512 



SOILS. 



sandy or conglomerate character to that of limestones of vari- 

 ous degrees of purity, soils contrast strikingly with each other, 

 agreeing closely with those seen in the neighboring part of 

 Mississippi. Here, moreover, the contrast between the natural 

 vegetative character as well as cultural value of the lands de- 

 rived from the magnesian limestones (the "barrens") con- 

 trasts strikingly with those originating in the purer limestones, 

 on which the blue grass is at home. 



LOUISIANA. As to Louisiana, whose geological formations 

 correspond closely to those of Mississippi, it may be said in 

 general that the vegetative phenomena coincide completely with 

 those observed in Mississippi. The " white-lime country " of 

 northeastern Mississippi is represented in Louisiana only by 

 patches occurring here and there on a line laid from Lake 

 Bistineau to the coast at Petite Anse Island. But the chief 

 characteristics of the calcareous area, among them especially 

 that of the occurrence of red cedar and clumps of crab-apple, 

 persistently reappear. The " Central Prairie Region " of 

 Louisiana is quite narrow, but on it there reappear precisely 

 the same characteristics described in connection with that area 

 in Mississippi. In the long-leaf-pine region of Louisiana there 

 occur, as in Mississippi, some isolated patches of a calcareous 

 character, the largest of which is on the Bayou Anacoco in Ver- 

 non Parish, near the western border of the State. As we 

 emerge from the sandy lands of the long-leaf pine area to that 

 underlaid by the calcareous formation, we find, first, a change 

 to oak and short-leaved pine, then the oak forest alone ; finally, 

 on a level black prairie of considerable extent, the post and 

 black-jack oak in their thick-set form, clumps of crab-apple, red 

 haw and honey locust, here and there a red cedar ; exactly as 

 has already been described in connection with the prairie lands 

 of Mississippi. To southward of the long-leaf-pine area lies a 

 broad belt of level, generally treeless, sandy prairie, in part 

 dotted with groves of timber, but otherwise with nearly the 

 same peculiar, small-seeded herbaceous vegetation observed in 

 the corresponding portion of Mississippi. But in Louisiana 

 there intervenes between these gray sour lands and the shell 

 hammocks of the immediate seacoast with their groves of live 

 oak, a belt of black calcareous prairie, increasing in width and 

 clayeyness towards the West, and acquiring considerable exten- 





