RICHLAND COUNTY. | 311 
The descent from the top of this divide is much more gradual to the north 
than to the south, a characteristic of all parts of the watershed in this 
neighborhood; and one to which reference will be subsequently made 
when a few of the more prominent features of the surface geology of the 
neighboring counties are grouped together. The highest points to the 
-north and towards Mansfield were, by the barometer, three hundred and 
twenty feet, three hundred feet, one hundred and ninety feet, etc., above 
Mansfield. About seven miles west of Mansfeld, and near the western 
line of the county, is an-isolated knob which is designated by residents 
in the vicinity as the highest land in the county and State. It is, how- 
ever, by the barometer only two hundred and forty feet above Mans- 
field, or eight hundred and thirty-two feet above the Lake, while two 
and a half miles further east the surface rises by a more gentle in- 
clination thirty feet hizher. 
SOIL. 
The soil over the greater part of Richland county rests upon the un- 
modified Drift clays, and takes its general character from them. It con- 
tains a large quantity of lime, derived mainly from the corniferous lime- 
stone, fragments of which are every where mingled with the Drift. The 
clay in the soil is also modified and tempered by the debris of the local 
rocks, which is largely mingled with the Drift, and is mostly silicious. 
This character, combined with a high elevation and thorough surface 
drainage, furnishes a soil which renders the name of the county appro- 
priate, and secures a great variety of agricultural products. 
While all parts of the county are well adapted to grazing, the land is 
specially fitted for the growth of wheat and other cereals, and to the pro- 
duction of fruit. The profusion of rock fragments in the Drift render 
the soil pervious to water, and prevents washing, even in the steepest 
hills. 
In the south-eastern part of the toca the higher hills are, in places, 
capped with a coarse ferruginous conglomerate, and are so covered with 
its debris as not to be susceptible of tillage. Nature has designated a use 
to which these sand-rock hills should be appropriated, as they are gener- 
ally covered with a dense second growth of chestnut. This timber prefers 
a soil filled with fragments of sand-rock, and the second growth is almost 
as valuable as red cedar for fence posts and other similar uses. If upon 
all similar rocky hills the inferior kinds of timber and the useless under- 
growth were cut away, and the growth of the chestnut encouraged, these 
now worthless hill-tops would yield an annual harvest scarcely less 
valuable than that of the most fertile valleys. On the north side of the 
