STATE HORTICULTUK.VL SOCIETY. 123 



oozy detritus, and frothy marls and sand, this l>lnff /ormation was deposited and 

 accumulated. It is (composed of light cream colored clays, greenish marls, muddy 

 sands, and various combinations and mixtures of these; and, as already iutinnited, it 

 affords the best soil conditions in the State, or in the world, lor the growth of the 

 vine and all kinds of fruit trees. Even in our chilling and unfavorable climate, truit 

 and grapes of fine appearance and good quality are beginning to l>e produced in con- 

 siderable abundance. At Galena. Morrison, Mtiuut Carroll, and Sterling. I have seen 

 small vineyards purple with their great crops of generous fruit, and or(]iard> laden 

 with the tinest of our hardier apples; -while the strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, 

 cherry, and other kindred truits are raised in the greatest abundance, and of good 



quality . 



Next to the Loess iu succession are the regular soils and clayey deposits which cover 

 the uplands or general prairie level of the country. And inusnuich as these are origin- 

 ally derived from the decomposition of the rocks, it will be well to call attention to the 

 character of the bed rocks in this part of the State . If the dirt mantle covering these 

 rocks, In that part of the State now under consideration, was all stripped off, the rocks 

 then exposed would be found to belong to the Galena Limestone, Cincinnati Shales, 

 and Niagara Limestone, coming to the surface in irregularly shaped patches. Mow, 

 the soil or earth mantle covering these rocks, notwithstanding the tremendtms mixing 

 to which they were subjected by the drift forces, to be spoken of hereafter, partake 

 somewhat of the nature of the deposits lying immediately l)cneath it, and were in 

 part derived from their decompo<;ition. The evidences of this arc strikingly manifest. 

 The Galena Limestone and Niagara Limestone, although separated by an intei-vcning 

 formation, are strikingly alike in lithological character. Both are a coarsegrained, 

 cream colored and reddish magnesian limestone. When they decompose a rather 

 coarse grained soil is the resultant. In many places, if we dig from the stu-face to 

 these rocks, we find a coarse, reddish, hard pan, or crumbly clay, resembling closely 

 these rocks. As we sink into this clay we find i)ieees of " float " mineral and l)its of 

 the rock itself, the latter lying evidently in, situ, unworn by water, anil appearing like 

 pieces of the original rocky mass, which was harder and had resisted the surrounding 

 decay and rotting away of the rocky ledges. On the other hand, portions of the 

 country underlaid by the Cincinnati Shales are covered by a close grained, finely 

 commmutcd, greenish, creamy colored subsoil, closely resembhng in texture and 

 lithological character the Shales from which it has evidently been derived. But these 

 resemblances of the earthl}- mantle to the rocks lying under them are only found iu 

 certain localities in an<l around the "lead basin;" and only to that extent is the •'lead 

 basin' ' a •* driflless region." 



But the '■ Lead Basin ' ' is not a '• driftless region." In many places around it and 

 through it evidences of true northern drift are found. Boulders are not rare in these 

 places; float or drift copper is frequently found ; drift clay exists, regularly stratified, 

 and old river terraces may be traced, and modified drift and gravel is not rare. The 

 lead region seems to have been only partially invaded by the drilt forces, and these 

 forces seem to have acted in a modified form. The heavy denuding (brces spoken of 

 already acted before the drift period. Then came on the drift conditions and the 

 glaciation of the continent, during which the transportation of clays and soils and a 

 universal mingling and mixing of the surface materials of the earth took place, modi- 

 fied in the lead region in the manner just noticed. 



