AGRICULTURE. 477 



this kind of land, and if the lands do not stand the drought as well as some 

 other lands in the district, it is because they have not been broken deep 

 enough at the beginning. In that case the remedy will be subsoiling in the fall. 



The second class are those having in their composition such material as has 

 been brought from other localities; they were deposited during the time of 

 the great erosion, and have derived very little if any of their material from 

 the strata upon which they rest. 



These soils I will call soils of transportation. 



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

 consideration. They are very homogeneous in composition and color, 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 water probably 

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

 rials gathered up on their way, the material being precipitated to the bottom 

 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, level, high 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 Per- 

 mian strata, composed of sandstones, limestones, clay beds, and gypsum. Still 

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

 posed of sands and white clays, were involved in the erosion. The material 

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

 making the broad, level plateaus. Tne 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 gyp- 

 sum 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 ma- 

 terials 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 the 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, 



