218 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



ance, but can only be obtained in small pieces, owing to its almost 

 inaccessible position and extreme brittleness. 



Quick-lime. — The Chester limestone, in the Gold-hill ridge, is a rich 

 source of excellent lime. The limestone over No. 7 coal, and the Carth- 

 age limestone in Bound Pond hill, and at New Haven, will make good 

 lime also, though not generally so pure as the former. 



Potters' clay. — The fireclays forming the bottom of the coal beds in 

 this county that have been tried do not, I am told, make a good potter's 

 clay, but there is reason to believe that the search has not been 

 thorough, and that some of the clays on the Saline river will be found 

 suited for manufacturing the ordinary stoneware of commerce. Plastic 

 clay for bricks can be had in most places over the county. 



Soil and Agriculture. — The soil in the eastern part of the county is 

 principally derived from sediments deposited by the iuundations of the 

 Ohio river, and by washings from the Quaternary and Carboniferous 

 strata of the high ground. It is in most places a sandy loam, rich in 

 elements of fertility, and is especially adapted to growing Indian corn. 



The bottom lands along the main Saline river and its main tributary, 

 the North Fork, though partaking, in part, of the character of the Ohio 

 river bottom land, contains a large proportion of a light-colored, fine 

 sedimentary clay loam, which is compact, and tenacious of water, and 

 therefore difficult to bring into good cultivation. If properly worked, 

 it would bring good crops of grain, provided the season is favorable; 

 but a very dry or a very wet season is peculiarly injurious to crops on 

 this soil. This latter variety of soil has been derived principally from 

 the argillaceous shales of the Coal Measures, and its general want of 

 fertility is owing to its physical condition, and not to any deficiency in 

 the proximate constituents of plant-food. Underdrainage would prove 

 an efficient means of bringing laud of this description into a high state 

 of cultivation. The soil of the yellowish, gravelly, clay laud in" the . 

 north-west part of the county, is derived from the drift, and is formed 

 of the debris of the rocks rasped and grouud to fragments by ancient 

 rivers of ice, which moved over the northern part of this continent 

 with snail like pace, during that period of the earth's history known as 

 the Glacial epoch. This third variety of land will grow all the cereals, 

 grasses and' clover well, but it is better adapted for small grain than 

 for corn, and it is particularly good for clover. 



On the ridges between Shawneetown and the Little Wabash river 

 there is a calcareous clay soil, derived from the loess, which, in an agri- 

 cultural point of view, ranks next to the sandy loam of the river bottom 

 lands. 



Tobacco, sorghum, and some cotton are cultivated in this county; but 

 the principal crops are the cereals and clover. Apples, peaches and 



