soils. 167 



crops of wheat, oats, and cotton, as well as vegetables of all kinds. These 

 valleys are overgrown with sumach and other smaller brush and vines. 



The timber is principally elm, burr oak, hackberry, wild china, and pecan. 

 This valley below the town of Lampasas can be easily irrigated. 



The uplands of Lampasas County are the black and gray soils of the Cre- 

 taceous. The lands are fertile and produce abundant crops of wheat, oats, 

 corn, and cotton. They are principally prairie. Along the creeks and 

 branches there is some post oak, blackjack, and. live oak timber. On some 

 of the high hills there is cedar. 



Many places in the county where the Carboniferous limestones occur, the 

 soils have a reddish tint, commonly known as mulatto lands. For a few miles 

 east of the Colorado River there is a belt of country that is quite rocky; and 

 while the soil is very fertile, the rocks which lie scattered over the surface 

 render it unfit for agricultural purposes It is excellent land, however, for 

 grazing, and it has more timber than the other lands. 



The sandy lands made from the sandstones and shales of the Carbonifer- 

 ous formation are on the north side of Lynch Creek, in the northwestern 

 part of Lampasas County. They are reddish in color, with a subsoil of red 

 clay. These lands are overgrown with post oak and blackjack timber. They 

 are easily cultivated and are quite productive. It is not probable that they 

 will stand the drouth as well as the more compact soils, but with enough rain 

 they produce good crops, and this is the case nearly every year. 



The bottom lands of the Colorado River are a red sandy loam, and have 

 been made by the drift brought down from the country higher up the river. 

 They owe their reddish color to the material brought down from the red clay 

 beds of the Permian formation, situated a hundred miles to the northwest, 

 through which the river runs. This soil is rendered fertile by the admixture 

 of gypsum with the other material. This material is from the great gypsum 

 beds found near the headwaters of the Colorado River. These lands are 

 easily cultivated, and produce abundant crops. They are level enough in 

 places to be irrigated ; and it will be easy enough to take the water out of the 

 Colorado River for that purpose, if it shall be thought advisable to do so. 



The soils along Cherokee Creek are mostly derived from the decomposition 

 of the black shales and limestones of the Carboniferous, and from the sands 

 of the Silurian, found on its upper waters. They are generally of a reddish 

 color. The hills on either side of the creek are covered with cedar. Some 

 of the lands on the higher valleys are made from the material of the strata 

 of the surrounding hills, and have less sand, and are much darker in color. 

 This is fine wheat land, and is equally good for all other crops. The soils 

 of the country situated within the Silurian formation are more sandy and 

 of a redder color, the red sandstones of that formation giving color to 



