GREENE COUNTY. 107 
or cemented, with iron oxides, and may be removed in large masses 
from the hills. Both sorts are locally used for underpinning houses 
and barns, and occasionally for building chimneys. In a region 
where other hard rock is entirely wanting, these beds appear to be 
very valuable for both these uses. 
The water from the wells has a bitter saline taste, due possibly to 
epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) or to sulphate of iron. Only 
water coming from the numerous springs along the contact line 
between the gravels and the underlying clays or clayey sands appears 
to be free from this bitter taste. 
It is believed that the beds underlying the surface members are 
equivalent to those at Camden. 
No plant of any kind in the county is engaged in the manufacture 
of brick or other clay products. 
GREENE COUNTY. 
GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
Greene County is divided into three natural topographic provinces — 
the St. Francis River sunken lands on the east, Crowleys Ridge in the 
center, and the Cache River bottoms on the west. 
The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway from Jones- 
boro to Piggot runs along the second bottom land on the east side of 
Crowleys Ridge. The second bottom land is formed of reworked 
material derived from Crowleys Ridge. It is a yellow-clay soil, well 
adapted to the cultivation of wheat and corn. At Paragould the 
yellow-clay land extends about 2 miles eastward from the foot of the 
ridge. 
East of the yellow-clay second bottom land comes a narrow band 
of glady clay soil which extends eastward for about 2 miles. The 
clay that forms this strip is a white to gray joint clay or pipe clay, 
which is very tough when wet but pulverizes completely when turned 
by the plow and exposed to the sun and rain. In texture the soil is 
very similar to that of the second bottom to the west. 
The western edge of the white glady land marks the western limit 
of high water of St. Francis River. Until recent years backwater 
from the river would stand on the land until the iron oxide had been 
leached out so as to leave the soil cold and lifeless. Where the land 
has been drained and the water kept from standing on it, the soil 
within three to four years assumes a brown to yellowish color and 
becomes more productive. 
The soil of the country east of the glade land is composed of fine 
silt and sand. The sandy land stands 8 to 10 feet lower than the white 
glady land to the west. 
The Tertiary rarely appears at the surface along the eastern edge 
of Crowleys Ridge in Greene County, but is covered by later deposits, 
