Land clearing in Lafayette, TN

Ground that drains two ways

Lafayette sits at 958 feet on the northern Highland Rim, and the rain that falls on it leaves in two directions. Town Creek and the ground northeast of it drain toward the Barren River and Kentucky; the southwest side of town runs to the Cumberland. Soil on a divide like that is cherty over limestone, and it grows briars easier than grass. The high ground pays back in footing. It sheds water instead of holding it, so a tracked machine gets on it earlier in the year than on bottom ground.

Tobacco patches, hay and steep edges

Macon County has raised burley tobacco for generations, and hay covers more acres than any other crop. That means small fields on rugged, hilly ground with woods pressing in on all four sides. Along 52 either side of town, Siloam west and Webbtown east, patches are cut into slopes a bush hog can’t hold. Leave one two or three seasons and sassafras, sumac, blackberry and locust take the edges back.

Sawlogs worth leaving standing

Good hardwood has real value on these hills, so not every acre up here wants clearing. Often the timber is the asset, and the mess is underneath it. Privet, briars and volunteer stems crowd the trunks and shade out everything else. A mulcher suits that work. It takes the understory and leaves the sawlogs standing on their roots, and the slope keeps the cover that holds it together.

Up 231, then Highway 10

Thirty-four miles of road, and the ground changes the whole way. North out of Lebanon on 231, over the Cumberland at Hunter’s Point, then east on 25 through farmland into Hartsville. Highway 10 splits off north of town, runs up a long narrow valley, and sets you into Lafayette from the south. Macon County is one of the fourteen Shaun covers, and it’s the kind of ground worth walking before anybody puts a number on it.