T0 2 3, 624, 625] importance op " circling". 293 



brown than is the case further west, and the face of the country 

 gradually becomes more hilly as, after crossing Wolf River, near 

 Spring TTill we advance eastward. 



In Marshall county the material underlying the surface loam is generally a 

 reddish hardpan (of the Orange Sand formation), which sometimes is impervious 

 enough even to give rise to springs, or at least, to retain the water in pools in 

 the beds of the streams, after they have ceased to flow — as, unfortunately, they 

 very generally do during a large portion of the summer, in the "table-land'" 

 region. As, however, we approach the dividing plateau between the waters of 

 "Wolf River and Hatchie, in T. 1, It. 2 and 3 E., and the northern portion of T. 

 2 of the same range, we find the strata underlying the loam to consist of loose, 

 white or yellowish sand, in consequence of which, the soil washes very badly, 

 though according to the inhabitants, it is "good enough as long as it will stay"; 

 while still further east, on the waters of Muddy Creek, as well as southward, 

 the surface becomes more hilly and sandy and the soil inferior. — The streams of 

 this plateau land flow only a short time even after the heaviest rains, their water 

 being rapidly absorbed by the soil ; though even here, a stray layer of clay 

 traversing the sand, will occasionally give rise to a spring. Wells require to be 

 sunk to considerable and inconvenient depths, in order to obtain a steady supply 

 of water during the summer ; and stock water requires to be kept in artificial 

 ponds. The peculiar shallow, rounded form of the hollows in this region, 

 immediately recalls the same feature as occurring in the Pine Hills of South Mis- 

 sissippi under similar circumstances (H77). 



623. It is greatly to be regretted, that circling was not practiced at an earlier 

 date in this region ; for large tracts, originally covered (though not to a great 

 depth) with an excellent soil, have already been irrecoverably lost to cultivation 

 by washing. When the surface loam has been penetrated, the latter process 

 goes on with fearful rapidity, and requires the most energetic measures to check 

 it. Not only is the soil, and all that could possibly serve as a foundation for a 

 soil, carried away from the hills, but the materials thus removed cover over the 

 fertile branch bottoms, in company with a flood of sand, which renders them 

 useless for all time to come. 



The difficulty just mentioned, though rarely met with to the extent to which 

 it is experienced here, is of very frequent occurrence in this State, in conse- 

 quence of the great prevalence of loose sandy materials as the substratum of 

 the loams forming the soil and subsoil, and may as well find some discussion in 

 this place ; since it is especially in the " Yellow Loam Region" that the inroads 

 of the hillside washes are acquiring, more and more, an alarming importance, 

 not only to the cultivators of the soil, but also to many villages and county 

 seats, which seem to have been located very generally, by preference, upon sand 

 ridges, and not a few of which are in danger of going, in the most literal sense, 

 " down hill". 



624. " Circling" or " horizontalizing" the hill sides, in cultiva- 

 tion, is certainly the first necessity in the present condition of 

 things, and will do a good deal towards preventing the commence- 

 ment of this evil. This is now becoming so universally known 

 and acknowledged that no one who neglects this necessary measure 

 of self-defence, can claim to be considered as obeying the dictates 

 of ordinary prudence and common sense. 



Sufficient attention is not as yet paid, in general, to the careful and accurate 

 adjustment of the level, on which the success of the whole absolutely depends, 

 and without which, the very measure intended to remedy the evil, is most 

 calculated to bring it about. 



625. No one can trust his eye alone to recognize the true level with even 

 moderate accuracy ; and the common water level, at least, ought to be considered 



