Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-07-30
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE.
The Soil and Resources OF Meigs
County.
NO. CXvI.

A correspondent from Decatur, Nlegs
county, sends us the following interesting
facts about that county:
AS you have been publishing articles
about the mineral and agricultural re-
sources, active and dormant of almost ev-
cry county in Fest Tennessee, and don't
remember to have seen anything in rela-
ton to this county, make free to send
you the following facts, hoping that you
will give them place in your enterprising
paper:
Meigs county has a population of five
thousand, and will average about five per-
sons to the square mile. The soil of the
county is varied The uplands, or rolling
lands are of a vegetable mold, while i'll the
valleys the soil is derived from a limestone
formation, and hence is very strong. 1t
is well adapted to all the cereals, wheat,
oats, corn and rye. All the grasses grow
and flourish here. There is hardly an acre
of ground in the county but, by applica
tion of little domestic manure, could be
made to grow clover luXuriantly, and
thereby enrich the land. Tobacco has re-
Gently been cultivated, and proves to grow
as fine here as in any part of Old Virgin
ny.p Sheep husbandy could made
profitable, but this branch of do
mestic industry is only secondarily
attended to. Here sheep live and thrive
as well as i'll any part of the country. Old
age seems to be the only malady flockmas-
tiers need fear This climate is the genial
and appropriate home of all kinds of fruit.
The peach tree seems to be an almost spon-
taneous growth. The county is noted for
its many springs, babbling brooks" and
creeks of pure, limpidwater, most of which
anord water-power snffioiont to proper any
machinery all the year round.
"a 1o,o g., hi IL;
giant skeleton form on all hands, mostly
caused by wash and bad tillage. Before
the war, almost every farmer, from year
to year. cultivated nothing but hog and
hominy,' especially those who owned large
farms, and the proceeds of each years crop
was invested in negroes, as the most prof
liable investment and as their slaves in
creased the fertility of the soil decreased al
about the same ratio. But happily for the
county this incubus, this moral and politi
al curse, has been removed, and these over
grown landholders are about as willing
souls to sell their surplus lands as one evei
meets with. They are getting tired o
paving the taxes upon them. Land ranges
in price from four to twenty dollars pc
acre, according to kind and location. There
is scarcely q farm in the county but wha
could be bought at reasonable figures. TIT
mauumitted slave and old master work to
gather tremendously. Hardly any o
They generally work for wages or tend
CROP on the shares.n We mention this t,
let people abroad know that there is n
malevolence or prejudice existing, tina
was supposed to have been engendered b,
the "late unpleasantness." We are a
peaceable and law-abiding here as in an.
,part of the "old bay State" In proof c
Ibis we appeal to the statistics of crime {
che last census. Our climate beats tn
world Here our Writer'S are short an
mild; our summers long and pleasant
Here the emigrant from the colder lati
tudes leaves off the disheartening eXper
ence of the "winter consuming what til
summer doth yield" as is the case in tn
North and Northwest Here Hygei
reigns supreme. The emaciated consuml
tive will find relief and prolongation OF lif
if not permanent cure for this dire dlseas
A mild type of chills and fever seems to
the only disease peculiar to this region.
Our mineral resources are not as great
some, yet coal, lead, iron, and gold is sal
70 exist, while roofing states, marble, bar.
les and tlug-stOne abound.
The people are hospitable, courteous al
sociable, but are wofully behind the time
some of them believe if they We're not
cultivate the same fields in corn that the
Udaddy did, they would certainly n
survive winter. But we now have a rem
DIV for this. The farmers boys must be ed
Gated The common school system that
now being inaugurated is the specific
this evil.
What we need worst is an incorporate
of practicable and scientific farmers
learn the old fogy, Rip Van Wrinkle Il
mer "the lick it is done with" to init
duce better system of farming than
now or has been carried on in the past
learn how 10 make agriculture prottat
and useful to reclaim our lands that 6
and have been going to ruin for the Ii
quarter of a century; to utilize our VI
forest of pine, oak, poplar, ash, DC,
The emigrant from the frozen shores
the st. Lawrence or from the classic ban
of the historic Rhine of the old world, I
alike welcomed.
The Tennessee river forms the bounds
between this and Rhea county along
banks are to be found some of the fin
bottom land that can be found anywhe
its rich, alluvial soil, when well manipul
ed, yielding from Atty to sixty bushels
Indian corn to the acre. We yearn TO
tho daNy when the obstructiOus in [