PRAIRIES IN NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS 61 



about two feet of brown silty loam resting on stiff mottled clay. 

 The soil looks fertile enough, but there must be something about 

 it unfavorable to vegetation, for I was told that the farm- 

 ers were not able to make any use of it until rice culture was 

 introduced in this section a few years ago. Rice fields now 

 threaten the obhteration of these prairies, as of the Grand 

 Prairie. 



There are probably other prairies in the neighborhood, and 

 an early investigation of them is greatly to be desired, for the 

 opportunities are growing less every year, on account of the 

 ''pernicious activities" of the farmers. The colored map in 

 Bulletin 494 of the United State Geological Survey, and some 

 of the recent government soil surveys of counties in northeastern 

 Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, will assist materially in 

 locating them. 



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