Nashville, Arkansas

== Economy ==

===Peach farming===
[[Image:Nashville peach pickers.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|Peach pickers in Nashville in 1915]]
[[Peach]] farming sustained Nashville during the Depression. The peach industry came to the Nashville area in the late nineteenth century. Peak years of production lasted from the 1920s until the 1950s. Nashville's peak peach production was 1950, with over 400,000 bushels collected from 425 orchards. "Up to 175 boxcars, each carrying 396 bushel baskets, were shipped from Nashville each day during peak production years."<ref name="encyclopediaofarkansas.net">{{cite web| url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2099| title=Peach Industry – Encyclopedia of Arkansas| access-date=26 December 2015}}</ref> Late freezes and early thaws in 1952 and 1953 led to the devastation of the peach harvests. Two-thirds of the crops were destroyed, and production sank to 150,000 bushels. "The Arkansas growers lost the market, and the impact was devastating. For Howard County growers, the only option was to pull up the trees and convert the land for other purposes, often pasture for cattle, or to raise chickens," which remain the dominant agricultural products in the Nashville area to this day.<ref name="encyclopediaofarkansas.net"/>

The peach industry in the area continued to decline as industrial farming in the [[Sun Belt]] and shifting production patterns made southwest Arkansas less attractive to larger produce companies. However, many small peach orchards still remain and are farmed by local families.