RECOGNITION OF CHARACTER OF SOILS. 493 



speak of the " lime country " or belts being, as a matter of 

 common knowledge, the best land ; in full accord with what, in 

 Kentucky and elsewhere, has passed into a popular maxim. 1 



Taking as a guide the trees and plants which characterize 

 the obviously calcareous lands, our next step should be to 

 verify, if possible, the fact that wherever these occur naturally, 

 lime is abundant in the soil in comparison with those lands in 

 which such vegetation does not occur naturally, or perhaps 

 even fails to flourish when planted without special fertilization. 

 This the writer has sought to do, first in connection with the 

 survey work of the state of Mississippi, and subsequently in 

 the wider field that has since come under his observation. 



SOIL BELTS IN SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI. 



In Mississippi, the general conclusions derived from the ob- 

 servations made on the northern cross section, are corroborated 

 many times over in other portions of the state. Aside from the 

 cretaceous prairie region, there runs across the middle of the 

 state a belt of varying width, of calcareous tertiary beds, which 

 also give rise to more or less extensive tracts of " black 

 prairie" lands, interspersed with non-calcareous, mostly sandy 

 ridges, the lower slopes of which, influenced by the calcareous 

 beds, bear an oak and hickory growth, while the higher por- 

 tions have only pine, and usually remain uncultivated. South- 

 ward of this " central prairie ' : belt lies the long-leaf-pine 

 forest area of the state, underlaid throughout by sandy, non- 

 calcareous formations, with poor sandy soils, save here and 

 there in patches, which can be at once recognized by the re- 

 placement of the long-leaved pine by a vigorous oak growth; 

 as is also the case where the pine area abuts against the calcare- 

 ous " Cane Hills " on the west. The bottom soils of this 

 region are largely " sour," and bear the gallberry (Prinos 

 glaber], bay galls (Pcrsea Carolina}, ti-ti (Cliftonia mono- 

 phylla), candleberry (Myrica cerifera], various whortle- 

 berries, the pitcher plants (Sarracenia) , yellow star grass 

 (Aletris), sundews, Xyris, Eriocaulon, and other plants of 

 similar habits. 



1 " A lime country is a rich country." 



