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

kets--TranspOrIatio Facilities
p --Noeds--ProsPects.
From an Occasional Correspondent Of the
NY. Tri une.
KINGSTON, Sept. l9.-Naturc has
divided Tennessee into four sec
tions, distinct IN soil, climate, and
product, rs also in the character
istics OF their inhabitants. These
are the East Tennessee Valley, the
Cumberland Mountains and table
land, the great MIDDLE or Nashville
basin, with its rim, and the West
ern slope of strictly cotton lands.
! Unlike her Southern sisters, the
length of the State runs east and
west, and, though she has no sea
coast line, her western border was
formed in that vast inland sen
which once stretched up northwest
from the Atlantic Ocean, and hence
she has all the soils characteristic
of the sea-coast States, while ia
her extreme eastern boundary she
takes in some Of the highest peaks
of the Unaka Mountains, the oldest
land on this continent.
Thus coming down from the
most ancient formations to those
Of the present, and having nearly
all the geological formations of
every other State in the Union, her
products are equally as general,
her wheat is superior to ,MiAnesota,
and eher cotton ranks as high as
any except strictly Sea Island; She
has corn lands cleared for over so
years, which yet rival the fertility
of the Western prairies, and at the
same time she grows the rice Of
the Carolinas. She has meadows
in grass without change for over
% years, and yet producing a. ton
oT hay to the acre, too few of these
last, it is true, but enough to show
how great n producer of the crop,
which the New-Englander delights
to call king, she might be had not
her people been slaves to corn and
cotton. IN the common parlance
of the State, her territory is dIvid
ed into East, MIdtlle,,Aand West
Tennessee. A prominent citizen
once remarked, as indicating the
products of each, that they might
be named stomach, back and
stomach, and back alone; for the
West seemed to think all of life
lay in clothing, the East that the
sum OF existence was plenty of
food, while the Middle combined
both. F.FE.s TO sTE -
THE WESTERN OR COTTON SECTION.
The Western or Mississippi pur-
tion of West Tennessee will never
be other than it Is, a cotton country.
Over 1t hangs the heavy black pall
of deserted farms ana shiftless, la,
Dor which oppresses Southwest
Georgia. The eastern half border
ing on the Tennessee River has a
better future, and may become
prosperous from a mixture ofcrops,
it is more elevated, more healthy,
and is, in part, underlaid by a vast
deposit OF mari. This whole West
Tennessee section may be said to
be identical with the Atlantic belt
of lands which, beginning in New
Jersey, extend down to and beyond
Florida. A glance at any map will
show that the Tennessee River, af-
ter running through North Ala
bama, turns directly north across
the entire width of the State of
Tennessee; going west from this
river, we first pass over n narrow
strip of limestone soil, and then
come to rolling lands underlaid
with greensand, then the rotten
limestone and the sand belts, and.
lastly, the rich alluvial bottoms on
the Mississippi. - ~
2 AS l have sad, the greater por-
tion of this section is strictly a
cotton region. and unless there be |
some very radical change in labor
or in mode of cultivation it has
seen its best days. Without the |
sea breeze which makes the same |
lands endurable. on theAtlantie cost,
here the climate is hot and sultry |
in Summer and damp with sudden /
changes IN. Winter, The towns
are almost deserted in Summer, the
wealthier, people going to the
CT Virginia and North
Carolina, while others seek homes
among the sand hills and pine bar
rens. The planters generally can
not get out of their old style IF
life, and the cotton crop is usually
spent before made, aadmoney bor-
rowed and supplies, bought on
credit to make :he next. In the
region joining the Tennessee River
the crops are becoming more diver
siiied. Transportation is afforded
West Tennessee by the two rivers
- Mississippi aud j Tennessee-by a
'ailI Dad to st. Louis crossing its
lorthern part from Memphis to
chattanooga on its southern; one
toiH Chicago TO Mobile and New
Orleans. north and south through
Is middle. and another diagonally
rom Louisville to Memphis. This
ast received ,fsen1y depots0 on it's ii
inc, in 1875 f2D,s bales OF cob
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