10 THE FOREST FLORA AND CONDITIONS OF 



The soil conditions of these districts are scarcely im- 

 proved by the presence of the chief species of black- 

 jack; for, although the stand of trees is often several 

 hundred to the acre, apparently sufficient to shade the 

 ground, almost everywhere a heavy growth of wild 

 grasses covers the ground, as the narrow, dense crowns 

 of the black-jacks nowhere form a continuous soil-cover. 

 The hot sun for it is occasionally hot in Tennessee 

 quickly evaporates all the soil moisture, and the open 

 growth allows the sweeping winds to drive the falling 

 leaves far from their legitimate purpose of forming a 

 soil-improving humus. 



In passing out from a brief survey of this interior red- 

 cedar region one is apt to be struck by the fact that but 

 very few, if any, species of pine have been seen; especial- 

 ly so as the pitch, long-leaf, short-leaf, Virginia scrub 

 pine, and white pine each approach from some quarter 

 all around. I have often asked the farmers in the red- 

 cedar country if there were any pine-trees in their neigh- 

 borhood, but I was usually told that they didn't grow 

 there; and I recall now the surprise felt on several occa- 

 sions in suddenly coming upon small islandlike clumps 

 of short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata), but in most instances 

 in the outlying counties to the south and east of the 

 great cedar belt, where the soil conditions seem to be 

 more fitted to pine growth than in the interior. If pines 

 of any kind ever existed here in quantity, they seem to 

 have long since disappeared, showing themselves far less 

 adaptive than the cosmopolitan red cedar in taking pos- 

 session of the waste limestone lands. 



Leaving the middle, comparatively plain region of 

 Tennessee and entering the eastern division of the state, 

 the lover of trees finds much more of interest, more kinds, 

 and a far more diversified country. Agriculture is car- 

 ried on here to a more limited degree, and the natural re- 

 sources of the region appear in mineral and forest wealth. 

 From its western border of counties, just beyond the Ten- 

 nessee River, to the backbone of the great Appalachian 

 chain of mountains on the east, and from the southern 



