45-1 



THE SOUTHEEN PLANTER. 



[August 



supply of water, (though not always free 

 enough from mineral impregnations to be 

 used for drinking,) is now obtained by bor- 

 ing through the thick bed of lime-rock, and 

 reaching below it a sand-bed full of confined 

 water, which rises through the new passage 

 thus afforded, and usually to above the sur- 

 face of the earth. These bored (or Arte- 

 sian) wells have been very generally resort- 

 ed to, and found available everywhere ex- 

 cept about Union Town, the most elevated 

 surface of the neighbouring calcareous re- 

 gion. There, as it is now supposed, though 

 the confined under-water can be always 

 reached, and will rise up, it cannot rise high 

 enough to flow off above the surface of the 

 bed — which is the great object and value of 

 this mode of supply. Everywhere else, wa- 

 ter has been thus obtained, and usually in 

 jets of the full size of the bores ; and, as it 

 seems, so far, may be obtained in any desi- 

 red quantity. At Selma, on the very high 

 bluff, or bank of the Alabama river, on 

 which the town is built, a very large Arte- 

 sian well, with the aid of some accumulation 

 of its water, is used, to turn an over-shot 

 wheel, which, whenever needed, works ma- 

 chinery to hoist goods from the river steam- 

 ers to the store-houses. And, (as I was 

 told ) on a plantation in Greene county, the 

 streams from several adjacent bored wells, 

 united, served as constant water-power to 

 propel D]iachinery for grinding corn, ginning 

 cotton, sawing plank, &c., to good purpose 

 and profit. The peculiar texture of the great 

 calcareous bed, which is easy enough to pen- 

 etrate with the auger, and yet so firm as to 

 require no tubing to preserve the sides, or 

 prevent the filling with earth, offers very 

 unusual facilities for this great improvement. 

 So important and convenient are these bored 

 wells, that they are made, and in some cases 

 even to depths between 700 and 800 feet, 

 near the southern outline of the cretaceous 

 belt, in places where other and abundant 

 supplies of water are already obtained, or 

 are available, from shallow sources, or from 

 veins of springs passing in the higher sandy 

 beds above the marl-bed. This character 

 exists only Vr'here sandy or non-calcareous 

 beds of considerable depth and also lateral 

 extent, lie upon the calcareous bed. And 

 such lands (though like others, everywhere 

 underlaid, at great depth, by the marl,) are 

 not understood either in common parlance 

 or in these remarks,, as of the " lime-land'^ 

 region, or of their peculiar character. This 



term, or understanding, is confined to locali- 

 ties where the marl-bed frequently rises to 

 or very near the surface, and is no where 

 absent at many feet below.* 



The soils of the cane-brake" on the gen- 

 erally calcareous region, are various — but all 

 are greatly deficient in sand, or silicious 

 parts, for proper or desirable pervious tex- 

 ture, and all are excessively and injuriously 

 supplied with fine clay. Also, the greater 

 number of soils, and the greater extent of 

 surface, are much too profusely furnished 

 with carbonate of lime. But also there are 

 other portions frequently occurring, and in 

 large proportion too, which are entirely des- 

 titute of carbonate of lime — and some of 

 them, (as I believe,) are. very deficient of 

 lime in any form of combination. Wherever 

 the lime or marl rises to the surface, and 

 makes the largest constituent part of the 

 soil, no trees formerly grew — and the land 

 is poor, and nearly barren where the lime is 

 most abundant. But with all these objec- 

 tions, and defects of constitution, the land, 

 from tillage and production, suffers less from 

 too great wetness, (or long retention of too 



* Professor Tuomey says, " The water of near- 

 ly all I have examined is more or less highly 

 charged with salts of iime, magnesia- soda and 

 iron, and in some instances, it is impregnated 

 with sulphur." (First General Report, p. 138.) 

 The saline ingredients vary in different springs 

 — butall aresuch as, if of rare occurrence, would 

 elsewhere be termed and perhaps used as min- 

 eral or medicinal waters, (p. 139.) '"Persons 

 accustomed to this water, like it, and cattle pre- 

 fer it to every other." . . "The temperature 

 of the water, as it issues from the spout, increas- 

 es nearly with the depth of the well ; but of 

 course this gives only the mean temperature of 

 all the water that flows into the well, and not 

 that at the bottom [alon-e]. The want of uni- 

 formity in the results obtained is doubtless ow- 

 ing to this causej and these results are, there- 

 fore, only offered as a coarse approximation. 

 " Temperature of the wells examined.'" 



Depth, feet. Temp. 

 " Well at Finch's ferry, 173 64° 



Do. near mill, 193 66° 



Dr. Withers' mill [Greene,] 285 64°.30^ 



Do. 360 65° 



Boligee, 415 68° 



Dr Withers' mill, 420 66° 



Do. 468 66°.30^ 



Cornfield, Boligee, 522 70° 



Capt. Johnson's, 560 71° 



Dr. Perrm's 544 72° 



"Taking wells of greatest and least depth, 

 and comparing the temperature, it appears that 

 the rate of increase is equal to 1° Fahr. for 

 every 55 feet." (p. 140, J 41.) 



