CHAPTER XXV. 



RECOGNITION- OF THE CHARACTER OF SOILS FROM THEIR 



NATIVE VEGETATION. UNITED STATES AT LARGE. 



EUROPE. 



THE application of the above data outside of Mississippi can 

 mostly be verified only in a fragmentary way from such data 

 as are casually given in the reports of State Surveys, as well 

 as from such observations as the writer has been able to make 

 personally elsewhere. In the latter category the most copious 

 refer to the states of Alabama. Louisiana and Illinois. 



ALABAMA. The observations of Prof. Eugene A. Smith, 

 and those of Dr. Chas. Mohr, are especially valuable and cogent 

 as to the close correspondence of the soil and vegetative phe- 

 nomena with those observed in Mississippi. 1 They are faith- 

 fully reproduced on the corresponding geological areas, includ- 

 ing also the Flatwoods. Northwest of Mobile, on the Missis- 

 sippi line, the long-leaf-pine forest is interspersed with more 

 or less continuous areas bearing a fine oak growth, with hick- 

 ories and other trees indicating a calcareous soil. This fea- 

 ture is most extensively developed in Alabama in what is 

 known as the " lime-sink region." on the borders of which the 

 vegetative transition in passing from the non-calcareous sandy 

 pine land, can be observed in the most striking manner and 

 with frequent alternations. Northward of the long-leaf-pine 

 licit, the tertiary and cretaceous areas show in Alabama the 

 same features as in Mississippi, viz.. black calcareous prairies 

 alternating with ridge lands, among which in the cretaceous 

 area the Pontotoc ridge is represented by a series of isolated 

 knobs, popularly known as Clninnenugga ridge, closely re- 

 sembling the former in its soils and vegetative character. 



In northern Alabama, according to Dr. Smith, on the vari- 

 ous stages of the Carboniferous formation, ranging from a 



1 See Plant Life of Alabama, by Charles Mohr. Vol. VI. Contr. U. S. Nat. 

 'Herb., 1 T . S. Dep't Agr.; Alabama Kd. of Same, Ala. (leol. Survey, 1901. 



