Cherry did not occur in extensive groves, but trees 

 70 to 80 feet high were scattered through the forests 

 on rich soils. Basswood abounded in the Central 

 Basin and in parts of east Tennessee. Yellow-poplar 

 grew on rich soils almost everywhere and reached 

 great size — 6 to 8 feet in diameter and 60 to 75 feet 

 to the lowest limbs (fig. 7). Black walnut was also 

 well distributed over the rich soils of the State. This 

 most valuable tree flourished especially in the Cen- 

 tral Basin, the better parts of the Highland Rim, and 

 the valleys of east Tennessee. It reached 6 feet in 

 diameter and more than 100 feet in height. 



Other common species included beech, birch, 

 buckeye, cottonwood, elms, black locust, honey- 

 locust, sugar and red maples, red mulberry, sassa- 

 fras, and sycamore. 



Development of the Economy 



The long history of farming in the State has had a 

 tremendous influence on the forests. Farming has 

 been the backbone of Tennessee's economic develop- 

 ment. Only in recent decades, particularly since the 

 large-scale development of cheap electric power, has 

 manufacturing come into equal, if not greater promi- 

 nence. Farming still employs more people, but 

 manufacturing produces more income. 



Farming 



In 



1769 farmers from the Carolinas and Virginia 



began to settle and clear the fertile lands described by 

 the hunters and trappers who had preceded them. 

 From the beginning, corn was a leading money crop, 

 but tobacco and wheat also soon ranked high in the 

 economy of the State. 



In eastern Tennessee the farms were small. In the 

 middle of the State, where the topography was more 

 gentle, large farm holdings were common. Here, 

 after a wheat boom that collapsed early, many farmers 

 turned to tobacco and fruit as cash crops, while others 

 began livestock and dairying enterprises. 



West Tennessee, with its fertile bottom lands, 

 favored the development of a rich cotton agriculture. 

 In 1818, the Federal Government purchased the 

 region from the Chickasaw Indians and settlers 

 moved in. Forests were cleared, and by 1825 the 

 region had become an important cotton-growing 

 center. 



With the pattern of land-use determined — subsist- 

 ence farms in the east; dairying, livestock, and to- 

 bacco farming in the central section; and big-scale 



cotton production in the west — Tennessee began a 

 long period of agricultural development. 



By 1860 there were 82,000 farms with 21 million 

 . acres of land, including nearly 7 million acres of im- 

 proved land. Since then, profound changes initiated 

 with the Civil War have resulted in a great increase 

 in the number of farms, but not in total farm acreage. 

 By 1920 the Census counted 253,000 farms; the figure 

 dropped subsequently to 234,000 in 1945, and 232,000 

 in 1950. Census statistics show a falling off in total 

 farm land to 18.5 million acres in 1950, although this 

 is probably due to less woodland being enumerated 

 as farm woods rather than to an actual decline in 

 total farm area. Improved farmland increased to 

 more than 11 million acres in 1950. 



The most obvious impact of agriculture on Ten- 

 nessee's forests has been the clearing of land, which 

 has meant a large reduction in forest area, especially 

 on the better soils. Then, the fact that much of the 

 remaining forest has been held as parts of farms has 

 brought with it the special uses of farm woods for 

 many decades: cutting for fuel, posts, and other farm 

 uses; sale of merchantable timber to forest industries; 

 and forage for farm animals. Farmers' use of wood- 

 lands has had a great influence on the quality of the 

 timber in Tennessee's forests, and on the species of 

 trees that now predominate. 



Another influence, more difficult to trace, has come 

 from the long process of farmland abandonment and 

 reversion to woodland. New acreage is always being 

 cleared from the forest and old land that becomes 

 worn out, eroded, and in other ways submarginal is 

 being abandoned. The process has been slow from 

 year to year, but over the long pull the result has 

 been that a substantial proportion of Tennessee's 

 present forests are on land that was once cropped or 

 at least cleared for pasture. 



Abandonment is induced mainly by soil erosion 

 (fig. 8). A survey by the State Planning Commission 

 in 1935 indicated that gullying had virtually ruined 

 about 3 million acres for cultivation, and that sheet 

 erosion had removed at least three-fourths of the 

 surface soil from an additional 1 1 million acres. 



New forests coming in on abandoned fields generally 

 begin with these among the prominent species: j 

 sassafras and persimmon in western Tennessee; j 

 sassafras, persimmon, hickory, black locust, yellow- \ 

 poplar, redcedar, winged elm, and hackberry in 

 central Tennessee; pine, yellow-poplar, sassafras, and 

 persimmon in eastern Tennessee. After they are well 

 established the new forests tend to change in compo-j 



8 



Forest Resource Report No. 9, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



