CHARACTER, ORIGIN, OCCURRENCE, AND USES. 
CLAYS FOR DRAIN TILES. 
There is no lack of clay in this^State available for the manufacture 
of good drain tiles. The light-blue clays through the country lying 
between Beebe and Kensett and thence to Judsonia, and between 
Kensett and West Point, in White County, are available for the manu- 
facture of tiles. The clays about Brinkley, Monroe County, are well 
adapted to tile making. Along the western base of Crowleys Ridge 
in Phillips, Lee, and St. Francis counties, and on both sides of the 
ridge in Cross, Poinsett, Craighead, Greene, and Clay counties, these 
clays are abundant and of excellent quality. They abound also along 
Bradshaw and Terre Noir creeks in Clark County. 
In the counties south and southeast of Little Rock clays available 
for tile making occur both as surface soils in the valleys (not alluvial) 
and in the widespread stratified Tertiary beds of the region. 
In the hilly regions north of the Cretaceous and Tertiary area of 
the State drain tiles are not likely to come into demand except, per- 
haps, in the bottom lands, but wherever they may be wanted they 
can be made from the brick clays that have accumulated in the 
valleys. 
Along the Petit Jean and Fourche le Fevre the surface soils of the 
lowlands are generally available for tiles. In the neighborhood of 
Arkansas River tile-making material may be found in abundance in 
the terraces of brown and reddish clays that lie just outside of the 
"second bottoms." Any of these clays will be improved for tile 
making if they are allowed to weather through a winter. 
The demand for drain tiles has hitherto been so limited that but 
little work has been done in manufacturing them. Whatever bene- 
fits may come from the drainage of the soil are either unknown to 
the average landowner or are disregarded, while the expense of pro- 
curing tiling and draining has acted as an additional drawback to the 
custom of underdraining in places where it would be of great service. 
There can be no doubt, however, that many of the most fertile lands 
of the State of Arkansas that now lie unused could be brought under 
cultivation if they were only properly drained. The custom of under- 
draining must necessarily be adopted by our farmers in the near 
future, and when fairly tried it will soon prove its own importance 
on certain kinds of lands. It is especially true of the lowlands within 
the Quaternary area of the State. R. E. Call, who has paid especial 
attention to the Crowleys Ridge region, is of the opinion that thou- 
sands of square miles that now lie idle along White, Cache, L'Anguille, 
and Arkansas rivers can be brought under profitable cultivation by 
some system of underdraining. 
