24 GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 



a great deal of fine agricultural land, with here and there dis- 

 tricts that arc quite broken and illy adapted to cultivation. 

 The western portion is the most broken, particularly in the vi- 

 cinity of the larger streams. So soon as we leave the valleys 

 of these streams, we encounter rough, rocky hills with abrupt 

 slopes, characterized by poor and sometimes barren soils, ex- 

 tending back for distances varying from a half of a mile to two 

 miles on either side. Then succeed elevated and gently un- 

 dulating table lands, possessing moderately fertile soils. There 

 is also some rough country bordering the valleys of the Dry 

 Fork of the Meramec and Norman Hollow. The dividing ridge 

 between the Meramec and Bourbeuse presents a succession of 

 beautiful woodlands and prairies, and affords some of the finest 

 farms in the county. On the north side of this ridge we have 

 rolling oak lands, dotted occasionally with patches of prairie. 

 They possess arable soils, particularly where the underlying 

 rock is the 2d Magnesian Limestone, which under proper cul- 

 ture yield abundant and profitable crops. From experiments 

 made in the county by an intelligent farmer, we know that these 

 lands are capable of vast improvement from thorough sub- 

 soiling. 



" The valleys of Little Piney, Spring and Dry Fork of Meramec 

 and Bourbeuse, have a width varying from a hundred yards to 

 a half of a mile, and their soils are remarkable for their pro- 

 ductiveness, throughout nearly their whole extent. The val- 

 leys of the smaller streams contain also many very desirable 

 farm sites. 



"Pttlaski County is in general very hilly and broken, but 

 there are extensive districts of rich and productive agricultural 

 lands in the alluvial bottoms of the streams, as well as in the 

 uplands. The hills range from fifty to five hundred feet above 

 the water-courses. If we travel back from the streams, avoid- 

 ing the valleys of the smaller branches, we usually find at first 

 very rough hills with steep declivities, strewn with a great deal 

 of chert and sandstone, then the surface becomes gently rolling, 

 or expands into level plains, constituting what are known in 

 the country as "post oak flats" which are found on the sum- 

 mits of most of the higher ridges, and vary in width from a 

 hundred yards to a couple of miles. For a short time during 

 the spring these plains are occasionally wet, but after they have 



