- grant, who is sure of gathering corn enough for the supplies
of his family and cattle.
In this state they are not so famed for rearing horses as in Kentucky; yet the greatest care is taken to improve their breed, by rearing them with those of the latter state, whence they send for the finest mare foals that can be procured.
Although this country abounds with saline springs, none are yet worked, as the scarcity of hands would render the salt dearer than what is imported from the salt-*pits of St. Genevieve, which supply all Cumberland. It is sold at two dollars per bushel, about sixty pounds weight.
{246} CHAP. XXVII
East Tennessea, or Holston.—Agriculture.—Population.—Commerce.
East Tennessea, or Holston, is situated between the
loftiest of the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains. It
comprises, in length, an extent of nearly a hundred and
forty miles, and differs chiefly from West Tennessea in
point of the earth's being not so chalky, and better watered
by the small rivers issuing from the adjacent mountains,
which cross it in every part. The best land is upon
their borders. The remainder of the territory, almost
everywhere interspersed with hills, is of a middling
quality, and produces nothing but white, red, black,
chincapin, {247} and mountain oaks, &c. intermixed
with pines; and, as we have before observed, except the
quercus macrocarpa, the rest never grow, even in the most
fertile places.
Indian wheat forms here also one of the principal
