1. Alluvial soil. 2. Marsh prairie soil. '.). Port Hudson soil. 4. 

 Orange sand soil: and there may perhaps bo added 5. Limestone 

 soil, comprising the Mansfield and Jackson formations; but of the 

 last I can not speak from personal observation, as I have not y» t 

 visited the northern portion of the State. 



The alluvial soil may be sub-divided into Red river alluvion, con- 

 fined to the Red river regions, and the Mississippi alluvion, which 

 extends along both banks of the Mississippi, being interrupted only 

 on the east bank by the Port Hudson deposit, which terminates 

 below Baton Rouge. The Mississippi alluvion is also the character- 

 istic soil of the upper Atchafalaya as far, at least, as the mouth of 

 B you Cour tableau. 



The Port Hudson soil is composed of a fine silt, deposited upon 

 a loamy sub-soil, and is supposed to be a fresh water formation, 

 when the Mississippi was still an estuary of the Gulf, and Port 

 Hudson its extreme northern limit. This soil is confined to a very 

 small belt, comprising a portion of East Feliciana and East Baton 

 Rouge, which is not more than ten or eleven miles wide, being 

 approximately, though not strictly, bounded by the Mississippi and 

 C'»inite rivers. It is fertile and of easy cultivation, and is especially 

 adapted to the production of cotton and corn. 



The Marsh prairie soil predominates in the Attakapas parishes, 

 which border on the Gulf, or were formerly below the Gulf level and 

 whose soil was formed from the sea marshes, being gradually raised 

 above the reach of overflows. It extends within five hundred yards 

 of the south bank of the Teche, for the soil on the north bank of 

 the Teche is all Missisippi alluvion, subject to overflows from that 

 river through the Atchafalaya and Grand Lake. It also comprises 

 some of the finest lands and the most valuable sugar plantations on 

 Bayou Barataria and the numerous other bayous and water courses 

 in which that portion of Louisiana abounds. The agricultural 

 capacities of those regions, have as yet not been sufficiently devel- 

 oped, because the shallowness of the bayous and lakes which are so 

 numerous, that some of them have not yet received specific names, 

 prevent easy communication by way of the Gulf with New Orleans, 

 the centre of commerce, which can only be reached by sailing round 

 a long distance to the Belize and up the mouth of the river. Its 

 only direct communication with New Orleans is by Harvey's canal, 



