2. SPECIAL PART; AGRICULTURAL FEATURES 

 OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 



THE NORTH-EASTERN PRAIRIE REGION. 



Comprising the Counties, and parts of Counties, East of the Flatwood* 

 Kegion, viz : Tishomingo, East Tippah, Itawamba, East Pontotoo, 

 Monroe, East Chickasaw, Lowndes, East Ocktibbeha, East Noxubee, 

 avd Northeast Kemper. 



527 *. The name given above for this group of counties, must 

 not be understood as implying that the whole, or even the greater 

 part of the area included therein, is of a prairie character ; but 

 only as including all that part of North Mississippi in which 

 prairies do occur, more or less. It might perhaps have been more 

 properly, though less intelligibly to agriculturists, designated as 

 the Cretaceous, or North-eastern Lime Kegion, inasmuch as its 

 prominent agricultural as well as geological features, are dependent 

 upon the several calcareous strata of the Cretaceous formation 

 (1[99 ; ff.); with the exception of a few townships in E. Tishomingo 

 county, where the limestone and sandstone strata of the Lower 

 Carboniferous formation (TaO, ff.) prevail. 



For a full understanding of the agricultural conditions of this 

 region, it will be well for the reader to refer to what has been said 

 with reference to tlie cretaceous formation, in the Geological 

 Report, pages GO to 106. For convenience, however, I shall here 

 briefly recapitulate the general features. 



527 ~. The cretaceous formation of Mississippi consists essentially 

 of four different stages or beds, which have a W. or S. W. dip of 

 about 25 feet per mile, and possess the following general charac- 

 ters. The uppermost of these divisions (Ripley Group, 1128), 

 which of course appears to the westward of the others, consists of 

 hard, sandy limestones, with strata of blue shell marl between, 

 and generally, one of heavy gray calcareous clay on top : these 

 strata, overlaid by a yellow or orange-colored loam, form the 

 Pontotoc Ridge. The middle stratum consists of whiteclay marls 

 or soft limestones— "Rotten Limestone" (1 116, ff.), and forms a 

 level or gently undulating surface, mostly with heavy, calcareous 



