Allusion was made above to the fact of the existence of a German colony at Wartburg. They are an industrious, intelligent and enterprising people, and have done much to advance the agricultural, horticultural and educational interests of the county.

The farm buildings throughout the county are plain. But few are brick, a number of frame, and a large number made of hewn logs. Rails are altogether used for making fences, and the average height of the fences are about five feet. The cost of lumber is one dollar per hundred feet, and rails ten dollars per thousand.

The mineral capacity of this county is equal to almost any county in East Tennessee. Stone coal is found in great quantities in every direction. The long distance from market, and the difficulty of transportation retard development. The chief markets are Knoxville, and Rockwood in Roane county. The former is distant about sixty miles, and is reached by wagon conveyance. The latter is some twenty-five miles. The Cincinnati Southern Railroad is projected to pass through this county, and it will traverse a region rich in valuable timber and mineral wealth.

The water power of this county is unsurpassed. On all the streams mentioned, any desired power can be had. But little of it is made available. There are some grist and saw-mills, but no cotton or woolen factories.

Wartburg is the county seat, with a population of about 150, mostly Germans. It has one church-Lutheran. It can boast of one of the best schools in the country-about eighty pupils in attendance. Montgomery is another small village, with a population of about fifty. It was formerly the county seat of Morgan county.

See description of Cumberland county, of Middle Tennessee, for a fuller description of the soil. Both counties are on the Table Land.

POLK COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT-BENTON.

The law establishing this county was passed November 28, 1839. It was taken off Bradley and McMinn, and named in honor of James K. Polk. It is bounded on the north by McMinn and Monroe, on the

east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, and on the west by' Bradley county. It comprises about 430 square miles. The greater' part of Polk county is mountainous, and unfit for agricultural purposes. There are other advantages, however, far outweighing the agricultural feature. There are copper mines found in this county. They were developed many years ago, and have been worked with success. They are known as the "Ducktown mines." They are situated about forty miles from Cleveland, an enterprising town on the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad. A daily line of hacks runs there* from this point. The mines are about two miles from the Ocoee River, in the midst of hills, surrounded by high mountains in the distance. The principal ranges of these mountains lie between the copper mines and Benton, and traverse the county in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, occupying, perhaps, more than half its area.

The discovery of these mines has brought about a great change in" what was once a wilderness region. Upon a beautiful plateau of ground, in the midst of the mines, stands a number of villages, whose hundreds of buildings attest the presence of the genius of civilization. They aggregate a population of about three thousand, with churches, schools, and stores. And although occupied mostly by miners, the moral and religious status is not inferior to more highly favored towns.

One drawback upon the company is the long distance to the railroad, which interferes materially with its profits in the prosecution of the business. Energy and capital, however, will soon surmount this obstacle. A movement is now on foot to construct a branch road from Cleveland to intersect with the railroad at that place. The prospects for its early completion are favorable. For more particular description of these mines, see chapter xv.

These mines furnish a valuable market for all the products of that part of Polk county. All the butter, lard, bacon, flour, corn, chickens, etc., for miles around, are sold there at fair prices. Thus, hundreds of dollars are scattered where it is badly needed.

Nearly the entire surface of the county is covered with high rolling lands, with hills and ridges here and there. There are some rich valleys which are level and produce fair crops of wheat, corn and oats. The principal bulk of the land has been greatly exhausted by hard usage. Hundreds of acres have been brought into a state of almost complete exhaustion, so far gone as to require years, and a great deal of money and labor to restore. Originally, this county was rich in its

western portion. The farmers, at least many of them, have not pursued a wise course. They have expected too much from the soil without returning a corresponding benefit to it. From year to year it has been robbed of its cream until it has been forced to succumb to this ill-treatment. Shallow plowing, no fertilizing and heavy crops of corn have done the work. The exhausted spots, the skinned surface, the wide patches of sassafras, the fields of sedge grass, and the gullies, but too plainly indicate the unkind treatment which it has received. Grass, clover and manure have been ignored all over the county. Ground that would have made excellent meadow, has been, for years, rudely cultivated in corn. There are acres upon acres that have never been aided in yielding their substance to the proprietor by sowing clover and using manure.

This is not the case. with all the farms. Polk county has a number of superior farmers-enterprising, energetic, and intelligent-who are improving their lands, and making them more and more productive every year. The most valuable lands are on the waters of the Ocoee River, the Hiwassee River, and the Conasauga River.* They yield, on an average, about thirty-five bushels of corn to the acre, wheat ten, oats twenty-five, and rye eight. The creek valleys yield about twenty bushels of corn, wheat six, oats twenty, and rye seven. The uplands, ten of corn, five of wheat, and fifteen of oats. The principal valley is the Ocoee, which is about twenty-five miles long, and five wide.

The county needs a much larger population than it has, for it is sparsely settled. Lands can be bought low, and on the easiest terms. From three to twenty dollars per acre will buy about the best lands in the county, with the exception of highly improved farms, or lands lying on the rivers and the principal creeks. The opening here for immigrants is a good one. They would be kindly received by all the citizens.

The county is deficient in improved stock of all kinds. Considerable numbers of hogs, cattle and sheep are fattened annually, and sent to market. There is one butter and cheese dairy carried on by an enterprising German. There is quite a trade in eggs, poultry and dried fruit.

Farm hands are about equal to the demand-but few colored. Good laborers, working by the year, receive about one hundred and fifty dol

The water from this stream finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico without emptying into the Mississippi, and in this respect differs from all others in the State.

lars per annum, and are furnished with houses and gardens. Transient hands from fifty to seventy-five cents per day; cooks and washers get from four to five dollars a month.

The principal town is Benton. Its population is about three hundred and fifty. There is one church and a good school in the place.

RHEA COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT-WASHINGTON.

Rhea county was established December 3, 1807, and the county seat was located at Big Spring, fourteen miles west of the present capital. It was removed to Washington in 1812. The county contains a population of about 5,000. It is thinly settled. The majority of the farms are very large, and could be divided and sub-divided advantageously. This would make room for immigrants, and in a short time, double the population. It would tend to develop the county and increase its wealth. It is suffering for the lack of population. Laborers are needed; men of capital and enterprise are in demand, and better farmers are wanted.

The area of Rhea county is divided between the Valley of East Tennessee and the Cumberland Table Land. Its north-western boundary rests on Walden's Ridge, this plateau ridge being divided about equally between Rhea and Bledsoe. Its south-eastern boundary is the Tennessee River, which separates it from Meigs. On the north-east it is bounded by Roane county, and on the south-west by Hamilton. Between Walden's Ridge and a series of broken knobs parallel with it, is a long valley running the entire length of the county, which constitutes a part of a great valley extending through the State, and closely hugging the eastern encarpment of the Table Land.

The Tennessee River meanders through rich alluvial bottoms. White's Creek, Muddy Creek, Piney River, Town Creek, Wolf Creek, Clear Creek, Yellow Creek, Big and Little Richland, and Sale Creek, thread various portions of it. River Valley is one of the most noted in East Tennessee. It is formed by the Tennessee River. It is wide, and runs the entire length of the river, and the soil is a rich alluvial. The average production of corn is about fifty bushels to the acre, wheat ten, oats twenty. The Tennessee Valley is wide and long; has

an excellent subsoil, and well adapted to all the cereals and to the grasses. It is not so productive as the River Valley, but it has advantages in the way of good water, and free from destructive overflows. Its average production of corn is about twenty-five bushels to the acre, wheat ten, oats twenty, Irish potatoes about seventy-five, and sweet potatoes about one hundred and fifty. Muddy Creek Valley is another fine body of land.

The price of land ranges from five to one hundred dollars per acre. The average size of farms is about four hundred acres. This is unusually large. It is a serious injury to the county, and tends to keep it down. They should be divided into smaller tracts, a lesson hard to learn. Rhea county shows rough usage in the management of its soils, caused in part, by the owners having more land than they can well cultivate. There is not half enough clover sown, and manures applied in the most stinted manner. Hundreds of acres have given way under this injudicious treatment. There is, however, a change for the better apparent in this fine county. Deeper plowing is done, more grass seed is sown, better stock is being raised, wheat drills are coming into use, and a better class of agricultural implements generally, is brought into requisition.

Considerable quantities of land are rented or leased in this county, and this has had a damaging effect upon the soil. Under the present system of renting, there are no lands which can long survive it, and be sides the policy of turning over a business to some one else that ought to be attended to by the person himself, is suicidal. The disposition to lease farms and to pull up stakes, and settle in towns and villages, or to embark in some other enterprise, is having a bad effect upon the agriculture of the country.

The labor system is not reliable. There is no lack of it, but the trouble is in retaining it. The farmers throughout the county complain bitterly of this difficulty. Laborers shift, going from one place to another. This subverts all the plans of the farmers, and subjects them to a vast deal of inconvenience and irreparable loss.

The overshadowing feature of this county is its iron and coal interests. They do not exist in spots, or here and there, but they are found almost everywhere. Walden's Ridge is filled with masses of iron and coal. They are found side by side, both in the mountain and in the valley. These wonderful interests have not been developed to any extent, though