SOILS OF TENNESSEE. 161 



rye, should be considered very important and may be turned under to ad- 

 vantage in the spring in preparation for a summer crop. Unfortunately 

 the area covered by this type of soil is small and much of that is too steep 

 for continued cultivation. 



Soils of shale origin. Shale or slate is found to a greater or less extent 

 in various formations, such as the Tellico sandstone and Chickamauga 

 limestone ; and it makes up the body of other formations in which marble 

 or limestone sometimes appears instead of shale, as is frequently true of 

 the Sevier shale. The shales vary considerably in both chemical composi- 

 tion and color, which varies from red and yellow to black. Yellow and 

 reddish colored shales are very common, and produce gray and yellowish 

 colored soils with reddish yellow subsoils. They are often shallow and 

 lacking in fertility. In fact, most soils of this kind are rated as the least 

 desirable of all. They occupy lowlands in large part, but outcrops appear 

 at all elevations. 



Where these soils are of good depth, and especially where some lime- 

 stone was mixed with the shale, they are fairly well suited to corn, wheat 

 and grass, redtop in particular. Gray colored silty soils, often spoken of 

 as "crawfishy", result from the decomposition of shale, and are especially 

 poor and difficult to handle profitably. 



Both chemical analyses and field experiments indicate that phosphate 

 and lime are the chief mineral elements needed. Soils derived from the 

 black shale, however, are often well supplied with lime and produce excel- 

 lent crops of clover. Poverty in nitrogen is the rule. This may be reme- 

 died in part at least by the sowing of Japanese clover, to which they seem 

 to be well suited, and by using the land for pasture purposes. 



Overflow and bench lands. Wide expanses of alluvial soils are of rare 

 occurrence in Tennessee, but along the rivers and streams are found nar- 

 row belts of such soils, which are of considerable importance in the aggre- 

 gate. The first bottom is the name often used for the portion which is 

 overflowed annually. As a rule this is a sandy soil of high productiveness 

 and. is used almost exclusively for corn. The second bottom, or bench, 

 which is seldom overflowed, contains more clay and other fine particles. 

 Much of this is a fine sandy loam, but where deposition occurred in rela- 

 tively still water, a heavy soil results. 



The bench lands are generally very productive, and although corn is the 

 common crop, they are well suited to clover and grass as well as to other 

 forage crops. Much of them is too rich for wheat. These are naturally 

 very valuable lands, but as they do not receive enough deposits from over- 

 flows to maintain their fertility, they have been reduced greatly in pro- 

 ductiveness and are apt to be in need of manuring. Systematic crop rota- 



