26 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OP THE 



previous to the Civil War, this region was the most prosper- 

 ous in Mississippi, and the plantations were often of large 

 size. 



Where the loam soil is underlaid with loose sand, as 

 between the headwaters of Wolf and Hatchie Rivers, the 

 washing has been especially rapid and disastrous. The 

 exposed sand is carried down and deposited during flood 

 periods on the fertile bottom-lands, many thousand acres 

 of which have been rendered worthless by this sterile cover- 

 ing. On large areas, from which the mantle of brown loam 

 has been washed away and the orange sand gullied, the 

 appearance is that of miniature barren mountains with 

 sharply serrated ridges and steep narrow ravines and val- 

 leys. 



In the northern part of the region the original forest on 

 the better upland soils consisted of red, black, post, Spanish, 

 and blackjack oaks, and hickory of rapid growth and large 

 size. This fertile land was cleared early for farm use. The 

 poorer upland soils, in which the orange sand either ap- 

 peared on the surface or was mixed to a considerable 

 degree with the surface loam, produced the same species, 

 but their stunted appearance plainly denoted soil of inferior 

 fertility. These soils, therefore, have never been cultivated 

 extensively. 



There is very little shortleaf pine north of the Talla- 

 hatchie River in the tableland region, but southward from 

 this river in Lafayette County, as the hills become rough 

 and more broken, and the ridge soils very sandy, pine occurs 

 with increasing abundance. 



The hills extending north and south through Lafayette, 

 Yalobusha, Calhoun, and Grenada Counties, a few miles 

 east of the Illinois Central Railroad, are forested mostly 

 with shortleaf and loblolly pine, accompanied by the tisual 

 upland oaks which are seldom large enough for saw-timber. 

 The major part of this hilly country is too rough for cultiva- 

 tion, but the fertile lower slopes and bottom-lands are 

 farmed extensively. The virgin pine has been almost 

 entirely cut from these hills, and there are only occasional 

 small patches left. One of the largest in Lafayette County 

 contains only 400,000 board feet. 



