:308 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1661 



In general light and easily tilled ; that of the first is usually 

 the heavier of the two, and remarkable in the greater portion of 

 the river's course, for its tall and vigorous timber. Notwithstanding 

 the frequent overflows, the bottom soils of the Big Black are being 

 appreciated, and as might be expected, are very fertile. 



The hommock soils of the Big Black are as variable in their quality as in 

 their extent of occurrence indifferent localities. — At the crossing of the Greens- 

 boro' and Bankston road, in Choctaw county, the hommock is about a mile 

 1c width, elevated, as usual, 3 to 4 feet above the first bottom ; has a chocolate- 

 colored, light, and very fertile soil, in which there is no perceptible change for 

 15 inches. The timber is large, consisting of Beech, Hickory, Ash, Elm, 

 Hornbeam, Red-bud, etc. 



On Dr. Vaiden's land near Shongalo (l[633), there is a tract of hommock 

 land skirting the Big Black Bottom, quite level, and nearly destitute of timber ; 

 some large Post Oaks, occur in groups, and in low places, small Sweet Gum. 

 The soil is light, but destitute of coarse sand, of a dark tint for 10 to 12 inches ; 

 and beneath, a subsoil of very fine, pale yellow sand evidently very unretentive 

 in consequence of which, the land is liable to injury by drouth ; produces good 

 wheat, oats, rye and Irish potatoes, but very poor cotton or corn. — There must 

 be some chemical defect in this soil, beyond that of an inferior subsoil, which 

 analysis will probably detect. This land does not occur in a regular belt but 

 rather in patches, on the edge of the Big Black bottom, into which, at other 

 points, the hills come down with a decided slope. Spots of soil similarly tim- 

 bered, and producing abundant crops of grass, but little else, occur in S. 

 Yallabusha — e. g., at Mr. Kirkman's on the waters of Okachicama Creek. 



661. A soil somewhat similar in aspect to that at Vaiden's, but evidently 

 more fertile, forms the second bottom (which is about ^ 4 ' of a mile wide), of the 

 river opposite Goodman Station ; it is there timbered with Post Oak, Willow 

 Oak, and some Short-leaf Pine, with a dense undergrowth. Of the properties 

 of this soil in cultivation, I have heard nothing. 



Further S. at the crossing of the Benton and Canton road, we find on the E. 

 side of the Big Black quite an extensive level hommock, with a whitish and 

 somewhat ashy soil and subsoil (often interstratified, at some depth, with dark 

 colored, and more clayey bands), which is complained of as being little pioduc- 

 . tive and very liable to injury by drouth. On the whole, it resembles very much 

 > the light soil of the Chickasaw Flatwoods, and perhaps its ailments are the same 

 (1T575). Its timber is Post and Willow Oak, with some Black Jack — all of 

 scrubby and inferior growth. The Willow Oak especially, instead of being a tall 

 graceful tree, is of the low, rounded, apple-tree shape which it is wont to assume 

 in "crawfishy" soils. Here, as elsewhere, the " black pebble " or bog ore, 

 which occurs more or less in the whole mass, becomes very abundant lower 

 downward, where, moreover, the material becomes more clayey (n387). 



This soil is not confined to the immediate neighborhood of the Big Black 

 River; it occurs, more or less, in all the level region N. of Canton, forming as it 

 were the general level, above which the fertile, gently undulating loam lands 

 rise, somewhat like the islands of red ridge soil in the Pontotoc Flatwoods 

 (-^[576). The same white soil, with bog ore pebbles, occurs in the bottoms or 

 rather hommocks, of creeks between Jackson and Canton, and is quite common 

 in the S. W. portion of the State — as will be mentioned hereafter (H765 3 )• 



Generalities concerning the origin of these soils, have been given in the 

 General Part (H387, £f.). Not having as yet found time to ascertain their wants 

 and the remedies, by analysis, I can now only say, that in all cases which have 

 come to my knowledge, where they were well drained and lime or ashes applied 

 to them, they have become very productive. The marls of Madison and Hinds 

 afford abundant opportunity of testing the point in reference to the lands in 

 question. 



