4 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



there is also present a small but appreciable quantity of very fine 

 sand, the larger blocks and irregular masses of the surface soil are 

 cross checked during the process of evaporation, so that innumera- 

 ble small granular fragments are formed, which are frequently known 

 as " buckshot." This has given the popular name " buckshot land " 

 to large areas of the type in the more southern portions of the region 

 of its development. Where an abundance of finely divided organic 

 matter is lacking, and particularly where the surface soil consists 

 almost entirely of silt and clay, the sun cracking only proceeds to the 

 point of forming the larger irregular blocks, or at least only forms a 

 thin granulated layer at the surface. In the more northern areas 

 this land is known as " gumbo," while in the more southern areas it 

 is frequently called " beeswax " land. Both of these terms are also 

 applied to similar conditions in other soil types, but are more gen- 

 erally applied to the stiffer, more waxy areas of the Wabash clay. 



The subsoil to a great depth is usually a stiff plastic yellow or 

 drab clay, which is very waxy when wet and which retains a large 

 amount of moisture, owing to its texture and its low-lying position, 

 during practically all of the summer season. In fact, it is not infre- 

 quently saturated with water at shallow depths. Usually there are 

 evidences of stratification in the subsoil, and the partings between 

 the layers of clay are then marked by thin sheets of very fine sand 

 or silt. Wherever the soil and subsoil are thus laminated the forma- 

 tion of the " buckshot " is facilitated, since each thin layer forms 

 cracks and crevices by itself which do not adhere strongly to the next 

 underlying layer. Thus the sun cracking proceeds to considerable 

 depths and subdivides the soil into the finer granules, which renders 

 its cultivation much more easy and makes it more valuable for agri- 

 culture. 



The Wabash clay may easily be distinguished from practically all 

 other soil types through its position in the lower lying areas of the 

 alluvial bottoms along the Mississippi River and its principal tribu- 

 taries; through its dark to almost black surface soil; through its 

 characteristic structure, giving rise either to the designation of 

 " gumbo " or " buckshot " land ; and through the fact that with possi- 

 bly one exception it is the stiffest, most plastic, and most adhesive 

 clay to be found in the alluvial bottoms. The only soil type with 

 which it might be confused is the Trinity clay, occurring in the. allu- 

 vial bottoms and upon the terraces along the principal rivers of east- 

 ern Texas, which is also a dark to black granular clay even more stiff 

 and plastic when wet than the Wabash clay, but characterized in its 

 deeper subsoil by the presence of calcareous nodules, and also 

 through its derivation from the black Cretaceous prairie soils of that 

 region as contrasted with the black, loessial upland soils from which 

 the Wabash clay is principally derived. 



