36 Transactions Tennessee Academy of Science 



Evidently, trees and shrubs, as well as most herbaceous plants, do 

 not grow in the "natural meadows," because soil conditions do not 

 suit them. The forest around has stood there for centuries, prob- 

 ably, and scattered its seed over these open spaces and they have 

 germinated but to find an unfavorable home and perish. The same 

 has been true of the weed seed that have come from the woods and 

 that have been carried there by birds and animals. Only the sedge- 

 grass, the moss, and a few hardy trees and shrubs along the branches 

 can survive the unfavorable conditions. 



The soil is rather wet and very acid or sour. Surplus water gets 

 out of it very slowly and this, with the great abundance of vegetable 

 matter, causes the formation of a great deal of acid that is very 

 harmful to most plants. 



Many kinds of cultivated plants have been attempted on it but 

 with very little success except where the soil was treated. Strange 

 as it may seem, the soy bean has been found to thrive best. How- 

 ever, by using two tons of ground limestone or a ton of burnt lime 

 per acre, Mr. J. E. Converse of the Tennessee Experiment Station, 

 was able to grow fine crops of soy beans, millet, corn, and most 

 other crops that he tried. By the use of lime he grew eleven tons of 

 corn silage per acre, or about the equivalent of fifty-five bushels of 

 corn. Drainage and lime are the main things needed to make a 

 good farm soil out of the "natural meadows", although the soil is 

 weak in phosphate and some potash would likely pay on potatoes 

 and hay crops. 



As to the probable origin of the "natural meadows" I do not claim 

 to have built up any very strong scientific theory. Of one thing, 

 however, all can be certain. Water played an important part. The 

 vegetable matter has accumulated to a depth of three or four feet 

 or more in the "meadows", while over the rest of the Plateau it is 

 only from one to a few inches in depth. Water has kept the forest 

 fires and the air from destroying the leaves and branches and trunks 

 of fallen trees. These have been allowed to slowly undergo decay 

 and, with the sand washed in. to make soil. 



Evidence indicates that the "natural meadows" were once lakes or 

 ponds. They are in basins out of which branches flow. The land 

 slopes to them in every place except where the branch has its outlet. 



We can imagine, then, small lakes into which leaves and twigs 

 from llic suiroLiiiding forest fell and washed, and, along with these, 

 sand, riie process gradually tended to fill the lake, while the flow 



