80 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 



lands were made easily accessible to the immigrant by the great trunk 

 lines leading from the centers of population in the North to the Gulf 

 coast, they were but sparsely inhabited. The earlier settlers who had 

 squatted upon them depended for their support more on the chase than 

 upon the cultivation of a soil which was looked upon as too poor to 

 afford an adequate return. This, however, has all been changed by the 

 influx of a population which was attracted by the mild and salubrious 

 climate, and which, coming with the determination to establish its home 

 here, has succeeded in conquering the unpromising soil and developed 

 its possibilities. With the rapid increase in population these lands 

 have come much into demand, and under rational management almost 

 every crop raised in the Northern States can be successfully grown on 

 these table-lands by the side of cotton. 



The meadow grasses of the North, with red clover and similar for- 

 age plants, do well here. Much attention is given to the production 

 of breadstuff's, chiefly corn, to which the greater part of the arable 

 land is devoted. Small grains, as wheat and rye, supply a part of the 

 home demand. Irish and sweet potatoes are profitable summer crops, 

 and nearly all of the root crops and vegetables grown in the temperate 

 zone are produced here in abundance and perfection. Of small fruits, 

 the strawberry has been found highly profitable, usually being har- 

 vested before the end of April. This fruit finds a ready sale in the 

 distant northern markets. Orchards of fruit trees on a large scale 

 do not yet exist, although apples, pears, and peaches are successfully 

 grown. The cultivation of the grape was given great attention by 

 the earlier of the German immigrants until the appearance of a fun- 

 gous disease proved a great drawback. But with the successful 

 employment of remedies to subdue this disease viticulture, particu- 

 larly of grapes for table use, has received a new impetus. 



REGION OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER VALLEY. 



PHYSIOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE. 



West of the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, which 

 form the northeastern continuation of the table-lands south of the 

 basin of the Tennessee River, this valley is marked as an area of 

 erosion, in which the waters have cut their channel altogether in the 

 subcarboniferous limestone, the surface rock. The most distinctive 

 feature of the vegetation of the Tennessee Valley consists in decid- 

 uous forests, generally of a mesophile composition, with decidedly 

 northern types prevailing, and containing species in common with the 

 Carolinian area in the Ohio Valley which are not found in any other 

 part of Alabama. For example, of trees and shrubs there occur here: 

 Aesculus octandra (buckeye). N<iphyleatrifolia (bladderwort) . 



Aesculus glabra (buckeye) . Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos (coral- 



Acer saccharum (sugar maple) . berry) . 



Cladrastis tinctoria (yellowwood) . 



