is not reliable, but probably of the kind is sufficiently abundant. Compared with Davidson or Maury, not half the amount of labor in proportion to area cultivated is employed. Most farmers prefer to do their own work, hiring only occasionally. From $12 to $20 per month and board are given for first-class hands. House servants from $5 to $6. Rails are split and put up in some neighborhoods at $1.25 per hundred, and lumber made of good poplar may be bought at saw-mills for $10 per thousand feet. Chestnut is used for fencing, and the rails made from it will last until they wash away. We have seen in this county a fence of chestnut rails which was fifty-four years old and still tolerably good. Fruits grow well, and the rolling, rocky, well drained surface is especially suited to the grape. We may add here that a gentleman living at Burns' Station has erected a mill, and shipped, as we have been informed, as much as seventy or eighty tons of ground sumac leaves, for which he got $70 per ton. The work of gathering the leaves is somewhat tedious, but may be performed by women and children. This is a new industry, and is worth looking into.

Iron Interests. The first furnace ever erected in Middle Tennessee, was by Montgomery Bell, in 1810, and in Dickson county. From his furnace he sent all the cannon balls that were used by General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and through his influence, the iron interests of the Western Iron Belt were first brought into notice. The iron banks in the county are numerous and rich, and are usually found capping the flat ridges or on the slopes as they descend into the valleys. Before the war half a dozen furnaces were in successful operation and many thousand tons of iron were made. At this time there are but two in blast, Worley, (situated on Pine Creek) and Cumberland furnaces, the former making about seven tons of pig metal per day, and the latter from ten to twelve. The iron interest is an important one in Dickson, and we trust that very soon a furnace will be in operation at each important locality of ore. There is but one county in the Western Iron Belt that probably has a larger amount of iron ore, and that is Hickman. The two furnaces in operation give employment to about 400 hands.

Water-power. One of the most noticeable features of Dickson county is its water-power. A remarkable water-power is found at the "Narrows of Harpeth," a point near the Dickson and Cheatham line. Harpeth River makes here an extensive bend, enclosing a large peninsula of land, the neck of which is rock and but a few feet through. Mr. Montgomery Bell, the founder of the Montgomery Bell Academy,

and the same gentleman referred to above as inaugurating the development of the iron interests of the county, conceived the idea of tunneling the narrow neck and the work was done by E. W. Atkisson, a citizen of Cheatham. The fall gained by this tunneling gave a powerful force to the current, and a sufficient power was thus secured for driving a number of large manufacturing establishments. In addition to the Harpeth, there is Jones' Creek, a fine bold stream, that winds with graceful beauty through rich bottoms and by high bluffs, the escarpments of limestone rock often rising a hundred feet above the surface of the water; opposite these bluffs are usually low bottoms, that yield in bounteous profusion all the products of the climate. Sometimes, however, the banks rise to a moderate height on either side, and in such situations the lay of the land is excellent for the erection of mills. There are also Turnbull Creek, Barton Creek, Piney Creek, Yellow Creek, Johnson's Creek-all large, beautiful streams, with a sufficient capacity to drive the machinery of a hundred mills and manufacturing establishments. The position of the county is favorable for the establishment of manufactories. Midway between the coal-fields of Kentucky and the cotton-fields of the South, with an abundance of water-power, with the Cumberland, one of the best streams for navigation in the south, sweeping the whole north-eastern boundary, with the Northwestern Railroad traversing its center from east to west, with a fine, healthy climate, and a large quantity of cheap land, the average price of which is only five dollars per acre, it will be the fault of its citizens if Dickson county does not yet become one of the leading manufacturing counties in the State. The large immigration which has come to the county in the past few years is a step in the right direction, and we are glad to know that the people of Dickson fully appreciate the advantage it will be to the county.

Statistics and Schools. Dickson county has twelve civil or magisterial districts. The number of acres assessed in 1873 was 291,623, valued at $1,077,460; total value of taxable property, $1,232,543; number of polls, 1,502; number of voters, 2,225. According to the census returns it had, in 1870, 50,334 acres of improved land and 155,606 acres of unimproved, the whole valued at $1,381,330. The value of farming implements was $49,960; annual wages for the year 1869, $38,108; value of farm products, $533,057; orchard products, $940; value of manufactures, $17,421; value of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter, $112,957; value of live stock, $366,935. There were 1,622 horses; 937 mules and asses; 1,917 milch cows; 655 working

oxen; 6,043 other cattle; 6,925 sheep; 11,557 hogs. There were, in 1869, 319,085 bushels of Indian corn raised; about 36,000 bushels of wheat and 58,810 bushels of oats; 462,130 pounds of tobacco; 9 bales of cotton; 15,028 pounds of wool; 3,290 bushels of peas and beans; 12,584 bushels of Irish potatoes; 12,554 bushels of sweet potatoes; 98,798 pounds of butter; 5,586 gallons of sorghum, and 543 pounds of honey. The population of the county was, white, 7,663; colored, 1,677; in all, 9,340. There has been a decrease in the population of 642 during the decade between 1860 and 1870, 500 of whom were colored. The county has no debt. Public schools are kept up for several months in the year. Tracy Academy at Charlotte and Cloverdale Seminary on Barton's Creek, are flourishing schools. The county recommends itself by its cheap lands, facilities of trade, salubrity of climate, and the high-toned liberality, integrity and virtue of its citi

zens.

DEKALB COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT SMITHVILLE.

DeKalb county was organized by act of the General Assembly of Tennessee in the year 1837, the territory being taken from the counties of White, Warren, Cannon, Wilson and Jackson. The first court met at Barnard Richardson's, near Smithville, on the first Monday in March, 1838. Smithville was selected as the county seat. There are seventeen civil districts in the county.

Towns. Alexandria, in the north-western angle of the county, is the largest town. It has seven stores, one good school, one good hotel, two cabinet shops, four resident lawyers, three churches, one tannery, and one steam mill. Population about six hundred. Smithville, the county seat, has, besides the public buildings and offices, ten stores, county academy, one hotel, eight resident lawyers, four churches, one tannery. Population about four hundred. Liberty, midway between Alexandria and Smithville, has five stores, two good schools, one lawyer, two churches. Population nearly three hundred. Laurel Hill has two stores.

Topography. About two-thirds of the county lies on the Highland Rim, the remainder being in the Central Basin, and in the valleys. The Highlands occupy the eastern and northern parts of the county.

They are part of the extensive circular plain known as the Highland Rim. For the sake of convenience, we may consider this part of the county as a single, natural division, though it is cut diagonally across from south-east to north-west into two unequal parts by the long, narrow and winding valley of the Caney Fork, the larger division being on the southern side. The surface is gently undulating, the beds of the streams, except near the escarpments, being depressed but little below the general level. The western part of the county, as already observed, lies in the Central Basin. It embraces several valleys of considerable size and great agricultural value, separated from each other by irregular ranges of hills, and there are isolated peaks and short ridges, some of which mount up to a level with the Highlands. These ridges are often connected with spurs jutting out from the serrated escarpment of the Rim Lands, and enclose between them valleys of greater or less size, which are ramifications of the Basin.

Valleys. The Valley of the Caney Fork, as already observed, is long, winding and irregular in outline. It begins below the falls between White and Warren counties, near the south-east corner of DeKalb, and meanders first toward the north-west, and then westwardly till it opens out into the Basin, in the north-western part of the county. It is very narrow at the upper end, allowing room for only a few small farms wedged in between the bluffs and the river. But below Sligo Ferry, where the road from Smithville to Sparta crosses, it has an average width of half a mile. Its greatest width is about one mile. Its length, following the general direction, is about thirty miles. The Valley of Smith's Fork extends from south to north, through the western part of the county. It lies along the western base of the Highland Rim, and receives the valleys of the smaller streams flowing westward from off the Highlands. On the west side it has no distinctly marked natural boundary, but there are broken chains of short ridges and knobs, which form the water-shed between its waters and the tributaries of Stone's River, in Cannon county, and Round Lick Creek, in Wilson and Smith. Its length is about fifteen miles, but its breadth is very variable. At some places it spreads out for a space of two or three miles, while in others, it is cut in two by projecting spurs from either side, leaving barely room for the bed of the stream. Each of the tributaries of Smith's Fork has a valley of its own, lying either between the fringing spurs of the Highlands on one side, or ramifying back among the disjointed ridges and knobs on the other. These smaller valleys contain many beautiful tracts of level land.

Rocks, Soils and Timber. The cap rock of the Highlands is silicious and calcareous, often soft when quarried, but becoming hard when exposed. Layers of flinty chert are found in many places superimposed upon a bed of yellow clay which rests on the rocks. Where the earth has been removed, through the agency of water, the chert is scattered on the surface, and makes a gravelly soil. Large quantities of this chert are washed down by the streams and deposited in beds along their course. The underlying strata are very hard silicious limestones, which are exposed in the beds of many of the streams, and crop out along the escarpments of the Rim. They resist the action of the elements to such a degree as to make them valueless as a fertilizer. Of course the soils found in company with such rocks cannot be naturally fertile. The humus is thin, and the subsoil sometimes leachy, but there are some tracts where red clay appears, and all such give a grateful return for liberal treatment. There are considerable areas of boggy land, overgrown with whortleberry bushes, which, when drained, makes excellent meadows. But the best lands in these parts are found on the hill-sides and along the streams, and in such situations there are many valuable farms. One cause of the peculiar character of these Barren lands is, no doubt, the reprehensible practice of burning the woods every spring. The debris of fallen leaves, logs and dried grass is thus consumed instead of being allowed to decompose and mix with the soil. The timber of the Barrens is usually of small size, but includes many valuable varieties. Post oak, and small white oak, suitable for railroad ties, black oak and hickory are the most numerous trees. Underlying all the valleys, and extending about half way up the hills, is found the limestone common to all parts of the Central Basin. It is highly fossiliferous, easily decomposed, and yields, by disintegration, a soil of inexhaustible fertility. Even the hills, except the highest, which are capped with silicious rocks are rich to the very tops, and wherever they are not too rugged for the plow, can be cultivated year after year with scarcely any loss of fertility. In the larger valleys, especially that of Caney Fork, are many broad, alluvial bottoms, which are renewed every year by the deposits of fertilizing mud brought down by the overflow. Some of these have been producing annual crops of corn for half a century or more, without any decrease in the quantity. The timber of the valleys and hillsides is very dense and heavy. Gigantic poplars, beech, sugar maple, ash, linden, walnut, and many other varieties furnish a constant and seemingly inexhaustible supply for the many lumbering mills now at