1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



327 



less washed or beaten off. Yet, when well broken 

 up, at the proper season, and regularly ploughed, it 

 remains quite mellow, producing corn and cotton 

 equal to the best alluvial bottoms, with, so far as it 

 has been tried, increased fertility; although from 

 the compact nature of the rock beneath, and the 

 tenacity with which it retains moisture, crops are 

 injured sometimes by rains, but seldom by drought. 

 "There being no opening or fissures, except 

 above the rock, by which to convey the water di- 

 rectly to the channel of creeks and rivers, there 

 are consequently no rcservnis to contain supplies 

 for fountains and springs. In the winter and spTfhg 

 seasons the streams overflow and the land is literal- 

 ly submerged. In the summer and autumn neither 

 springs or ivells are to be found, except below the 

 rock; yet notwithstanding this scarcity of water, 

 there is seldom a lack of moisture for the purpose 

 of vegetation. And at times when the drought is 

 such as to produce fissures two or three inches 

 ■wide and as many feet deep, the earth will be 

 found anile moist at the depth of two or three 

 inches." 



"There are open prairies of every size from one 

 hundred to one thousand or twelve hundred acres, 

 mixed and interspersed in every form and mode 

 with timbered land of all kinds; some producing 

 only black-jack and post oak, not exceeding fifteen 

 or twenty ieet in height; others again covered with 

 the most majestic, oak, poplar, elm, hickory, wal- 

 nut, pacaun, hackberry, grapevine and cane, equal 

 in size and beauty, I understand, to similar kinds 

 in the Mississippi alluvions. 



"The extent of this country may not be unimpor- 

 tant. I am informed that traces of prairie soil may 

 be seen in Georgia, perhaps as far east as Mil- 

 ledgeville. It is indeed said to exist in North Car- 

 olina; but of this I have not evidence such as to 

 warrant the assertion. That it stretches nearly 

 five hundred miles eastward from the vicinity of 

 the Mississippi on the west almost to Mil ledge ville, 

 there is no doubt; and if it extends, as is said to be 

 the fact, to North Carolina, it reaches four hundred 

 or five hundred miles farther, being perhaps nine 

 hundred or one thousand miles long, and from forty 

 to sixty in breadth." 



In addition to the foregoing extracts, several 

 communications to the Farmers' Register, (which 

 are before its readers,) confirm these state- 

 ments, and (independent of the aid of chemical 

 analysis, which will be referred to hereafter,) show 

 that the prairie soils of Alabama generally are in- 

 termixed with calcareous earth, and universally 

 underlaid with that substance in a much more 

 pure form, yet soft enough to be penetrated by 

 roots.* The letter of N. D. Smith, Esq. in the 

 last No. gives a like account of the underlying 

 stratum of the prairies of Arkansas. Such is also 

 the account of Mr. Featherstonhaugh in his geo- 

 logical report of that region — and in addition to 

 the calcareous character of the underlying soft 

 rock, he speaks (though not in very definite terms) 

 of tin; black rich soil above, as being "substan- 

 tially calcareous. "f Another similar titct in a re- 



*See Farm. Rej>. pp. 276, 277, 367, of Vol. I.— and 

 pp. 637, 710,717,'" Vol. II, and pp.65, 66, Essay on 

 Calcareous Manures. 



|See extract from the report at page 117, Vol. III. 

 Farm. Reg. 



mote locality, has recently been published. A 

 tract of prairie land in the northwest part, of Penn- 

 sylvania, lies on calcareous earth so pure as to be 

 converted, by being burnt, to lime of the best qual- 

 ity. This earth reaches to within a foot of the 

 surface.* 



The next extracts present sufficient ground for 

 considering the steppes and prairies as belonging to 

 the same class. 



"In all parts of the river [Don] above Kasan- 

 kaia, it seems to flow over a bed of chalk; anil its 

 banks, gently swelling upwards from the water, 

 rise like the South Downs of Sussex; often disclo- 

 sing the chalk, of which they consist. Farther 

 down, and near the water's edge low copses of 

 wood almost always accompany its course; but 

 they diminish as it draws nearer to Tscherchaskoy, 

 the inhabitants of which town derive all their wood 

 from the Volga. 



"As soon as we left Kasankaia, we entered the 

 steppes in good earnest, with a view to traverse 

 their whole extent to Tscherchaskoy. These are 

 not cultivated; yet, bleak and desolate as their ap- 

 pearance during winter must be, they have in 

 summer the aspect of a wild continued meadow. 

 The herbage rises as high as the knee, full of 

 (lowers, and exhibiting a most interesting collec- 

 tion of plants. No one collects or cuts this her- 

 bage. The soil, though neglected, is very fine. 

 We passed some oaks in the first part of our jour- 

 ney, which had the largest leaves I ever saw." — 

 Clark's Travels in Hussia, p. 189. 



"Leaving this encampment, we continued tra- 

 versing the steppes in a southwesterly direction, 

 and passed a very neat village belonging to a rich 

 Greek, who, to our great surprise, had established 

 a residence in the midst of these desolate plains. 

 As we advanced, we perceived that wherever riv- 

 ers intersect the steppes, there are villages, ancf 

 plenty of inhabitants. A manuscript map at 

 Tscherchaskoy confirmed the truth of this obser- 

 vation. No maps have been hitherto published 

 in Europe which give an accurate notion of the 

 country. A stranger crossing the Cossack territo- 

 ry, might suppose himself in a desert, and yet be 

 in the midst of villages. The road, it is true, does 

 not often disclose them; but frequently, when we 

 were crossing a river, and believed ourselves in 

 the midst of the most uninhabited country, winch 

 might be compared to a boundless meadow, we be- 

 held villages to the tight and left of us, concealed, 

 by the depth of the banks of the river, below the 

 level of the plain; not a single house or church of 

 which would have been otherwise discerned." — p. 

 198. 



"From Acenovkaia, we continued our route 

 over steppes apparently destitute of any habitation. 

 Dromedaries were feeding, as if sole tenants of 

 these wide pastures." — p. 199. 



Dr. Clarke, though traversing a vast extent of 

 steppes, says very little more of them' than is pre- 

 sented in the short quotations above. They give 

 a clear though indirect indication of their chalky 

 formation, and similarity to the downs of Sussex 

 in England. Yet the author seems to have at- 

 tached no importance to these facts, nor does he 

 take any other notice, direct or indirect, of the na- 

 ture, or chemical composition of the soil. Yet, in 



*See Farmers' Register, page 169, Vol. III. 



