288 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1605 2 , 606, 607 l f 607 2 



605 2 It is not unfrequently the case, that by judiciously selecting the site for 

 a well on those ridges whose upper portion consists of sand, water may be 

 obtained without touching the " black dirt." This can very commonly be done 

 in the heads of hollows, at, or little above the point where the three slopes meet. 

 At all events, however, it is advisable to use cisterns rather than the natural 

 water of the Hilly Flatwoods Region, whenever it possesses any considerable 

 taste of mineral matters. 



THE YELLOW LOAM REGION. 



Comprising North-west Tippah, Marshall, the greater part of DeSoto, 

 East Panola, Lafayette, West Calhoun, Yallabusha, part of East 

 Tallahatchie, East Carroll, Choctaw, East Holmes, North-east Yazoo, 

 North Madison, Attala, Leake, Winston, Neshoba, part of Kemper, 

 Lauderdale, Newton, (greater part) and North-east corner of Scott. 



606. I embrace under this head, for the present, all that portion 

 of the State lying between the Mississippi Bottom on the West, 

 the Flatwoods Region on the East, and N. of the territory of the 

 marine calcareous Tertiary (1192 to 229 — see map) ; which em- 

 braces the counties above named. 



Of course the soils on this large territory are very numerous and variable, 

 and there is in most cases no sharp line of demarkation from the adjoining 

 districts. Until, however, a greater number of soils from the several portions 

 of this territory shall have been analyzed, it will serve no practical purpose to 

 subdivide it into minor groups. 



The general characteristics of its soils may be thus defined : 

 that those of the better class of uplands are formed by a yellow 

 or brownish-yellow loam (1332 ff.), varying greatly in thickness, 

 from a few inches to as much as 20 feet, but averaging about 3 

 feet, which forms generally a light soil, and is underlaid by either 

 loose sand, or red hardpan of the Orange Sand formation (16 to 

 77) ; while on the poorer uplands, the loam is very thin or entirely 

 absent, and some of the materials of the Orange Sand, or their 

 intermixture with the yellow loam, form a sandy soil which, though 

 at times quite productive at first, wears out very rapidly. 



607 x . The former soils are timbered, essentially, with Spanish 

 (" Red ")i Red (" Black ") and large, sturdy Post Oak, and Hickory, 

 to which, especially in cases both of unusual heaviness, and light- 

 ness, the Black Jack Oak is very generally added. In the rich 

 hill soils, and very commonly on the slopes, and near the bottoms, 

 the true Black Oak, or Quercitron Oak, is also common. 



607. 2 - The Scarlet (" Spanish") Oak is found among these commonly occur- 

 ring trees, everywhere more or less ; its prevalence, however, is considered an 

 unfavorable symptom as regards the fertility of the soil — it belongs more partic- 

 ularly to the poorer class of the " Yellow Loam Soils," merging towards the 

 "Pine Hill" and "Black JackR'dge" soils of North Mississippi, which are 

 characterized in general as above stated, by their sandiness, and as concerns 

 their growth, by Post Oak, Black Jack and Short-leaf Pine, among which the 

 Spanish ("Red") and Scarlet ('• Spanish") Oak appear scatteringly, and of lank 



