ין PART II. STATISTICS AND AGRICULTURAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COTTON STATES, WITH A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION OF THE GENERAL FEATURES OF THE ALLUVIAL PLAIN OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW THE MOUTH OF THE OHIO. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE ALLUVIAL PLAIN OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW THE MOUTH OF THE OHIO. The agricultural features of the Mississippi bottom and delta plain are so intimately connected with the geology and topography of this region that a succinct preliminary statement of these must of necessity precede the discussion of its soils. This statement will apply, with some local modifications, to the great alluvial plain from the confluence of the Ohio down to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. To the eye of the casual observer the alluvial region appears substantially as a plain, forest-covered throughoutwhat are called "prairies" being in most cases simply old Indian clearings. Closer observation, and still more the leveling instruments of the surveyor, soon reveal the fact that, as a general rule, the banks of the water-courses are the highest points; that, in other words, each stream has its bed in the axis of a ridge that accompanies it throughout. This ridge is formed of the deposits of the stream itself, and from it the land slopes off gently, until, midway between two water-courses, we usually find a low cypress swamp lying from 2 to 6 feet below the banks, and sometimes even below the ordinary water-level of the streams. This state of things will be best understood by reference to the subjoined diagram (a) representing a section across two "bayous" (b) and the intervening lands and swamp, and of the underground strata as shown in wells and bluff banks. Ideal section across two bayous in the Mississippi letom, showing surface-structure. What is true of the smaller streams or bayous holds no less, of course, as regards the larger streams and the great Mississippi itself. The subjoined sections across the Mississippi bottom (one from the main river to the Yazoo bluff, the other from the same to the west bank of the Washita river, about Monroe, Louisiana,) exhibit the same features on the large scale. It will be seen that the bank of the Mississippi river at Melrose Landing, Bolivar county, Mississippi, is 20 feet above that of the Yazoo, due east from that point; while the banks of the Washita river near Monroe, Ouachita parish, Louisiana, are about 10 feet below the level of the banks of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Yazoo. Washita river. Bayou La Fourche. 20 ft. Section showing surface of Mississippi bottom, and high-water mark of 1850, from banks of Mississippi river above Vicks. a See "Remarks on the Geology of the Mississippi Bottom", by Eugene A. Smith, in Proc. of the Am. Ass'n for the Adv. of Sci., 1871, p. 53. b The French Creole term bayou applies properly to water channels branching out from the main stream and carrying off a portion of its water. Since this office is performed in time of flood by almost every stream in the alluvial plain (whereby the natural current is not uncommonly reversed for some time), the name has come to be applied indiscriminately to all the water-courses of that plain, and thence has been largely transferred ir. Louisiana to the upland streams also. Section -14 ft. showing surface of Mississippi bottom, and high-water mark of 1858, from Melrose Landing, Bolivar county, Miss., east to the Yazoo bluff. Distance, about 75 miles. A glance at the surface profiles across the great bottom explains the primary importance of preventing the waters of the Mississippi from passing the natural or artificial barriers on its own banks; for, these once passed, the flood descends with a considerable velocity upon the lower ground inland, and not unfrequently reaches the foot of the bluff on either side. There are numerous natural channels through which a partial discharge of floods in this direction takes place wherever not artificially prevented, as has perhaps too frequently been done. Among the more important of such "passes" is the Yazoo pass; the bayous connecting the heads of the Sunflower river with the Mississippi; Jack's bayou and bayou Vidal, forming connections with the Tensas river; and lower down, bayous Plaquemine and Manchac. The opening or closing of these important connections in time of flood, involving the exposure or protection of certain regions, has been from time to time the subject of passionate discussion, in connection with the question of the maintenance of levees or embankments intended to confine the Mississippi river within its banks. The floods of the Mississippi occur in the six months from December to June, but are usually distinguished as "the spring rise" and "the June rise". The spring rise, broadly speaking, is caused by the spring rains and melting of the snows in the nearer and level portion of the Mississippi valley, from the Alleghanies westward to the great plains; it most commonly occurs in March and April, and when it subsides in time does not materially interfere with the planting of crops in the bottom-lands, where the growing season is several weeks longer than in the adjacent uplands. The second or June rise is caused by the melting of snows in the Rocky mountain region, and is frequently aggravated by persistent rains in the nearer portions of the basin, resulting in a concurrence of the mountain floods, carried by the Missouri and Arkansas rivers, with those of the Obio and direct tributaries north and south of the same. The June rise, occurring after all the expense of pitching crops has been incurred, is, on that account, usually chargeable with the largest amount of direct damage. When, as is sometimes the case, the putting in of crops is altogether prevented by a continuation of the high water through spring to the end of June, the planter has at least saved a heavy cash outlay, and may more readily make up for the loss of a year's crop during a succeeding favorable season. The average height of the June rises appears to be at least not below that of the spring rises. In whatever direction the solution of the question of protection of the Mississippi alluvial plain from overflows may ultimately be found, it is certainly the vital question for the development of the immense agricultural resources of this region, as much as is that of irrigation in other portions of the United States. In either case, a few years' respite from inundation or from drought is apt to bring about a relaxation of the efforts for a final settlement of the question, and to induce the investment of large sums in improvements, which are then ruthlessly swept away by one or two seasons' excess, or deficiency, of the vital fluid. In the case of the Mississippi bottom this insecurity has largely restricted cultivation to the soils of the higher ground immediately adjacent to the water-courses. The high land near the bayous-the "front-land"- is not, however, distinguished by its position alone. As a rule, it is a "light" soil, a loam, sometimes quite sandy, and, on the whole, the more so as the stream depositing it is larger; hence, on the banks of the Mississippi itself, we frequently find it almost too sandy for cultivation. Old abandoned water-courses are also thus frequently marked by ridges of sandy or loam soil, whose timber growth always differs more or less from that of the "back-land", by the presence of the cottonwood and the comparative scarcity or absence of the trees denoting a heavy soil, such as sweet-gum and swamp-chestnut oak. The immediate banks of the Mississippi river are, as a rule, occupied by a growth of cottonwood trees, sloping up from the seedling near the water's edge to the full-grown forest tree a hundred yards inland, and producing the impression of an elevated, sloping bank. This tree thus serves to fix and consolidate the sandy deposits, checking the current and causing slack-water sediments to form during high water, which ultimately constitute the cultivable soil. Opposite caving shores of bends, and in the eddies below islands, the forming alluvial soil is similarly occupied, the low, gently sloping banks constituting the "battures" and (in the case of islands) "towheads". Below Red river, these are chiefly occupied by willows, which are better adapted to the warm climate than the cottonwood. The "back-land", occupying the landward slope between the front-land and the cypress swamp, is of a totally different nature from the present deposits of the streams, while closely resembling the clayey soil now in process of formation in the swamps. Its special name of "buckshot" is due, partly to the occurrence in it of rounded ferruginous concretions, which cause the same name to be applied to the (of course entirely different) white silt soils elsewhere, and partly to its peculiarity of crumbling into small, roundish-angular fragments in drying; a property to which much of its agricultural value is due, since it thus combines the great intrinsic fertility of a heavy soil with the easy tillability of a light one. The dark-tinted "buckshot" soils are the most highly esteemed for productiveness and durability, being in these respects probably exceeded by few, if any, soils in the world. Examination of the strata in the banks of the streams, and of those found in digging wells, shows that the dark-colored clay stratum from which the "buckshot" soil is derived underlies the whole of the Mississippi bottom from Memphis to the delta, its thickness commonly varying from 8 to 30 feet, 12 to 15 being the usual one. Into this clay stratum, evidently formed at the time when the entire bottom plain was a continuous swamp, the present streams have excavated their beds, and upon it they now deposit their alluvium. The comparatively firm nature of the banks formed by this "buckshot" clay prevents to a great extent the continual shifting of the smaller channels, so apt to occur in the alluvial plains of other rivers. In the larger channels, however, and especially in that of the main Mississippi, the depth of water and its velocity in times of flood becomes so great as to reach and wash away the sandy or gravelly strata which underlie the clay; and thus undermined the latter breaks off and tumbles into the water in large fragments. It is thus that the "neck" separating from each other the two limbs of a bend is frequently washed away, forming a "cut-off" and, for the time being, making an island of the land in the bend. Generally, however, the entrances to the old river bed are filled up by the deposits formed in the slack water, connection with the newly-formed bed at ordinary stages of water ceases, and a crescent-shaped lake remains in the place of the old channel. These lakes are abundant along the larger streams of the bottom plain, and their banks, being high and dry, are often the preferred sites for residences. Except as to the kinds of trees forming the timber, these general features of the great bottom suffer but little change as we descend the river until we reach the region of comparatively slack water, below Baton Rouge. From the junction of the Ohio river down to the Mississippi state line, below Memphis, the Mississippi river generally keeps within a short distance of the eastern uplands, so that only comparatively small tracts of bottom land lie within the states of Kentucky and Tennessee (about 320 and 600 square miles respectively), while the foot of the bluff is washed by the river at Columbus and Hickman, Kentucky, and at the four "Chickasaw bluffs" in Tennessee, on the most southerly of which stands the city of Memphis. From the latter point the river turns diagonally (southwestward) across the bottom, striking the high lands of Arkansas near Helena. The bottom plain lying to the northward of this cross-cut in Missouri and Arkansas is popularly known as the St. Francis bottom (6,300 square miles), that stream flowing near its western edge and joining the main river a few miles above Helena. Similarly, the extensive area of bottom lying to the southward, in the state of Mississippi, and along whose eastern edge flows the Yazoo river, is known as the Yazoo bottom (7,100 square miles); it terminates at Vicksburg, where the great river once more strikes the eastern bluff after having made a great bow to the westward, at the vertex of which it receives the Arkansas river. From Vicksburg to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where it enters the delta plain proper, the Mississippi river remains within a short distance of the eastern highlands, which it frequently strikes, forming high and steep bluffs at several points, as at Grand Gulf, Rodney, Natchez, Ellis' Cliffs, and Port Hudson, small patches only of alluvial land remaining on the eastern side. The bottom plain west of the river, from about the northeast corner of Louisiana (where the bayou Tensas diverges from the main river) down to the mouth of Red river, is known as the Tensas bottom (about 3,115 square miles), and lies wholly within the state of Louisiana. Of these three chief divisions of the great bottom the Tensas bottom proper is altogether uninterrupted by any ridges above the highest overflows. In the Yazoo bottom there is a long, narrow ridge, entirely above present overflows, extending from the region opposite Helena, Arkansas, to the northern end of Honey island, Holmes county, Mississippi. It is thus about eighty miles in length, and varies from two to six miles in width. Its soil and timber-growth are different from those of the rest of the bottom, dogwood being a largely prevalent tree; it is, in its northern portion, known as the "Dogwood ridge". Its soil is very productive, and approaches in character that of the "front-lands" of the larger bayous. The St. Francis bottom is much more intersected and diversified by ridges of varying elevation and character. Some of these are true upland ridges, extending in from, and connected more or less with, the mainland. Others are isolated islands of such land, and others again are of a character approaching that of the "Dogwood ridge" of the Yazoo bottom, just referred to. These will be found described in detail in the portion of the report relating to the state of Arkansas. The same feature is continued into Louisiana, in the upland ridges dividing the flood plains of bayous Maçon, Bœuf, and Bartholomew from each other, and that of the latter from the bottom of the Washita. Minor ridges of less elevation, and more nearly related to the present alluvium, occur at various points, as is indicated on the map of Louisiana. The country bordering on the main Mississippi, from Red river down to New Orleans, is popularly known as the "upper coast", in contradistinction to the "lower coast", which embraces the river country from New Orleans to the mouths. The belts of cultivated land lying along the other larger streams (Atchafalaya, Tèche, Lafourche, &c.), are habitually referred to by the names of the streams, not as "bottoms", but "country". In approaching the tide-water region, the crescent-shaped lakes, so characteristic of the alluvial plain above, |