632 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



done slill in the dark. Besides, sir, as you speak 

 ol' him in such high and doubtless merited terms 

 of respect, and as 1 also ied confident ol' your 

 /riendship, I could wish, for all our sakes, that 

 ''quoad" meiilot, (and certainly no farther,) we 

 may remain perl'ect strangers. I consider that 

 he has sinned much more aaainst the Register 

 tlian against me. If he prefers a fictitious name, 

 10 no name at ail, and ti)inks he has not whipped 

 me enough, wliile I would wish him much better 

 employment, he may try me again as 



The old Poke Koot Farmer. 



PRAIRIES OF ARKANSAS. 



From tlie Agriculturist. 



Messrs. Editors .-—In a former communication 

 I promised some general remarks upon tiie prai- 

 ries of Arkansas ; at present these remarks will be 

 confined to those near the Red river. Itis known 

 that a prairie is a field or tract ot land destitute of 

 trees or even shrubs, generally covered with a thick 

 coat of grass or weeds. These fields are not con- 

 fined to any peculiar kind of soil or degree of de- 

 pression or elevation — they are met with in the 

 rich alluvion of the large rivers of the west, and 

 again they form an immense plane siretcliing from 

 the valley to the highest point of the surrounding 

 hills. VVhat cause has produced these immense 

 plains destitute of trees, is the question proposed 

 to be examined into. There are but three promi- 

 nent preventives to the growth of trees in every 

 region of the earth : absolute sterility, such as pijre 

 sand, chalk or pure marl ; when water occupies 

 permanently a space, trees will not grow : where 

 there is a sufficient qunniity of combustible matter 

 /or the action of fire, trees are not permitted to 

 grow, and if they have succeeded in any way to 

 gain a footing, this powerful agent is capable ol 

 destroying them while young. Sterility cannot be 

 the cause liom which the prairies of the west 

 have sprung; they are very often the richest soils 

 known in the United States. To the action of 

 the two opposite elements, water and fire, they 

 must be attributed. This will appear moresatis- 

 /iactory by a minute examination of some of the 

 smaller prairies. At the present I shall confine 

 my remarks to the small prairies on the Red ri- 

 ver. These prairies are small, and present a strik- 

 ing contrast, as far as soil and general appearance 

 is concerned. A chain of these fields stretch Irom 

 the Louisiana line to the great western prairies 

 immediately on the margin of the river. The low 

 grounds of Red river are generally lium lour to 

 ten miles in width, nearly level, though if a line 

 should be drawn across the valley it would show a 

 gentle declension from the centre to the edges of 

 the valley, the river invariably occupying the apex 

 of a ridge formed by the continual deposiie of 

 earthy matter suspended in iis waters. Tliis chain 

 of prairies is situated in the valley and commonly 

 in the curves of the river — they present a contrast 

 with the woodland immediately surrounding them. 

 The soil of the prairies is a deep rich mould — 

 the woodland ie a stiff aluminous soil, with a por- 

 tion of impalpable silicious and calcareous matter. 

 The size of these prairies varies from one hundred 

 acres to several thousands, and from one to lour 

 leel higher than the woodland, and are (or the 



most part gently rolling, the highest part being 

 the centre. In shape they are quite irregular, 

 though commonly elongated, in conformity to the 

 course of the river. 



Those prairies that are the finest cotton landa 

 in the state and perhaps in the world were once 

 the beds of lakes. What has produced so great a 

 change as to render the basin of a lake fit for a 

 cotton field, is the question before us. When 

 occupied by water, they of course were lower than 

 the surrounding woodland — at the present they 

 are liighcr. There is undoubted evidence that 

 that portion of the stale has once been aheseat ol" 

 extensive eruptions from eaithquakes. The 

 pressure caused by such an agent would affect the 

 crust of the earth ; that poriion of the surface 

 covered with water being more soft than the 

 woodland, would more readily yield to the pres- 

 sure, which has given them eucli an elevation 

 above the surrounding woodland that the water no 

 longer finds a basin to rest in. The water being 

 removed, their rich surtace wou'd soon become 

 thickly set with what is called prairie grass, that 

 is /bund on all prairies from Canada to California, 

 and by the immense amount of combustible mat- 

 ter it produces, forms ample means lor keeping off 

 intruders — a single spark of fire is sufficient to set 

 the whole in IcarlijI conflagration. It happens 

 that the action of fire is suspended or prevented, 

 adbrding an opportunity for the growth of timber; 

 in this manner, in the course of a lew years, a few 

 hundred or thousands of acres have been wrested 

 from the meadow and appropriated to the pro- 

 duction of timber. So soon as settlements are 

 (brmed near to prairies and the aciion of fire pre- 

 vented, trees spring up rapidly and in a kw 3'ear3 

 Ibrm a Ibrest. The opinion ofii^red above as to 

 the formation of these prairies, is sustained by a 

 (iict known to some of the present generation. 

 The earthquake of 1811, which had its seat near 

 New Madrid in the slate of Missouri, produced 

 similar effects, eievaiing the basins of lakea 

 and emptying their contents upon the surround- 

 ing country — in one case there was a mill upon the 

 drain of a lake ihat was elevated several feet. 



There is a second class of prairies near the 

 Red river, occupying high land — these differ in 

 many respects from the former, though only a \'cw 

 miles distant from them. The soil of the latter is 

 highly calcareous, resting in every instance on a 

 deep deposiie of carbonate of lime of different 

 degrees of purity. This deposite has been pene- 

 trated to the depth of from 60 to 80 leet without 

 any apparent change, being filled with fossil shells 

 from the surface to the greatest depih. The sus- 

 face of these prairies is uneven and generally 

 much higher llian the adjoining woodland. 

 These prairies are situated on a ridge considerably 

 elevated. There can be no doubt entertained but 

 that the whole space they occupy has, at some 

 anterior period, been the bed of some vast body of 

 water, doubtless the Gulfof Mexico. The shells 

 that are found on the surfiace are marine shells, in 

 a high stale of petrifaction. To account for their 

 formation it is only necessary to admit that which 

 is self-evident, that the lime formation which con- 

 siiiutes ihe foundation was once in a soft state rea- 

 dily yielding to verticle pressure, but as some parts 

 would be more dense than others, these sections 

 would of course be Irss afl'ected by such pressure ; 

 this has caused the inequality of the surface. The 



