1632, 63:5] fertility of yallabusha lands. 297 



The same, precisely, may be said of the country on the waters of the 

 Otuckalofa, and on the northern confluents of the Loosha Scoona, in Calhoun 

 county, as well as of adjoining portions of N. E. Yallabusha ; only that in 

 general, the Short-leaf Pine is mingled here with the ridge Oaks. The bottom 

 lands of these creeks are very fine, and heavily timbered, with trees denoting 

 rather a heavy, though a fertile soil. The slope of the hills towards the bottom 

 of Scoona is gentle, and forms a tract of rather heavy upland soil, timbered with 

 Spanish (" Bed ") Post, and Red (" Black ") Oak, and Hickory. The bottom, 

 lands of the Scoona, which are extensive (the bottom being Y% to 2,'.j miles 

 wide), and whose growth leaves no doubt of their being very fertile, have hardly 

 been fairly tested as yet, on account of their being subject to overflow ; and as 

 the soil is, at the same time, somewhat heavy, it cannot be tilled early enough 

 in spring, unless first reclaimed. 



632. Of Yallabusha county, claimed by its inhabitants as being, 

 iti an agricultural point of view, the best of the upland counties of 

 the State, I know from personal observation only the central 

 portion, adjacent to the M. C. R. R. ; which, however, is said to 

 represent pretty fairly also the western portion. N. of Coffeeville 

 it is a gently undulating region, with a yellow loam soil, oak 

 growth, etc., much resembling the fertile oak uplands of N. Lafayette, 

 and generally possessing a reddish hardpan subsoil, which not 

 being very pervious, a good deal of injury is done to the lands by 

 washing. 



Here, also, a great deal of good would be done by deeper tillage, not only as 

 a preventive of washing and injury by drouth, but also because of the evident 

 identity of the whole loam stratum, with that forming the soil itself (1[G16, ff.). 

 Between Coffeeville and the Yallabusha River, also, there is generally a fine 

 farming country, interspersed here and there, however, with Black Jack and 

 Post Oak ridges of less fertility, and sometimes even with short Pine ridges 

 (T[607 3 ) ; the yellow loam soil is the same as above, save in that the stratum 

 is generally thicker, and liable to washing. 



The fine level farming region around Grenada, which extends on both sides 

 along the Yallabusha and Beadupanbogue, is a second bottom or hommock, 

 several miles in width, now almost entirely under cultivation, but originally 

 timbered, with Post, Willow, Water, Chestnut White, and White Oaks, and 

 Hickory ; the soil being a light, yellowish gray loam, several feet in depth, easily 

 tilled, and of great fertility, This level hommock land, which slopes off gradually 

 into the bottoms proper, is bordered, and occasionally interspersed with, poor, 

 sandy, low ridges bearing an inferior growth of Black Jack, Post, and Spanish 

 ("Bed") Oaks. 



633. Pine ridges are, however, within sight of Grenada, a few 

 miles to the eastward, and are said to extend into the fork of the 

 Yallabusha and Loosha Scoona. The high ridge lands dividing 

 Beadupanbogue from Big Sandy Creek, and further S. W., the 

 waters of Hayes' Creek and other confluents of the Big Black, 

 from those of the Yallabusha, are timbered with Short-leaf Pine, 

 Black Jack, Post, Spanish (" Red") and some Scarlet (" Spanish'") 

 Oaks. 



Up to the head of the Beadupanbogue the ridges are steep and narrow, their 

 soil is very sandy and of little fertility, and often of a deep orange tint ; beyond, 

 as we approach Middletown, the ridges become lower and broader, the soil 

 improves and the loam stratum becomes thicker, but is of a remarkably pale 

 yellow tint ; while the Scarlet (" Spanish ") Oak is uncommonly abundant. 

 Notwithstanding the considerable admixture of Short-leaf Pine among the Oaks, 



