1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



833 



Alabama. Plantation of Col. James Deas. Car- 

 bonate of lime 25 per cent. 



No. 24. Slue prairie — same plantation — 15 per 

 cent. 



No. 25. From plantation of Messrs. Elmore & 

 Taylor, on Pintlala creek, Montgomery, Alaba- 

 ma — open prairie — taken 6 inches below the sur- 

 face. Carbonate of lime 38 per cent. 



No. 26. From same spot, taken 18 inches below 

 the surface. Carbonate of lime 4S per cent. 



The balance were very late examinations oi 

 Alabama soils made by J)r. R. W. Gibbes, July 

 1835, and published in the Farmers' Register ol 

 last month. 



No. 27. Slue prairie, (Col. Elmore's plantation) 

 — 6 or 8 inches below the surface — Carbonate ol 

 lime 2G per cent. 



No. 28. Hammock prairie — carbonate of lime 

 22 per cent. 



No. 29. Open prairie — mahogany colored — no 

 limestone, and vegetable matter as much as 38 per 

 cent. 



No. 30. Hogbed prairie — carbonate of lime 8. 

 No. 31. Post oak prairie — no limestone — and 

 vegetable matter 38 per cent. [From the name, 

 it is presumed that this is such wooded land as 

 No. 5, and therefore improperly called prairie 

 land.] 



No. 32. Black slue prairie — (Moulton planta- 

 tion of Dr. J. H. Taylor.) Carbonate of lime 12 

 per cent. 



No. 33. Prairie — (scattering large post oak) — 

 mingled with red clay. Carbonate' of lime 6 per 

 cent. — and vegetable matter 32. 



No. 34. Open prairie — from a hill or ridge, 18 

 per cent. 



No. 35. White open prairie, (Chisolm's) — from 

 near surface — ^oil not more than 18 inches deep. 

 Carbonate of lime 42 per cent. Vegetable matter 

 28. 



Formation of prairies, fyc. accounted for, and ap- 

 parent exceptions to the rule explained. 



My views of the manner in which prairies are 

 formed, will now be submitted. 



There are some few trees, as wild or black lo- 

 cust, papaw, and hackberry, which thrive best on 

 soil moderately calcareous, and will scarcely live 

 in soils very deficient in lime. But most forest 

 trees prefer soils having so little lime, as to be, if 

 not naturally poor, at least unfriendly to the 

 growth of grass. Hence such lands are covered 

 naturally by an unmixed growth of trees, and are 

 almost destitute of grass. Calcareous soils are, 

 on the contrary, favorable to the growth of grass, 

 and unfavorable to the growth of trees, and the 

 more so (other circumstances being alike) in pro- 

 portion to the excess of lime in the soil. Sup- 

 posing such a soil to have been so protected as to 

 be covered with trees, the first passage over it of 

 fire, which would be harmless to thernore hardy 

 growth of acid soil, would here serve to scorch 

 and damage the trees, feeble and tender, because 

 unnaturally placed. This effect would be the 

 greater because such calcareous woodland would 

 have some growth of rank grass, which, as dry 

 fuel, would add to the violence of the fire, and its 

 effects. The next winter, the crippled and stinted 

 condition of the trees would prepare them to be 

 still more damaged by the like passage of fire — 



and its violence would be increased by the greater 

 quantity of dead wood, and the increased growth 

 of grass less obstructed now by shade. Every 

 year these circumstances would serve the more 

 to augment the destructive powcrof the fires, and to 

 diminish the power of resistance iu the still living 

 trees. In the course of time all the trees would 

 be killed, and burnt — and then the seeds and roots, 

 alter springing in vain many succeeding summers, 

 would finally have to yield to destruction also. 

 The surface is then covered with the growth of 

 grass most suitable to its composition, which 

 growth is luxuriant according to ihe fertility of the 

 soil. So long as fires sweep every year over such 

 land, the prairies can never be covered with wood; 

 and on the contrary, will be extending every year 

 so long as there is wood which the lires can de- 

 stroy, and land that will yield grass to furnish the 

 fuel for still extended ravages. 



It may well happen also, that a soil not at all 

 calcareous, it bordering on a prairie, would be ex- 

 posed to such power of fire, when driven in all its 

 violence by a strong wind, that its trees would be 

 damaged, and finally killed, and the land brought 

 likewise to the prairie state. Such land however, 

 would be making continual efforts to return to its 

 more natural state of woodland — and whether 

 under young wood, or a meager cover of grass, 

 would, by refusing fuel, serve to check the farther 

 extension of the ravages of fire. 



This would be one means of land not calcareous 

 being brought to the prairie state. There are two 

 other means for the formation or extension of prai- 

 ries, on land not calcareous, both of which are pro- 

 bably more often operative. These will now be 

 considered. 



It may be inferred that the destruction of trees 

 on calcareous soils is not so much caused by their 

 absolute unkindliness to trees, as by their far great- 

 er suitableness for grass, which serves when dry, 

 as fuel to burn the trees. Now if any thing other 

 than the presence of calcareous earth will produce 

 an equally rank growth of grass, the same de- 

 structive end will be produced, and as completely 

 in time, though perhaps with less facility and 

 quickness. Moisture in the soil will in this man- 

 ner serve as well as calcareous matter — and if the 

 surface is only dry enough at some time in every 

 year to permit full force to the fire, similar effects 

 must be produced in destroying and keeping down 

 the growth of trees. In this manner are formed 

 the rich alluvial prairies or savannas on the great 

 western rivers, which are covered by floods some- 

 times, and perfectly dry at others. 



Again — a soil may be iree from floods, and from 

 all water except from the clouds — and yet without 

 being calcareous, may be so constituted as to at- 

 tract and retain moisture with great force, and 

 thus be very favorable to the growth of grass, and 

 consequently to the formation of prairies. This 

 constitution is produced when a soil is formed al- 

 most entirely of fine aluminous, or argillaceous 

 earth, and decomposed vegetable matter — and 

 this is precisely the composition of every specimen 

 of prairie soil which I have examined, and which 

 was not highly calcareous. Examples of such 

 soils are presented in the foregoing list. The soils 

 contained very little silicious earth, *and that little 

 so fine as only to be made sensible to the teeth. 

 The ordinary mode of separating silicious from 

 aluminous earth, by agitation in water, was quite 



