In agricultural products Tennessee has always ranked high. Its average annual pro duction of Indian corn is about 50,000,000 bushels; of wheat, 8,000,000 bushels; oats, 5,000,000 bushels; tobacco, from 13,000 to 22,000 hogsheads; cotton, 400,000 bales; hay, 110,000 tons; sweet-potatoes, 1,200,000 bushels; Irish potatoes, 1,122,000 bushels; pea nuts, 500,000 bushels. There are raised in particular localities hemp, broom-corn, flax, sorghum, and rice; and all the garden vegetables in nearly all parts of the state are raised in abundance. Though the number of acres devoted to barley is very small, it is nevertheless reported to be a profitable product. Rye and buckwheat, however, are not. The dairy products in 1870 were 9,571,069 lbs. of butter; 142,240 lbs. of cheese; and 415,786 galls. of milk. The live stock at that time was valued at $55,084,075, and consisted of 273,200 horses, 102,983 mules and asses, 682,318 neat cattle (of which 243, 197 were mulch cows), 826,783 sheep, and 1,828,690 swine. The manufacturing indus tries of the state in 1870 were increasing rapidly. The number of establishments at that time was 5,317, employing 732 steam engines and 1340 water-wheels, 19,412 hands, and capital amounting to $15,595,295. The amount of wages paid $5,390,630; value of raw material used, $19,657,027; value ofproducts, $34,362,636. Among these manu factories were 216 flouring-mills, producing $5,666,698 worth of flour and meal; 349 saw and planing-mills and sash factories, producing together, $3,768,976 worth of manufac tured lumber; 65 furnaces, blomaries, and foundries, producing $2,072,040 worth of iron; 395 establishments for tanning and currying. leather; 28 cotton mills; 220 wheel wright shops; 2 copper milling and smelting works, producing copper valued at $510,677; 138 wool-carding and dressing mills; 4 cotton-seed oil mills; 44 liquor distilleries; 89 cabinet shops; 21 machine shops; and 4 car-shops. The state has no direct foreign com merce, though Memphis and Nashville are both river-ports of entry. Its large exports of cotton are made through New Orleans, Norfolk, Charleston, and New York. The ship ments of cotton (two-thirds of it from Memphis) in 1873 were 613,750 hales, and in 1872, 548,913 bales, the value of which was from 35 to 45 million dollars. The tobacco ship ped annually is usually worth two millions more: and altogether the wholesale trade of the state is estimated at $300,000,000. The, amount of transportation, therefore, over the railroads is large. The most important of these roads are the Mobile and Ohio. the Mississippi Central and New Orleans, the Memphis and Charleston, the Memphis and Ohio, the Mississippi and Tennessee, the Memphis and Paducah, the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, the Nashville and Chattanooga, the East Tennessee and Georgia, the Nashville and North-western, the Jackson and Birmingham, the St. Louis and South eastern, the Jackson and Evansville, the Selma, Montgomery, and Memphis, the Memphis and Vicksburg, the Louisville, Nashville, and Great Southern, and the Cairo and Ten nessee river. Of the banks in the state in 1875, 26 were national, with $3,360,000 paid capital, $3,116,500 bonds on deposit and $3,061,232 circulation outstanding; 11 were state banks with a capital of $1,442,000; and 8 were savings banks, of which 4 reported a capital of $263,000. The insurance companies numbered 12 fire and marine and 3 life insurance companies.
Compared with the other states and territories, Tennessee ranks in area twenty-fifth, ninth in population, seventh in lands and farms, ninth in farm products, and fifth in home manufactures. The financial affairs of the state have embarrassed its govern ment for several years. In 1870 the public debt was $43,052,652, which has been con tracted chiefly by railroad enterprises. On Jan. 1, 1880, this amount had been reduced to about $31,560,000, which was bearing 4 per cent interest. The ad valorem tax at that date was $104,194,574; the revenue received from privileges granted and minor sources, $295,000; and the current expenses, not including the interest on the debt, $675,750. The constitution provides that all property shall be taxed according to its
value, so that the taxes shall be equal and uniform throughout the state, and that no species of property shall be taxed higher than any other of the same value. But the legislature is empowered to except from taxation property held by the state, counties, cities, or towns that is used exclusively for public or corporation purposes, and such as may be held and used for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes. Accordingly, for many years full advantage has been taken of these provisions, and up to 1875 no railroad nor any other corporations, except insurance companies and a few banks, had ever paid any state tax.
The educational interests of the state until 1873 were much neglected. Though there were many higher institutions, the common schools were allowed to go without 'system or state aid. At that date the legislature passed a general law establishing ,ichools and made provisions for their maintenance. The total annual income in 1876 from the permanent fund and state taxation was about $600,000. Besides this, the schools in various parts of the state received aid from the Peabody education und to the amount of $34,800. The school population in 1875 was 319,671 white chil dren and 106,230 colored; the number of pupils enrolled was 198,085; the average attendance (16 counties not reporting), 136,118. Among the universities and colleges in Tennessee the most prominent are Vanderbilt university (M. E. south), Nashville; Fisk university (colored), Nashville; East Tennessee university, Knoxville; East Tennessee Wesleyan university (M. E.), Athens; Cumberland university (Presbyterian), Lebanon; and the university of the South (Protestant Episcopal), at Sewanee. Altogether, these schools, with a few others not mentioned, have usually about 2,800 students. The number of libraries in the state iu 1870 was 3,505, with 802,112 volumes, of which 2,732, with 597,399 volumes, were private. The total number of newspapers and peri odicals published is about 141, including 9 daily, 110 weekly, 17 monthly, and 1 quar terly. The religious organizations in 1870 were: Baptist, 987; Christian, 203; Congre gational, 3; Protestant Episcopal, 33; Friends, 5, Jewish, 4; Lutheran, 22; Methodist, 1339; Presbyterian, 556; Roman Catholic, 21; and United Brethren in Christ, 7.
The state constitution provides that every male citizen 21 years old, who has resided in one county a year preceding an election, shall be entitled to vote. The executive power is vested in a governor, who is chosen every two years; a secretary of state, appointed by a joint vote of a general assembly every four years; a treasurer and comptroller of the treasury, appointed in the same manner every two years; an attorney general, appointed by the supreme court judges every eight years; and a state superin tendent of schools, nominated by the governor and confirmed by the senate every two years. The house of representatives has '75 members and the senate 25, who are elected for two years. The judicial power is vested in a supreme court of 5 judges, elected for 8 years, and in the usual minor courts. By the apportionment of 1870 the state is entitled to 10 representatives in congress. The state's electoral votes have been cast as follows: 1796, Jefferson and Burr, 3; 1800, Jefferson and Burr, 3; 1804, Jefferson and Clinton, 5; 1808, Madison and Clinton, 5; 1812, Madison and Gerry, 8; 1816, Monroe and Tompkins, 8; 1820, Monroe and Tompkins, 7; 1824, Jackson and Calhoun, 11; 1828, Jackson and Calhoun, 11; 1832, Jackson and Van Buren, 15; 1836, White and Tyler, 15; 1840, Harrison and Tyler, 15; 1844, Clay and Frelinghuysen, 13; 1848, Tay lor and Fillmore, 13; 1852, Scott and Graham, 12; 1856, Buchanan and Breckenridge, 12; 1860, Bell and Everett, 12; 1868, Grant and Colfax, 10; 1872, Greeley and Brown, 12; 1876, Tilden and Hendricks, 12; 1880, Hancock and English, 12.