322 AGRICULTURAL RErORT. [TOT, 698, 690 



from the brown loam, by the characters given above, (HG83 1 ), it will be 

 advisable, if there be any choice, to take by preference such as contains the 

 largest amount of lime ; which may be very readily judged of by the amount 

 of white specks exhibited in a smooth, knife-cut surface of the mass in question. 

 Sometimes, specimens much poorer in lime than the one analyzed, may be 

 found ; but richer specimens also occur with frequency, and I believe the one 

 analyzed to represent a fair average. — No fear need be entertained of using too 

 much of this marl ; in favorable seasons it will bear fair crops by itself, and no 

 dressing likely to be applied in practice, where transportation is necessary, will 

 be apt to hurt the clay subsoil. It may be applied and turned under at any 

 convenient time, after being spread broadcast. 



Both the subsoil and the silt are very poor in vegetable matter, 

 which ought to be supplied them — perhaps most conveniently, in 

 this instance, by turning under a green crop. This would greatly 

 increase the efficacy of the marling, and where the marl cannot be 

 obtained, it will itself be a valuable promoter of productiveness — 

 though not, of course, an improvement properly speaking (jT426). 



697. It may be questioned whether, in cases where the calcareous silt under- 

 lies the loam soil within reach of the plough — say at 10 to 14 inches beneath the 

 surface — it will be advisable to break up the whole of the loam stratum, even 

 for the sake of turning up the silt, and thus effecting the marling in the simplest 

 manner. I am not as yet sufficiently acquainted with the character of the silt 

 as a subsoil, to form a decided opinion on this subject ; but from the rapidity 

 with which this material absorbs water and allows it to sink, I should think 

 it undesirable to have it as a subsoil instead of the loam, where it can be avoided ; 

 for it is likely that it will allow manures to sink with equal facility as water, 

 and thus the soil might cease to be susceptible of improvement by manures. 

 Further investigations, and experience will have to decide this point ; but at all 

 events, the balancing of the advantages of deep plowing against the disadvanta- 

 ges which might arise from the circumstance referred to, must always, to a 

 great extent, rest with the judgment of each individual in bis particular case. 



698. In the Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, and Petit Gulf or Rodney Hills, the 

 removal by washing of the proper soil, or loam stratum, has taken place to a 

 lamentable extent ; and the same is probably true of most of the hilly country 

 bordering closely on the Mississippi River, which has been settled for a long 

 time. In these cases the calcareous silt or marl itself forms the only soil ; and 

 although I have not had opportunity sufficient as yet to study its vices and 

 virtues, the frequent abandonment of these hills by the cultivators, and their 

 complaints that " their soil is gone ", show conclusively that it is not as eligible 

 in its producing qualities as the original surface layer. This is perhaps owing, 

 not so much to defects in its chemical composition (for it contains all the ingre- 

 dients necessary to plants, and some soils equally limy are known to produce 

 well) as to its physical defect of being drouthy . It may be, however, that it is 

 to some extent in the condition of light soils excessively marled (U"460 2 ) ; at 

 all events, it is greatly improved, and rendered very productive, by the addition 

 of vegetable matter, as may be observed where it forms terraces on the hillsides, 

 allowing of the accumulation of vegetable matter. Here we generally find a 

 most luxuriant growth of weeds and cane, as also where small branch bottoms, 

 or ravines, are formed by it — though, in the latter case, one of its chief faults — 

 drouthiness — is obviated by its position alone. A loose black soil similar to that 

 now found in such localities, and often two feet in depth, originally formed the 

 surface of the Cane Hills, but is now almost entirely removed by denudation. 

 Vegetable matter, has itself a tendency to obviate drouthiness, and would 

 effectually prevent the cracking of the soil in the sun. 



699. Whenever there is any of the brown loam stratum left on 

 the hilltops — as is frequently the case at the highest points of the 



