very fine timber, which is almost valueless for want of transportation. There is a poplar on the farm of William Worthington, in Laurel Cove, which is more than ten feet in diameter.

WARREN COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT-MCMINNVILLE.

Warren county occupies a position nearly midway between the northern and southern boundaries of the State, and lies for the most part at the western base of the Cumberland Table Land. Small portions of the county have a high elevation on the Table Land, but the most of it is from 900 to 1,000 feet above the sea, making a part of the Highlands, which lie west of the Table Land, between the latter and the Central Basin. This height is still several hundred feet above Nashville and the counties of the Basin. Warren, situated thus, enjoys the salubrity and freshness of the mountain air, with the fertility of the valleys. Ben Lomond, a prominent point within a few miles of McMinnville, is the end of one of the spurs included within the county. Organization and Extent. The county of Warren was organized in the year 1807 from a portion of White. From the time of its organization until 1810 the courts were held half a mile south of Barren Fork, on the hill above the old tanyard, in a log court-house. About six or eight hundred yards from the old court-house was the celebrated Poplar Tavern, where Kentuckians and others intending to settle on Elk River, usually put up. Here they often stopped for several days, and had rare sport hunting and fishing. Among the first settlers of the county were General W. C. Smartt, Elisha Pepper, Aaron Higginbotham, Harry J. A. Hill, William Rock Martin, James Cope, James Forest, John England and Johnny Martin. All these came to the county in 1805, of whom Johnny Martin was living in 1872, and was 107 years old.

Geology and Geological Products. Most of the county is based on the Lithostrotion bed of the Lower Carboniferous. This is a series of impure limestones which often contain flinty masses, and occasionally a large petrified coral bearing the formidable name of Lithostrotion, whence the name of the bed. These limestones yield by disintegration a strong clayey subsoil, often containing flinty fragments, and

usually presenting a reddish color, due to the oxide of iron out of the decomposing flints. On the slopes of the Table Land, including its spurs and outliers, the upper great division of the Lower Carboniferous, the Mountain Limestone, out-crops in full force. At many points, especially on the northern slopes, it is covered with a rich soil. Capping the Table Land and its flat-topped spurs is the uppermost formation of the county, the Coal Measures-a group made up of sandstones and shales without limestone. It includes two or three thin strata of coal, but they are not of much value. In the Lithostrotion bed are a number of layers of impure limestones, which, when burned, yield an hydraulic lime or cement. A considerable amount of cement has been manufactured at McMinnville from these rocks. Quite a number of wells have been bored in Warren for petroleum, but with poor success. Some little petroleum has been met with, but none of commercial importance. Salt-water was found in many of the wells, but it has not been utilized so far as we know.

Topography. In speaking of the situation of the county, its topography has been referred to Excluding the mountain portion, the county may be said to be flat highland, but sufficiently cut by streams, with tolerably deep valleys, to give contrast and variety to the surface. The eastern portion is made rough by the spurs and outliers of the Table Land, and supplies many mountain valleys, coves, and often wild picturesque gorges, precipices and water-falls. The chief of these spurs is Ben Lomand, an arm of the Table Land, embracing the valley of Collins River. It branches out from the Table Land near the southern boundary, and extends northward for about twelve miles, terminating in a bold peak, which commands one of the finest of the many extended and beautiful views that may be seen from many points on the escarpment of the Table Land. The south-eastern part of the county lies on the Cumberland plateau, and has the elevation, soil and physical features which pertain to that region. For a more detailed account of the soil of this portion, the reader is referred to description of Cumberland county.

Streams. The streams of Warren county are various and useful, and many of them abound in fish. Taking its rise from a large spring in Grundy county, Collins River, which may be called the main artery of the county, runs in a northerly direction, in a deeply cut valley of the Table Land, near McMinnville, the county seat, receiving just below the town the waters of Barren Fork, and finally discharges itself into Caney Fork. There are numerous mills on this stream, some of

them with excellent machinery for the manufacture of flour, and the banks are well suited for the erection of dams and mill houses. Below its junction with Barren Fork there are no mills, the volume of water being too great. Collins River is not a reliable stream. Barren Fork, in connection with Collins River, into which it empties, almost encircles McMinnville. It is a beautiful stream, and can be made a very useful one. Its average fall for the first fifteen miles, is ten feet per mile. It has good banks and a rock bottom. Rocky River rises on the Table Land, in the western part of Sequatchie county, and descends through a deep gulf, emerging from which it flows northward between Warren and Van Buren counties, into Caney Fork at Rock Island. It is a bold rapid stream, hemmed in by high rocky banks, and affords many valuable water-powers. Hickory Creek, a branch of Barren Fork, runs from the south-eastern part of the county, and drives many fine mills. Charles Creek rises near Woodbury, in Cannon county, runs east and empties into Collins River. This stream has many valuable water privileges. The supply of water is constant, and for the first five miles the stream has a fall of 100 feet. Four miles north of this is Mountain Creek, which heads in Short Mountain, runs east and empties into Collins River. It very much resembles Charles Creek and is a valuable stream. The Great Falls of Caney Fork occur on the line between White and Warren counties. There is not such a volume of water as the Merrimac, at Lowell, Massachusetts, has, but there is a greater fall, being seventy-five feet within the distance of a mile, while the Merrimac has but thirty-two. There is no county in Middle Tennessee that has more valuable water privileges than Warren, and it is destined to play an important part in the future manufacturing interests of the State.

Lands, Soils and Crops. The lands for the most part being situated on the Lithostrotion bed, have the characteristic chocolate color, and are naturally very fertile, but slovenly cultivation has allowed many gullies and washes to form, which have carried away whole acres of soil. In some respects these lands are to be preferred to the rich black lands of the Central Basin. They have the capacity of resisting a drought much longer. There is usually a foot or two beneath the surface of those red lands a bed of chert and argillaceous rocks, generally about a foot in thickness, which supplies an admirable natural drainage, yet retains a sufficient amount of humidity to enable vegetation to successfully resist the most severe droughts. The elevations and undulations of this character of land protect the wheat crop from the

damages of rust, while the underlying flinty mass supplies to the wheat a sufficient quantity of siliceous matter to insure a vigorous growth of the stalk.

There is another advantage connected with these lands that has not been sufficiently spoken of or appreciated. They are practically inexhaustible. Though denuded of the primitive soil, the imperviousness of the clay enables them to retain all the fertilizing elements placed upon them, and when galled or lean spots occur they can be reclaimed by plowing deep and subsoiling, sowing with clover and applying gypsum or land plaster at the rate of one barrel to the acre on the clover after it has come up. This continued for a year or two will reclaim the most sterile spots. These spots may also be restored by setting out blackberry bushes, which not only act as a subsoiler, but quickly and cheaply enrich the land.

Three-fourths of Warren county are red lands. The remainder of the lands is mountainous, but some of the best soils in the county are to be found in the coves. These are usually very productive, and yield from six to ten barrels of corn per acre, while for fruit they are considered unequalled, especially for the apple. Wild grasses grow with great luxuriance on the mountain sides and make the finest flavored beef. No other meat has the same juiciness aud richness of flavor, and strangers visiting the mountains for the first time always notice the excellence of mountain-fed beef. The north sides of the mountain spurs are usually of great fertility. Climbing up Ben Lomond on the north side, we observed, among other trees, the ash, yellow poplar, linn, buckeye, sugar tree, hickory, every species of oak, black walnut, wild cherry, dogwood and black locust. Most of these trees are unerring indications of the best quality of land. The timber on the south face of the mountains differs only in the prevalence of cedar and the comparative scarcity of black walnut. Corn, wheat, rye and barley all grow well on the mountain sides and summits, but the summits are especially adapted to Irish potatoes, turnips, and all rooted vegetables. Most of the lands on the Table-Land may be bought unimproved for one dollar per acre, but there are notable exceptions. Occasionally at the foot of the mountains is found a strip of land that is very sterile. It is generally known by a fine water-worn gravel intermixed with sand. On such places greenbriers, persimmon and sourwood prevail. Unusually, however, the first bench is the most fertile, as it receives the washings from the limestone rock that forms the lower escarpment of

the mountains. One of the poor gravelly spots occurs between the foot of Ben Lomond and McMinnville. The top of the mountains has generally a sandstone soil, the character of which is given in the account of Cumberland county. The finest freestone springs are found near the crests of the mountains from which the purest of water bubbles out from golden sands. These springs are not much affected by dry weather or wet, but keep their even flow throughout the year. Mineral springs of different kinds are found in the county, sometimes on a mountain side, sometimes on the banks of a river at low water level, and оссаsionally near the highest mountain summits. The richest lands, and those most highly improved, are to be found on Hickory Creek, a tributary of Barren Fork. Very fertile and desirable farms lie between Barren Fork and Charles Creek. By many they are accounted the best in the county. The best lands, improved, are worth from thirty to fifty dollars per acre. Between Mountain Creek and Charles Creek, both of which streams empty into Collins River, the soil is thin, and the lands unproductive. We may say, generally, that all the lands north of Charles Creek, with the exception of bottoms, to the county line, are poor. On the east side of Collins River, however, though the lands are more mountainous and broken, the soil is of better quality than in the northern portion of the west side of Collins River. Some very excellent lands in the county are exceedingly stony, containing flinty fragments, which are often highly fossiliferous. Lands of this character never fail to bring good crops, whether the season be dry or wet; and they may be enriched by every act of cultivation. The people have but little reason to complain, however, of the natural fertility of the lands in any portion of the county. They are of the same character as some of the best lands in the State, and with proper attention would become as valuable as the lands in any portion of Middle Tennessee. Let the farmers, for the good name of their county, as well as for their own emolument, plow deeper, sow more clover, cultivate the grasses, and take those steps for the preservation of their lands which experience shows to be necessary. We are glad to know that there are some public spirited farmers, who are, by a proper attention to the soil, raising the yield of wheat from four bushels per acre to twenty. We have seen wheat of extraordinary promise growing on land that had almost been abandoned because of its sterility. Deep plowing, manuring, clover, and a high system of tillage, would double the products of Warren. More grass has been sown during the past five years than in the fifty years previous.