306 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1655, 656 



uplands. Such bottom soils, in fact, as are annually overflowed, and are, there- 

 fore, always receiving a fresh supply of fertilizing ingredients from the uplands, 

 will of themselves last longer than the latter, even though their native fertility 

 may not be much greater. 



655. It may be supposed that in a region whose surface is gen- 

 erally occupied by light loams underlaid by purely sandy strata, 

 the bottom soils are also in general light and even disposed to be 

 sandy. This is so far true, that the streams running through 

 regions exclusively occupied by the Orange Sand, generally possess 

 rather indifferent bottom soils ; to which may be added that in 

 such cases, the bottoms are usually very narrow, and often possess 

 rather a hommock or second bottom character. Many of the 

 smaller streams of S. Winston, W. and S. Kemper, and N. Lauder- 

 dale, and very frequently those of the Pine hills of North Missis- 

 sippi, give evidence of this fact ; and as the uplands are cleared, 

 the sands washed down from them upon the surface of the bottoms 

 render the matter still worse. 



656. Most of the streams of the Yellow Loam Region, however, 

 cut more or less into the clayey strata of the Lignitic formation 

 (1164, ff.), in different portions of their course. Whenever such is 

 actually the case, the increased heaviness of the bottom soil usually 

 evidences the fact clearly, a short distance below ; and, since clay 

 will remain suspended in water much longer than sand, the proper 

 amount of clayey matter is thus very generally distributed through- 

 out the bottom soils — much more so than, where bottom soils are 

 prevalently clayey, the sand taken up at some few points will be 

 distributed through them. Hence even in regions where the upland 

 soils and the body of the hills are prevalently sandy, the bottom 

 soils will often exhibit a much less extreme condition in this respect * 

 their clayey portion being derived, perhaps, from a considerably 

 distant point. 



Thus, the influence of the heavy clay brought into the Talla- 

 hatchie by its tributaries heading in theFlatwoods.is perceptible for 

 a long distance below ; it remains perceptible longest, of course, 

 near the main channels, the more sandy alluvium derived from the 

 hills of N. W. Lafayette and S. W. Marshall (1629 2 ), gradually 

 closing in upon it until, in the lower part of its course through the 

 hills, its bottom soils are quite light and sandy, though always 

 very fertile. 



The Tallahatchie bottom is from a mile to a mile and a half wide between 

 Marshall and Lafayette, considerably cut up with sloughs, and of course, subject 

 to overflow ; though, on account of the comparative lightness of the soil, the 

 crops of the Tallahatchie bottom are less frequently injured by high water than 

 is the case in the bottoms of the neighboring streams. It possesses a tall and 

 vigorous growth of the usual bottom timber of N. Mississippi, when the soil is 

 not very heavy. Cypress in the sloughs, on the higher ground, Water, Willow 

 and White Oak, (the Chesnut White Oak is less common), both kinds of Shell- 

 bark Hickory, Ash, Box Elder, "Poplar", Sweet Gum, Black Gum, Elm, a 

 good deal of Holly, Maple and Hornbeam, and on the sandier soils, the Beech. 

 There is usually no hommock or second bottom of any extent ; the loam hills 



