PHYSIOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN TENNESSEE. 55 



ing rock and has in consequence a thin, siliceous, silty soil whose surface 

 is more nearly flat than the limestone area, and is in some places poorly 

 drained and infertile. A third portion of the plain has a surface com- 

 posed of flat-lying beds of sandstone that have resisted erosion more than 

 the surrounding rocks, and in consequence stand above these rocks as 

 flat-topped ridges or mesa-like areas that usually have a poor soil and 

 are generally uncleared and uninhabited. Such areas as these form the 

 ridges between McMinnville and Livingston. In other parts of the High- 

 land Plain they either do not occur or are of little importance. 



Settlement. The settlement and subsequent development of the High- 

 land Plain have been largely controlled by these soil differences. In areas 

 of good limestone soils it has been but natural that the inhabitants should 

 become more prosperous and progressive than those in areas of poorer 

 shales and sandstones. In fact many areas of these poorer soils have an 

 exceedingly scant population even today, while the more fertile limestone 

 areas are thickly settled and prosperous communities. The growth of the 

 towns of the region has depended, like the general growth of the popula- 

 tion, upon the fertility of the soil of their immediately vicinity and their 

 relative size and prosperity is at once a result and an index of the general 

 fertility of the particular section in which they are each situated, since 

 their prosperity depends almost entirely upon the agricultural resources 

 of the surrounding country. 



The different soil conditions largely determined the past economic and 

 political history of the section, governed the development of slavery in it 

 and in consequence determined the allegeance of the inhabitants during 

 the Civil War, some to the Confederate, and some to the Federal cause. 

 In politics the region is predominantly Democratic. 



Future of the area. The future development of this region must show, 

 as its past has shown, differences in development that are traceable prima- 

 rily to differences in soil fertility. Some sections will always be more pros- 

 perous than others. Improved methods of agriculture have, however, 

 shown within recent years, that it is possible to handle the soils of the 

 poorer areas in such manner as to produce excellent crops. The general 

 adoption of these improved methods must lead to increasing prosperity 

 in such areas, and these will tend to minimize the social and industrial 

 differences that now exist between the more and the less fertile sections of 

 the Highland Plain. The future of the region is almost entirely agricul- 

 tural since there are, generally speaking, no mineral deposits of great 

 importance save in certain sections of the western portion where, locally, 



