Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-23

| solved is lmpracticable. No chemist can
tell by analysis only whether a field is
productive or unproductive, and the sci
ence of agriculture has received a check
because men of science have asserted too
positively their ability to determine ques-
tons into which more conditions enter,
han strictly scientific man can proper
ly appreciate, and which can only be
learned by practical experience.
There are, however, unerring indica-
tons by which an uneducated man may
judge of the capacity of the soil. Among
these indications there are none which
can be relied on with more certainty than
the wild growth. Nature is always true
to herself and never commits an error.
She displays her symbols of abundance
or signs of distress. We know, for in
stance, that greenbriers and sweet gum
mean unproductiveness and starvation.
Bad soils rather than poor soils are the
teachings of these two growths. An
acid, blush subsoil, with standing water
through the winter and in the summer
parched to chslky whiteness, is the habi-
tat of water oaks, swamp maple, green
briers and sweet gum. Such lands, if
drained and lined, would proba bly, make
meadows, or grow cranberries. By some
it is supposed to be good for peach trees,
but the compactness of the subsoil would
probably make them short-lived.
The first class tobacco land may be
known by the growth of blackjack and
scrub hickory with an underground of
halle and black gum. 1t should be slightly
undulating with an admixture of blacklist
red pebbles, an argillaceous rock with
fossil remains silicifed, but still retaining
a trace of phosphoric acid. These peb-
bles, resting on limestone, form an adj
mirable natural drainage, and make the
land much warmer, thereby Fastening
the growth of the tobacco and giving it
silky texture and fineness which are
rarely found in tobaccos grown on
other lands. This character of soil also
produces the finest cotton and renders the
plant comparatively free from blight.
The next best land for tobacco may be
known by the poplar, sugar tree, beech,
and white oak with an underground of
pawpaw. The tobacco grown on this
land is more leafy, but not so rich or fine
as that grown on the black jack and
hickory land. Red oak land with a
mulatto subsol will grow fancy article
of tobacco, but it is always light.
Wild cherry, black walnut, yellow pop
lar, ash and beech, with an underground
of pawpaw and blackberry, are indica-
tons of the very best alluvial soils, and
for corn and hay can not be exeelled.
Upon such land cotton and tobacco make
too much stalk. Tobacco is coarse, and
cotton natures too late. Wheat does
well in dry year upon such soils, bu. is
apt to bed when there is much rain or
wind. In all wheat lands there should be
a small proportion of sand to strengthen
the stalk, and hence the best wheat lands
found in our State have masses of ebert
them.
The poorest soils in our State, Out not
the worst, because they may be improved,)
are known byt black jack and post oak
growth. These lands are mostly level,
by numerous wet-weather
and produce a coarse, barren
grass, resembling broom-sedge, upon
which cattle feed during the summer.
This grass is poor in nutritious matter,
md grows so thin that it poorly protects
he land from the rays of the sun. Much
If this land is found in Humphreys and
Dickson counties, but it is vastly to be
preferred to the sandy subsoils of West
Tennessee.
The common blackberry brier (ruboeS |
is indicative of good land, but |
trange to say, it will flourish upon the |
poorest soil, gathering fresh strength
.ach year. 1t is powerful fertilizer.
The roots penetrate deeply into the sub
oil, letting in the air and extricating |
herefrom fertilizing elements, which are
,rought to the surface aud retained by
he mulch which the leaves form around /
he bush. The red, CALLED hillsides, that
re too often found in our State, can be
quickly and cheaply reclaimed, By set
ing them out with blackberry bushes.
They enrich, shade and protect the land
rom washing, and supply berry that is
rowing in demand and commercial i'm
,ortance every year. We know of no
liant superior to it as fertilizer, except
ed clover; and, on very thin soil, it is
wen superior to clover.