10 EAST TENNESSEE. 



Grapes. — Before the late war the varieties planted here were the 



Catawba and the Isabella, and here, as nearly every where else, they 



proved unreliable — some years making splendid crops, and sometimes 



failing. Since the war new varieties have been introduced, and, so far as 



they have been tested, they promise to prove an entire success. This is 



jtarticulai'ly true of the Concord. That this justly popular grape, as well 



as the Hartford Prolific and the Norton's Virginia and other varieties 



will do as well here on the banks of our rivers as in any i)art of the 



United States, east of California or New Mexico, does not admit of a 

 doiibt. 



On this subject Mr. George Husman, a grape grower of Missouri, and 

 the author of a standard work, entitled " Grapes and Wine," speaking of 

 the advantages of his State for grape culture, says: "The mountainous 

 regions of Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas and Alabama, may per- 

 haps rival, and evert surpass us in the future, but their inhabitants at 

 present are not of the clay from which grape growers are formed.'" 



Grasses. — A few months ago the puestion incidentally arose, and was 

 gravely discussed in the American Institute Farmers' Club, in the city of 

 New York, whether the grasses would grow in the South (including Tennes- 

 see in that categoiy,) and the conclusion published to the world was that 

 they would not. And yet the Census Report for 1860 shows that our hay 

 crop amounted to 140,027 tons. When said Farmers' Club was reminded 

 by a letter from this place that hundreds of cattle live from April to 

 November on the grass which grows wild on the commons around Knox- 

 ville, and grow fat on it, the answer of the Reporter was that the club re- 

 ferred to native, spontaneous grasses ; and that the extreme heat of sum- 

 mer in the South would kill or parch up the grasses. Still failing to draw 

 the distinction between our feynjoerate mountain climate, and the hot, arid 

 sand field^ of the Cotton States. Thus are we coastantly confounded with 

 the cotton and rice districts South of us, by persons professing to know, 

 when, in truth, East Tennessee more nearly resembles in climate, soil, 

 physical geography and productions the State of Pennsjdvania than South 

 Carohna or Alabama. In over one-third of Tennessee blue grass grows 

 wild ; over another third, including East Tennessee, it grows wild partially, 

 and all over this region wherever the land is moderately rich with limestone 

 rock, it can be cultivated in great beauty as may be seen in all our yards 

 and lawns. In some of our valleys it is voluntarily spreading from year 

 to year. But we are not compelled to rely on blue grass. 



Red Clover flourishes everywhere in the greatest perfection. On 

 moderately good land from one to two tons is the average yield. On the 

 best quality of upland, with a top dressing of plaster obtained just over 

 our borders in Virginia, from two to three tons per acre are obtained. 

 For forty years our farmers have sown clover for the three-fold purpose of 

 hay, pasture and renovation of soil. The argillaceous character of our 



