209 



been considered worthless, present indications are tliat all will be reclaimed 

 and made to yield good returns. The nearness to Chicago makes the region 

 of special value for tiiick farming and the growing of small fruit. 



3. Situd Plains of the WahasJi Vallcn. — All along the course of the 

 Wabash from its source to its mouth are found deposits of gravel and sand 

 which are of great importance. From Parke County to the mouth of the 

 river are extensive level stretches of sand occupying the area between 

 the lower bottoms of the river and main tributaries and the higher uplands 

 to the east. These sand tracts have the widest development and the most 

 even topography through Vigo, Sullivan and Knox Counties; in the greater 

 part of the widest expanse being from two to five miles in width and with 

 a very even surface. This part of the area consists of a sandy loam with 

 a high percentage of organic matter, giving the soil a very dark color and 

 rendering it of high agricultural value. It is devoted chiefly to the grow- 

 ing of corn. In the region about Carlisle in Sullivan County the sand is 

 built up into hills ar.d ridges rising in some places to considerable height. 

 This region is devoted chiefly to the growing of cowpeas. They make .1 

 very rank growth of a good rpiality. A very similar type of topography is 

 found in the region about Emison in Knox County and in the ]iart of the 

 county to the south of Merom and extending southward past Decker into 

 the region about Owensville in Gibson County. Melons are grown on all 

 these sandy soils, but the great melon producing part of the State is in 

 the vicinity of Decker and Owensville. The growing of melons has in- 

 creased the price of the sand land in the past ten years from about $20 

 an acre to .$100 or more. 



From the neighborhood of Decker southward the sand is of a coarser 

 quality than that farther to the north. In the coarser sands the soils are 

 so porous and so well drained that they are poorly adapted to the general 

 farm crops. Much of the sand strip from Hazelton to New Harmony has 

 in many places a typical dune topography, but in general it has been some- 

 what nKHllfied by the reworking of the surface and by the effects of the 

 natural growth of vegetation. Low swales are also present whicli are 

 ditficult or impossible to drain. These dune deposits are due either to 

 recent agencies or represent a transitional stage between the deposits from 

 the flood waters of the Wisconsin stage and the recent stages. The ma- 

 terial of the dunes is a coarse quartz sand which in some places shows 



[14—29034] 



