LOUISIANA. 



The bottoms, however, are narrow and 

 biibjfit to overUow aud are therefore 

 u<jt much cultivated. 



I'eiidarvis prairie in the fork of the 

 Dudticmoiiu and Castor, is of true 

 cretaceous blacli prairie formation. The 

 salt licks with salt springs or wells, 

 underlaid by cretaceous limestone, occur 

 In various parts of the parish. Price's 

 lick, Drake's salt works. Cedar lick and 

 others are notable instances of these 

 outcrops. The cretaceous limestone hill, 

 near Winnfield, is of the same origin and 

 from it can be made most excellent lime, 

 which could be used to advantage on most 

 of the soils of the pari.sh. At Louisville, 

 in the northeastern part of the parish, 

 this character of limestone comes to the 

 surface and furnishes a small track of 

 black prairie circular to Peudarvis 

 prairie. 



RAPIDES PARISH. 



This parish, while classified under the 

 long-leaf pine hills, on account of the 

 lii.tter constituting about two-thirds of its 

 area, has yet a large and magnificent 

 development of alluvial lauds, which are 

 well cultivated and thickly settled, and 

 give immense wealth to the parish. The 

 Red river plain runs diagonally through 

 the parish i^m northwest to "southeast, 

 with an average width of about twelve 

 miles. East and west of this plain are 

 the gently rolling hills, with the usual 

 sandy soil of this formation, sunnorting 

 a long-leaf pine forest, with narrow but 

 fertile hollows skirting the streams. In 

 the southern portion of the parish bayou 

 Cocodrie forms a great swamp. In the 

 extreme northwestern part of the parish 

 Holloway's prairie begins fid runs south- 

 vi'ard into Avoyelles. This prairie is 

 of bluff origi!!. and supports a growth 

 of timber entirely different from tl'at 

 to be found on the adjoining hills. At 

 the foot of this prairie the Red river 

 valley proper terminates, and thereafter 

 is mingled with the great flood plain 

 of the Mississippi. The alluvial lands of 

 Rai)ides are claimed by many as the 

 finest lands of the state. Near the river 

 and bayous the light, sandy, red lands 

 prevail, superseded further off by the 

 back lands, which are brown mahogany 

 loams. Roth of these are very fertile. 

 Further back occurs a heavv red buck- 

 shot, hard to drain and diflicult to cul- 

 tivate. This is known loeallv as the 

 "saltpeter" soil, and is not held in high 

 esteem, although it is rich in the ingre- 

 dients required for plant growth. 



VERNON PARISH, 



with the exception of Anacoco prairie 

 region, is entirely of the long-leaf pine 

 hills. The bulk of the cotton grown in 

 the parish is in the former. This parish 

 Is at present inaccessible, and, there- 

 fore, its settlement has been only along 

 the prairie region and fertile bottoms of 

 its streams, the hills being as yet but 

 sparsely inhabited, though clothed with 

 the finest kind of timber. The head- 

 waters of the Calcasieu, (<astor and Run- 

 dick streams furnish some wide bottoms, 

 which are thickly settled, as also the best 

 character of nolands surroundiri" them. 

 The bottoms of the Sabine are not very 

 extensively cultivated. 



ST. IIIDLENA PARISH 



Is cultivated chiefly along the bottoms 

 of the smaller streams and the second 



bottoms of the Amite and Tickfaw rivers. 

 The uplands are mainly rolling, undulat- 

 ing piiie-hlU count;-y, with the" character- 

 istic sandy loam soil, underlaid at a. 

 few inches depth by a pale yellow sub- 

 soil, changing in local spot's to gray, 

 with bog on concretions intermixed. 

 These soils are poor but susceptible of 

 of great improvement and with excellent 

 water and good health, the country must 

 be thickly settled as soon as railroad 

 facilities are offered, ju.st as has been 

 done in the adjoining parish of Tangi- 

 pahoa, along the line of the Illinois Cen- 

 tral Railroad. When transportation i» 

 furnished, all of these soils will, by ferti- 

 lizers, be converted into truck gardens, 

 for which, on account of their physical 

 qualities, they are so specially adapted. 



WASHINGTON PARISH 



is almost entirely undulating pinewoods. 

 like those of northern Tangipahoa and St. 

 Helena, the bottoms and hammocks of the 

 stieams forming tue only exception. The 

 latter, however, furnish mainly the arable 

 lands, the settlements being almost en- 

 tirely along the water courses. Rogue 

 Chitto, running through the center of the 

 parish, furnishes a considerable area of 

 cultivatable soils. Pearl river bottoms are 

 subject to overflow, Ijut when reclaimed, 

 the soils are very fertile. Like similar 

 soils elsewhere, the hill lands can be 

 easily improved and made very fertile 

 with proper manures and rotation of 

 crops. Lumber, turpentine aud charcoal 

 are the products of the forest. Stock- 

 raising is also extensively carried on iu 

 the open woods. 



THE LONG-LEAP PINE FLATS 



«;xist in the extreme eastern and west- 

 ern portions of the state. In the west, 

 north of the pine prairies of Calcasieu 

 parish, directly north of thy west fork 

 of the Calcasieu river, occurs a strip of 

 pine flats nearly twenty miles wide. It 

 Is included between the pine hills and 

 the pine prairies. The soil here ir. a gray, 

 unretentive silt, underlaid by brown 

 ferruginous concretions, resting at 18 

 to 30 inches upon a compact blue subsoil, 

 full of bog, on gravels or sand, ce- 

 mented into an impervious mass by clay. 

 The roots of the pine remain above this 

 last stratum, and hence are easily up- 

 rooted by the storms. Further north this 

 crayttshy stratum is gradually displaced 

 by a yellow sandy or silty loam, and the 

 lands become more rolling, forming a 

 gradual transition to the pine hills. In 

 the east the pine flats of St. Tammany. 

 Tangipahoa and parts of Livingston aud 

 St. Helena are somewhat difl^erent. A 

 heavy gray clay unclerlies most of the re- 

 gion, which at times approaches the sur- 

 face, forming cold, undrained soils, or is 

 covered to a few inches by a silty soil 

 of p!)or quality. Lake Pontchartrain is 

 partly belted with a fair but ill-drained 

 soil, bearing a growth of sweet gum and 

 lowland oaks. Along the courses of the 

 streams, notably Amite and Tangipahoa 

 rivers, occur belts of oaks, beach, dog- 

 wood and short-leaf pine, with a brown 

 soil, easily tilled and fairly productive, 

 which rests tipon a foundation of sandy 

 red clay. Most of the settlements iu this 

 country are, therefore, along these bot- 

 toms. "However, as pasture and for lum- 

 bering and the manufacture of turpentine 

 and charcoal, these forests excel. 



