CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 1G9 



2. The valley of eastern Tennessee, lying between the Unaka mountains on the east and the Cumberland 

 mountains on the west, a succession of minor ridges and valleys running northeast and southwest a great fluted 

 trough, where inequalities of surface, when viewed from the high elevations on either side, melt into a common 

 plain. This valley has an average elevation of 1,000 feet above the sea, and covers an area of 9,200 square miles. 



3. Next in order going west is the Cumberland table-land, a high plateau that rises abruptly 1,000 feet from the 

 valley of eastern Tennessee. Its eastern edge presents a formidable, bold, cliff-lined rampart, but its western edge is 

 every where jagged in outline, notched and scalloped by deep indentations, and shooting many bold spursand outlines 

 far out into the western plain at its foot. It is generally higher at its southern termination, and covers 5,100 square 

 miles. 



4. Resting against the last division on the east, and extending to the Tennessee, river in its reflex course across 

 the state, are the terrace lands, or rim lands, which have an average elevation of 900 feet, the surface, however, 

 tilting toward the northwest, so as to reach a depression of not more than 500 feet above tide- water. This division 

 is a plain, which has been cut and eroded by numberless streams until its once level snrfa.ce presents generally a 

 highly diversified character. Its area, not including the central limestone basin, is 9,300 square miles, and furnishes 

 by far the most important tobacco district of the state. 



5. In the center of the last division, and surrounded by it, is the great limestone central basin of the state, 

 elliptical in form, the major axis running northeast and southwest, and depressed about 300 feet below the rim 

 lands that surround it. This is the garden of Tennessee, comprising an area of 5,450 square miles, and is the 

 center of population, wealth, and influence. It produces every crop grown in the state. 



6. The Tennessee river, in its regular course across the state, has hewn out a narrow valley, with spurs from the 

 rim lands at places running down to the river, but sending out subordinate valleys, sometimes 20 or 25 miles in 

 length, before they are lost in the rim lauds. The surface is broken and hilly, and marshy spots, often covered by 

 cypress forests, occur at intervals along the river. This valley has an area of 1,200 square miles, and an elevation 

 above the sea of 350 feet. 



7. West of the Tennessee river is a great plain, gently undulating, which slopes toward the Mississippi river. 

 No hard rocks appear, except here and there a sandstone bowlder. The streams, cutting through low, muddy banks, 

 wind on their tortuous courses with feeble currents through the district, and find an outlet into the Mississippi with 

 only one or two exceptions the largest tributary of the Tennessee from the west side being the Big Sandy river. 

 Frequently furrowed with wide river valleys, the plain has an average width of 84 miles, and abruptly terminates 

 in a series of rockless bluffs, that overlook the Mississippi and its lowlands. In superficial extent this division covers 

 8,850 square miles, with an average elevation of 500 feet above the sea. 



8. The last division of the state is confined to the low alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi river. It is often 

 dotted with lakes, marshes, cypress forests, and canebrakes, and, as is usual with the bottoms of the Mississippi, a 

 chain of lakes and marshes lies back from the river a few miles, the best drained soils being those lying upon its 

 immediate banks. 



The tobacco area is, for the most part, confined to a belt beginning at the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi river 

 and extending along the northern boundary of the state easterly to a point in Pickett county, 12 miles east of where 

 the Cumberland river first crosses the line between Kentucky and Tennessee. The southern limit of this belt is 

 very irregular. Beginning at the southern boundary of Dyer county, it runs nearly east until it strikes the Benton 

 county line, where it dips to the south for a few miles, inclining northeastward after it crosses the river, so as to 

 include Charlotte, in Dicksou county ; then on by Ashland City, in Cheatham county, taking in the whole of Robertson 

 and the northern part of Suniner county. Just after passing the eastern limit of Sumner county it turns south, so 

 as to embrace Trousdale county and the northeastern corner of Wilson, and thence through Smith, Putnam, Jackson , 

 Overton, and Clay counties, six or eight miles south and east of the Cumberland river, to the Kentucky line, the 

 whole district embracing about 5,550 square miles. To this may be added the southern and eastern parts of 

 Williamson county and a limited area in eastern Tennessee. Unicoi and Hawkins counties produce the largest 

 crops of tobacco grown in eastern Tennessee, but neither of them reach 100,000 pounds. 



It must not be inferred that the soils in the other portions of the state are not suited to the production 

 of tobacco, although it is grown as a staple crop mainly within the limits mentioned, as it can be cultivated 

 profitably in nearly every county in the state, and experiments made on the sandy soils of the Cumberland plateau 

 have shown that even there a fine manufacturing leaf may be produced. 



The soils in Obion and Dyer counties adapted to the growth of tobacco are calcareo-siliceous in character, often 

 of an ashen color and consistence, sometimes of a reddish cast, occasionally black, and now and then mulatto-colored. 

 These soils are soft, light, and very loose when first cleared, and contain a large amount of calcareous matter, which 

 occurs in nodules or concretions of carbonate of lime. The subsoil is usually of yellowish clay, the humus is deep, and 

 the arboreal growth dense and large. These soils are very durable, and, when the seasons are favorable, yield larger 

 crops than any others in the state. Three kinds of soils, according to the nomenclature of the farmers, prevail in 

 Dyer and Obion counties, viz, the black, the ash-colored, and the mulatto. The black is deep, with an open 

 subsoil, through which the water percolates rapidly, and is very productive. The native growth is gum, tulip tree, 

 box-elder, elm, linn, cypress, hackberry, and occasionally black oak and walnut. The proportion of this soil is 



