ST. FRANCIS COUNTY. 179 
burning. Stiff-mud and dry-pressed bricks are made. The stiff- 
mud bricks are molded in a Chambers machine and the dry-pressed 
bricks in a Ross-Keller dry press. The bricks are dried in a Standard 
drier and burned in Swift's patent up-draft grate kilns. It requires 
forty-eight hours to dry and eight to ten days to burn the bricks. 
Ten kilns, 72 feet by 24 feet inside measurement, are in use. The 
output of the plant is 150,000 stiff-mud and 25,000 dry-press bricks 
a day. 
ST. FRANCIS COUNTY. 
GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
St. Francis County is divided into three natural subdivisions — 
(1) the eastern, or St. Francis River bottom; (2) the central, or Crow- 
leys Ridge; and (3) the western, or the prairies. 
The St. Francis River bottom is a flat area which is but 212 feet 
above sea level at Madison, on St. Francis River. East of this the 
country rises somewhat. The elevation of Forrest City, on the west 
side of Crowleys Ridge, is 251 feet. East of the ridge the surface 
material consists entirely of alluvial sand and silt. 
The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, which runs from Memphis 
to Little Rock, crosses Crowleys Ridge at Forrest City. The follow- 
ing interesting section is shown along the railroad from Madison, on 
St. Francis River, to Forrest City: 
Section of Crowleys Ridge at Forrest City. 
Feet. 
Loess (unstratified) 10 
Dark loam, a phase of the loess 3 
Yellow clay loam, a phase of the loess 10 
Loess unstratified, containing irregular lime concretions (j 
Stratified loess, bedding brought out in narrow bands by yellow 
iron-oxide coloring, containing many small land shells, also many 
round lime concretions of all sizes up to that of a base ball, the 
whole bed becoming more and more; sandy toward the base II! 
Hidden * 2-3 
Gravelly sand, streaked yellow with iron stain and cross-bedded 3-4 
Still farther east, at a lower elevation than the base of the above 
section, the following section was obtained: 
Section 1\ miles east of Forrest ( '////. 
Feet. 
Loess (unstratified) 10 
Dark loam, a phase of the loess 3 
A reddish-yellow phase of the loess (5 
Loess, indistinctly stratified 15 
Yellow clay loam 3 
Fine drab argillaceous sand 3 
Coarse gravel (Lafayette) 5 
Gray sand, cross-bedded in places and elsewhere interstratified with 
thin layers of light-drab clay 2 
Dark to black sand, very fine, containing lignite, the dark color 
being due to carbonaceous matter 2-3 
