14 BULLETII^ 71, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Raceland. Tlie muck of the cultivated fields has a greater density aud a darker 

 color than that where the land is undrained and uncultivated. In its original 

 state the pure turf is a light brown, but as it dries and decays it becomes 

 darker and finally is almost black. When first drained it is very light and 

 spongy and when plowed breaks up into rather large pieces, sometimes as 

 much as a foot square, which are pushed ahead of the plow instead of being 

 turned in a furrow. After the second year of cultivation the muck loses its 

 fibrous nature and resembles old sawdust in texture, although being a little 

 darker in color. As cultivation continues the muck mixes more and more with 

 the underlying silt and a much heavier and more impervious soil results. 



As such soils dry out and decay they shrink and settle to a considerable 

 degree. In the tests made the average shrinkage of the muck, due to drying 

 alone, was a little over 60 per cent. In average field conditions the shrinkage 

 would never reach this figure, due to drying alone, for the soil would never 

 become as dry as the samples tested. However, on area No. 1 (fully described 

 in succeeding pages) the lowering of the surface of the land by drying and 

 decay after 10 years of cultivation has amounted to about 2* feet. Samples 

 of soil, once thoroughly dried, would not resume their former volume even when 

 immersed in water for 12 days, and would absorb only 35 per cent of their 

 former volume of water; while originally, when in average condition for 

 growing crops, they had held about 65 per cent of water by volume. 



In the reclaiming of turf lands of this charatcer there is always more or 

 less danger that the muck will burn. On some of the newer plantations trouble 

 has been experienced in burning off the growths of weeds and grass that cov- 

 ered the muck. This burning off can be done with safety only when the muck 

 is still wet from a recent rain. During the spring of 1910, which was the driest 

 in southern Louisiana since Government weather records have been kept in the 

 State, the muck began to burn on area No. 4, near Raceland. This tract had 

 been drained but about eight months. A rain of three-fourths of an inch failed 

 to extinguish the fire. It became necessary to dig a ditch around the fire deep 

 enough to reach to the silt below. This method of checking fire is practicable 

 and efficient if it is adopted soon enough. 



The danger of the burning of any considerable area of the reclaimed land is 

 very remote. The system adopted in reclaiming this land — that of dividing it 

 up into comparatively small levee districts — would limit the extent of the fire, 

 and the division of the districts themselves into small areas by the lateral 

 ditches makes it impossible for the whole of any plantation to be in great danger 

 from fire. The danger from extensive burning to the muck of unreclaimed 

 swamp land is not great even when the muck is very dry, for the ridges of 

 river silt which occur at frequent intervals would serve as effectual checks 

 to any great progress of the fire. Even if the muck be burned from a tract of 

 land the underlying silt makes a very excellent although a somewhat heavy and 

 impervious soil. 



Abea West of the Atchafalaya River. 



ORIGIN AND formation OF SOILS. 



Most of the land to the westward of the Atchafalaya River, except as pre- 

 viously noted, is of different origin and character from that of the area just 

 described. 



As most of the land of this section consists of recent coastal plain deposits 

 rather than of Mississippi River alluvium, the surface conditions are somewhat 

 different from those encountered in the eastern or delta section of the State. 

 Instead of a succession of ridges and shallow lakes such as occur in the delta 



