It is a level or nearly level area of productive soils that range from loamy and well drained along the streams to clayey and poorly drained along the streams to clayey and poorly drained in some backwater swamps. This is one of the most intensively cultivated area in Tennessee. Soybeans, corn, cotton and hay are the principal crops. Bottom land hardwoods occupy the wettest places. Flooding and wetness are the main limitations.
Flooding occurs mostly in winter, and most of the soils dry out early enough for spring planting.
The Loess Region is a zone of nearly flat to rolling upland. Its western limit is marked by a narrow range of highly dissected hills which rise abruptly from the Mississippi River bottoms. The soils formed in loess, which is as much as 30 to 90 feet thick in the bluffs along the western edge and gradually thins to about 3 to 4 feet thick some 50 miles eastward. The soils are silty and fairly fertile and range from poorly drained on some of the flats to well drained. Fragipans are common even on some of the slopes.