USA > Alabama > Hand-book of Alabama. A complete index to the state, with map > Part 37
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The hilly country in the northern part of this area is known as " the barrens " and is a part of the great highland rim of Tennessee. These have generally light-colored siliceous soils, and are not much under cultivation, but they include many tracts of fertile, calcareous soils.
South of the barrens, lies the valley proper of the Tennes- see, which has usually a fertile, calcareous soil of deep-red color. The surface is almost level, the uniformity broken here and there by slight elevations generally covered with trees and made up of fragments of chert. Upon these wooded knolls are frequently situated the dwelling-houses of the planters. Throughout the whole area, sink holes and caves are common, almost characteristic.
The southern border of the valley is made by the escarp- ment of the Warrior coal field, Sand mountain, as it is called, rising above the valley to a height which will average perhaps six or seven hundred feet. Along the northern face of this escarpment, abont half-way up, is a terrace or bench which, in the eastern part of Morgan county, is very narrow, but widens going westward and a considerable depression is then found
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between it and Sand mountain. In Lawrence and Franklin counties, this depression has deepened into a valley with cal- careous soils (Moulton and Russell's valleys), and the bench, now completely separated from Sand Mountain, forms a very conspicuous feature of the landscape, known as the Little mountain range.
The Barrens .-- These occur in greatest force in the north- ern part of the State near the Tennessee State line, in the counties of Madison, Limestone and Lauderdale. The western part of Lauderdale county is, perhaps, the most broken of any of the barrens lands in Alabama. The most widely distrib. uted and characteristic soils of the barrens are light-colored, whitish to gray, sandy loams, having a reddish or siliceous subsoil.
These barrens lands, like some of the Sand mountain soils, already spoken of, were formerly considered almost worthless for farming purposes, but have been coming rapidly into favor of late years. 1
In the valleys of the larger creeks and southward in the lowlands of the river, the soil is a red or brown loam similar, in most aspects, to that of the red lands of the valley.
The Red or Valley Lands. -- Under this head are in- cluded the valley proper of the Tennessee extending from the barrens on the north to the Little mountain range on the south ; the valley lying between the Little mountain range and Sand mountain ; and the valleys and gaps separating the spurs of the Cumberland in the eastern part of this division, which are all closely related in their agricultural and topo- graphical features.
These lands are nearly level or gently undulating, especially near the Tennessee river, on both sides, but in the gaps between the mountain spurs the surface is more broken. On account of the fertile nature of the soil, most of these lands are cleared and under cultivation, but the monotony is agreeably relieved by the low, rocky knolls, which are covered with a luxuriant growth of oaks. Where the flaggy limestones lie very near the surface, with but a thin coating of soil, they are usually cov- ered with a dense thicket or glade of red cedar. The soil of the red or valley lands, while varying between wide limits, is, in general, a sandy loam, resting upon what is usually called
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red elay, but which is really a heavy loam. In color, the soil varies from mulatto to deep red and nearly black. The creek bottom lands in the Tennessee valley are of varying degrees of fertility, but are generally productive, since they contain the best parts of the uplands which surround them. Upon the sides of the mountain spurs in Jackson, Madison and Morgan counties, and also along the base of the Little moun- tain range, there is a stiff, clayey and loamy soil, which sup- ports à fine growth of forest trees ; but, on account of their . position on mountain slopes, these lands are not well suited for cultivation. There are, however, many places in the coun- ties named where this soil is often in sufficiently level position to be profitably cultivated, and, in many of the rich coves which penetrate the sides of the mountains, these are the prevailing soils. The prevailing color is gray to black, and in places on Little mountain, and in other localities of this divis- ion, are found spots of black soil that recall, in appearance, the black prairie soils of southern Alabama.
Little Mountain .- This well marked feature of the Ten- nessee valley has already been alluded to. The Little moun- tain proper extends from Morgan county, through Lawrence and Colbert counties, out to the Mississippi line. In Madison and Jackson counties there are many small and detached spurs which are exactly similar to that of the main body, and they are to be considered in the same connection. The sum- mits of these mountains are mostly rather level, and. as a general thing, the lands are not much under cultivation, since the soil is rather poor and scarcely pays to cultivate.
The northern face of these mountains is usually steep and abrupt and somewhat indented with fertile coves, having red brown loam soil. The southern slope is much more gradual. On the summit or southern slope of these mountains, owing to the thinness of the soil and the proximity of the rock to the surface, there are places destitute of trees and which are called prairies. These places, however, furnish excellent pasturage.
Products, Etc. - The native timber growth of the red or valley lands are enormous oaks, giving way to red cedars when the limestone approaches the surface. When first set- tled, these lands were very fine and commanded high prices.
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Though they have been in continnous cultivation for many years, and that, too, without any manure, save such as has been necessarily saved on a farm, they still bring remunerative crops when well tilled. They are excellent for grains and grasses, and very fine crops of blue grass, clover and orchard grass may be seen in this region. These lands also produce fairly well in cotton. Some of the orchard products, such as apples, pears and peaches, do well on these lands, and the grape grows here to perfection.
The climate and health of this region are excellent, good water is abundant, and no part of the State is more desirable for a home, affording more advantages or possessing greater agricultural possibilities.
SOUTHERN DIVISION.
All that part of the State south and west of the limits of the middle and northern divisions is embraced in the southern division, which includes the whole or parts of Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Tuskaloosa, Bibb, Chilton, Elmore, Tallapoosa, and Lee counties, and all of Piek- ens, Sumter. Greene. Hale, Perry, Dallas, Autauga, Montgom- ery, Macon, Russell and the other counties south of these counties. The area of this division is, approximately, 32.335 square miles, and it may be subdivided into six agricultural regions, namely : the oak and pine upland region ; the central or upper prairie region ; the post oak flatwoods region : the lower prairie or lime hills region ; the long leaf pine region, and the alluvial region of the rivers and the coast marshes.
The Oak and Pine Upland Region .- This region em- braces an area of about 16,915 square miles, and ineludes the oak and hickory uplands, with short leaf pine ; the gravelly hills with long leaf pine and the oak and hickory uplands, with long leaf pine.
The Oak and Hickory Uplands with Short Leaf Pine and the Gravelly Hills with Long Leaf Pine .- The first of these subdivisions, the oak and hickory uplands with short leaf
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pine, has an area of about 4,135 square miles and includes the whole or parts of Lauderdale, Colbert, Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Tuskaloosa, and Pickens counties ; and the second, the grav- elly hills with long leaf pine, has an area of 8,820 square miles, and occupies a belt of varying width, but averaging about 30 miles, stretching from Lauderdale county on the northwest. to Russell county on the east and including the following counties and parts of counties : the western parts of Lauder- dale, Colbert. Franklin, Marion, Lamar and Fayette ; nearly all of Pickens, Tuskaloosa and Bibb ; northern Greene, Ilale, Perry and Dallas; southern Chilton ; nearly all of Autauga ; southern Elmore and Tallapoosa ; northern Montgomery : most of Macon and Russell and southern Lee.
These two sections are in soils and topography practically identical, but are separated because of the fact that in the northwest part of the belt the long leaf pine is not character- istie, while it is on the rest of the area.
The soils vary from sandy loams, overlying a red clay loam, to very thin sandy soils with sandy subsoils. The bottom lands in this region vary with the surrounding up- lands, and are, as a rule, easily cultivated and quite fertile. The second bottom soils are, also, in great measure similar to the upland soils, but are usually stronger and some of the best farming lands in the whole region are to be found in these second terraces.
The Ouk and Hickory Uplands with Long Leaf Pine .- This belt of country has an area of about 8,095 square miles. lies south of the prairie and flatwoods belt and embraces part- of Sumter, Choctaw, Clarke, Marengo, Wilcox, Monroe, Cone- cuh, Butler, Crenshaw, Covington, Coffee, Pike, Montgomery. Bullock, Barbour, Dale and Henry counties. It has practically the same kinds of soils as the preceding, and the whole region may be characterized as that of the brown loom uplands. The long leaf pine uplands of this region, which are usually heav- ily timbered with long leaf pine, have a sandy, sterile soil. As we go eastward towards the Chattahoochee river drainage. the saudiness of the soil continually increases.
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Products, Etc .- The natural timber growth of the oak and pine upland region consists of numerous species of upland oaks, conspicuous among which are the Spanish, post, red.
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black and blackjack, hickories and short and long leaf pine. The chief crops are cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, potatoes, peas, etc. Many of the orchard fruits do well in this region and in many portions of it the native grasses are excellent and clover thrives. Garden vegetables, also, come to perfection. The whole region is well watered and the climate and health are good.
The Upper or Central Prairie Region .- This region forms a belt running somewhat diagonally across the State, having a width of some thirty miles near the Mississippi line, but narrowing down towards the east, and almost disappear- ing in Russell county. It includes parts of the following counties : Pickens, Sumter, Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Dallas, Autauga, Lowndes. Butler, Montgomery, Crenshaw, Bullock, Macon, Russell and Barbour and embraces an area of about 5,915 square miles. The region may be subdivided into the black prairie or canebrake lands; the hill prairies and Chommenugga ridge, and the blue mart lands.
The Black Prairie or Canebrake Lunds .*- This division occupies an area of about 4.365 square miles, and is found in all the counties of the prairie region, except those on the extreme eastern border of the State-Barbour and Russell-where it is replaced by the blue marl lands. The principal of the soil varieties of this section is a gray or greenish gray, clayey cal- careous soil, which becomes black or very dark colored when mixed with vegetable matter. The subsoil of the cultivated lands is usCally of a lighter color than the top soil. From the slight elevations the soil has sometimes been washed away and bald spots are left where the bare rock partly forms the surface. (Bald prairies.) The sandy ridges throughout this division have a variety of soils, which, upon many of the ridges, do not differ from the loam soils of other localities ; and the table lands have brown loam soils. These ridges and table lands form an agreeable relief to the monotony of the prairie region. What are known as post oak prairies in this section. have a yellow or mulatto soil, with post oak as the most characteristic tree. This soil is a stiff, calcareous loam of yellowish to reddish colors, with a subsoil of red or yellow
. This territory is called also the black belt, and takes its name from the black color of its lands.
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clay loam, which sometimes becomes more sandy with increas- ing depth.
The bottom soils of this section vary between very wide limits, from stiff, black prairie-slough lands, to light or rather sandy loams, which have usually loam enough in them to make them very strong and lasting.
Along the northern border of this belt, a bed of green sand, highly phosphatie, comes to the surface, giving rise to some of " the most fertile lands of the section. These lands are usually somewhat sandy, but are of exceptional fertility This green sand marl crosses the State approximately along a line passing through Pleasant Ridge, Eutaw, Greensboro, Marion, Ham- burg, Summerfield, Prattville and Wetumpka. A similar bed of phosphatic green sand outerops along the southern border of the prairie belt.
The Hill Prairies and Clanmenugya Ridge .- A belt of varying width of lands of this character is usually found bor- dering the prairie region on the south and its area may be given at about 1,000 square miles. These ridges and knolls break off towards the black prairies in a series of rocky hills. along the slopes of which the limy clays are encountered soon after the summits are left. These hills are abrupt knolls, with a surface of yellowish, tenacious clay filled with white concre- tions of lime. The timber consists of red, post, and Spanish oaks, short leaf pine, sweet and sour gum, poplar, white oak. hickory and ash, and all the trees are usually draped with long moss. In many places the hillsides are bare of vegeta- ton and deeply gashed with gullies, and the surface in such bare spots is often strewn with fossil shells.
„A. well defined ridge, which acts as a divide between waters flowing north and south, may be followed without interruption from Wilcox county along the line between Butler and Lowndes, through northern Crenshaw, southern Montgomery, and northern Pike into Bullock county. The northern face of this ridge, overlooking the prairies is rather steep and abrupt, while southwardly it slopes away very gradually, merging imperceptibly into the long leaf pine and oak uplands. In Bullock county, the ridge is known as the Chunnenugga ridge. Its general surface is quite sandy, and the soils are grayish in color.
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AGRICULTURAL DIVISIONS.
The soils of the hill prairies are of three types. The soils of the first kind exhibit the usual variations depending upon the quality of the beds, and little further need be said concern- ing them. The best of them are the brown or yellowish soils, which do not differ materially from the similar soils of the loam in other localities.
The two principal of the soil varieties of the second class are-
1. The bald prairie hills, on which the soil is of slight depth and resembles to some extent the bald prairies of the preceding division, but the country is more broken and the hillsides are often badly washed.
2. The beeswax hammocks, or beeswax flatwoods, the soil of which is a greenish yellow, clay, timbered with blackjack oaks with a few pines. The stiff and unmanageable character of this kind of soil stands in the way of its successful culti- vation.
A third class of soils, resulting from the intermixture of the two classes just mentioned, exhibits all the grades between the brown loams of the nplands and the stiff, beeswax soils above mentioned. Upon these mixed soils, post oak is a char. acteristic growth.
The surface loam is here, as elsewhere, more or less deeply tinged with iron, and, in some places, the color becomes a dark red, and both soil and subsoil are filled with concretionary pebbles of brown iron ore. These are known in Alabama as the red gravel lands, and are similar to the "Buncombe's " of Pontotoc Bridge, in Mississippi. While these soils are fer- tile, they are not so desirable as other varieties, since the pebbles dull the plough and the lands are very liable to injury from washing.
The Blue Marl Lands .- These lands attain their greatest development in the eastern part of the State, along the Chat- tahoochee range.
The greater part of this territory presents the characters of the brown low uploads and of the pine uplands, according to the nature of the surface beds.
Along the Cowikee and Bear creeks, and their tributaries in Russell and Barbour counties, there are level or gently un- (ulating tracts with a clayey soil, forming a kind of prairie.
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These lands are known as "Cowikee lands," and on them the long leaf pine is a prominent tree, associated with hickory, white and Spanish oaks, and, in the lower places, with sweet and sour gums, and maple, all covered with long moss. In some of these places, the short leaf pine replaces the long leaf species.
Topography, Products, Etc .-- As here used, the term " prairie " does not always mean a timberless region, but refers " rather to the character of the soil, and while under this name are included all those parts of central Alabama where the prairies occur, only a part, and not the largest part of the area is of the genuine prairie character.
The uniformity in the composition of the rotten limestone, the disintegration of the beds of which gives rise to the true prairie soils, has its influence on the topography of the region. which is a low trough, with gentle, undulating surface, bounded north and south by hills which rise two to three hundred feet above the general prairie level. The monotony of the region is relieved by the occurrence here and there of ridges and conical hills capped with the pebbles and sand beds of the drift, which at one time overspread the entire region. In much of this region the rocks lie very near the surface and large trees are wanting entirely ; but, on the other hand, there are many fine groves of oaks, walnut, poplar, etc.
In all the prairie country the water is strongly impreg- nated with lime and is often insignificant in quantity, and for a supply recourse is usually had to artesian wells and cisterns "and, for farm purposes, to shallow ponds. Cisterns are dug into the limestone rock and usually no brick work is neces- sary. Upon the ridges an adequate supply of pure, freestone water is always to be had and these sandy ridges are usually chosen as the sites for dwelling houses, and often for towns and villages. From the uniformity of level the waters falling upon this region are very slowly drained away and much of it soaks into the ground, converting it into a mud, which, when worked up by vehicles, soon renders the roads nearly impass- able. In some parts of this central prairie region, the surface is more or less hilly, and in some localities, as in Little Texas, in Lowndes county, the broken character of the country is extreme.
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AGRICULTURAL DIVISIONS.
The blue mart lands characteristic of this region in the eastern part of the State, in Barbour and Russell counties, are in topography much like the oak and pine uplands. This is the great cccton producing region of Alabama, and hence fts name of cotton belt. It is, also, the best Indian eorn producing section of the State-these two being its great staples. Many crops besides cotton and corn are successfully grown on these black lands, such as wheat, rye, oats, tobacco, potatoes, barley sugar cane, millet and many of the grasses. Good pasturage is to be found in very many localities and stock raising and sheep husbandry are profitable. Timber is not so abundant as in the other sections of the State, but the supply is sufficient for all domestic purposes, for fence building, house building, and fire wood. The roads in summer are hard and smooth, but in winter heavy. The soil of the black prairies as a rule is of great fertility and not surpassed by any similar soil in the United States, but it is heavier and more difficult of culti- vation than the soils of the other sections of the State. The health of the region is as good as the health of rich lands usually is and the only diseases incident to it are those super- induced by malaria-a cause which is rapidly disappearing with better drainage and more attention to sanitary laws.
The Post Oak Flatwoods Region .- The flatwoods or post oak region enters Alabama from Mississippi in Sumter county, and extends across that county and Marengo to about Prairie Bluff on the Alabama river. East of the Alabama river, the black clays, from which the flatwoods are derived, become more limy and give rise to the formation of true, black, prairie soils, such as characterize Prairie creek and parts of Pine Bar- ren creek, in Wilcox county. Beyond Wilcox, this belt loses its distinctive characters.
The formation upon which the flatwoods and adjoining hills are based is a heavy, dark gray, laminated clay, and the soil proper is the result of the disintegration of this clay. When wet by rains, this clay becomes a tenacious, gray. sticky mass, speckled with red, which in texture is much like some of the clay of the prairie hills, but nnlike them is rather deficient in lime. The prevailing tree throughout the flatwoods is the post oak of long, lank habit, but the short leaf pine and in places also, the blackjack oak are associated with it. The post 29
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oiks are bordered on the northern edge by the central prairie region above described and on the southern by the hills of the brown loam on oak and pine uplands. These hills are capped with sand and other superficial beds and the washings from the hills have caused numerous modifications in the character of the flatwoods soils. These soils are all deficient in vege- table matter, which appears to be a capital defect in all the flatwoods soils. The addition of lime and the ploughing under erof green crops and deep cultivation are evidently the obvious means of improvement of these soils, thorough drainage being first of all a necessity.
The Lime Hills or Lower Prairie Region .- This agri- cultural division embraces portions of Choctaw, Washington, Clarke, Monroe, Coneenh, Covington, Crenshaw and Geneva counties. In the first named four counties these prairie spots are more nearly continuons ; in the others they appear, only in detached bodies, often far apart. The area is put at 1,250 square miles.
The greater part of this area has the characters of the brown loam uplands, or of the pine hills, and it is only in the first and second bottoms and on the summits of the lower hills that the limy soils are to any extent encountered. The prairie or limy spots are interspersed in such a manner among the brown loam and sandy pine lands that nothing short of a de- tailed map could show their actual occurrence. Unlike the upper prairie region, there is in this region comparatively little level land, except upon some of the broader table lands with rown loam soils. These table lands break off towards the water courses in a series of hills, which are capped with peb- bles and sand, and which are clothed with a growth of long leaf pine and blackjack oak. Upon the table lands the growth is long and short leaf pine and the usual variety of upland oaks.
The lower hills, as before stated, have here and there the peculiar black calcareous soil which gives the name to this region, and this soil extends usually to the bottom lands below, where it is, however, mostly tempered with the sandy washings from the uplands. The black prairie soils are gen- erally quite fertile, and most of the hillsides, usually very steep where it occurs, are eleared and under cultivation.
In Choctaw and Washington counties, near the line of
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Mississippi, the lime hills or rather the prairie lands, are char- aeteristic and numerous, occupying occasionally moderately level tracts of 100 acres or more. Towards the east, however, they diminish in frequency and continuous extent, and are seen no farther east than the lower part of Crenshaw county, except a small tract in the adjoining lower corners of Geneva and Henry counties : but long before this limit is reached the country bears almost exclusively the character of the long leaf pine hills, the limy soils being in small, detached bodies.
The characteristic soil of this region is a waxy, gray, cal- careous clay soil, which becomes black when mixed with vege- table matter. This soil is stiff and difficult to cultivate, but is very productive, and is quite similar to some of the prairie soils of the upper prairie region.
.A second variety is of loose texture and black color, often full of small rounded fragments of limestone, some of which are very soft and crumble easily between the fingers. This soil, which characterizes the shell prairies, is one of the best of this division, and rarely fails to yield excellent crops of either corn or cotton.
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