5608, 609, 610, 611] transition op soils. 289 



or scrubby growth ; while Hickory is absent or present only in small trees, and 

 Black and Red ("Black") Oak are wanting. Moreover, the Chestnut tree, 

 though not abundant in individuals, is a very constant inhabitant of the poorer 

 class of ridge soils of N. Mississippi. 



608. We find of course, all degrees of transition from one extreme 

 of the soils above mentioned to the other, and it would be futile as 

 well as useless to attempt to define and distinguish them strictly. 

 For these transitions, are essentially incident to the manner in 

 which these soils were formed, since, when the loam was carried 

 over, and deposited on the Orange Sand strata, its lower portions 

 would unavoidably become mixed, to some extent, with the loosened 

 materials of the latter. We find, therefore, in examining a profile 

 where (as in road washes) the loam and Orange Sand are exposed 

 together, that near the line of junction, for a foot or eighteen 

 inches, we have a very sandy loam or clayey sand, corresponding 

 exactly to the Pine and Black Jack ridge soils, while higher up, 

 there is less sand, and when thicker than two feet, the loam appears 

 nearly of uniform character thence upwards. 



While, therefore, it is convenient to keep in mind these two, as the principal 

 types of soil, for convenience of comparison and description, it will, in many 

 cases, be entirely optional with the observer, to which of the two classes his 

 particular soil shall be counted as belonging. 



609. It is very essential, however, in judging of the position of any of these 

 soils in the scale of comparison, to take into account not only the kind (species) 

 of the trees, but also their mode of growth. The Black Jack and Post Oak, 

 especially, as species, belong to the poorest as well as the richest upland soils, 

 both of this region, and of Mississippi generally; and the Spanish ("Bed") 

 Oak, while its range as to quality of soil is generally less than that of the other 

 two, would cause even a greater number of mistakes, if relied on as a species to 

 indicate any particular quality of soil ; not only on account of its wide distribu- 

 tion, but, also, because of the greater difficulty of distinguishing from one another 

 the different forms it assumes on the several kinds of soil. 



610. A good sized Post Oak of sturdy, thick-set growth, with stout, crooked 

 branches, which decrease rapidly in thickness, and with a dense well shaped 

 top, will never be found on a poor or easily exhausted soil. But let it be small 

 and scrubby, with numerous small branches, and a long tattered top ; or its 

 -trunks tall, thin and tapering, with long, rod-shaped branches, themselves often 

 covered with stout foliage ; and an open, irregular, or tattered top, or muck 

 elongated (in the shape of a long Pecan nut): and little is to be expected of the 

 natural resources of the soil. 



611. With the Black Jack Oak, the characteristics are somewhat different. 

 The short and knotty Black Jack, whose trunks will sometimes scarcely yield 

 a straight piece long enough for a fence-post, and generally places the purchaser 

 of cord- wood under a great disadvantage ; which possesses short and very 

 crooked branches, and a tattered, open top, is the characteristic tree of the poor 

 sandy Black Jack ridges ; and when very small besides, it denotes the very 

 poorest soil. Dense rounded tops, with rather low, but straight trunks, belong 

 to the heavy prairie soils of the cretaceous formation (Monroe, Chickasaw), and 

 on the other hand, to the fertile, but extremely sandy ridge soils of S. Noxubee, 

 Kemper, Lauderdale and Jasper, while on the fertile yellow loam soils of North 

 Marshall, Holmes, Madison, etc., the Black Jack forms large, well shaped, 

 spreading trees, sometimes fifty feet and more in length, with trunks compara- 

 tively straight — or at least, not whimsically knotty like those of the Pine Hills ; 



K— 19 



