THE SOILS OF TEXAS-A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT 
AND CLASSIFICATION. 
BY E. T. DUMBLE, STATE GEOLOGIST. 
Read June 18th : 1895. 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
Introduction. 25 
Soils and their derivation . 2G 
Geology . 2S 
Physical Geography. 31 
Residual Soils of the Coastal Slope. 32 
Coast Prairies. 32 
Tertiary Plain. 34 
Black Prairie. 39 
Grand Prairie. 43 
Residual Soils of the Central Basin. 46 
Denuded Areas. 46 
Plateaus. 48 
Residual Soils of the Mountain Regions. 49 
Soils of Transportation. 51 
Drift Soils. 51 
Alluvial Soils. 52 
Preliminary Classification . 58 
Introduction. 
Of all the materials, minerals or ores which lie within the domain of 
economic geology, there is none of greater value or that should receive 
more careful consideration and investigation than the soils. 
The soil is the connecting link between the sciences of Geology and 
Agriculture, and in all advanced effort for its utilization the work of the 
geologist and the farmer must go hand in hand. 
The geologist studies the soil in its relations to the past history of the 
earth, its present condition, and its future possibilities. The farmer, in 
a new country especially, is too often content to know that it will yield 
him fair returns for his labor for a year or two, because his immediate 
wants are few, and new land may be had for almost the trouble of break¬ 
ing it. As population increases, and it is not so easy to take up new 
land as the fertility of the old decreases, the farmer must seek a more 
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