172 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Some of the alluvial soils, when well drained, grow a very flue type of tobacco, especially the lowlands on Dry 

 creek, in Stewart county; on Red river, in Montgomery and Robertson counties; and on Buzzard creek, Sulphur 

 fork, and Miller's creek, in the last-mentioned county. Generally, however, the rich uplands in all the counties 

 under consideration are preferred for tobacco. 



The remaining counties in the tobacco belt of the state, viz, Trousdale, Wilson, Smith, and the river basins of 

 Jackson and Clay, have a rich calcareous soil, derived from the crumbling down of the limestones belonging to 

 the Cincinnati group of the Lower Silurian formation. This soil is dark-brown in color, very loose, and very 

 fertile; has often intermingled with it limestone gravel, and sometimes chert; is generally thirsty, and will not 

 stand a drought as well as the calcareo-siliceous soils of the rim lands. Nevertheless, if the season is sufficiently 

 wet, it will yield larger crops than any other soil in middle Tennessee. The subsoil is pale yellow, and is inclined 

 to be porous. The surface is generally broken into large, inound-like protuberances, which, though fertile to the 

 top, are liable to be denuded of their soil by heavy rain-storms. Though employed for the production of tobacco, 

 this soil does not usually produce a flue leaf, being large but bony, with thin web and large fibers, lacks oil, and 

 when cured often resembles a lifeless oak leaf. This region is admirably suited to the growth of blue-grass and 

 to the breeding and raising of cattle. 



It only remains to note the character of the soil that prevails in two detached areas in the state in which 

 tobacco is grown for market, viz : A part of Williamson county, and a portion of Unicoi and other counties in 

 eastern Tennessee. The soil of Williamson coun,ty is of the same character as that last described, and needs no 

 further mention, while that in Unicoi is a micaceous, sandy soil, often clayey, and varies greatly with the formation. 

 Where the dolomite limestones in eastern Tennessee form the foundation rock the soil is highly calcareous and 

 magnesian in its character, and sometimes a chert, which is associated with the dolomite, preponderates. The 

 soil then is thin and inclined to be gravelly or sandy. Sandstones belonging to the Potsdam age also abound, 

 and the soil derived from its disintegration is very infertile. In the coves a commingling frequently of all these 

 constituents gives a very loose, mellow, and productive soil. The soils in the metamorphic areas are generally 

 good, being derived from the gneiss and trap rocks of the district. These soils very much resemble those about 

 Asheville, North Carolina, where a considerable amount of fine yellow tobacco is grown ; and the recent culture 

 of tobacco in Unicoi county has been stimulated by the prices paid for the tobacco grown in the adjoining counties 

 of North Carolina, with which its tobacco culture is identical. 



CLIMATE. 



Tennessee has a climate neither very wet nor very dry. The heat is not extreme in summer, nor is the cold in 

 winter so intense as to interfere with the ordinary occupations of its inhabitants. The average degree of cold in 

 winter is indicated by the limit of domestic ice-houses, which would be a line east and west through the center of 

 the state. North of this line it rarely happens that the cold of winter is not severe enough to make a bountiful 

 supply of ice, while south of it the ice seasons are so infrequent that it is not considered profitable to construct 

 ice-houses, and in all the tobacco-growing districts of the state the winter frosts are sufficient to ameliorate the soil. 

 Along the median line which marks the southern limit of ice-houses the mean temperature of the year is about 

 57 in the valley of eastern Tennessee, 58 in middle, and 59 in western Tennessee, a range, in traversing the state 

 from east to west, of 3, partly due to elevation. Along the southern boundary of the state the annual mean 

 is about 1 higher than on the corresponding longitude of the middle parallel, while on the northern boundary 

 it will be found as much lower, thus giving an approximate range from south to north of 3, especially in the 

 valley of eastern Tennessee. 



From observations made by the Signal Service at Knoxville, extending from January 1, 1871, to October 31, 

 1880, the mean spring temperature is 57.4 ; summer 75. 2 ; autumn, 56.S ; winter, 39.6. The greatest difference 

 between the lowest and the highest temperature recorded in any one year was 109. The highest recorded 

 temperature was 100, and the lowest 14. The prevailing winds were from the southwest. The mean annual 

 precipitation for the same period was 53.54 inches. 



In Memphis the period of observation extended from February 28, 1871, to October 31, 1880, and the mean annual 

 temperature of spring was 61.4 ; summer, 79.4 ; autumn, 60.2 ; winter, 42. 7. Extreme range of the thermometer 

 any one year, 97; highest recorded temperature, 101.5 ; lowest, 2 ; mean annual precipitation, 53.98 inches; 

 prevailing winds, southwest. 



Near Clarksville, Professor William M. Stewart made meteorological observations for the Smithsonian 

 Institution for nearly a quarter of a century. From these observations it appears that January is the coldest 

 month, the mean for that month being 34.08 ; then December, 38.54 ; February, 41 ; November, 46.45 ; March, 

 47.3<); October. 57.17; April, 57.84 ; May, 64.98; September, 69 ; June, 72.14; August, 74.85; July, 76.22, 

 being the hottest month in the year. The number of days between killing frosts varied within this period from 



173 to 228, the average being 189. The mean of the rainfall for twenty-one years was 45.712 inches, the lowest 

 being 33.8, and the highest 60 inches. Within this period the thermometer did not reach a higher point than 99, 



and the lowest was 8. 

 766 



