74 REPORT 4, UxNflTED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Upon the ridges are the usual upland soils similar to those of the 

 oak uplands elsewhere. 



The original growth upon the black prairie lands consisted of oaks, 

 poplar, beecb, &c., of magnificent proportions, but very little of this 

 growth now remains standing. 



In Alabama this is known as the " Canebrake," and the " Black Belt," 

 and the '''• Cotton Belt," from the facts that a dense undergrowth of 

 cane once covered the land, and that it is pre-eminently the cotton-pro- 

 ducing region of the State. This may be seen from the percentage map 

 accompanying this article. 



West of the Mississippi liiver this division has an extensive devel- 

 opment in Texas, where its soils are black, wax-like clays, similar to 

 those already described, and derived from the Eotten Limestone. In 

 these, beds of Drift are nowhere to be seen except in the '^ Cross Tim- 

 bers." (Loughridge.) 



The Cross Timbers thus appear to be the analogues of the Drift 

 ridges which traverse the prairie region in the eastern States of the cot- 

 ton region. 



In the Indian jSTation black prairie lands entirely similar to those of 

 Texas are seen in the southern portion, coming to an end near the line 

 of Arkansas. 



In the latter State small areas of black Cretaceous prairies occupy 

 the lowlands in the southwest, while the ridges between the streams 

 and between the prairie tracts are short-leaf pine uplands, with oak 

 and hickory. 



A characteristic growth of the northeastern part of this great west- 

 ern Cretaceous belt, in Texas, Arkansas, and the Indian Nation, is the 

 Bois d'Arc, or Osage Orange. In the States east of the Mississippi 

 Eiver the patches of open, treeless prairie are of less superficial extent 

 than the wooded tracts. 



As in the States east of the Mississippi, the western lands of this 

 character are largely cultivated in cotton. 



b. Blue marl lands and Mil prairies. — In Mississippi and Alabama 

 the southern and western borders of the prairie lands are frequently 

 made by a hard, yellowish limestone which gives rise to a broken and 

 ridgy country, the summits of the ridges possessing soils of the usual 

 sandy upland type, while the hillsides and lowlands, by the reaction of 

 the decaying limestone on the loams, have often stiff clayey soils, much 

 like those of the post-oak prairies. 



From their position and topography these are known as hill prairies. 

 Limited areas with loamy soils of deep red color, and full of pebbles of 

 brown iron ore, occur along this outer margin of the Cretaceous belt 

 both in Mississippi and in Alabama. 



Still another type of soils prevails in a few places in Mississippi and 

 in the eastern portion of the Cretaceous belt in Alabama. These are 



