2 BULLETIN 633, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The soil of this region was formed mostly from limestone in which 
was imbedded a considerable amount of flint, sometimes in rather 
large masses. The limestone itself was dissolved out by rain water 
carrying small quantities of carbonic-acid gas in solution, leaving 
the impurities of the limestone (consisting mainly of small or large 
particles of flint) to constitute the resulting soil. On the slopes, 
where the finer particles of soil have been washed away, the land is 
rocky, the rocks consisting of angular fragments of flint, f Or the most 
part from 1 to 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Elsewhere, especially 
where the land was originally covered with blackjack timber, the 
soil is rather gravelly. The alluvial soil of the bottoms contains more 
or less gravel. On the higher ridges, which were originally prairie, 
the soil is somewhat finer in texture and less inclined to be gravelly. 
These prairie soils were formed in part from shales. On the whole, 
the soil may be described as gravelly loam or gravelly silt loam. 
Like most medium to heavy soils, it is fairly fertile, especially when 
abundantly supplied with decaying organic matter such as manure 
and the refuse from crops. 
The first settlers who came into this region came mainly from 
wooded regions and took up land along the streams. Most of the 
stream bottoms have been in cultivation for about three-quarters of 
a century. About 40 or 45 years ago farmers began to come into the 
region from prairie districts, especially from Illinois. These settled 
on the prairies. The prairie lands have thus been in cultivation 
somewhat less than half a century. 
The wooded slopes between the prairies and the bottom lands have 
been cleared and put into cultivation mainly during the last 30 years, 
the amount of woodland left being scarcely sufficient to supply local 
farm needs. 
THE LOCAL AGRICULTURE. 
Wheat is decidedly the most important of the local crops at the 
present time, corn being second in importance. The percentage of 
the crop area devoted to wheat for the crop year 1913-14 on the 
farms included in this survey was 48.8, or practically' half of 
the entire area. Corn occupied 25.1 per cent. The position of 
these two crops, so far as acreage is concerned, has been practically 
reversed in the last 20 years.- In 1890, according to the census for 
that year, corn occupied 46 per cent of the crop area in Barry County 
and 41 per cent in Lawrence County. In the same year wheat occu- 
pied 24 per cent of the crop area of Barry County and 33 per cent in 
Lawrence County. 
The reason for this change in the status of wheat and corn in this 
locality is not known definitely. The present high price of wheat is 
not responsible for it, for the crop to which this survey relates was 
