rural in character. But in rural Middle Tennessee the 21st District, as already noted, has a voting population of 35,773. The 20th District has 38,108 qualified voters; the 19th District 38,180; the 23rd District 38,448; and the 22nd District has 39,812. In rural West Tennessee the districts increase to some extent in voting population, varying from 40,306 in the 28th District to 51,119 in the 25th District, but still with substantially less than the average for the rural districts in the eastern part of the state. It is apparent that as far as population is concerned the senatorial districts in the middle part of the state are heavily favored as compared with comparable districts in the eastern part of the state, and substantially favored over similar districts inthe western part of Tennessee.
On an area basis there are similar disparities. In terms of square miles, excepting for the moment the so-called urban counties, the districts vary from the 15th District with 3,577 square miles to the 19th District with 1,025 square miles. There is no consistent pattern of size between these two extremes. Thus the 19th Senatorial District has the same representation in the Senate as the 15th even though it has less than one-third the square miles of that district and only slightly more than one-half the population. Similar discrepancies can be found throughout the entire apportionment both as to area and as to population.
Neither is there any consistency to be found in the number of counties grouped together for the purpose of constituting a