210 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1370, 37 1 1 , 371 2 , 372, 37a 



the expiration of one-half the time during which, with prudent management, 

 it would have held out. 



Under the head of Manures, this subject will he more fully considered, in 

 connection with the use of the marls of our State. 



370. Calcareous Soils. — Limy (or calcareous) soils, i. e. t soils in which lime ; 

 in combination with caibonic acid, forms a prominent ingredient, occur much 

 less liequently than is commonly supposed. The soils of the prairies, whi< hare 

 notoriously limy, have given rise to the supposition that all soils i esc milling 

 them in their physical characters, and paiticularly in point of "heaviness" and 

 the propei ty of forming an exceedingly tenacious mud, are limy also. Spots 

 where some tenacious clay, of whatever color, comes to the surface, forming 

 redoubtable obstacles to vehicles in the rainy season, are popularly styled 

 ** prairie spots," throughout the State. 



371 1 Many purchases and settlements have been made on the strength of 

 this apparent similarity of the soil to that of the piairies; and when it is after- 

 wards found that the soil in question will produce little or nothing, it is very 

 commonly ascribed to an excess of lime supposed to be contained in it. Such is 

 commonly the case in th: "Flatwoods" region, which skirts the Prairie region on 

 the west, from Tippah Creek, in the county of the same name, through Pontotoc, 

 Chickasaw, Ockthbeha, pait of Winston, and Noxubee, to Kemper find the 

 Alabama line. The same supposition is entertained with reference to the "hog- 

 bed" or " hog- wallow prairie" soil, occurring in Smith, Jasper and seme of the 

 adjoining counties. In both these cases, the direct con tiary is proved by the 

 analyses of the respective soils, which are given further on ; not only is theie no 

 excess of lime in either, but especially with reference to the Flatwoods soils, even 

 a deficiency to such an extent, that the application of lime, as a manure, to these 

 soils, isai once indicated. 



371 2 The heaviness and " stickiness" of the prairie soil has nothing what- 

 soever to do with the lime contained therein ; on the contrary, an excess of lime 

 rather tends to diminish the tenacity of clays, as may be observed on the '• bald 

 prairie" hilltops, as compared with the level piaiiie with yellow clay subsoil. In 

 the light, almost pulverulent silt which forms the main mass of the hills of the 

 Southern River Counties— (Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Petit Gulf Hills, etc.) — 

 we have a soil containing much more lime than even the black prairie soils -of 

 Smith and Jasper; jet that soil never forms, at the worst seasons, anything 

 that would be called "mud" in the prairie region. 



372 The true distinguishing features of limy ("calcareous") soils, which 

 never fail to characterize them plainly enough, may be found in the ptculiar 

 growth, large and small, which they bear. Chemical reagents cannot more 

 sui ely announce the presence, in the soil, of a large supply of lime, than dots the 

 prevalence Of theCrabApp e, the Wild Plum, the Cottonwood, the Sycamore, the 

 "Poplar," and some others — And we may confidently hope that a diligent 

 comparison of a sufficient numlei of soil-anah ses with the natural growth of 

 the soils, will enable us to judge, in a similar mann« r, as to the present e or 

 pre* alence of other ingredients ; so that we may analj ze the soils, as it were, by 

 the eye alone. 



373. 'the next element in our list is Magnesium,, the combination of which 

 with oxygen is Magnesia. Epsom salt, the ccml ination of magnesia with sul- 

 phuric acid, is familiarly known ; besides this, the combination of magnesium 

 with chlorine is practcally important, as being the cause of the greater pungency 

 of sea-salt, and a common — too common— constituent of spiing and well waters, 

 in some regions of the State. Magnesia is scarcely ever wanting- in soils, and 

 is remarkably abundant in a large pait of those of our State, which are derived 

 from the materials of the several lignitic stages (Geological Report, p. 110, 147, 

 fl"). It may be said that the latter are almost as certainly characterized by 

 magnesia, as the marine strata of Jackson, Vicksburg, etc., are by lime. 

 Probably the majority of mineral springs in this State are characterized by 

 magnesian salts (fl 155 ; 316). 



