CULTURE AND CURING IN OHIO. 



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The following statement of the crops grown in the valley up to 1880 was furnished by Mr. A. H. Nixon, of 

 Dayton, Ohio, who has been a successful dealer in the valley for thirty years, and has kept memoranda of eaoh 

 crop: 



AKEA, GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS, AND SOILS. 



The counties and parts of counties in Ohio which have their drainage in the Great and the Little Miami rivers 

 comprise an area of about 7,500 square miles. The total length of the valley is not far from 150 miles, and its 

 greatest width CO miles. The Great and the Little Miami flow nearly parallel, and their valleys are often united. 

 The Great Miami is navigable for a considerable distance, and the Miami canal runs along the river for a distance 

 of 70 miles, furnishing an easy outlet for the products of the soil. Beside these means of transportation, several 

 lines of railroad have been constructed, which pass through the very heart of the valley. 



Almost the entire region is covered with the drift formation, ancient or modified. The underlying bed-rock of 

 all the lower valley is the Cincinnati group of the Lower Silurian. Farther up the Clinton and the Niagara rocks 

 of the Upper Silurian form the rocky bed. The soils, with a few local exceptions, are formed from the weathering, 

 of the drift formation, and vary in fertility in proportion to the commingling of the sands, clay, and gravel and the 

 amount of accumulated humus. A few places occur where a fine-grained clay, impermeable to water, forms the 

 surface. Such places have physical defects that render the accumulation of humus impossible, and they form the 

 most sterile soils in the lands adjoining the valley. These places occur on the sloping ridges, and are characterized 

 by a deiiciency of limestone pebbles. 



The lands adjoining tbe river in the lower part of the valley are usually divided into three classes: 1, the 

 alluvial bottoms; 2, the second bottoms; and 3, the gravel beds, or third bottoms. 



Tbe alluvial bottoms owe their origin to causes now in operation. They are formed of the sedimentary sands, 

 ciays, gravel, silt, and decayed vegetable matter gathered by the surface waters from the second and third bottoms 

 and deposited in times of overflow upon the present flood plain. These various materials are deposited sometimes 

 very irregularly, making sandy bottoms, loamy bottoms, clay beds, or gravelly bottoms, the manner of deposit 

 being governed by the swiftness or the gentleness of the stream and by the currents and counter-currents produced 

 by interfering obstacles. Most frequently, however, all the ingredients are mingled so as to form a very fruitful 

 soil, and the regularly recurring deposits keep up a high fertility. Laud shells are very common on this soil. 



The second bottoms form a terrace about 30 feet above the first bottoms. The widespread plains of this 

 terrace arc the very best farming lands of the valley, and here are found the best tobacco and wheat soils of the 

 region. The soil is loamy, and is characterized by the growth of sugar maple, walnut, oaks of Various kinds, ash, 

 hickory, mulberry, liackberry, elm, locust, buckeye, linn, soft maple, sycamore, tulip-tree, cherry, cottonwood, 

 irouwood, white walnut, gum, and beech. 



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