EICHLAND COUNTY. 311 



The descent from the top of this divide is much more gradual to the north 

 than to the south, a characteristic of all parts of the watershed in this 

 neighborhood; and one to which reference will be subsequently made 

 when a few of the more prominent features of the surface geology of the 

 neighboring counties are grouped together. The highest points to the 

 north and towards Mansfield were, by the barometer, three hundred and 

 twenty feet, three hundred feet, one hundred and ninety feet, etc., above 

 Mansfield. About seven miles west of Mansfield, and near the western 

 line of the county, is an isolated knob which i.3 designated by residents 

 in the vicinity as the highest land in the county and State. It is, how- 

 ever, by the barometer only two hundred and forty feet above Mans- 

 field, or eight hundred and thirty-two feet above the Lake, while two 

 and a half miles further east the surface rises by a more gentle in- 

 clination thirty feet hio;her. 



SOIL. 



The soil over the greater part of Richland county rests upon the un- 

 modified Drift clays, and takes its general character from them. It con- 

 tains a large quantity of lime, derived mainly from the corniferous lime- 

 stone, fragments of which are every where mingled with the Drift. The 

 clay in the soil is also modified and tempered by the debris of the local 

 rocks, which is largely mingled with the Drift, and is mostly silicious. 

 This character, combined with a high elevation and thorough surface 

 drainage, furnishes a soil which renders the name of the county appro- 

 priate, and secures a great variety of agricultural products. 



While all parts of the county are well adapted to grazing, the land is 

 specially fitted for the growth of wheat and other cereals, and to the pro- 

 duction of fruit. The profusion of rock fragments in the Drift render 

 the soil pervious to water, and prevents washing, even in the steepest 

 hills. 



In the south-eastern part of the county the higher hills are, in places, 

 capped with a coarse ferruginous conglomerate, and are so covered with 

 its debris as not to be susceptible of tillage. Nature has designated a use 

 to which these sand-rock hills should be appropriated, as they are gener- 

 ally covered with a dense second growth of chestnut. This timber prefers 

 a soil filled with fragments of sand-rock, and the second growth is almost 

 as valuable as red cedar for fence posts and other similar uses. If upon 

 all similar rocky hills the inferior kinds of timber and the useless under- 

 growth were cut away, and the growth of the chestnut encouraged, these 

 now worthless hill-tops would yield an annual harvest scarcely less 

 valuable than that of the most fertile valleys. On the north side of the 



