268 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The surface soil of this character, from 8 to 12 inches in depth, is generally 

 of a light chocolate tint, its subsoil pale orange-yellow above, but becoming 

 deeper tinted, and more like the "red lands" subsoil, as we go deeper. A 

 specimen of this kind of soil is the only one of the soils of the Pontotoc Ridge 

 of which I have as yet been able to make a (partial) analysis. 



No. 226. "Mulatto Soil" from Stephen Dagett's land, S. 33, T. 10, R. 3 E., 

 Pontotoc county. 

 Depth : Ten inches. 



Vegetation : Spanish ("Bed"), Black and Post Oak, Hickory — all large and 

 stout trees ; some Black Gum, Sweet Gum, and Black Walnut. 

 Color when moist, a light chocolate tint. 

 Mellow, easily tilled. 



The airdried soil lost 3.663 per cent, of moisture at 400 deg. Fahr., dried at 

 which temperature it consisted of : 



Insoluble Matter 90.572 



Potash 1.096 



Soda 0.423 



Lime 0.178 



Peroxide of Iron 2 060 



Alumina 3.555 



Magnesia, Brown Oxide of Manganese Sulphuric and 

 Phosphoric Acids, Water and Organic Matter (.determi- 

 nation not completed) 2.116 



100.000 



The amounts of Potash and Sida shown by this analysis are unusually high' 

 in a soil containing so much insoluble nutter. The amount of Lime is not 

 proportionately high, and hence greit bsnitit will no doubt be derived from the 

 use of calcireous m mures on this s>il — which his already been experienced in 

 the neighborhood of Pontotoc (TT 153), where the same soil, or nearly so, 

 prevails. The ingredients not determinal must ba present in a fair proportion 

 to the rest, for the land averages 1,000 lbs. of seed-cotton, and will produce as 

 high as forty and more, bushels of corn. 



563. Tuere are am nig the soils of the Pontotoc Ridge, tvro 

 other chief varieties, which have been mentioned before (1127), 

 viz : a heavy, yellow or greenish-yellow clay soil, timbered almost 

 exclusively with Black Jaek, forming " beeswax horn n)jks" simi- 

 lar to those described in Itawamba ('153}); and ■' bald prairie 

 hilltops, " formed either by the " bored limestone" or its represen- 

 tative, the white calcareous sand (TT 135).; sods of this character, 

 and those resulting from their inter. nixture with the more prevalent 

 loam soils of the Ridge, generally bear a growth of stout, sturdy 

 Post Oak, with trunks curving to one side (H540), interspersed 

 with Crab Apple, Honey Locust, etc. 



The soils of the latter kind are generally very productive, especially for core 

 — they will sometimes rust cotton, but this can probably be obviated by giving 

 them a supply of vegetable matter. 



As for the "beeswax hommock" or Black Jack soil, though probably possess- 

 ing a good supply of the elements of fertility, it is so stiff and intractable, as to 

 render its cultivation somewhat precarious, since it is severely injured both by 

 wet and drouth It is almost destitute of vegetable matter, and the addition 

 of this and of sandy marls, would probably be the first stop towards its 

 reclamation ; it has not yet, however, received sufficient attention. — There are, 

 of course, a great variety of intermixtures of these various soils, especially on> 



