EVERY variety of soil is found within the territory of the United
States, and an accurate general estimate is not of course to be
formed. We will first describe that portion of the country known as
the Atlantic Slope. Next to the ocean are salt meadows or marshes, but
little elevated above the water, towards which, their surface has a
very slight inclination. They are covered with a peculiar reddish grass,
from six to twelve inches in height, growing very thick, and forming
with its roots a compact turf or sward, which is only cut with a sharp
instrument and by considerable force. These meadows are overflowed by
the salt water a few inches deep, several times every spring, and to
this their peculiar character is attributed; for when the water is kept
from them by dikes, the upland grasses take root, the turf loses its
tenacity and crumbles, and in a few years their appearance is entirely
changed. A slope of about six feet in two or three rods lies between
these meadows and low water mark; this is covered with a coarse tall
grass called sedge, which requires the returns of the daily tides to
bring it to maturity.
Adjoining the salt meadows, and on the same level, at the
farthest extent of the overflowing of the spring tides, fresh meadows
immediately commence, which generally extend to the upland; sometimes,
however, there is an interval of wet ground covered with bushes, or a
swamp between them and the upland. They are wet, and usually too soft
to bear a wagon. Similar meadows are sometimes found several miles from
any salt meadows or salt water, and generally at the heads of rivers,
where the face of the country is level. These meadows bear a general
resemblance, all being covered with wild grass, varying in height from
twelve to thirty-six inches, according to the quantity of water in
the soil; the more water there is, the more rank becomes the growth of
the grass, until flags and rushes take its place. The meadows are much
lower than the upland, and were evidently formed by the agency of water,
depositing an alluvion composed of the fine particles from the high
grounds, and decayed vegetable matter. When drained by means of ditches,
they become hard, will produce cultivated grass, and even trees, and
will in a few years lose all their former features, except their low
situation and level aspect.
The soil of this section is to a great extent sandy; very light
therefore, and sometimes barren, more especially near the coast, where
there are much marsh land, and extensive swamps. In many places these
swamps are covered with an impenetrable growth of timber, especially
of the cypress, and some species of the pine, which are favored by the
deep clayed soil, with its rich annual deposit; Louisiana, towards the
sea, exhibits a great breadth of this country through its whole extent.
Along the rivers a rich clay is found in considerable quantities;
many fertile spots are likewise interspersed among the sands, and the
land generally improves as it approaches the mountains. The best soil
is in the central portions of the slope. In the alluvial district
of Louisiana the soil is, for the most part, deep and rich; it is
also strong and vigorous on the Red river. Along the range of the
Apalachian Mountains a thin and poor soil prevails, mingled, however,
with many rich and productive valleys. In the northern portion of it is
a considerable extent of hilly, flinty, and consequently barren land.
When we cross the mountains, and come to the slope descending to the
Mississippi, we survey a large extent of country almost universally
fertile, and divided, as we have before mentioned, into the thickly
timbered, the barren, and the prairie country. In the first division
every traveller remarks a grandeur in the form and size of the trees,
a depth of verdure in the foliage, and a luxuriance of growth of every
sort, that distinguish this country from other regions. The trees
are large, tall, and rise aloft free from branches, like columns.
In the richer lands they are generally wreathed with a drapery of
ivy, bignonia, grape vines, or other creepers. Intermingled with the
foliage of the trees are the broad leaves of the grape vines, with
trunks occasionally as large as the human body. Sometimes the forests
are entirely free from undergrowth; at others, the only shrub is the
graceful and splendid papaw; but often, particularly in the richer
alluvions of the south, beneath the trees, are impenetrable cane brakes,
and a tangle of brambles, briars, vines, and every sort of weed.
The country denominated barrens has a very distinct and singular
configuration. It has usually a surface gently undulating, in long and
uniform ridges. The soil is generally of a clayey texture, of a reddish
or grayish color, covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees are thinly
scattered, seldom either large or dwarfish. They are chiefly oaks, and
have an appearance peculiar to the region they inhabit. The general
quality of the land seldom exceeds the third rate; but in the proper
latitudes, it is favorable to the growth of wheat and fruit trees. On
the little elevations of the barrens, trees and grass grow; but grass
and weeds are the only occupants of the low grounds. The soil of the
barrens is alluvial to a greater or less depth, though on some of
the highest points there is very little; and the lower the ground the
deeper the alluvion. On the elevations, when there is no alluvion,
a stiff blue clay is found, without pebbles. On the little ridges,
where the dampness is not too great, the oak or the hickory has taken
possession, and there grows to a moderate height in clusters; on the
low lands the soil is too wet and the grass too thick for such a growth.
The barrens then are natural meadows, covered with tall coarse grass,
varying in extent and figure, with here and there a piece of elevated
ground, decked with a cluster of trees; add to this, a reddish stream
running through ground but little lower than the surrounding plain,
and you have the picture complete. There are large districts of this
description in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama; they are common in
Illinois and Missouri, and are found more or less over the whole valley
of the Mississippi. This region and the bushy prairies, abound in those
singular cavities called sink-holes, which are generally in the shape
of inverted cones, from ten to seventy feet in depth, and at the top
from sixty to three hundred feet in circumference. Willows and other
aquatic vegetables grow at the sides and bottom. There is little doubt
that these cavities are caused by running waters, which find their way
through the limestone cavities beneath the upper stratum of the soil.
The remaining surface is that of the prairies, and this is by far the
most extensive. These may be classed under three general divisions,
though they have great diversity of aspect; the heathy, or bushy; the
alluvial, or wet; and the dry, or rolling prairies. The bushy prairies
seem to be intermediate between the barrens and the alluvial prairies.
They have springs, abound in bushes and shrubs, with grape vines, and
in the summer with a great variety of flowers; the bushes are often
overtopped with the common hop vine. Prairies of this description are
very common in Illinois, Mississippi, and Indiana, and they occur among
the other prairies to a considerable distance towards the Chippewayan
Mountains. The dry prairies are for the most part without springs, and
destitute of all vegetation except weeds, flowering plants, and grass.
To the sight they are nearly level, but their inclination is proved by
the quick motion of the water courses. This class of prairies is by far
the most extensive. Here are the haunts of the buffaloes, and here the
traveller may wander for days without wood or water, and the horizon on
every side sinking to contact with the grass.
The alluvial or wet prairies form the last and smallest division.
They occur generally on the margins of water courses, though they are
sometimes found with all their distinctive peculiarities, far from the
points where waters run at present. They are commonly basins, and their
outline is strongly marked; their soil is black, deep, friable, and
wonderfully rich. Native grasses spring on them in singular luxuriance,
rising to a great height, but they are too loamy for the cultivated
grasses. In proper latitudes they are excellent for wheat and maize.
Still more than the rolling prairies, they appear to the eye a dead
level, though they have slight inclinations and depressions; yet from
the general equality, and immense amount of vegetation, small ponds and
bayous are formed there, which fill from the rivers and rains, and are
only exhausted during the intense heats of summer, by evaporation.
In the alluvial prairies that are connected with the rivers, these
ponds are filled in the season of high waters with fish of various
kinds; as the water becomes low, and their course connecting with the
river become dry, the fish are taken by cartloads among the high grass,
where the water is three or four feet deep. When the waters evaporate,
the fish die, and thousands of buzzards are unable to prevent them from
polluting the air. This decayed matter seriously affects the salubrity
of the climate.
Along these rich plains, herds of deer are seen, flying with the
rapidity of the wind, or feeding quietly with the domestic cattle. In
the spring and autumn, water-fowl in innumerable flocks hover about
the ponds and lakes of these prairies, to feast on the oily seeds of
the plants and grasses. During the months of vegetation, the richer
prairies are blooming with flowers, of whose variety, number, forms,
hues, and odors, description can furnish no adequate idea. Most of the
prairie plants have tall and arrowy stems, with spiked or tassellated
heads, and the flowers have great size, gaudiness and splendor, without
much delicacy or fragrance. In the spring their prevailing color is
bluish purple; in mid-summer, red mingled with yellow; in autumn, the
flowers are large, generally of the helianthus shape, and of a rich
golden color.
The northern shores of Lake Ontario and Erie, the western shore of
Lake Huron, and the general surface of the valleys of the Ohio, the
Illinois, and the Mississippi, afford a highly productive soil. More to
the southward, the extended valley of the Tennessee is one of the most
fertile portions of the republic; and the same fertility extends itself
beyond the Mississippi below the Missouri, until it is checked by the
Ozark Mountains, whose productive portion is confined to the valleys.
To the west of these mountains, and of the Missouri, the soil becomes
less and less fertile, till we reach the Great American Desert, which
has already been described. The eastern shores of Lake Michigan, and
the southern coast of Lake Superior, are either sandy or rocky, and
generally barren.
Among the Rocky Mountains are sheltered and fertile valleys, though
their summits are of course rocky, sterile, and covered with snow the
greater part of the year. The timber in the mountains is pine, spruce,
fir, and other terebinthines. Though deficient in timber, the terrace
plains below have generally a fine soil. The prairies, like those in
the Mississippi valley, are covered with coarse grass and a variety
of beautiful flowers. Among the prairie plants are two or three kinds
of roots, which furnish food to the savages. Wild sage is found in
abundance; it grows of the size and height of a small tree, and on
these extensive plains is one of the principal articles of fuel. For a
considerable distance into the interior, the seashore is skirted with
deep and thick forests of evergreen. On the whole, it is believed that
few countries on the earth have a more fertile soil, than the valleys
west of the Rocky Mountains.
‘In estimating the quality of new lands in America,’ says Dr. Dwight,
‘serious errors are very commonly entertained, from want of due
attention to the following fact: Wherever the forest has been
undisturbed by fire, they have accumulated, by shedding their foliage
through a long succession of ages, and by their own decay, a covering
of vegetable mould from six to twelve inches deep, and sometimes from
eighteen to twenty-four. This mould is the best of all soils, and
eminently friendly to every species of vegetation. It is, indeed,
no other than a mere mass of manure, and that of the very best kind,
converted into mould; and so long as it remains in considerable
quantities, all grounds produce plentifully. Unless a proper allowance
be made, therefore, when we are forming an estimate of the quality of
soils, for the efficacy of this mould, which, so far as my observation
has extended, is not often done, those on which it abounds will be
of course overrated. On the contrary, where it does not abound, the
quality of the soil will, in a comparative view, be underrated. Hence
all maple lands which, from their moisture, are incapable of being
burnt, are considered as more fertile than they ultimately prove; while
oak, and even pine lands, are, almost of course, regarded as being
less fertile. The maple lands in Ballston are found to produce wheat
in smaller quantities, and of a worse quality, than the inhabitants,
misled by the exhuberance of their first crops, expected. Their pine
lands, on the contrary, yield more and better wheat than, till very
lately, they could have been induced to believe. The same things
severally are true, as I have already observed, of the oak and maple
lands in the county of Ontario.
‘From this source it has arisen that all the unburnt new lands in
the northern, middle, southern, and western states, have been, and
still are, uniformly valued beyond their real worth. When the tract on
the mountains in Massachusetts was first settled, the same luxuriant
fertility was attributed to it which has since characterized Kentucky.
About the same time it was ascribed to the Valley of Housatonic,
in the county of Berkshire. From these tracts it was transferred to
the lands in New Hampshire and Vermont, on the Connecticut; and from
thence to those in Vermont, on the western side of the Green Mountains.
From these regions the paradise has travelled to the western part of
the state of New York, to New Connecticut, to Upper Canada, to the
countries on the Ohio, to the south-western territory, and is now
making its progress over the Mississippi into the newly purchased
regions of Louisiana. The accounts given of all these countries,
successively, were extensively true, but the conclusions which were
deduced from them were, in a great measure, erroneous. So long as this
mould remains, the produce will be regularly great, and that with very
imperfect cultivation,――for the mould in its native state is so soft
and light, as scarcely to need the aid of the plough. But this mould,
after a length of time, will be dissipated. Where lands are continually
ploughed, it is soon lost; on those which are covered with grass from
the beginning, it is preserved through a considerable period. At length,
however, every appearance of its efficacy, and even of its existence,
vanishes.
‘The true object of inquiry, whenever the quality of a soil is to be
estimated, is the nature of the earth immediately beneath the vegetable
mould, for this, in every case, will ultimately be the soil. If this is
capable of being rendered, by skilful cultivation, regularly productive,
the soil is good; if not, it is poor. With this object in view, I
have formed the opinion expressed above, concerning the country under
discussion. Throughout most of this tract, the earth beneath the mould
is an excellent soil. The mould itself will speedily be gone. It is
wisely and kindly provided by the Creator, to answer the immediate
calls of the first settlers. These are of course few and poor,――are
embarrassed by many wants and difficulties, and need their time and
labor to build their houses, barns, and inclosures, as well as to
procure, with extreme inconvenience, many articles of necessity and
comfort, which are obtained in older settlements without labor or time.
To them it is a complete and ample manure, on which whatever is sown
springs with vigor, and produces, almost without toil or skill, a
plentiful harvest. But it was not intended to be permanent; it is not
even desirable that it should be. To interrupt, or even to slacken,
the regular labor of man materially, is to do him an injury. One of the
prime blessings of temperate climates is this, that they yield amply
to skilful labor, and without it yield little or nothing. Where such
is the fact, energy and effort will follow, and all their inestimable
consequences. Where countries are radically barren, man will despair.’
We will now give a brief description of the soil of each of the states,
commencing with the north-eastern divisions. The soil of Maine in
general, when properly fitted to receive the seed, is friendly to the
growth of Indian corn, rye, barley, oats, peas, hemp, and flax, as well
as to the production of almost all kinds of culinary roots and plants;
wheat is also grown, but not in large quantities. Excellent potatoes
are raised in great quantities. For the most part, the lands are easily
cleared, having very little underwood. The natural productions consist
of white pine and spruce trees in large quantities, suitable for masts,
boards, and shingles; and also of maple, beech, white and grey oak,
and yellow birch. The land between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers
is well adapted to the purposes of agriculture, and is excellent for
grazing. With good cultivation, land of average quality yields forty
bushels of maize to the acre, from twenty to forty bushels of wheat,
and from one to three tons of hay. Apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees,
flourish; the peach tree does not thrive.
The soil of New Hampshire, near the seacoast, is in many places sandy;
on the banks of the rivers it is generally good, and in the valleys
among the mountains, which are rich on the brows, and usually covered
with timber. The river land is most esteemed, producing every kind
of grain in the utmost perfection; but it is not so good for pasture
as the uplands. In the uncultivated parts of the state, the soil is
distinguished by the various kinds of timber which grow upon it; thus,
white oak land is hard and stony, the undergrowth consisting of brakes
and fern; black and yellow birch, white ash, elm, and alder, are
indications of a good soil, deep, rich and moist, which will admit
grass and grain without ploughing; red oak and white birch are signs
of strong land. Agriculture is, and always will be, the chief business
of the people of New Hampshire. Apples and pears are fruits the most
commonly cultivated, and no husbandman thinks his farm complete without
an orchard.
A large portion of Vermont state is fertile, and adapted to the
various purposes of agriculture. The soil is generally deep, rich,
moist, of a dark color, loamy, and seldom parched with drought. On
the border of the stream it is alluvial, and the richest in the state;
though some of the uplands almost equal it in fertility. Wheat is
extensively cultivated, particularly on the west side of the mountains.
Barley, rye, oats, peas, flax, and potatoes, flourish in all parts
of the state. Indian corn also thrives, and apples are abundant. Much
of the land among the mountains is excellent for grazing, and great
numbers of cattle are annually sent out of the state for sale.
No extensive alluvial tracts occur in Massachusetts; although limited
patches of this stratum are sometimes found on the banks of every
stream, and, with the adjoining elevated woodland and pasture ground,
constitute many of the richest farms in the state. There are numerous
uncultivated swamps, however, for ages the reservoir of rich soil, that
may be reclaimed with considerable labor and expense, which they will
amply repay by their singular fertility. The soil of Massachusetts is
chiefly diluvial, of all soils the most unfriendly to rich vegetation,
though capable of being made rich by clearing away its stone, and
the extensive use of manure. The diluvium is most abundant in the
south-east parts of the state, almost entirely overspreading the
counties of Plymouth, Barnstable, Duke’s and Nantucket. Toward the
extremity of Cape Cod, and on the Island of Nantucket, this stratum is
composed almost entirely of sand. The most extensive tertiary formation
in the state is found in the valley of the Connecticut. Here also are
found tracts, from which the diluvium and tertiary have been swept
away, and which exhibit the reddish aspect that characterises the
red sand-stone formation. This soil is of a superior quality, and
peculiarly well adapted for fruit.
The soil of Rhode Island is various, and a great part of it good;
though better adapted for grazing than for grain. The north-western
parts of the state are rocky and barren; but the tract in the
neighborhood of Narraganset Bay is excellent pasture land, and is
inhabited by wealthy farmers, who raise some of the finest neat cattle
in America. The ground is well cultivated, and produces Indian corn,
rye, barley, oats, wheat, (though not enough for home consumption,)
fruits and vegetables, in great abundance. The soil of Connecticut
is generally rich and well watered, and the whole state resembles a
cultivated garden. In the central valley of the Connecticut river,
and in the valleys of its tributary streams, large accumulations of
alluvial deposit have formed extensive plains and meadows. The soil is
adapted to Indian corn, rye, wheat, and flax; orchards are numerous,
and of late years, tobacco has also been raised in not inconsiderable
quantities. Much of the land, however, is better for grazing than
tillage; and the beef, pork, butter and cheese, of Connecticut, are
equal to any in the world. The meadows on the banks of the river are
uncommonly rich.
The soil of the southern and eastern parts of New York, is dry and
gravelly, intermixed with loam; the mountainous districts are well
adapted for grazing, and there are many rich valleys on the rivers.
The northern and western parts are generally rich and fertile. In the
valley of the Gennessee[35] is some of the best wheat country in the
world; and the alluvial flats of the valley of the Mohawk are highly
fertile. Around Lake Champlain is an extensive district of clayey
soil, extending to the hills that skirt the Peruvian Mountains. West
of Albany are extensive sandy plains interspersed with marshes. A
large part of New York is under excellent cultivation; particularly the
western end of Long Island, and the counties of Westchester and Duchess.
The soil of Pennsylvania is of many various kinds. To the east of
the mountains it is generally good, and a considerable part of it is
bedded on limestone. Among the mountains, the land is rough, and much
of it poor, in some parts quite barren; but there are a great many
rich and fertile valleys. In the neighborhood of York and Lancaster,
the soil consists of rich, brown, loamy earth; and proceeding in a
south-westerly course, parallel to the Blue Mountains, the same kind
of soil is met with as far as Fredericktown, in Maryland. West of the
mountains the country improves, and about the head-waters of the Ohio
it is generally fertile. Pennsylvania has a soil much better adapted to
grazing than tillage.
The southern parts of New Jersey are sandy and flat, sometimes marshy,
almost perfectly sterile, though occasionally producing shrub oaks,
and pines: the northern half of the state is well adapted either for
grazing or tillage. A part of Delaware abounds with swamps and stagnant
waters, which render it alike unfit for the purposes of agriculture,
and injurious to the health of the inhabitants. At the southern
extremity of the state is the Cypress Swamp, a morass twelve miles in
length and six in breadth, including an area of nearly fifty thousand
acres of land; the whole of which is a high and level basin, very wet,
though undoubtedly the highest land between the sea and the bay. The
swamp contains a great variety of trees, plants, wild beasts, birds,
and reptiles. In the northern parts, along the Delaware river and bay,
and from eight to ten miles into the interior, the soil is generally
a rich clay, in which a great variety of the most useful productions
can be conveniently and plentifully reared; from thence to the swamps
before noticed, the soil is light, sandy, and of an inferior quality.
In the central parts of the state, there is a considerable mixture of
sand; and in the southern part it, renders the soil almost totally
unproductive.
In the western part of Maryland, the soil is somewhat strong, and in
other parts are tracts of thin, unproductive land. It is generally,
however, a red clay or loam; much of it is excellent, and producing
large crops. Wheat and tobacco are the staple commodities, but on the
uplands of the interior, hemp and flax are raised in considerable
quantities.
The soil in the low part of Virginia is sandy or marshy, except on the
banks of the rivers, where it is very rich. This territory is alluvial,
and under its surface every where exhibits bones and marine shells.
Between the head of tide-waters and the mountains, it exhibits a great
variety, and a considerable portion is good. Among the mountains there
is a great deal of poor land, but it is interspersed with rich valleys.
In the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany, we come to a
country lying upon a bed of limestone. Here the soil is a deep clayey
earth, well suited to the culture of small grain and clover, and
produces abundant crops. Beyond the mountains the surface is broken,
with occasional fertile tracts, but the soil is generally lean.
North Carolina, from the seacoast to sixty miles inward, is a level
tract, of a lean and sandy soil, interspersed with swamps, and covered
with pine forests. In the mountainous parts, and to the west of the
mountains, the soil is moist and fertile. On the banks of some of the
rivers, particularly the Roanoke, it is remarkably rich. It has been
estimated that there are two millions five hundred thousand acres of
swampy land within the state, capable of being drained at a trifling
cost, and adapted to the purposes of agriculture. They have a clayey
bottom, overlaid with a vegetable compost, and when drained have proved
exceedingly fertile. One of these tracts is known by the name of the
Dismal Swamp; it is thirty miles long and ten broad, overgrown with
pine, juniper, and cypress trees. In the midst of it is a lake seven
miles in length. The Alligator, or Little Dismal Swamp, lies to the
south of Albemarle Sound, and incloses a lake eleven miles long and
seven broad. This swamp has been partly drained by means of a canal,
and many productive rice plantations occupy the reclaimed lands.
The soil of South Carolina may be divided into five classes: first,
the pine barren, which is valuable only for its timber; interspersed
among these barrens, are tracts destitute of every kind of growth
except grass, called _savannas_, and forming a second kind of soil,
good for grazing. The third, is that of the swamps and low grounds on
the rivers, which is a mixture of black loam and rich clay, producing
naturally canes in great plenty, cypress, and bays. In these swamps
rice is cultivated. The high lands, commonly known by the name of oak
and hickory lands, constitute the fourth kind of soil; this tract is
comparatively small, and is situated in the north-western extremity of
the state. The fifth class is that of the salt marsh, which borders on
the seacoast and has been much neglected.
The greater part of the soil of Georgia is alluvial. On the islands
which line its coast the soil is very fertile, and produces cotton of a
superior quality. The soil of the main land, adjoining the marshes and
creeks, is similarly fertile. This is succeeded by the pine barrens,
which abound with swampy tracts. On the banks of the rivers are the
valuable rice plantations. The soil between the rivers, after leaving
the borders of the swamps, at the distance of twenty or thirty miles,
changes from a gray to a red color, and is covered with oak, hickory,
and pine. In some places it is gravelly, but fertile, and so continues
for a number of miles, gradually deepening the reddish color of the
earth, till it changes into what is called the _mulatto soil_, which
is composed of black and red earth. These mulatto lands are generally
strong, and yield large crops. To this kind of land succeeds by turns a
soil nearly black and very rich. This succession of the different soils
continues uniform and regular, though there are some large veins of all
the different soils intermixed.
The soil of East Florida is generally poor, and circumstances have
prevented the settlement and cultivation of the small proportion of
really good lands. The parts on the western seashore are barren and
sandy, abounding with marshes and lagoons. In the northern districts,
gentle elevations of fertile land, supporting a vigorous growth of
oaks and hickories, are found in the midst of marshes and pine barrens.
Sugar cane is raised here with great facility, and a superior quality
of long and short staple cotton.
In the lower parts of Alabama are extensive swamps, cypress land,
and cane brakes. The central region is covered with gentle elevations,
having a thin soil with a substratum of clay that cultivation will
render productive. At present these hills are covered with pine, and,
while there are tracts of rich land, will be held in little estimation;
they include more than one half the surface of the state. On the banks
of the Alabama and Tombeckbee there are wide and fertile alluvions, and
the region between these rivers is the richest and best in Alabama. The
French emigrants represent the soil of the slopes and hammoc lands of
this state to be suitable for the vine.
In the northern section of Mississippi the land rises in regular
undulations, and the soil is black, fertile, and deep, covered with
high cane brake. The valleys north-west of the Yazoo are well watered
and exceedingly rich. In the western parts of the state, the lands are
unfortunately exposed to inundation; but, in other respects, the soil
does not much differ from that of Alabama. The southern tract is a
level alluvion.
A region of Louisiana, comprising about five millions of acres, is
annually overflowed by the waters of the Mississippi. Of this tract
a large portion is, in its present state, unfit for cultivation. This
immense tract embraces soil of various descriptions; cypress swamps,
sea marsh, small elevated prairie lands of great fertility, and a
tract covered with cane brake, rank shrubbery, and a heavy growth of
timber.[36] The best soil of Louisiana is found in the region called
the _coast_, which is that part of the bottom of the Mississippi
commencing with the first cultivation above the Balize, and comprising
forty miles below New Orleans, and one hundred and fifty above. This
fertile belt, which varies in width from one to two miles, is secured
from inundation by an embankment, broad enough to furnish a fine
highway, from six to eight feet in height. In the northern part of
this state, bordering on Arkansas, is a considerable extent of hilly,
flinty, barren land.
Arkansas territory exhibits every variety and quality of soil.
The cultivated belt below the Post of Arkansas bears some outward
resemblance to the _coast_ in Louisiana; though its soil is not so
fertile, and needs manuring to produce large crops. Large prairies
interspersed with forest bottoms, and large tracts of excellent soil,
are found five or six hundred miles from the mouth of Arkansas river.
Mount Prairie, which lies on the Washita, has a black soil of extreme
richness. On the White river are some of the healthiest and most
fertile situations in this country. The other parts of this territory
are vast tracts of sterile and precipitous ridges, sandy prairies, and
barrens.
The soil of Tennessee, in the valleys of its creeks and streams,
is rich beyond any of the same description elsewhere in the western
country. In East Tennessee it derives its fertility from the quantities
of dissolved lime, and nitrate of lime that are mixed with it. In West
Tennessee the strata are arranged in the following order: first, a
loamy soil, or mixtures of clay and sand; next, yellow clay; then comes
a mixture of red sand and red clay; and lastly, a white sand. In the
southern parts of this state immense banks are found of uncommonly
large oyster shells, situated on high table-grounds remote from any
water-course.
Missouri contains a large proportion of friable, loamy, and sandy soil.
The uplands are rich, and of a darkish gray color: excepting the region
of the lead mines, where the soil is bright and reddish. The prairies
are generally level, and of an intermediate character between the rich
and the poorer uplands, the latter of which have a light, yellow soil,
stiff and clayey. The bottoms of the great rivers and smaller streams
of this state have uncommon fertility. On the upper Mississippi are
rich uplands, interspersed with flinty knobs two or three hundred feet
high. In the south-west part of the state are sterile tracts, covered
with yellow pine, and scattered with hilly and rocky country.
Kentucky abounds in large bodies of fertile land, but even here are
tracts too sterile for cultivation. Nothing can exceed in richness
the great valley of which Lexington is the centre. A tract one hundred
miles by fifty in extent is found in the centre of the state, with a
substratum of limestone, which dissolves and so mingles with the soil
as to impart to it great richness and vigor. Much of the soil is of
that character known as mulatto land. An extensive tract of barrens
occurs between the Rolling Fork and Green river, and between the latter
and Cumberland river, in the northern and eastern parts of the state.
Here the soil is generally good, and affords fine pasturage.
Illinois has but few elevations, and those of inconsiderable extent;
it is generally a region perfectly level. Though containing tracts
of barrens and rough lands, not to be easily cultivated, it perhaps
includes a greater proportion of land of the best quality than any
other state. This region was called by the French the Terrestrial
Paradise; and its soil is said to be the richest in the world. ‘Our
road,’ says a recent traveller, ‘passed through the prairie ground, of
which above two thirds of the whole state of Illinois is composed, most
beautiful at all times, but especially at this season, owing to the
brilliancy of the flowers now in blossom. Plantations we saw here and
there, but the general appearance of the country was that of a fine
waving surface of strong grass, covered with strawberry plants, and
the finest flowers, and with wood on the high grounds and hollows, and
occasional dropping trees, and clumps or islets of wood. In general,
there was quite enough of wood in the view, and far more happily
disposed than if the trees had been planted by the hand of man.’
Indiana contains large tracts of excellent soil; and is generally
level and fertile. The prairies bordering the Wabash, are particularly
rich; wells have been sunk in them, where the vegetable soil was
twenty-two feet deep, under which was a stratum of fine white sand;
yet the ordinary depth is from two to five feet. Many of the prairies
and intervals are too rich for wheat. The northern part of the state
contains much good land, but is intersected by long narrow bogs and
swamps, with a soil of stiff blue clay.
In Ohio, the land bordering on the river of the same name is hilly and
broken; but most of these hills have a deep rich soil, and are capable
of being cultivated to their very summits. The bottoms of the Ohio are
of very unequal width; the bases of some of the hills approach close to
the river, while others recede to the distance of two or three miles.
There are usually three bottoms, rising one above the other like the
glacis of a fortification; and they are heavily timbered with such
trees as denote a very fertile soil. In such parts of these bottoms as
have been cleared and settled, the soil is uniformly fertile in a high
degree; producing in great abundance wheat, Indian corn, rye, oats,
and barley, and apples and peaches of excellent quality. In the western
counties, and in the north-western and northern portions of the state,
there is a leveller surface, and a moister soil, interspersed with
tracts of dry prairie, and forests of a sandy or gravelly soil. The
north-western corner of the state contains a considerable district of
level, rich land, too wet and swampy to admit of healthy settlements:
the soil is a black, loose, friable loam, or a vegetable mould, watered
by sluggish and dark-colored streams.
That part of the territory of Michigan, which forms the peninsula
lying between the great lakes, is generally level. In its centre,
however, is a ridge of table-land about three hundred feet above the
lakes, running north and south, and dividing the waters emptying into
Erie and Huron from those running to the westward. This peninsula is
divided into about equal proportions of grass prairies and forests.
Along the southern shore of Lake Michigan is a sandy and barren tract
of country, bleak and desolate. But much of the soil of this country
is excellent, and its productions are similar to those of the state of
New York. The North-West territory has not yet been much explored. That
portion of it situated between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and the
western shore of Lake Michigan, has a rich, black, alluvial soil, and
is well watered. The face of the country is unbroken by hills of any
magnitude.
The most striking feature of the vast Missouri territory is its ocean
of prairies. A belt of partially wooded country extends from two to
four hundred miles west of the Mississippi and its waters. The immense
extent of country west of the two great rivers is generally level, and
is covered with grass plains, and sand deserts. On the banks of the
streams there is usually a line of rich soil, but as we leave them
it becomes barren and dry. Much of this country is as sterile as the
deserts of Arabia, though in the most sandy parts there is a thin sward
of grass and herbage. The Missouri, the Platte and the Yellow-stone run
through a rich soil; but in its upper courses the Arkansas waters only
a barren prairie.
GENERAL REMARKS ON SOIL.
The productiveness of soils is influenced by the nature of the
sub-soil, or the earthy or stony strata on which they rest, and
this should be attended to in all plans for their improvement.
Thus sandy soil may owe its fertility to the power of the sub-soil
to retain water; and an absorbent clay soil may occasionally be
prevented from being barren by the influence of a substratum of
sand and gravel. Those soils that are most productive of corn,
contain always certain proportions of aluminous or calcareous
earth in a finely divided state, and a certain quantity of
vegetable or animal matter.
‘In cases,’ says Sir Humphrey Davy, ‘where a barren soil is
examined with a view to its improvement, it ought, in all cases,
if possible, to be compared with an extremely fertile soil in
the same neighborhood, and in a similar situation; the difference
given by their analyses would indicate the methods of cultivation,
and thus the plan of improvement would be founded upon accurate
scientific principles.
‘If the fertile soil contained a large quantity of sand, in
proportion to the barren soil, the process of amelioration would
depend simply upon a supply of this substance; and the method
would be equally simple with regard to soils deficient in clay or
calcareous matter. In the application of clay, sand, loam, marl,
or chalk, to lands, there are no particular chemical principles to
be observed; but, when quicklime is used, great care must be taken
that it is not obtained from the magnesian limestone; for in this
case, as has been shown by Mr. Pennant, it is extremely injurious
to land. The magnesian limestone may be distinguished from the
common limestone by its greater hardness, and by the length of
time that it requires for its solution in acids; and it may be
analyzed by the process for carbonate of lime and magnesia.
‘When the analytical composition indicates an excess of vegetable
matter as the cause of sterility, it may be destroyed by much
pulverization and exposure to air, by paring and burning, or the
agency of lately made quicksilver; and the defect of animal and
vegetable matter must be supplied by animal or vegetable manure.
The general indications of fertility and barrenness, as found
by chemical experiments, must necessarily differ in different
climates, and under various circumstances. The power of soils to
absorb moisture, a principle essential to their productiveness,
ought to be much greater in warm and dry countries, than in cold
and moist ones; and the quantity of fine aluminous earth they
contain should be larger.
‘From the great difference of the causes that influence the
productiveness of lands, it is obvious, that, in the present
state of the science, no certain system can be devised for their
improvement, independent of experiment; but there are few cases
in which the labor of analytical trials will not be amply repaid
by the certainty with which they denote the best methods of
melioration; and this will particularly happen when the defect of
composition is found in the proportions of the primitive earths.
In supplying animal or vegetable manure, a temporary food only is
provided for plants, which is in all cases exhausted by means of
a certain number of crops; but when a soil is rendered of the best
possible constitution and texture with regard to its earthy parts,
its fertility may be considered as permanently established. It
becomes capable of attracting a very large portion of vegetable
nourishment from the atmosphere, and of producing its crops with
comparatively little labor and expense.’