<5U NOETH-CABOLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



MADISON VILLE, (NEAR WASHINGTON,) BEAUFORT COUNTY, 



January 30/i, 1858. 



PKOF. EMMONS My Dear Sir : Your letter was duly received. I will 

 now give you a description of the land of which the four parcels sent you 

 are specimens : 



No. 1. A dark soil, from fifteen to twenty inches deep, incumbent on 

 porous clay, with some fine sand intermixed; through this substratum the 

 water percolates freely. The natural growth on this land, (before being 

 cultivated,) was a heavy growth of black gum, a scattering growth of large 

 poplars, some maples, a few laurels ; here and there a large short stra\ved 

 pine. This land has been cultivated in corn for three years, and has pro- 

 duced from 40 to 50 bushels per acre, 



No. 3. When cleared, some ten years since, was considered by me second 

 quality swamp land. The growth is formed of gums, but more laurels, pines, 

 and poplars than No. 1. For ten consecutive years it has been cultivated 

 in indian corn ; when in its prime it produced 40 bushels per acre the last 

 crop 30 the past season it was sown in oats, produced 20 bushels per 

 acre. The specimen sent you was taken from the poorest spot I could find 

 in the field, (judging from the growth of oats then on it ;) the soil where 

 the specimen was taken from was about 12 inches deep, the balance of the 

 field 18. 



No. 2. Unreclaimed swamp soil from 18 to 24 inches deep ; subsoil u 

 different clay from that which underlays the previously described land, it 

 is lumpy and resists the spade. My opinion is that the water does not pass 

 freely through this subsoil, and consequently the surface soil is wetter than 

 on the lands above mentioned. The natural growth of this land is : reeds 

 standing ver.y thick, of moderate size, small sickly pine saplings, red and 

 white, bay bushes and gallberry, I have no doubt that this land has been 

 often burnt. I find strata of ashes at different depths below the surface, 

 and the stumps of large pine trees charred. I own about 3000 acres of 

 this description of land it lays between the long leaf pine land and the 

 gum lands, and is the greater part of the year filled with water to the sur- 

 face. For some time after every heavy rain the surface is partially covered, 

 and the water slowly disappears ; every foot of it can be drained ; it ad- 

 joins my farm. Why should not such land, when thoroughly drained, be 

 fertile V If it would not be, what should be the proper treatment to make 

 it productive? 



No. 3 lies between Nos. 1 and 2. 



No. 4. Soil of the complexion of the specimen sent you. It is from 2 

 to 3 feet deep ; incumbent on soapy clay, which is porous, and allows an 

 easy descent of the water. The growth of timber on this land is magnifi- 

 cent : black gums, from one to two feet diameter at the stump, fifty to 

 sixty feet to the limbs, straight bodies, the limbs not drooping, but forming 

 with the body an angle of about 30 degrees, limbs and twigs showing that 



