The soil of Dickson County is very diverse. Any crop produced in the temperate zone can be grown with profit in this county. Corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, sorghum, peanuts, melons, and all kinds of small fruits thrive to perfection. The northern side of the county is within the Clarksville dark tobacco district, while other sections produce a long leaf tobacco, rivaling in its quality and fibre the famous Sumatra wrapper. The conditions of soil and climate seem especially favorable to this industry, and it is quite certain that tobacco growing will be one of the future staples of Dickson County. The conditions are ideal for the cultivation of Irish and sweet potatoes, tomatoes and that class of fruits and vegetables. [Illustration: DICKSON HOME OF JOHN T. CRAIN, Southern Representative G. P. Dodge Lumber Co., Chicago] Lands in Dickson County range in price from $2 to $200 an acre. This is a wide range, but it is so. In Bell’s Bend, where the Harpeth river sweeps in a broad semi-circle and doubles back on itself, hugging on either side a long, narrow bluff, the land is priceless. Here it was that Montgomery Bell swayed the rod of empire in the palmy days of yore. He has long since been gathered to his fathers, but his name and fame are traditional in this state, and Montgomery Bell Academy at Nashville is a monument to his generosity and philanthropy. Montgomery Bell was a thrifty Vermonter who settled in Tennessee about the beginning of the eighteenth century. He acquired vast tracts of land in Dickson County, and laid the foundations of his prosperity in the manufacture of pig iron. He was either directly or indirectly interested in not less than six of these furnaces in Dickson County. They were all operated by water power, steam being an unknown quantity at that time. It is written down in the book of chronicles that Dickson County and Montgomery Bell helped Old Hickory win the battle of New Orleans. For it was the old Cumberland Furnace, on Barton’s Creek, now known as the Warner Furnace, and owned by the Tennessee Iron & Coal Company, that moulded the cannon balls for that memorable battle, and helped repel the proud British invader. Any school boy in Dickson County can tell you this, and it is a bit of history of which the citizens are justly proud. [Illustration: RESIDENCE OF W. C. SMITH, AT DICKSON]