260 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [T541, 542, 543 



more easily in the bottoms, in which the soil sometimes assumes a 

 prairie character. Black and bald prairie are said to set in 

 shortly after crossing the Tennessee line, north of this region. At 

 Corinth the heavy clay marls, as may be observed in the Railroad 

 cuts, are much nearer the surface, and the soil is correspondingly 

 heavier. The country between Corinth and Chawalla is more 

 undu ating than the lands near Farmiugton, and although produc- 

 tive, its soil is not equal, on the whole, to that of the latter, its 

 growth of timber being also inferior, and on the ridges, disposed 

 to be scrubby. The Tuscumbia bottom is wide and fertile, but 

 overflows. 



541. South of the Tuscumbia, in the fertile regions about Kossuth 

 and Danville, we have frequent alternations of the yellow loam soil 

 on the uplands, with spots of prairie on the hillsides and in the 

 bo t to me. 



Here, as elsewhere, the washings from the loam and sand hills often greatly 

 improve the heavy prairie soil, rendering it safer, and forming the thrifty 

 "mahogany " soils. Where the loam stratum is sufficiently thick, so as to allow 

 of this washing without penetrating the loam into the Orange Sand, advantage 

 may be taken of this circumstance, since the loam appears to be equally rich in 

 its whole mass, and a new soil is readily formed on the washed surfaces; but 

 the washes must not be allowed to penetrate into the reddish hard-pan under- 

 lying the loam, which cannot serve as a soil. In general, wherever an intermix- 

 ture of the two soils can be conveniently effected, it ought to be done. The 

 marls of the region (such as that on the Parmeemee (H"118), and at other points 

 on the creeks) will undoubtedly be of great service on the yellow loam uplands, 

 in which deep tillage is found to be highly effectual. 



542. In TT. 1 and 2, R. 6 &., pine ridges divide the waters of 

 the Hatchie and Tuscumbia, the line given on the map running very 

 nearly on their eastern slope, e. g , near Bone Yard. In the S. W. 

 part of T. 3, and W. half ot T. 4, however, gently undulating oak 

 uplands form a dividing pla'eau, whose timber — Post, Black Jack 

 and Spanish ("Red") Oaks, with Hickory — seems to indicate a 

 fair soil, although thus t'ar it is but thinly settled — perhaps on 

 account of the scarcity of water, which can, however, be remedied 

 by bored wells. 



Further east, near, and south of Eienzi, the country is essentially the same as 

 near Danville, and as described in the general remarks on the region (1[538) — 

 the black prairie soil, as well as the bald prairies, being on the whole more 

 frequent near the eastern than the western border of the belt; and the same 

 features continue, with little variation, to Old Town Creek, in Pontotoc and 

 Itawamba, so that to describe every portion of this tract would involve contin- 

 ual repetition. The conntry around Richmond and Ellistown is a copy of that 

 near Rienzi, only that in general, as we advance southward, the prairie soil 

 appears more frequently, and in larger patches, until, after crossing Old Town 

 Creek in Pontotoc, we find in the "Chickasaw Old Fields" (1[121) the begin- 

 ning of the prairies proper, which set in inlorce on the Chiwapa, Tallabinela 

 and Luckatubby, in the south-east corner of Pontotoc county. 



543. On the eastern border of the prairie or " White Lime Country" belt (as 

 near Carrollville, Richmond, etc.), we generally notice rather a gradual transition 

 of the gently undulating, yellow loam uplands, into the sandy soils or Pine Hill» 

 before described; and while in North-east Tippah we meet pretty suddenly the 



