76 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
The ridges which divide the complex trough are composed of the chert 
of the limestones, and have siliceous soils, and are therefore more par- 
ticularly spoken of under the next head. In the narrow anticlinal val- 
leys which run parallel to the Coosa Valley, in Alabama, the brown and 
red loam soils are of the same character as those just mentioned. Along 
the edges of these valleys, on each side, there is usually a narrow strip 
with yellowish loamy soil based upon the limestones of the Subcarbon- 
iferous formation. These belts are generally in cultivation, and yield 
good crops when properly cultivated. 
In Alabama the Coosa Valley is largely planted in cotton, but in Ten- 
nessee its continuation (Valley of East Tennessee) is devoted less to 
cotton and more to grain crops. 
These valley lands are not level, but are rolling and ridgy, and the 
timber growth upon them is quite varied. 
On some of the rich red lands large white, red, and Spanish oaks, 
hickories, sweet and sour gums prevail. 
Along the flinty ridges and at their bases where the soils are more 
sandy and less fertile, post and black jack oaks and short-leaf pine be- 
come characteristic, and in some portions of Alabama the long-leaf pine 
is of constant occurrence, not only on the ridges, but also on the rolling 
lands underlaid by the siliceous limestones. Such is particularly the 
case in the vicinity of the Coosa Eiver. 
(3) Tennessee Valley in North Alabama. This division, like the 
Basin of Tennessee, rest& on limestones, which, however, belong to the 
Subcarboniferous formation. The surface is slightly undulating, with 
low, rocky knolls timbered with post and other oaks, the remnants of 
a once universal forest of oaks € and hickories. The greater part of this 
valley is cleared and under cultivation, the exceptions being the flinty, 
rocky knolls above mentioned, and glady places covered with red 
cedar. 
The prevailing soil is a rather stiff loam of red to brown color, and it 
is highly fertile in its virgin state. 
Notwithstanding the high latitude of the Tennessee Valley, a large 
percentage of its area is devoted to the culture of cotton, as may be 
seen from the map. 
b. Red loam lands west of the Mississippi. — (1) Red loam uplands and 
prairies of Arkansas. These lands, as already stated, are based upon 
the shales of the Coal-measures. The uplands are rolling or hilly, and 
are timbered with a fine growth of red, scarlet, black, yellow, chestnut, 
and laurel oaks, sweet and black gums, wild cherry, shell-bark hickory, 
aud other species. (Lesquereux.) 
The red upland soils are considered the most fertile of those occur- 
ring in the western part of the State. Where the land is level or flat, 
prairies are found, which, when the soil is close and clayey, are badly 
drained and marshy and not in cultivation, though they make excellent 
