1755,750] "black'" and "hoc wallow" prairie soil. 345 



deep orange-tinted subsoil ; and beneath this, at variable depths (o to 10 feet), 

 white, and generally clayey marls, resembling those of the McNutt Hills (i[282). 



Both kinds of soil produce finely, but that of the open prairie is safer and 

 more easily tilled. The other seems to stand intermediate, as it were, between 

 the true black prairie soil and that of the " Hog-wallow " prairie, into the latter 

 of which, further S., it shows a gradual transition. The sandy marls of Suck 

 Creek and Trotters plantation C If 210, ff.). would, no doubt, be found a great 

 improvement on this soil, and like that of Garland's Creek (17210 ; 292), are to 

 be considered a general manure, applicable to almost all soils. 



In the absence, thus far, of a more special investigation of the properties of 

 these soils, 1 reter the agricultural reader, for the present, to what has been said 

 concerning the treatment of heavy soils in general (IT 402 l ), and of the Monroe 

 Prairie soil (l[549, ff.). in particular. The main body of these lands lies S. of 

 Garland's Creek, Gen. Trotter's plantation (1f211) being near its southern limit; 

 another body or succession of patches, however, extends eastward between 

 Coonupy and Garland's Creek, for a considerable distance. With the lands 

 lying W. of the Chickasawhay, I am not personally acquainted ; they are said to 

 correspond in general, in a N. \V. and S. E. direction, to those on the E. side ; 

 although there is less prairie. 



755. On the slope towards the Chickasawhay, near Trotter's plantation, there 

 generally is near the hilltops a terrace of about 6 to 10 feet, above the prairie soil 

 proper; on this we find red cla) stone with fossils (TT 2 12), and a heavy soil 

 resembling the " Hog-bed " soil, timbered with lank Post Oak and Short-leaf Pine, 

 Black Gum, and occasionally some Hickory ; it forms a level terrace, elevated 

 70 to 80 feet above the river, into which it falls off in steep bluffs (T[212). A belt 

 of this land, 2 to 3 miles wide, intervenes between the prairies of S. Clarke, 

 just described, and the hilly but in part very fertile country of the territory of 

 the Vicksburg Group (see map), in Wayne county, which is interspersed with 

 small patches of upland prairie, especially in its southern portion ; and also 

 possesses a variety of productive " mulatto " and " hommock " soils, resulting 

 from the intermixture of the calcareous materials with the light surface soils, 

 which by themselves alone, on the tops of the ridges, are indifferent, or abso- 

 lutely poor. Hence the hommock of the Chickasawhay, and the slopes of the 

 ridges towards the same, are very fine and safe soils, especially for cotton ; and 

 the same is true of the bottoms, hommocks and hillsides on the smaller streams, 

 both E. and W. of the Chickasawhay ; and the abundance of fine marls found 

 in this region (^229 ; 291, ff.), insures the continuance of their productiveness. 

 The fertile hommock terminates, however, in the latitude of Waynesboro', near 

 Dr. E. A. Miller's (1[229). Thence southward both the river hommock and 

 the uplands assume the character of the Long-leaf Pine Region, as will be 

 aoticed hereafter. On the Buckatunna, which I have not personally visited, 

 the condition of things, at corresponding points, seems to be the same as on the 

 Chickasawhay. 



750. Waters of the Central Prairie Region. — The gener- 

 alities given in the Geological Report (1319 to 325), in regard to 

 the waters of the formations occupying this region, are sufficiently- 

 expressive of the fact, that on the whole it is. thus far, but poorly 

 supplied with that essential fluid, except where sand ridges exist. 

 Natural springs are scarce or wan ling ; the water (when any is 

 obtained) of dug wells of moderate depth, is very generally mineral, 

 and either — as at Canton — undrinkable — or at least, too strong 

 for daily use ; such being especially the case where, instead of 

 being simply limy, the water is derived partly or wholly from 

 lignitic clay strata, which impart to it magnesian salts— the constant 

 and daily use of which, is, of course, highly debilitating and 



