RECOGNITION OF CHARACTER OF SOILS. 



491 



growth of various oaks, with walnut, hickory, sweet gum, tulip tree and 

 red cedar, and a very productive soil. 



" Pine Hills." Next adjoining on the west comes a belt of sandy, 

 non-calcareous beds of the lower Cretaceous formation, about 18 miles 

 wide. It has a hilly surface, and outside of the narrow valleys, the 

 prevalent timber is short-leaved pine and scrubby black-jack oak, with 

 some post oak and small black gum, and a few large chestnut trees. 



"Prairie" Belt. Westward of this belt we descend into a level 

 "prairie" region, six to twelve miles wide; the "white lime country," 

 having heavy black clay soils, underlaid by the cretaceous " rotten lime- 

 stones ;" which are profusely productive. The sparse tree growth con- 

 sists of stout, vigorous and dense-topped post and black-jack oaks, with 

 clumps of crab apple, Chickasaw plum thickets, and an occasional red 

 cedar. 



Pontotoc Ridge. West of the prairie belt we ascend into a ridgy hill 

 country, twelve to fourteen miles wide; the " Pontotoc ridge," formed 

 of the soft limestones and marls of the upper cretaceous formation, and 

 covered with a deep red soil, which bears a rich growth of oaks, with 

 hickory interspersed, and black walnut, umbrella and tulip tree even on 

 the ridges. This is one of the finest agricultural regions of the State. 



Flatwoods. From the Pontotoc ridge and its fine lands and timber 

 we descend to westward into the " Flatwoods " belt, three to eight 

 miles wide ; a level country underlaid by heavy gray non-calcareous 

 clays of the tertiary formation, from which most of its soil is directly 

 formed. It bears a pretty dense growth of the same species of oaks 

 that characterize the prairies farther east, but the form, habit and size 

 of the trees is so different that many of the inhabitants believe them to 

 be different species. The black-jack oak looks like small, dense-topped 

 apple trees ; the post oak, on the contrary, has an open top of the form 

 of a short-handled, spreading broom. The soil is poor and unthrifty, 

 as are the few disappointed settlers, who bought the land on the strength 

 of its oak-tree gro\vth. (See p ige 500). 



Brown Loam Region. Table Lands. Adjoining the Flatwoods on the 

 west is a broad upland region, with a brownish-yellow soil and subsoil, 

 extending nearly to the edge of the Mississippi bottom. In its eastern 

 portion it is rather broken and hilly, with sandy ridge soils, a mixed 

 growth of oaks and short-leaved pine, and occasional chestnuts ; a fair 

 farming country only. To westward the ridges become lower and 

 broader, assuming a plateau character. The pine disappears, and black, 

 Spanish, red and white oak, with much hickory, largely replaces the 

 black jack and post oak ; thus characterizing the fertile brown-loam 



