CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 171 



lying west of a line drawn north and south through Paris, the county-seat, belongs to the La Grange sands of the 

 Tertiary. In this part of the county the soils are mellow and siliceous, loamy, working kindly, but very easily 

 washed, and are very much of the same character as those already described as lying in the eastern part of 

 Weakley county. They are excellent for tobacco, wheat, and cotton. The subsoil is reddish in color, and inclined 

 to be sandy, rather than clayey. A belt lying parallel with this, on the east, belongs to the flatwoods of the Tertiary, 

 in which there are local accumulations of white clay, which make the soil in places wet, and scarcely arable without 

 drainage. Then comes a belt, six miles wide, known as the Ripley sands of the Cretaceous formation, and the soil of 

 this belt is very kind and productive. Many of the hills are capped by a ferruginous sandstone, which is generally 

 disintegrated into a friable, easily-cultivated soil. This soil, with the formations already mentioned, is mainly great 

 strata of sands and laminated clays, covered with a thick bed of humus. The remains of the drift formation, or, 

 as locally called, orange sand, are found over all this portion of the county. The eastern line of this belt marks 

 the termination of the more recent formations of western Tennessee. Between this and the Tennessee river is a 

 ridge, considerably elevated, known as Tennessee ridge, which divides the waters of the Tennessee from those of the 

 Mississippi. Here appear the Upper Silurian rocks, and the character of the soil changes altogether, sandy and 

 clayey accumulations giving place to cherty hills, and the soil, though fertile, is filled with masses of angular 

 gravel. Some of the sub-Carboniferous rocks also appear. East of the ridge the surface soon becomes level or 

 gently rolling, and is underlaid with red clay, more or less intermingled with gravel. The timber growth of the 

 county is much diversified, elm, ash, beech, maple, locust, mulberry, hornbeam, dogwood, white oak, post oak, and 

 red oak being found in great abundance, some white oaks being 6 feet in diameter. Several varieties of soil are 

 recognized, among others a gray, gravelly soil; a stiff, red, clayey soil; a black loam with clayey subsoil; a red 

 loam, clayey or sandy, and a grayish sandy loam, the last and the first being preferred for growing the yellow 

 tobacco, the second and third for shipping tobacco, and the red sandy loam for a light manufacturing leaf. The 

 soil in the northern part of the county is noted for its capacity for growing the finest yellow tobacco raised in the 

 state, and in all the other parts of the county a large leafy tobacco is grown, which is used largely for making 

 strips for the European markets. 



Passing now across the Tennessee river, we enter upon a group of counties which, in geological and 

 topographical features and in the character of the soil, very much resemble each other. These counties are 

 Humphreys, Dickson, Houston, Stewart, Cheatham, Montgomery, Robertson, the northern part of Sumuer, Macon, 

 Clay, and a part of Jackson. They all belong to that division of the state known as the rim lauds, and are referred 

 to the sub-Carboniferous formation. The soils of these counties, though similar, may be divided into several 

 sub-varieties: 1. Calcareo-siliceons soils ; 2. Barren soils; 3. White clayey soils ; and 4. Alluvial soils. 



The calcareo-siliceous soils occupy nearly all the northern part of Stewart county, a part of Dickson arid 

 Cheatham, and nearly the whole of Montgomery and Robertson counties, the northern part of Sumner, a part of 

 Macou, and nearly all of Clay county. It forms the soil of what is known as the Lithostrotion bed, and is composed 

 for the most part of variable proportions of humus, commingled with silica, alumina, and carbonate of lime, the 

 quantity of oxide of iron being so large that it gives a deep red color to tho subsoil. After being brought into 

 cultivation, the dark loam of the surface, by being intermingled with the red subsoil, changes to a chocolate color. 

 Stiffer than other calcareous soils, it is not so liable to wash when the surface is moderately broken, having generally 

 underlying it cherty beds, which alternate with beds of clay and supply a natural drainage. In wet weather these 

 beds take off the superfluous moisture, and in dry weather the thick beds of tenacious clay beneath supply moisture 

 to the growing crops. The soil is strong and durable, and never fails to produce fair crops when well cultivated, 

 whether the seasons be wet or dry. The surface of the country is usually broken, and hopper-shaped sink-holes 

 and wide, circular, pond-like depressions are nearly everywhere met with; not so frequently, however, as seriously 

 to impair the value of the land for cultivation. The characteristic timber is red oak, black-jack, hickory, tulip 

 tree, white oak, and, near the streams, walnut, black gum, ash, elm, sycamore, and beech. This soil has long been 

 recognized as the very best in the state for tobacco, the quality grown upon it being fine, yet rich and oily, 

 resembling the softness and pliancy of a kid glove, and for years it stood at the head of all classes of export tobacco. 

 Outside of the counties under consideration and a few lying contiguous in Kentucky this peculiar type of tobacco 

 is grown nowhere else in the Mississippi valley. For many years it was a great favorite in the market; but the 

 recent change in the taste of consumers has diminished its popularity and restricted its use. Clarksville, the 

 center of this district, was long famous in the tobacco marts of the world. 



The second character of soil in this group of counties is light in color, with a porous, yellowish clayey subsoil, 

 in which a large amount of whitish chert is intermingled.- It is usually fine grained and infertile; nevertheless, 

 when first cleared, it produces tobacco which, though small, is very fine. 



This white clayey soil is interspersed without any regularity, a considerable body being found in the eastern 

 part of Stewart county, the northern part of Cheatham, the southeastern part of Montgomery, the southern 

 part of Robertson, and a large portion of Macou. This soil is close, compact, water-soaked, difficult to till, and is 

 characterized by the growth of sweet gum and water oaks. The surface is visually a dead level, and wherever 

 elevations occur within the boundaries of such places the soil is open and productive, but it lacks drainage, and is 

 deficient in humus. In a few places, where well drained, it has been known to produce a fine type of tobacco. 



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