Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-02-21
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE.
Products of the Soil.
NO. VIII.

4
The products of the soil in East Tennes-
see are various. There is, perhaps, no ter
ritory of the same area in the Union
that justly boasts of greater variety OF
products. Our people, with the proper en-
ergy and enterprise, could come as near
living Independent of other localities as
almost any section of the globe. We pro-
pose in this article to allude briefly to
what our soil will produce.
CEREALS.
| Of grain, we produce Indian corn, wheat,
oats, rye and barley. OF these, Indian
corn is the principal. From the first set
tlement of this country, the people turned
their attention towards raising corn, and
for many years it was almost the only
grain that was produced ito any great ex-
tent. Rich soil, after being cleared for cul-
tivation, has been planted with corn year
after year in succession, until great deal
of our best land was literally worn out by
running it in corn. Of late years, how
ever, the people have discovered their folly
in this respect, and have turned their at
tention toward producing something else
and improving the soil. Still we produce
more bushels of corn by far than anything
else. Our rich river bottoms-the valleys
of the Tennessee, Holston, Clinch, Powells,
French Broad, Emory, Pigeon, Hiwassee,
and other rivers-are peculiarly adapted to
raising corn. Thousands of bushels are
produced, and are shipped down these riv-
ers, or over the East Tennessee, Virginia
and Georgia Railroad, always finding
ready market in the South. East Tennes-
see does a great deal towards supplying
the Southern markets with corn. A
great deal of corn is produced ON our up
lands also, particularly in the New Market
and Sweetwater valleys-two.large and ex.
ceedingly fertile bodies of land. Indeed,
there is no locality in East Tennessee
where corn is not produced.
After corn, wheat is our most important
cereal. It is not regarded as crop alto
gether certain here, under our imperfect
sytem of cultivation, yet we always pro-
duce enough for home consumption, as
well as large quantities for market. It is
well known that the wheat produced in
East Tennessee is generally of a very su-
perior quality, and produces flour worth
more in the market than that from any
other wheat. Especially is this so with
the wheat raised in Washington, Greene
and surrounding counties. Under our sys-
tenn of cultivation, which-as we have
before observed-is very imperfect and
careless, we get very small yield, aver
aging, perhaps, not more than ten bushels
to the acre. Under high state of culti-
vation, thirty bushels can be raised on an
acre, though this is a rare case. For cur
wheat we always find ready market.
In former days, a large proportion of our
improved land was sown in oats every year.
The yield was very large, but as it was
found that oats were,to some extent, ,injuri-
GUS to the soil, their cultivation has been
partially abandoned, yet there is large
breadth sown every year, and the crop is
one of good profit. Most of our farmers
SOW oats for the purpose of sowing clover
with them, thinking they can get better
stand in that way. Some of our plain
country farmers have an idea that horse
can hardly live without oats, hence they
insist on having their barns well filled with
oats in the sheaf.
Our soil produces rye very well, but the
demand for that grain has never been very
large here, and it has never been cultivated
to any considerable extent for that reason.
If it were necessary, it could be raised in
any quantity.
| Although barley can be produced to
| large extent, it has never been cultivated,
| except in few instances, simply because
the demand for other grain was greater,
and not for the reason that the soil will not
| produce it in abundance.
Buckwheat has been cultivated through
out East Tennessee, and found to yield
largely, yet it falls within the class of grain
neglected in a great degree by our farmers.
The above, we believe, includes the vari-
GUS qualities of grain which are produced
in East Tennessee. We will next speak of
| the fruits.
| FRUITS.
Our fruits embrace apples, peaches, pears,
ounces, grapes, plums, cherries, strawber-
ries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants,
&C., &C., &c. Apples are produced in a
much larger quantity than any other fruit
Though the varieties grown have not been
selected with the same care as the orchards
in some parts of the North, still we have
some very fine apples, and some really fine
orchards. Our apples begin ripening about
the middle of June, and continue until
frost in the fall, which generally occurs
from the first to the middle of October We
have winter apples which are kept in
abundance until as late as the first of March,
and some varieties four weeks longer.
Our peaches are abundant about every
other year, and are delicious and very fine
ly favored. We have them every year,
but it scarcely ever happens that one plen-