I860,] 



THE SOUTHE 



UN PLANTER. 



451 



integration and admixture of portions of 

 the adjacent rock, which were slightly im- 

 pregnated with carbonate of lime. And so, 

 and much more abundantly supplied, were 

 some small spaces of soils in the tide-water 

 region, where marl-bcds cropped out at the 

 surface, or elsewhere, that oyster and mus- 

 vsel shells had in ancient times been accu- 

 mulated by the Indians, on the sites of their 

 former villages. But with these few and 

 small exceptions, (scarcely deserving to be 

 mentioned as such,) to the general rule of 

 entire absence, there was no carhonafe of 

 lime in any known specimen of natural soil 

 of the Atlantic slope of the United States. 



Before proceeding farther, to prevent mis- 

 construction and mistake, I beg that I may 

 be understood as maintaining (as to these or 

 any other lands) the absence of lime in its 

 most usual and abundant form of carbonate 

 only — and not of lime generally, and in 

 every other form of combination than the 

 carbonate. On the contrary, (and as I have 

 always maintained,) some small ■ portion of 

 lime, and in some other combination most 

 generally, exists in every soil that is the 

 least productive of perfect vegetable growth 

 — and this lime ingredient is generally 

 larger in the richer soils. But it is also 

 true, and important to be noted, that gene- 

 rally, whenever lime as the carhonate is 

 entirely absent, it is rarely present in any 

 other form of combination in sufficient 

 quantity for the wants and highest fertility 

 of the soil, and for its best subsequent 

 improvement; and that it is especially defi- 

 cient, in any and every form of combina- 

 tion, throughout the whole Atlantic slope, 

 in all naturally poor soils. 



After having been fully impressed with 

 these views, it was, at a later time, a new 

 subject for surprise to me to learn, as I did, 

 first by report, and next by partial analyses 

 of marisy hard specimens, that a large ex- 

 tent of the soils of the G-ulf slope, in Ala- 

 bama and Mississippi, not only contained 

 carbonate of lime in large proportion, but 

 that the too great quantity in many cases 

 had already been injurious, and, as I in- 

 ierred, in many more cases, was likely to 

 produce future impoverishment and sterility. 

 To this excess of carbonate of lime I tlien 

 ascribed, and still ascribe, the absence of 

 trees on the true prairies, or what were 

 there termed the ''bald prairies" of Alaba- 

 ma and Mississippi; and the much more 

 extended observations of travellers and resi- 



dents, in later times, and in the more west- 

 ern and southern territory west of the 

 Mississippi river, and in Texas, have served 

 to prove, by numerous facts, positions which 

 I had former!}!' asserted mainly upon infer- 

 ence and reasoning. I will not here repeat 

 my former argument, nor adduce new evi- 

 dences of what was then correctly inferred 

 and maintained. My present purpose is to 

 describe, upon the surer ground of personal 

 observation, and by correction of the mis- 

 takes of residents, the distinctive and pecu- 

 liar agricultural features of this remarkable 

 region. 



For my first invitation, and facilities 

 offered for niy examinations, I was indebted 

 to the liberal courtesy of Col. Charles Pol- 

 lard, President of the new Montgomery 

 and Pensacola Railroad, which was then 

 completed from Montgomery for about 80 

 miles into Lowndes county, and mostly 

 through the former "prairie" or calcareous 

 lands. A special train was sent to convey 

 me and a number of other invited guests, 

 and placed at my order, to travel slow, and 

 to stop when desired, so as to enable mo 

 best to see the bordering lands. After- 

 wards, on the invitation of Col. James L. 

 Price, President of the Alabama and Mis- 

 sissippi Railroad, I passed over that road, 

 from Selma to near Union Town; and by 

 his hospitable attention and aid, and that of 

 Richard H. Adams, esq., of Marengo, espe- 

 cially, I was enabled to see and learn much 

 of the lands of Perry, Dallas, and Marengo. 



The central and most marked portion of 

 the calcareous region of Alabama is in 

 Marengo; and that, more especially, was 

 formerly known, and is still commonly re- 

 ferred to, as the "cane-brake land.'^ But 

 the same general qualities, and also that 

 general designation, extend to all the neigh- 

 boring and surrounding country. The soils 

 of the region in question are caused to be 

 generally calcareous, by the out-cropping 

 there of the cretaceous lime-rock. This 

 cretaceors region is a broad belt, extending 

 across the state from east to west, (and 

 further stretching into both Georgia on one 

 side and across the state of Mississippi on 

 the other,) and lying somewhat southward 

 of the middle of Alabama. Still farther 

 south, this cretaceous bed disappears below 

 the there highest of tertiary eocene marl — 

 which is even more highly calcareous than 

 the former —and from its description, seems 

 to be of the same character of the " Great 



