SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 47 
Three miles south of Missouri City is the Blue Ridge salt dome and 
oil field, with numerous derricks on and near two hills that rise a few 
i rie feet above the general plain. There is also a shaft 
Missouri City. nk for the salt:that constitutes the core of the 
Hee eiee e ee ies, Uplift below a depth of 450 feet and is at least 850 
feet thick. It is estimated that 250,000,000 tons of 
salt is available. Development of the petroleum began in 1903, but 
there was little production prior to 1919, when several good strikes 
were made that gave a production of 326,000 barrels in 1921 and a 
peak production of 2,205,000 barrels in 1928. In 1930 the produc- 
tion was 644,000 barrels. In structure this mound is very similar to 
the one at Pierce Junction and other places—a stocklike core of salt 
with anhydrite cap, with the older strata considerably uplifted on its 
flanks. The dips on the east side are reported as 35° to 45°, and those 
on the west side seem to be greater. An oil sand at 3,900 feet is prob- 
ably in the top of the Oligocene, and this apparently is the source of 
the oil in most of the successful wells. In one well the base of this 
division is placed at 3,410 feet, and a sample at 3,662 feet yielded 
fossils classed as “low in the Jackson” (upper Eocene). (Hager and 
The smooth plain of the Houston region extends widely with its 
thick cover of clay and loam. Much land is under cultivation with 
ek fields of cotton and other crops. Many figs are 
Stafford. ised, an industry which is growing rapidly. A few 
Faced ig sed oaks are noticeable, and Spanish moss is 
New Orleans 383 miles. present on trees in some of the ill-drained areas. A 
short distance west of Stafford, north of the tracks, 
is the radio broadcasting station KPRC. 
Sugar Land lies in the bottom lands of the Brazos River in the midst 
of a 17,500-acre plantation on which large amounts of cotton and 
. garden truck are raised. Here the dark soil of the 
Sugar Land. Lake Charles type gives place to chocolate-brown 
ee soils deposited by the overflow of the Brazos River. 
Now Simian ak Sugar Land is a center of various industries. Its 
most conspicuous feature is a refinery which handles 
raw sugar imported through Galveston and has a capacity of 1,500,000 
pounds a day. In this section artesian wells afford oxcelléat water 
from the deposits that underlie the Coastal Plain. 
Four miles southwest of Sugar Land is the De Walt oil field, in a 
salt dome of small extent discovered by geophysical methods and 
