192 PERMIAN OF TEXAS AND ITS OVERLYING BEDS. 



The second class of soils are by far the most abundant in the region under 

 consideration. They are very homogeneous in color and composition, yet in 

 places they have been changed in both respects by their immediate contact 

 with the underlying strata. 



In considering the composition of this class of soils it will be necessary to 

 remember that several hundred feet of material has been eroded and carried 

 away or redeposited. During this period of erosion the waters probably 

 spread out in broad sheets. These waters were heavily laden with the ma- 

 terials gathered up on their way, the materials being precipitated to the bot- 

 tom on any decrease in the rapidity of the flow of the waters. 



Afterwards the rivers and creeks cut through these deposits in various di- 

 rections into their present drainage basins, and left the deposits as they now 

 are in broad, high, level plateaus. The overlying strata destroyed by this 

 great erosion were several hundred feet of the lower Cretaceous formation, 

 composed of sand beds and limestones, and several hundred feet of the 

 Permian strata, composed of sandstones, limestones, clay beds, and gypsum. 

 Still further northward the beds that have been called Blanco Canyon Beds, 

 composed of sands and white clays, were involved in the erosion. The mate- 

 rial derived from all these beds was mixed into a homogeneous mass and 

 deposited, making the broad level plateaus. The soils of these plateaus will 

 therefore be composed of the white clays and sands of the Blanco Canyon 

 Beds, the clays, sands, and limestones of the Cretaceous, and the sands, clays, 

 and gypsum of the Permian. 



It will be seen from a glance at the composition of these soils that they are 

 derived from such a variety of sources that they are likely to contain the in- 

 gredients necessary to the composition of first- class soils. Experimental 

 tests, which after all are the best sources of information, have proven that 

 they will produce abundant crops of wheat, oats, and corn. In Baylor and 

 Wichita counties, where this soil largely prevails, the average crop of wheat 

 was over twenty-nine bushels per acre. I mention these two counties because 

 they are the only localities where I have personally examined the matter of 

 crops, and they are fair representatives of that part of the State in the way 

 of soils. The thickness of this class of soils ranges from a few inches to 

 many feet, owing to the undulating and uneven surface of the underlying 

 strata at the time of their deposition. The surface is very often so level 

 that the height will not vary over five feet in a mile. It might be supposed 

 from this statement that the soils would be unfit for cultivation for want of 

 drainage, but such is not the case. There is so much sand in the soil that 

 the water is soon taken up and none left on the surface, and therefore no 

 surface drainage is necessary. Water is always found in wells at the base 

 of these soils, and by capillary attraction they are always kept moist. 



