72 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
4. THE OAK UPLANDS REG-ION. 
This subdivision includes some of the best cotton lands in Texas, Lou- 
isiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. The top soil is a brown or 
reddish loam which overlies the sands and pebbles of the Drift, as above 
mentioned, under the long-leaf pine region. 
The underlying, older rocks throughout nearly the whole of this re- 
gion are the Lower Tertiary beds, which are chiefly liguitic, sandy clays. 
In their mode of origin it will be seen that these soils are entirely sim- 
ilar to those of the better class of long-leaf pine uplands of the States 
further east. The absence of the long-leaf pine is one of the chief dis- 
tinctions between the two. 
In respect of fertility and general agricultural value, two subdivisions 
may be recognized, viz : 
a. The yellow loam uplands, or oak and hickory land with short-leaf 
pine. 
b. The table lands of Mississippi and Tennessee, and the Cane Hills or 
Bluff region. 
a. The yellow loam region. — Under this head is included that great 
body of oak and hickory uplands associated with the short-leaf pine, ex- 
tending from Texas to Alabama. 
The face of the country is broken, except on the watersheds, as is 
always the case where the red loam forms the surface over beds of 
Stratified Drift. 
The soils of the better class of these uplands are yellowish or brown- 
ish loams, varying in thickness from a few inches to as many feet, and 
underlaid by the sands and other beds of the Drift. On the poorer 
uplands the stratum of loam is very thin, sometimes almost entirely 
absent, and the underlying drift sands or other materials then form the 
soil. Between these two extremes there are all the gradations, and the 
different qualities of soil are so intricately interspersed as to render it 
impossible to lay them down with precision. The general remarks 
above given, under the long-leaf pine region, will apply equally well 
here, to show the principles which govern their relative distribution. 
b. Table Lands and Cane Hills. — (1) The table lands. These occupy 
a strip of 20 to 30 miles width, lying adjacent to the bluff of the river 
in North Mississippi and across West Tennessee, and, as the name 
shows, form in the main a level table land, except where the streams 
have cut their channels. The soil is a brown loam of great fertility, 
and specially suited to cotton. The timber consists of oaks and hicko- 
ries, and of the former the post*, red, and black oaks are the most 
abundant. In the more clayey belts these are accompanied by the 
black jack, and, on the lighter soils, by the Spanish oak. 
In quality the table-laud soils show a gradation into the preceding 
class. 
The table lands of North Mississippi have long been noted for their 
fertility, but there is the serious objection to thern that they are so 
