296 AGRICULTUEAL REPORT. [1630, 631' 



Black Jack becoming better, and more mingled with Hickory. 

 Spanish ('* Red") and other oaks ; while the loam stratum becomes 

 thicker, and the soil in consequence less sandy. 



South-west Marshall I have not personally visited, hut its features are said 

 to resemble altogether those of adjoining portions of Lafayette, and the country 

 bordering on the M. C. R. E., viz : undulating oak uplands, whose soil-loam is 

 somewhat paler in color than that of the N. Marshall " table-lands", a little 

 lighter on the whole, and the stratum of less thickness ; and interspersed at 

 times with lighter ridges, where the soil is sandy and the timber correspondingly 

 poorer. 



630. In Lafayette county, a line drawn from the N. E. corner 

 (the mouth of Pouskous Creek) to the head of Yellow Leaf, down 

 that creek to its mouth, and thence nearly due S., will leave S. and 

 E. of it the main body of the "Pine Hill" lands (1T607 2 ), of the 

 county. 



N. and W. of it, but little Pine is to be found, the face of the country being 

 either broken ridge lands with a very sandy soil, bearing an inferior growth, 

 chiefly of Post Oak and Black Jack, commonly accompanied by the Scarlet 

 (" Spanish ") and more or less, by the Spanish (" Red") Oaks ; or broad ridges 

 less high and abrupt, forming uplands more or less undulating, composed of 

 Orange Sand covered by a stratum 2 to 4 feet in thickness, of yellow loam. 

 The Spanish (" Bed "), Red (" Elaclc", in part) and Post Oak, and Hickory, 

 form the prominent growth of these lands ; but according to their position in the 

 scale of transition into the sandy ridge lands (1JG06 ; 607 2 - ), more or less 

 Black Jack and Scarlet (" Spanish") Oak is added to the above, and the shapes 

 of the trees vary as before described. In some points (as on Clear Creek) the 

 better class of lands, also, bear the Black Jack, of the same type as on the 

 Marshall Table-lands, but this is rather the exception. 



On the fine cotton uplands lying between the creeks forming the immediate 

 confluents of the Tallahatchie, in N. W. Lafayette, the Spanish (" Bed ") and Red 

 (" Black ") Oak, together with occasional sturdy Post Oaks, are finely developed 

 and together with the Hickory, characterize the best lands on Woodson's Ridge, 

 the College Hill Ridge, &c, which are little inferior to the Table-lands of 

 Marshall ; and to which, although I have not as yet been able to analyze them, 

 T have no doubt the same remarks will apply, in general, which have been made 

 in reference to the former region (H616, tf.). It is to be observed, however, that 

 the stratum underlying the loam generally, is not loose sand, but reddish hardpan. 



In this northern and north-eastern portion of the county, large bodies of fine 

 uplands exist ; they are always more or less interspersed, however, with higher 

 and more sandy ridges, and even level tracts which the lank growth and whitish 

 bark of the oaks, no less than experience, show to be of inferior fertility. 



The dividing ridge between the Yockeney and Tallahatchie, on which Oxford 

 stands, varies greatly in its character from place to place, viz : from that of 

 Woodson's Ridge to that of the poorest Black Jack ridges. The bodies of good 

 land are, therefore, small, and extend chiefly along the branch bottoms ; and 

 such is more especially the case on its southern slope, towards the Yockeney- 

 Patafa River. Here as elsewhere, in general, the loam stratum increases in 

 thickness and quality as we advance westward. 



631. The uplands bordering upon the Yockeney-Patafa, in S. 

 Lafayette, are generally very much broken, and although the lower 

 hillside growth is often indicative of a good soil, the sandy summits 

 of the narrow ridges offer little inducement for cultivation. It is 

 chiefly the branch bottoms (which are generally narrow), the 

 slopes, and bottom of the river itself (which is, however, subject 

 to overflow) that are cultivated. 



