358 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



July 



sion, melting away like sugar into the 

 streams and gullies, even where the sur- 

 face is comparatively level. 



In fact, the soil conditions are quite 

 as peculiar and interesting as the topo- 

 graphic. The soil of most of the area, 

 that which is technically known to the 

 Bureau of Soils of the Agricultural De- 

 partment as Sharkey clay, covers two- 

 thirds of the delta, and this is the por- 

 tion annually overflowed. Each flood- 

 ing leaves sediments of the richest char- 

 acter. Unfortunately these floods do 

 not subside until it is too late for cotton 

 planting. Mr. Whitney, chief of the 

 Bureau of Soils, says that much of this 

 land will produce two bales of cotton 

 per acre, a phenomenal yield, and with 

 cotton at ten cents a pound, a project 

 to reclaim these lands by drainage is 

 naturally agitated. A sandy loam along 

 the streams is now used for cotton, but 

 has been worked out by too long crop- 



ping in that staple, and its favorable 

 location near navigable streams makes 

 it fit for the production of early crops 

 for market. It has admirable drainage, 

 and early Irish potatoes should give a 

 profit of $200 an acre. A loam con- 

 tiguous to this is particularly well suited 

 to cotton, as a good stand can be had 

 nearly every year. The Yazoo clay, 

 which, next to the Sharkey clay and 

 the upland silt loam, is the most com- 

 mon soil, needs under-drainage to make 

 it of the best use, as it is hard to culti- 

 vate unless conditions are just right. 

 For example, if it is plowed at the right 

 time, it can be made loose and friable 

 during the cultivating season. If it is 

 plowed when wet, it sinks back into a 

 solid mass, whose surface, on drying, 

 becomes solid and compact. If it is 

 too dry when plowed, the result is seen 

 in long rows of brick-like clods, which 

 are as intractable as boulders. 



Courtesy Bureau of Soils. 



EXCESSIVE EROSION ON NEARLY LEVEL LAND, YAZOO UPLANDS. GULLIES WITH VERTICAL. 



WALLS EAT INTO CULTIVATED LAND WITH REMARKABLE RAPIDITY, AND THIS 



MAY BE PREVENTED ONLY BY REFORESTATION. 



