264 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1551, 552, 553> 



have much reason to fear the latter ; while it will enable us to plow at the proper 

 time, without fear of working the soil into brick-bats. For there are few soils 

 more severely injured by wet plowing, and also, be it remembered, by the tramp- 

 ling of cattle, than are those of the prairies. As regards the latter, there are 

 few cases probably in which the feed obtained and the dung dropped by the 

 cattle, cau compensate for the injury done to the soil by turning in stock, 

 especially during a wet spell. 



551. Drainage, therefore, will undoubtedly serve to correct 

 essentially the physical properties ol the prairie soil, while at the 

 same time, it will afford the crop an opportunity of seeking its 

 nourishment within a wider range, in the fertile subsoil ; thus 

 restoring to fertility, for the time being, those soils which, after a 

 series of years' severe cropping, have "now given out. Deep 

 plowing will, of course, itself be a considerable step towards the 

 attainment of the same benefits, and is to be greatly recommended 

 throughout the prairies. The use of the Rotten Limestone as a. 

 marl (1142), especially in connection with green crops, will also 

 benefit essentially the exhausted soils. Yet it must be recollected, 

 that all these means combined are no talisman against ultimate 

 exhaustion, if the fundamental maxim of the maintenance of fertility 

 (488, ff.) be violated ; and that the prairies as well as the Missis- 

 sippi Bottom will give out, if their soil is continually drafted upon 

 without return. 



552. Bald Prairies. — A large supply of vegetable matter seems to 

 have proved the best remedy against the diseases which crops 

 grown on this soil are subject to ; they maybe considered, in fact, as 

 soils having received an overdressing of marl (1460). Wherever 

 practicable, the intermixture of the bald-prairie soil with those of 

 the yellow loam character, ought to be favored. 



553. Prairie Uplands of Kemper and Noxubee. — In N. E. Kemper 

 and the adjoining portions of Noxubee, there is within the prairie 

 region a great variety of soils. The prairie soil proper occurs 

 only in patches, on hillsides or in depressions, where the limestone 

 approaches the surface, and not unfrequently forms small bald 

 prairies also — very similarly as in Tishomingo (1438). The black 

 prairie soil here, however, contains a good deal of coarse sand, 

 and differs from most of those further N., in that it frequently rusts 

 cotton very badly, while producing splendid crops of corn and 

 wheat. In point of vegetation, these prairie patches resemble the 

 "Chickasaw Old Fields" of Pontotoc (11121); the limestone, 

 however, is not generally so near to the surface. 



On the higher ridges there often prevails a very heavy, dark orange colored 

 soil, preserving very nearly the same appearance for 2 to 6 feet, where it is 

 underlaid by the Rotten Limestone. Its natural timber is short, sturdy Post 

 Oak and Black Jack. Gov. J. J. Pettus, on whose plantation, among others, 

 this soil occurs, states that it produces fine wheat and also good cotton, which 

 does not grow high but bolls very well ; and that, moreover, when it is mingled 

 "with the black or bald prairie soils, it prevents their rusting cotton. Since this 

 soil occupies the ridges and is, therefore, easily transported to the prairie beneath 

 it, this observation may in many cases be turned to practical advantage. Its 



