498 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



built on older formations, but the loess or bluff format ion gives character 

 to the soil of all this uneven and timbered region. This hill country is 

 from one to five miles wide, and the bottom lands are about the same in 

 extent. The main line is 137 miles long, and on it are twenty-seven 

 stations. The Nodaway branch of this road connects at Bigelow and 

 runs northeast into Iowa. On it are four stations. 



The Tarkio branch connects at Corning, having on it four stations. 

 It leads north into Iowa. 



The Hopkins branch connects at Ama/.onia, also running north in- 

 to Iowa. It has seven stations. 



This bluff formation, all along the mainline, is "the best of all soils." 

 It consists of marl beds, varying from 50 to 150 feet in depth, and is of 

 equal fertility throughout. The formation is perforated with peculiar 

 tubes from the surface to the foundation, connecting often with each 

 other, and in the language of Prof. Swallow, " constitute the most thor- 

 ough system of drainage imaginable." To illustrate the completeness 

 of this drainage the fact may be mentioned that here ice is kept during 

 summer in pits ten to twenty feet deep, not even lined with boards, but 

 simply covered "over, and yet is never troubled with water, its meltings 

 being completely removed through the tubes and the porous, peculiar 



soil. 



This formation is exceedingly fine, light and mellow, and is full of 



all the elements required to sustain vegetable life. It is very friable, and 



there is probably no soil in existence that under the plow becomes 



more loose and mellow , yet from its superior under-drainage it handles 



well very soon after even a heavy rain. 



Professor Swallow describes this soil, as a " fine pulverulent, ab- 

 solutely stratified mass of light grayish buff, silicious, and slightly in- 

 durated marl, its color usually variegated with deeper brown stains of 

 oxide of iron " These stains of discolorations are caused by an im- 

 pregnation of the marl with oxide of iron, aluminum and carbonate of 

 lime, while the walls of these tubes are composed of calcareous clay iron- 

 stone. Prof. Swallow says that in this formation rest the very best 

 farms of the Missouri Valley, sustained by a soil of absolutely inexhaus- 

 tible fertilizing resources. 



The great metropolis of Kansas City, with her vast railroad con- 

 nections, and now a population of 200,000; St. Joseph, a railroad center 

 with 100,000 inhabitants, Leavenworth, Atchison, Nebraska City, Oma- 

 ha and Council Bluffs, with a number of other cities and towns, will fur- 

 nish us a splendid home market for vast quantities of fruit, while our 

 facilities for shipping by rail to all parts of the country are unexcelled. 



