T745. 746] hog wallow prairie region. 341 



Insoluble Matter 63.435 



Potash 0.796 



Soda 0.127 



Lime 1.815 



Magnesia 1.112 



Brown Oxide of Manganese 0.479 



Peroxide of Iron 6.996 



Alumina 16.127 



Phosphoric Acid 0.232 



Sulphuric Acid 0.085 



Organic Matter, Water, and Loss 9.028 



100.000 

 74"). This analysis seems to exhibit characteristically the prom- 

 inent features of the blac-k prairie soil of the Tertiary. 



It is highly retentive of moisture ; rich in vegetable matter, in lime, and in all 

 the other essential nutritive ingredients of plants — with the exception, in this 

 instance, of Soda, which seems to be deficient. The large amount of alumnia, 

 dissolved in this analysis, as compared with those of other clayey soils, indicates! 

 at once that the soil is in a highly decomposed state, in consequence of the action 

 of lime and vegetable matter, and that therefore the constituents are mostly in 

 an available condition. Hence little effect would be produced on it by marling, 

 unless previously exhausted ; but the further addition of vegetable matter and of 

 sand, to promote its lightness — as well as drainage, are indicated as improvements. 

 740. Hog Wallow Prairie Region. — Beyond Leaf River, in 

 Smith county, and in N. W. Jasper, on the (light blue) territory of 

 Jackson Group, the arrangement of soils is a very simple and 

 uniform one. The bottoms of the larger streams— Hatehushe, 

 West Tallahala, Tallahoma. East Tallahala, and their larger con- 

 fluents—as well as the lower portion of the (sometimes gentle) 

 slopes towards them, are prevalently of the black prairie character. 

 Above these, forming level or gently undulating upland tracts— or 

 sometimes, as on the West Tallahala, a kind of second bottom — 

 appears the '' Hog- wallow", or " Hogbed Prairie" soil (1T2I6), 

 timbered chiefly with Post Oak, of a lank growth and with tattered, 

 open tops ; Black Jack and Short-Leaf Pine, of a similar growth, 

 often occupying it. The average level of the lands of this charac- 

 ter is about twenty-five to thirty feet above the level of the creeks 

 named; when the country ascends higher (in which case the 

 " hog-bed " lands generally form a distinct, level terrace, on which, 

 the sandy ridges are perched), the Oninge Sand formation and its 

 usual soils set in, forming either Long- leaf Pine ridges, or (as on 

 the Upper Tallahoma), the sandy ridge soils mentioned (1To5l); or 

 sometimes, oak uplands, with a medium soil, of yellow loam char- 

 acter (as on upper Leaf River, towards the prairies). According 

 to the depth to which the drainage cuts into the surface occupied 

 by the soils last named, either the "hogbed", or the "black 

 prairie " soil appears on the slope ; and where level tracts are 

 occupied by the hogbed soil, at an inconsiderable elevation above 

 the bottoms (as on the W. Tallahala in the N. E. quarter of T. 3, 

 R. 10 E., and adjoining tracts), small spots of black prairie oftec 

 appear in slight depressions. 



