STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 153 



Mr. Bryant — I believe that this abounds in the northern part of 

 the State. 



Mr. Freeman — So far as my observation goes it is not No. 2, but 

 No. 5. They are subsequent to the drift era, and deposited by still 

 water. Eeferring to this " loess " here, I suppose the origin of that 

 (No. 3) id up towards the Colorado region. From what I have been 

 told by persons who have lived in the Platte Valley ; from the evi- 

 dent great denudation there, and the fact that the composition of the 

 country there is much more recent than ours^ and would present a 

 different soil when mingled and washed down, this soil is to-day 

 traceable up the Missouri river and its tributaries. It would seem 

 that these white clays, when they were deposited^ must have been 

 under different influences — either the current was shut off, or that 

 this was a side bay, and the water could be more still, and the coarser 

 matter was not set in so far; for these white clays are very fine, close 

 material, and entirely different from the several beds that lie between. 

 I do not think the Missouri river has ever crossed the State, but this 

 depression does run across the State. We know the elevation be- 

 tween the Big Muddy and the Saline, so that the flow of water, when 

 it was considerable, would be to the Ohio river. My object was 

 simply to direct your attention to the constant care necessary in the 

 apportionment of fruit in different districts, instead of ^making an 

 arbitrary list. You know, as yet, almost nothing of what they are 

 capable, for the reason that there is so much diversity of soil and 

 climate, and that will bo found almost in the range of one county. 



Mr. Murtfeldt — I have a question of privilege to propound, which 

 I think the gentleman can answer. I have understood that the Mis- 

 sissippi is constantly making inroads upon the shore. 



Mr. Freeman — It is the character of the Mississippi to form elbows 

 and to eat in. 



Mr. Bliss — I think if the geologists and the analytical chemists 

 would come together and decide this question of soils it would be the 

 shortest way of arriving at it ; or perhaps it would be well to make 

 this a feature in our education. 



