H544, 545] ITAWAMBA — PRAIBIK REGION. 261 



Hatchie Hills, in South-east Tippah, and Pontotoc, we mostly nod the fertile 

 hilly lands and highly colored soils of the Pontotoc Rid.je, distinctly marking 

 the western outline of the "prairie country." In South-west Itawamba, east of 

 Old Town Creek, the creek bottoms are remarkably wide, not of a prairie char- 

 acter, but timbered largely with Willow an I Water Oak, and possessing a 

 fertile, easily tilled soil. We here find also at tbe western border of the sandy 

 region (<?. </., near Borland, P. O.), a belt of "beeswax hommocks" (closely 

 resembling those of the eastern portion of the Pontotoc Ridge opposite) whose 

 soil is formed from a very clayey variety of the Rotten Limestone, which often 

 crops out on the hillsides. Southward of this point, however, the "beeswax 

 hommock" soil is not often seen, and the soils of the prairie region usually 

 become lighter, as we approach the eastern border. 



514. The Prairie Region Proper. — The surface configuration 



and general features of this territory have of necessity been dis- 

 cussed, to a great extent, in the Geological Report, under the head 

 of the Rotten Limestone Group (UJltj, ff.), to which place I 

 refer the reader for the chief points, while giving more specially, 

 in this place, such observations as the limited examination which 

 its soils have thus far received, has enabled ma to make. 



The prairies proper — level, or very gently undulating tracts, 

 possessing a deep black, heavy soil, on which timber is very much 

 scattered or altogether wanting — form, as has been stated, belts, or 

 series of disconnected patches, having on the whole, a north and 

 south course; and are interspersed with tracts of a more rolling 

 surface, mostly with a shallow, pale, light soil, timbered with the 

 common upland Oaks — Spanish ("Red"), Post, Black Jack, and 

 sometimes Red and Black (" Black") and Scarlet (" Spanish ") Oak — 

 which, though usually perhaps of average fertility, is sometimes 

 absolutely poor, as may be gathered from the scrubby, stunted 

 growth it then bears ; the productiveness varying, it appears, very 

 nearly in proportion to the approach of the Rotten Limestone to 

 the surface. Here, we find not unfrequently, where these uplands 

 slope off toward the creek bottoms, "hommock" lands, increasing 

 in fertility as we descend, and in the bottoms themselves (where 

 the white rock is only a few feet underground), passing into black 

 prairie soil, differing little from that on the ridges ; though, per- 

 haps, in general it is somewhat lighter, and richer in vegetable 

 matter. 



515. The character of the soil of the cretaceous pmiries has been repeatedly 

 referred to (116 ; 330, ff.; Gen. Agr. Rept). It is a very heavy cla/ soil, of a dark 

 tint, and possessing a pale, dirty greenish-yellow subsoil, of equal or greater 

 heaviness, underlaid, at a depth of three to ten feet (on the prairies of Monroe 

 and Chickasaw") by the Kotten Limestone. The soil is sometimes without 

 timber of any kind, but usually bears clumps at least, of Crab Apple, Wild 

 Plum, Honey Locust, and Persimmon. These mostly occur even on the " bald 

 prairies," where the rock is so close to the surface that its admixture to the 

 ■oil is evident to the eye ; while whenever the soil and subsoil are of greater 

 thickness, isolated Black Jacks and Post Oaks, of a stout growth and peculiar 

 form (the Black Jacks with a round, close top ; the Post Oaks with a stout, 

 rapidly tapering trunk and very dense, rounded top), als:> occur. On the regu- 

 lar " black prairie," the color of the soil exhibits little change for twelve to 

 eighteen inches; and sometimes an admixture of vegetable matter is perceptible 



