339 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



Neshobak and Winston counties. Chocolate co- 

 lored sandy loam, very friable, and easily worked 

 —produces com and cotton well— growth, hickory, 

 black-jack and some other oaks, principally red 

 oak, interspersed with a lew pines." Contained 

 no carbonate of lime. 



No. 9. "Prairie soil from near Demopolis, Ala- 

 bama, taken from the road near the surface. The 

 rock here is within a few inches of the surface, and 

 many small fragments are mixed with the soil. It 

 is a dark calcareous mould — produces corn finely, 

 but there is too much lime for cotton." Contained 

 60 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 



No. 10. Subsoil of the common "open prairie 1 ' 

 of Greene county, taken Irom a foot or more below 

 the surface. "The soil above is dark, and proba- 

 bly less calcareous. The rock is not more than two 

 feet below the surface. Lime was perceptible in 

 this specimen in powder, in detached masses, be- 

 fore being pounded." Contained 50 per cent, of 

 carbonate of lime. 



No. 11. "From the southern part of Noxubee 

 county, Miss. — taken 4 inches below the surface, 

 of land cultivated two years. It is a prairie coun- 

 try, but different from ours on this side of the 

 Tombeckbe, in having the elevated parts of it, 

 which hardly amount to hills, covered with hicko- 

 ry trees,interspersed with some black-jacks. Hence 

 it is often called a "hickory barren" country. Be- 

 tween the timbered portions, there are long savan- 

 nas, or open prairies, which are very level and 

 rich. This specimen was taken from one of them. 

 It is covered with a very heavy grass coat, very 

 much resembling the gama grass; and some of it 

 I know is of that species. It is at first very diffi- 

 cult to eradicate; but when this is once effected, 

 the soil is as easily ploughed as other prairie soils, 

 and produces corn very finely; say from 50 to 60 

 bushels to the acre. Cotton however is predispo- 

 sed to rust at first, and probably will be more so 

 after the undecomposed vegetable matter existing 

 in the primitive soil becomes exhausted. Imme- 

 diately on the outskirts of the hickory hammocks, 

 where they join the open prairie, the cotton is 

 much more disposed to rust, even the first year, 

 and it is from such a locality that was selected 



No. 12. This soil is very loose and friable, and it 

 is generally in such land that I have observed the 

 cotton to rust most. It grows off at first more 

 luxuriantly than in other places, but as the heat of 

 Bummer comes on, begins to look scorched, sheds 

 its shapes, then the bolls and leaves, until nothing 

 is left but the dead stalks. These two specimens 

 Nos. 11 and 12, do not effervesce perceptibly with 

 diluted sulphuric acid, but I presume you will find 

 them strongly impregnated with lime. There is 

 tt considerable tract of country of this kind of soil 

 in Mississippi, and the limestone rock frequently 

 shows itself near the surface. Detached masses 

 of sand stone are also frequently seen about the 

 hill-sides and hickory hammocks." 



Neither of the last two specimens (Nos. 11, 12,) 

 contained any carbonate of lime. The descrip- 

 tions have been quoted at length, because the 

 facts are among those that most oppose my argu- 

 ment. A similar deficiency of calcareous earth 

 was found in the four next specimens, which were 

 sent by Capt. John Symington, U. S. A. of St. 

 Louis. 



No. 13. From a small prairie in the neighbor- 

 hood of St. Louis, Missouri. Fertile, but not equal 



1o the best prairie soils. "This is high and rolling, 

 and consequently dry — and never subject to inun- 

 dation. Specimen taken about 4 inches below the 

 surface, and just below the fibrous grass roots." , 



No. 14. "From the surface of a ridge of rolling 

 prairie in Macoupin county, Illinois — high and 

 dry, and never subject to inundation." 



No. 15. From Macoupin county, Illinois. Also 

 high prairie, and never subject to inundation, but 

 finite level, and therefore the rain water does not 

 flow off rapidly enough. Still it cannot be called 

 a wet soil. It is considered rich, and produces 

 well grain of all kinds. Taken 2 feet below the 

 surface." 



No. 16. Sent by George Churchill, Esq. Sam- 

 ple of the soil of the "Ridge Prairie," Madison, 

 Illinois — "taken from 4 inches below the surface, 

 where it has never been ploughed, and three- 

 quarters of a mile from the nearest wood land. 

 Surface dry and rolling." 



Neither of the four last specimens contained a 

 particle of carbonate of lime. All were very 

 black (therefore supposed full of vegetable matter) 

 and contained but a very small proportion of fine- 

 ly divided silicious earth. For any practical and 

 useful purpose, this essential ingredient might al- 

 most be said to be entirely wanting. 



No. 17. Prairie soil from Madison county, Ohio 

 — contained no carbonate of lime. 



No. 18. Prairie soil from Pickaway county, 

 Ohio, contained a very small portion only of car- 

 bonate of lime. The amount was not ascertained 

 precisely. 



The three next, selected and sent by Jas. Deas, 

 Esq. were all taken from different depths be- 

 low the same field of "unwooded prairie," in 

 Lowndes county, Alabama. The surface soil 

 black. 



No. 19. Taken 41 feet below the surface, where 

 very fertile — stiff clay of dark olive color when 

 dry, and pounded for trial — very little silicious 

 earth, and that very finely divided. Contained 11 

 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 



No. 20. "At 1| feet below the surface, where 

 the soil is rather thin" [or poor] — nearly white — 

 contained 84 per cent, of carbonate ol lime. 



No. 21. At 3 feet below the surlace of another 

 place, "also rather thin soil." Color darker than 

 the preceding. Carbonate of lime, 27 per cent. 



No. 22. Of the celebrated fertile alluvial soil of 

 Red River, Arkansas, a specimen of 300 grains 

 contained 12 grains of earthy carbonates, of which 

 rather more than one- third was found to be carbo- 

 nate of 7nag)iesia — the remainder carbonate of" 

 lime. So far as I am informed, this is the first 

 known fact of magnesia being found in a notable 

 proportion in any soil in this country. It is hoped 

 that this peculiarity of the Red River land will 

 receive further investigation. The presence of 

 magnesia w r as indicated by the very slow efferves- 

 cence of the soil in acid. The separation of the 

 two carbonates was made according to Davy's 

 method (directed in Agricultural Chemistry,) 

 which, however, is not very accurate. 



The results of analyses of prairie soils (and 

 some which though so called, are covered with 

 trees,) made by Drs. Cooper, Nott, and Gibbea, 

 will now be adduced. See the more full report 

 Farmers' Register, p. 716, Vol. II. 



No. 23. Bald prairie on Big Swamp, Lowndes, 



