the main Alleghany, as follows: Montgomery, Pulaski, Giles, Carroll, Grayson, Bland, Wythe, Tazewell, Buchanan, Smyth, Washington, Russell, Wise, Scott and Lee.

Of these counties, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth and Washington join North Carolina: Smyth, Washington, Scott and Lee join Tennessee; and Buchanan, Wise and Lee join Kentucky. Montgomery, Pulaski, Grayson, Wythe and Giles are in what is known as the valley of New River; Smyth and Washington in the valley of Holston: Russell and Scott in the Valley of Clinch, and Lee in Powell's Valley. The balance are peculiarly mountain counties, interspersed with irregular ranges of hills and narrow valleys. Indeed, I am not sure but it would be more correct to say that the several valleys named are in the counties, and not the counties in the valleys, for the reason that the counties are much larger than the portions of the valleys that traverse them.

The Old Dominion, taken altogether—Tidewater, Piedmont and Transmontane—is an empire within itself, embracing all temperatures, from the semi-torrid of Cape Henry to the semi-frigid of Mount Airy and the fruits of all climates, from the figs and oranges of one extreme to the hard and acrid apples of the other.

Southwestern Virginia, except in climate and fruits, is also an empire of smaller dimensions—an empire in all the natural resources that any people could or ought to desire to make them independent, great and prosperous. Take the counties of Montgomery and Pulaski, for instance, and they have water-power sufficient to propel all the machinery in half the States, and coal-fields broad enough to supply the population of half the Union with fuel. The mountains of Carroll and Grayson are pregnant with copper and iron, the out-croppings of which are seen all over their rugged sides. Wythe is rich in iron and lead, Smyth and Washington need only adequate transportation to glut half the markets of the country with salt and gypsum; and Wise, Russell, Scott and Lee have any quantity of superior coal, and the blue grass of Tazewell would fatten the cattle on a thousand hills. In a word, every county in the limits named has coal and iron in abundance, and most of them a great variety of other valuable deposits.

With rare exceptions, this whole country abounds with limestone, and much of it of that desirable character that is constantly decomposing and keeping the soil perpetually fertile. It is also inferior to no section of the same extent in the Union for grass, and hence is peculiarly adapted to stock-raising, wool growing and grazing generally, and the whole of it magnificently watered and wooded. No country under the sun is blessed with a more genial climate, purer water or grander scenery.

The foregoing, Messrs. Editors, is the merest outline of Southwestern Virginia as a whole, and I will devote the remainder of this letter to a more minute description of Washington county, only because it is the county in which I live, and therefore better acquainted with it.

Washington is about the size of Harford—that is to say, it has an area of about 500 square miles, with a population of from 15 to 18,000, all told. It is drained by three streams which we denominate rivers, running from east to west, each larger than your Deer Creek, and I can scarcely tell you how many we have a size or two smaller, running at right angles with, and flowing into, the three larger. These three are the several forks of the Holston, which coming together in Tennessee, some five miles west of the State line, form the Holston, which, after the confluence of other streams, loses its name and takes that of "Tennessee," and becomes, as you know, a broad and beautiful river before its waters mingle with those of the Ohio at Paducah, Ky.

Washington county is belted from east to west by a succession of ridges and valleys. For instance, its southern border is Iron Mountain, and its northern Clinch Mountain. These are 20 miles apart, and between them are six regular ranges of hills, with as many valleys. The middle range, or back-bone, is called Walker's Mountain, at the southern base of which is the broadest and richest valley, that in which Abingdon is located, and along which the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad winds its serpentine way. Walker's Mountain divides the waters, those rising on the north side flowing into the North Fork of Holston, and those on the south side into the Middle and South Forks.

I have said above that all the smaller streams flow at right angles with the three larger, and hence transversely with all the ridges and valleys. It is a remarkable fact, that not one of them flows along the valleys or parallel with the ridges, but dash straight across, seeming to have worn gaps for themselves through interposing barriers. Their name is legion, and I think I could count at least fifty as large as your Bynum's Run. You may take it for granted, therefore, that this county is most beautifully watered, and I scarcely know of a farm without a spring or a running stream of some sort, and I am acquainted with one of 600 acres within five miles of Abingdon, that has upon it sixty-five pure, bold, never-failing springs.

Do not understand, Messrs. Editors, because the country is seamed and belted by so many ridges, that it is not arable. On the contrary, a very large proportion of it is arable, the virgin soil of the hills being equal to that of the valleys, and either of them equal to your Deer Creek hills and bottoms. Many of the hills are of course too steep to till conveniently, but as grass springs spontaneously wherever the undergrowth is removed, they are among our most valuable grazing lands.

Another peculiarity of the country is that we have no gullies or old-field pines, and you might as well look for a kangaroo or a mastodon, as for a tick or mosquito though Dr. Franklin said when he traveled through a portion of the State in its earlier settlement, that he saw little else than "hogs, dogs, fleas and democrats," and they are still indigenous to the soil, and abundant.

Nature has done a great deal for Southwestern Virginia, and art and enterprise but very little Although iron ore abounds in every part of it, I know of but one gentleman who has ever made the manufacture of it a success. Want of capital, perhaps, at least in part, may have been the want of success. There can be no reason, surely, with our redundancy of timber, coal, water-power and cheap labor, why the iron business should not make millionaires and nabobs in Virginia as well as in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The present decade, I imagine, will witness many a start in that direction. I understood while in Harford that Mr. Rogers, who owns the La Grange iron works in that county, had purchased a large boundary of iron land in Pulaski county, some 75 miles east of here, and if so, and if what I learned of his means and energy be true, I will underwrite that he will have a mint that will mould dollars nearly as fast as he can count them. I know the estate well—Gov. Floyd was raised upon it—and it is a magnificent one.

But the pleasantest and quietest way to live well and gradually accumulate in this country is, by farming and grazing.—Sparsely populated as it is, even small farmers may have the advantage of extensive ranges, and most of them, with this aid, can feed a greater number of cattle than a casual observer would imagine. I mention this for the benefit of young farmers in your county who have not land of their own or the means to get it, and I am sure it will not require an elaborate calculation to demonstrate that it would be far more sensible to come here and purchase improved lands at from $10 to $25 per acre, than to pay from $50 to $100 for lands no better in Harford and perhaps not half as good.—This proposition needs no argument, and I trust some of them will give the subject a serious thought while lands are cheap and on the market. If there should be such among you, I can confidently refer them to my friends, Messrs. Page & Jones, at this place, who will take pleasure in giving any information that may be desired in regard to the matter.

In my next, if I can manage to keep my mind tied down to the subject, I propose to give you a partial insight into the character of the soils in this county, their leading productions, and the manner of cultivation, both ancient and modern. And now, Messrs. Editors, believing that this letter is a little longer than you would have it if you had the shaping of it, I will put you in a good humor by bidding you Good night,

C. B. C.
Abingdon, Va., May 13, 1870.