304 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1650, 651, 652 



Bear Marion. I was informed that in 1858, a tract of vineyard belonging to 

 Judge J. B. Hancock (who was the first to introduce the culture) yielded 500 

 gallons of juice at the rate of 700 gallons per acre ; and smaller quantities, at 

 the same rate of production or nearly so, have been made by others. Estimating 

 the product at only $1 50 per gallon (the minimum), it would seem that few 

 other crops would be likely to yield equal profits on this soil. I have been 

 unable to obtain information concerning the crop of 1859, but a large yield was 

 anticipated. Drs. H. R. Wilson and D. U. Ford, of Marion have also entered 

 with zest upon the culture of the grape ; and it is to be hoped that the results 

 of these interesting experiments will, at an early day, be communicated to the 

 public 



650. About half a mile west of Marion, we find a strip, not more than half 

 a mile in width, of sandy land of the character of the Summerville Ridges ; the 

 same is also met with about three miles south of Marion, and is there about 

 three miles wide ; it bears quite an assortment of oaks, to-wit : Post Oak with 

 "runners", Black Jack, Upland Willow, and Barrens Scrub Oak (Q.ferruginea. 

 tinerea, Catesbaei), all of which are here properly comprehended under the 

 designation of Black Jacks ; Spanish ("Bed") and true Red (" Black ") Oak, with 

 some Hickory. 



Southward of this belt of sandy land, we again see a tract resembling that at 

 Marion ; but further south, as well as west of the sandy belt near Marion, we 

 soon enter the regular Long-leaf Pine Hills, which will be noticed elsewhere 

 'see "Long-leaf Pine Region"). 



651. The sandy soils but just described coincide in every par- 

 ticular with those forming the ridges on the upper Tallahoma, and 

 the north portion at least of the Paulding ridge, North Jasper 

 (1746). The same kind of soil appears, no doubt, on some of the 

 ridges of Newton, and through that county, probably, is connected 

 with the ridges of DeKalb and Summerville. 



The peculiarities of this soil can nowhere, perhaps, be studied 

 £0 greater advantage, than on the ridges of the Tallahoma, west 

 of Garlandville. 



The main body of the ridge consists of loose, sterile sands, while the summit 

 fs formed by a stratum six to eight feet in thickness, of a semi-indurate material 

 consisting of coarse sand, loosely cemented by reddish- or grayish-yellow, clayey 

 matter, so as to form a coarse sandy hardpan, which, when crushed, is readily 

 separated into its sandy and its clayey ingredients, by mere dusting, as when 

 we separate wheat from the chaff. Hence it is observed, that great injury is done 

 to this soil when exposed in prominent points, to high winds shortly after tillage 

 in dry weather ; the fertile portion of the soil being thus litterally blown away 

 and leaving the arid sand behind. 



It has been stated that this stratum of soil or hardpan lies on the hill-fops ; the 

 hillside soil is a mixture of the washings of this summit stratum with the red 

 and white sand underlying it, and cropping out on the slope. The sandy hard- 

 pan when once broken up, parts with its fertilizing ingredients as readily by the 

 aiction of water, as by that of wind ; hence, that portion of it which is washed 

 down the hillsides, is of greatly inferior fertility, and inhabited chiefly by scrubby 

 Post Oak with runners, and Upland Willow Oak ; and the same character is 

 assumed by the soil of the summit of the ridge, whenever the stratum of fertile 

 hardpan, being thin, has been broken up, as is the case, to a considerable extent, 

 in the tract of sandy soil south of Marion (see above). 



652. The soil of the Tallahoma ridges in North-west Jasper (where the 

 iardpan stratum is of sufficient thickness to allow of deep culture), has yielded 

 fine crops of cotton and corn for fifteen to twenty years, before it was considered 

 as "worn out"; to sweet potatoes, it is found to be peculiarly suited. Yet even 



