# Snow, but no cotton in Nashville **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 20, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646 "2002-11-20T00:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beyondanarchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@beyondanarchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beyondanarchy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/1 "2002-11-20T00:03:06Z")
Dear Mr. Dope, I guess all of Tennessee is one big blur from up there, but you won’t find much cotton growin in Nashville. They grow it over in West Tennessee (Memphis), a fur piece from Nashville. You forgot to mention that all that snow sure gets cold when we’re runnin around barefoot. Thank goodness I have my cousin to keep me warm. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/2 "2002-11-20T01:12:42Z")
Who the heck do you think you are kidding, **beyondanarchy**? I live in Murfreesboro Tennessee, 35 miles SE of Nashville. We have agribusiness outfits here that have been producing cotton for more than **135 years**! Some of the fields that the Battle Of Stones River were fought in were cotton fields. President Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, was on a plantation that raised cotton, & it is within the Metro Nashville/Davidson County area. In fact, The Hermitage is _North_ of Nashville. This Board is about the _truth_, & thruthfully, there _is_ cotton grown in this area. However… It is _also_ true that the report was impolite, even insulting, but we’re a thick-skinned bunch on this Board, so if you’re going to hang around, you need to learn to roll with the punches. I’m sure that **bibliophage** will be here soon to …_enhance_ …his position. ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/3 "2002-11-20T02:10:56Z")
**bibliophage** , in his Staff Report [“Does it ever get too cold to snow”](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msnow2cold.html) writes: > [@](#): > > Nashville has plenty of that, thanks to its relative proximity to the warm Gulf of Mexico (500 miles to the south) and the prevailing westerly winds that bring moist air all the way from the warm Pacific. Assuming for the sake of argument that I haven’t just missed some sarcasm (never a good bet when one is dealing with the Straight Dope staff and the Teeming Thousands), I would point out that there is damned little Pacific moisture in the prevailing westerlies. It (essentially) all rains out on the Rockies; the land immediately to their west is in their rain shadow. ---
**Author:** ![beyondanarchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@beyondanarchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beyondanarchy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/4 "2002-11-20T03:21:19Z")
\>Who the heck do you think you are kidding, beyondanarchy? \>I live in Murfreesboro Tennessee, 35 miles SE of Nashville. \>We have agribusiness outfits here that have been producing cotton for more \>\>\>than 135 years! Well, first of all, Mr. Highhorse, I said there wasn’t any cotton grown in Nashville. As for Murfreesboro, check [http://www.cotton.org/econ/world/detail.cfm?county=47149&year=2001](http://www.cotton.org/econ/world/detail.cfm?county=47149&year=2001) and you’ll find that Rutherford County produced a whopping 4400 bales out of 978,000 grown elsewhere (but not in Nashville) in the state – a whopping (uh, carry the three, gozinta gozinta gozinta) well, tiny percentage. I don’t see how those agribusinesses stay in business. The Cotton Council doesn’t provide figures for Davidson County bcs there are too few farms to report. And how bout this one: [http://www.utextension.utk.edu/agecon/census/counties/tnc019.html](http://www.utextension.utk.edu/agecon/census/counties/tnc019.html) Perhaps acres of cotton have been planted in Davidson County since 1997, but here’s how much was produced in 1997. Cotton (farms) 0 0 0 0 Cotton (acres) 0 0 0 0 Cotton (bales) 0 0 0 0 \>Some of the fields that the Battle Of Stones River were fought in were cotton \>fields. President Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, was on a plantation \>that raised cotton, & it is within the Metro Nashville/Davidson County area. In .fact, The Hermitage is North of Nashville. By the wooden laig of my sainted grandpappy, we warn’t talkin about the good ole days. \>This Board is about the truth Well, I’m new here, so you guys tell me: This sounds like windbaggery to me. And I’m not kidding around. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/5 "2002-11-20T03:22:18Z")
> [@](#): > > However… > > It is also true that the report was impolite, even insulting, but we’re a thick-skinned bunch on this Board, so if you’re going to hang around, you need to learn to roll with the punches. OK, I must have missed the insulting parts. What he said about Tennessee was A, that it’s warmer than the South Pole; B, it’s wetter than the Pole; and C, it gets more snow than the Pole. Which of those three statements is the insulting one? The barefoot and cousin comments were added by **beyondanarchy** , not **bibliophage**. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-but-no-cotton-in-nashville/137646/6 "2002-11-20T05:03:08Z")
The insulting part was about the Grand Ole Opry. I stand by my conviction that it would be a boon to civilization if that institution were covered by a glacier, but I am willing to recognize that not every shares my opinion. I don’t know–and don’t particularly care–if cotton is currently grown within the city limits of Nashville. What I meant was that Nashville is in Tennessee, and Tennessee is “where the cotton blooms and blows.” The reference is to the line from Robert Service’s “Cremation of Sam McGee.” > [@](#): > > Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. > Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows. **Akatsukami** , much but not all of the moisture in Pacific systems is precipitated in the mountains. If you watch the Weather Channel regularly, you may over the course of several days be able to follow a storm all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Many such storms travel from the Pacific Northwest to New England. It’s not unusual for such storms to dip south because of winter high pressure in the center of the continent, but I don’t believe they very often dip as far south as Nashville. I have an old meteorology book that names common cyclone tracks, but I don’t know if the names are standardized. The North Pacific track (Pac NW to NE) on this map dips only as far south as Chicago. The South Pacific track goes from southern California to the Mid Atlantic states, passing over Tennessee, but this is much less often associated with snow than rain.