332 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1725, 72$ 



that of the Richland region (1634). both as to color and the 

 growth of timber it supports, but interspersed with patches of 

 prairie, and modified more or less, in different localities, by the 

 admixture of the calcareous, and mostly very clayey, materials of 

 the Tertiary, and also, near the Big Black, with those of the Bluff 

 formation, characterize both. 



The yellow loam lands of Madison and X. Hinds are justly 

 considered as being among the best uplands of the State — superior 

 to the prairies as to " safeness " while little if at all inferior in 

 productiveness, like the Marshall Table-lands (1616, ff.), and about 

 equally well suited, on an average, to corn and cotton. 



Such, at least, has been the case and is now with fresh lands ; but an im- 

 provident, exhaustive cultivation has nowhere in the State perhaps, shown its- 

 effects more clearly and threateningly, than in this early settled region, whose 

 fertility, was once deemed inexhaustible, as that of the Mississippi Bottom is 

 now — but whose crops dwindle more and more every year, both in quantity 

 and quality, while valuable improvements are being abandoned b}' their owners 

 in order to exchange their exhausted fields for that Utopian soil which never 

 gives out, said to exist somewhere to the westward. 



725. The loam stratum which forms the soil of these lands, is evidently the 

 same as that which forms the table-lands of Marshall, (1T616, ff.), and the best 

 soils of the Southern River Counties (1[675, 681, * etc). It is therefore to be 

 presumed that as in those cases, the subsoil loam is at least as rich as the surface 

 soil. The only analysis which, thus far, I have made with reference to the 

 soils of this region, goes to demonstrate this fact, and to show that the subsoil 

 plow and stimulation are the one thing needful, for the present at least, to 

 restore to these lands their productiveness, since they are not deficient in any 

 of the ingredients of a good soil. No. 298. Yellow Loam Subsoil, from Dr. 

 T. J. Catching's place, S. 2, T. 4, R. 3 W., Hinds county. 



Depth : Nine to twenty inches. 



Vegetation: Black Jack, Post, and Spanish (" Bed ") Oaks — all large and 

 sturdy, with well formed tops ; some tall Hickory ; undergrowth of Dogwood 

 and Persimmon. — A light, porous loam, easily tilled ; color brownish-yellow. 



The subsoil, saturated with moisture at 62.4 Fahr., lost 8.543 per cent, of 

 water at 400 deg. ; dried at which temperature it consisted of : 



Insoluble Matter / 80.788 



Potash 0.634 



Soda 0.185 



Lime 5.921 



Magnesia 0.266 



Brown Oxide of Manganese 0.159 



Peroxide of Iron 4.727 



Alumina 8.940 



Phosphoric Acid 0.151 



Sulphuric Acid 0.076 



Organic Matter and Water 3.239 



100.393 

 726. The beneficial effects of the fallow on this subsoil, where it has been ex- 

 posed in washes, have often been noticed ; the same effect would be produced 

 in a shorter time, by marling, especially when aided by a supply of v egetable 

 matter. But even without these, the effect of deep plowing or subsoiling, and 

 especially of underdrainage, will be found to be highly favorable, not only as 

 restoring productiveness, but also as preventing injury by drouth, which is so 



