530 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [September 



healthy growth, and a good and profitable 

 cover, whether for grazing animals, or for 

 enriching the poor land, so especially need- 

 ing organic matter. These last results would 

 direct to put under clover, for many years 

 together, or as long as it will stand well, all 

 the former " bald prairies" that are poor. 

 This is the further needed, because if such 

 land is left out of culture, without being- 

 laid down in clover, it will produce only 

 worthless weeds, and nothing of any value 

 for grazing. This I saw on several spots 

 which had been left out of the enclosures 

 for tillage lands. 



But with these remarkable, and even un- 

 precedented good returns from clover, com- 

 pared to the best within my previous person- 

 al observation, still, to obtain the best profits 

 of clover here, it will be necessary that it 

 should remain long on a field, before being- 

 substituted by a tillage or other crop. It 

 will not therefore serve (as in Virginia, and 

 for what is so much wanting here,) as an 

 ordinary or regular alternating or rotation 

 crop. Even if it were not the case that 

 economy requires its long continuance, clo- 

 ver, when ploughed under, might not serve 

 well to be followed by corn, and would still 

 less suit to precede cotton. Wheat is always 

 the best crop to follow the ploughing under 

 (in summer) of a clover sod — and that 

 practice I would recommend here. But 

 though the quality of the wheat made here 

 is excellent — often weighing 64 lbs. to the 

 bushel — still the crop is raised on but a 

 small scale, and therefore would seem not to 

 be deemed profitable. The great profit of 

 the crop of clover will be found in its re- 

 markable and rare power, only shown here, 

 of keeping full possession of the land for a 

 long time; and it should be used for man- 

 uring or grazing as long as it will cover the 

 land and yield well. The great crop for ro- 

 tation, and especially for preceding cotton, 

 will be found in the southern or field pea — 

 which here will be as much superior to its 

 growth in lower Virginia (profitable as we 

 find it there,) as the best clover of Alabama 

 would be inferior to our best, if there was 

 no superiority in the soil of Alabama, and 

 with all the existing difference of climate. 



In riding over these lands, I was all the 

 time looking out for the very rare appear- 

 ances of pine trees and of broom grass. Of 

 pines, I saw not one on the truly calcareous 

 soils — and but very few on the " post oak" 

 lands. These few were all of the pinus va- 



riabilis, or short leaf timber pine of Virgi- 

 nia. I had been told that broom grass grew 

 well on the calcareous lands. I saw it grow- 

 ing in several ca.ses; but it was always con- 

 fined to the " post oak," or non-calcareous 

 lands, which were erroneously supposed by 

 the residents to be calcareous. In one case, 

 on such ground, exhausted, and therefore 

 left uncultivated, and where broom grass 

 grew vigorously, the growth ceased entirely 

 where the soil changed to black and calca- 

 reous. Thus both these classes of facts, 

 which, in exceptions (real or apparent) to 

 the general rule, I had before heard addu- 

 ced to oppose my doctrine of marl, or lime, 

 being injurious to or destructive of these 

 growths, when fully examined, served most 

 strongly to sustain these long asserted opin- 

 ions of mine. On the sandy lands border- 

 ing on the black and calcareous, pines grow 

 generally, if not always. But in no case 

 did I find pines on soil that was ever so 

 slightly calcareous, except once. On the 

 broad bottom land bordering on Chehatchee 

 creek (Dallas county,) and which is very 

 new* the beginning of the main body of san- 

 dy °and pine-covered high land, this flat, 

 which is rarely overflowed by the highest 

 freshes of the creek, is underlaid with the 

 ordinary firm marl, or "rotten limestone," 

 at 8 to 10 feet beneath the surface of the 

 land. Among the large forest trees of usu- 

 al low-land growth, there were thinly inter- 

 spersed pines of three different species, lob- 

 lolly, p. tseda, short-leaf, p. variabalis, and 

 cedar pine,j9. mops, and some of all these 

 kinds, were large trees. There were of the 

 cedar pine larger trees, with larger and 

 straighter trunks than I had ever seen be- 

 fore anywhere, — and one of them was fully 

 3 i feet in diameter. This," and most of the 

 other large pines had diedj without any 

 known cause. It was neHjbne »of these 

 large pines that I took a specimen of soil 

 for subsequent testing — and, to my surprise, 

 found it to indicate a very small proportion 

 of carbonate of lime — probably not exceed- 

 ing two per cent. Elsewhere (in Virginia, 

 and at Rocky Point, N. C.,) I have seen 

 large pines of other species, standing on soil 

 not calcareous, but the upper earth lying on 

 rich dry marl at from four to six feet be- 

 neath the surface of the soil, and into which 

 marl the main perpendicular roots of the 

 trees certainly penetrated — though the more 

 numerous horizontal roots were in the bed 

 of non-calcareous earth above. I have also 



