Union and American. [volume] (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1875-1877, 1875-11-10

table land, by Col. G. w. Howard,
we're the source of admiring re
marks from every one at last years |
Georgia State Agricultural Fair.
A Seeding of the Baldwin gave
there such fruit as would put to
shame even the great excellence
of its parent of the North. To the
Summer tourist or seeker for
health tho clear, pure water and
invigorating air of this table land
will ever be an attraction, anil in
the deep recesses of it's rocks the
geologist will find study, and the
manufacturer employment for thou
sands of years. Nature has singu-
larly placed this great storehouse
of iron and coal between two areas
of the finest farming land on the
earth. Unknown as it has been,
in a few years a railroad in direct
air line from Cincinnati to Chatta-
nooga will cross it for over 20 miles,
and give easy access to its grand
scenery and delightfrl climate.
THE Valley OF THE EAST.
The great East Tennessee Valley
'iHzspeciql arpas s,srpassesls - IL. s,,s
Tennessee, yet IN the aggregSce -
is inferior IN soil and in the status
as TO improvement in culture,
yields, and stock In its topogra-
ply it is a series of ridges and
valleys; of these, the valleys are
very fertile and nearly all in cult
vation, the hillsides so greatly in
their primitive woods that one can
hardly say what may be made from
them, their luxuriant growth of
timber clearly indicating that q
day will come when they can be
used. The soils of East Tennessee
comprise every character, from the
rich alluvial down to the sandy
barren, but its chiefs soils are de-
rived from the decomposition of
magnetism limestones, and have
no superior for wheat. Corn is
tie universal crop on the rich low
lands, and wheat or other small
grains on higher grounds. Com
ing from the Cumberland Noun
tains, the valleys begin with
rock formation of sub. carboni-
ferrous limestone, which to my
unscienhfic readers l may remark
is rock very rich in fossils, hence
containing some phosphoric acid;
then we have, alternating, the dol
omites or magnetism hmestones,
and the series of lines ones com
mon to the Nashville Basin of Blue
Grass lands. to near the North
Carolina line, when we come upon
vast ridges of sandstone, known as
the Potsdam, and then pass gradu-
ally through the micaeeous and
talcose states to the gneiss on the
high peaks of the Unaka Noun
tains.
The ridges through this course
are chiefly of red clay dirt, inter
spersed with a flint called ebert.
This is derived from the decompo-
sition of a sandy limestone, and
wherever cultivated these ridges
have proved to be good wheat
lands, and when a location care
fully selected have no superior for
the growth of apples, pears, and
peaches, and some varieties of
grapes. 1t is loose, open soil,
never suffering from drouth, and
on southwest hillsides crops are
never liable to be injured by frost.
Some Of the ridges have sandstone
rocks and connot be of marked fer
tility, while on one, over summit
and sides put out the decomposing
points of the same limestones
which have made the Blue Grass
lands of Kentucky famous, and
where that unrivalcd food for stock
has been soNn OR is allowed to
grow, these peculiar knobs become
simply elevated meadows. The
soil on these knobs is of a dark
chocolate color where cultivated,
and in the woods approaches
black, from the great quantity of
NSSSttUlC lhstSOSE IL SODlolHSs ~
every point where in woods the
East Tennessee ridges afford ex-
cellent pasture lands in Summer,
and they, as well as the Cumber-
land table lands, might become the
great source of supply of fine me-
rino wool, but for the fact that one
dog is valued more than q dozen
sheep, OF course this feeling is
not universal, but the class who
think thus and who have q half
dozen half-starved curs around
their novels Is entirely too large
for any Legislature to dare take
the matter in severe hand.
WHAT KEEPS EAST TENNESSEE UNDER.
The great need of East Tennes-
see is n money crop. Cotton is
raised to small extent, and its
growth might be greatly extended,
as many acres are as suited to
grow it as where thousands of
bales are produced in Georgia with
warming fertilizers. Tobacco
might also be grown with profit,
as has been demonstrated by sew
eral experimental fields. There
is a lack of energy among the peo-
pie and strong disposition to let
well enough alone, which keeps
them from trying new ideas. yet
there is probably no equal area in
the Sonth in which many improv-
ed agricultural Implements are
used as in the valleys bordering
on the East Tennessee, Virginia,
aud Georgia Railroad. The mis-
fortune is that with abundance of
the best iron and coal and finest of |
timber trees, much the greater |
part of the farm supplements, even
TO wagons, come from the North
West. Again, there is no part of
the South Of the same area as East |
Tennessee which possesses such
Eariety of soils and the possibility
'i producing SO great range of
,rops, sts = ...-r4
There is a belt of land from
'our TO ten miles wide, running for
LOO miles within less then five
niles of the East Tennessee, Vlr-.
,inia and Georgia Railroad, that