72 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 

 4. THE OAK UPLANDS REGION. 



This subdivision includes some of the best cotton lands in Texas, Lou- 

 isiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, aud Alabama. The top soil is a brown or 

 reddish loam which overlies the sands and pebbles of the Drift, as above 

 mentioned, under the long-leaf pine region. 



The underlying, older rocks throughout nearly the whole of this re- 

 gion are the Lower Tertiary beds, which are chiefly lignitic, sandy clays. 

 In their mode of origin it will be seen that these soils are entirely sim- 

 ilar to those of the better class of long-leaf pine uplands of the States 

 further east. The absence of the long-leaf pine is one of the chief dis- 

 tinctions between the two. 



In respect of fertility and general agricultural value, two subdivisions 

 may be recognized, viz : 



a. The yellow loam uplands, or oak and hickory land with short-leaf 

 pine. 



b. The table lands of Mississippi and Tennessee, and the Oane Hills or 

 Bluff region. 



a. The yellow loam region. — Under this head is included that great 

 body of oak and hickory uplands associated with the short-leaf pine, ex- 

 tending from Texas to Alabama. 



The face of the country is broken, except on the watersheds, as is 

 always the case where the red loam forms the surface over beds of 

 Stratified Drift. 



The soils of the better class of these uplands are yellowish or brown- 

 ish loams, varying in thickness from a few inches to as many feet, and 

 underlaid by the sands and other beds of the Drift. On the poorer 

 uplands the stratum of loam is very thin, sometimes almost entirely 

 absent, and the underlying drift sands or other materials then form the 

 soil. Between these two extremes there are all the gradations, and the 

 different qualities of soU are so intricately interspersed as to render it 

 impossible to lay them down with iDrecision. The general remarks 

 above given, under the long-leaf pine region, will apply equally well 

 here, to show the ^principles which govern their relative distribution. 



&. Table Lands and Cane Sills. — (1) The table lands. These occupy 

 a strip of 20 to 30 miles width, lying adjacent to the bluff of the river 

 in North Mississippi and across West Tennessee, and, as the name 

 shows, form in the main a level table land, except where the streams 

 have cut their channels. The soil is a brown loam of great fertility, 

 and specially suited to cotton. The timber consists of oaks and hicko- 

 ries, and of the former the post, red, and black oaks are the most 

 abundant. In the more clayey belts these are accompanied by the 

 black-jack, and, on the lighter soils, by the Spanish oak. 



In quality the table-land soils show a gradation into the preceding 

 class. 



The table lands of North Mississippi have long been noted foi' their 

 fertility, but there is the serious objection to them that they are so 



