MIAMI COUNTY. 471 



This gives a good drainage in general, and the soil is composed of drift 

 material, with accumulation of mould composed of vegetable substances 

 partially decomposed. There is a good proportion of clay mingled with 

 the mould. Not only does this clay afl'ect the character of the soil, but 

 the free drainage, and the gravel beneath, also affect it. Where local 

 causes obstruct the free drainage, there are local swamps whose soil, when 

 cleared and drained, is entirely different from that of the rolling land. 

 Somewhat like the swamps, is a wide scope of land between the Miami 

 and Stillwater rivers. Here the land was not rolling, and hence not 

 naturally well drained, but was fiat and moist. The result was that a dif- 

 ferent vegetation sprung up here. Rough sedge-grasses, mosses, and 

 kindred vegetation, flourished in this region, growing and perishing suc- 

 cessively, until several feet of deep, black soil had been accumulated. 

 Ac a certain time, trees suitable to a wet region, such as elms, soft-maple, 

 and shrubs such as button-bush, and, finally, bur-oak and ash, began to 

 grow. The vegetable material perishing, underwent a process of decay, 

 or, rather, a process of preservation. The substance of the vegetation 

 broke down into a number of compounds, which, situated as they are in 

 moisture, do not undergo further decay. This material was arrested in a 

 stage of decomposition different from that of the drier substances on the 

 rolling drift-land east of the Miami River. In the case of much of the 

 vegetation east of the river, it passed back by complete decomposition 

 into " thin air," into invisible gases, and left no trace behind. A cer- 

 tain other portion was arrested in the process of decay, and forms the 

 mould, which, with the clay commingled, constitutes the soil. On this 

 side flourishes the oaks, beeches, walnuts, sugar-maple, with an under- 

 growth of dog- wood, red-bud, haw, pawpaw, with a peculiar vegetable 

 growth which sprung up and perished annually. The most of the 

 growths of the east side differed entirely from those in the swampy dis- 

 trict, of a former day, where the deep, fibrous, black soil is found west of 

 the Miami River. The moisture retained on the surface has a two-fold 

 influence — one to favor a vegetation, as I have said, of a peculiar class, 

 the other to prevent its decomposition, in fact,, to preserve it. The two 

 classes of soils differ in four respects : (1) In the quantity of vegetable 

 substances ; (2) in the condition they are in as regards the extent of 

 decay which they have undergone ; (3) in the character of the vegetable 

 substances which make up the material, and (4) in the different propor- 

 tion of clay they contain — that on the east being composed largely of 

 clay, while very little clay is found in the swamp soil. The black soil, 

 not being so completely decomposed, does not, at first, until exposed to 

 air by being worked and drained, yield so well, while the mold of the 



