These bluffs are the mere extension of the compara tively elevated surface of the state of Mississippi over the low grounds of the river of the same name. When the waters are low, it is found that the bluffs arc under laid by a crude concrete of sand and pebbles, held in mass by an oxide of iron ; the whole, no doubt, resting on a secondary base.
The elevation of the bluffs vary, but about one hun dred feet medium height would not be a serious depar ture from fact. They are cut into hills by the abrasion of water of the numerous streams which flow from the pine woods in the interior.
What renders these bluffs and hills objects of peculiar intererst, is the quality of the soil, which is in almost all places good, and in many exuberantly fertile. Receding from the bluffs, the pine forests imperceptibly encroach, and in some places, at a more or less distance from the liver, say in a direct line from fifteen to twenty miles, closes the productive border.
The foregoing limit is taken in general; many of the water-courses have fertile tracts on their banks, farther into the interior of the state ; but the latter description of land belongs more particularly to river alluvion, than to the soil of the bluffs or hills.
The soil of the bluffs and hills is a rich loam, resting on clay ; and digging wells has disclosed the fact, that the general substratum to the clay is loose sand.
The whole of this fine border of soil, in a state of na ture, is covered with a very dense forest, with an under wood of reed cane, the Arundogigantea, many species of vitis, smilax, and other climbers, and an infinite variety of more humble vegetables.
A mere list of the most prevalent timber trees will serve to demonstrate the fertility of this tract : these are, Black-oak, Querctis tinctoria.
White-oak, Quercus alba.
Spanish-oak, Quercus falcata.
Black jack-oak, Quercus feruginca. Willow-oak, Quercus obtusiloba. Wild cherry, Cerasus Virginiana. Sweet gum, Liquidambar styraciflua. Poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera. Large laurel, Magnolia grandiflora. Beech, Fagus sylvestris.
Fagus pumila, here a tree often forty feet in height, and eight or ten inches diameter. Black locust, Robinia pseud acacia. :Mulberry, Mortis rubra.
Persimon, Diospiros Virginiana. Honey locust, Gleditsia tricanthos. Black gum, Nyssa sylvatica.
Cottonwood, Populus angulata.
Linden, Tilia pubescens.
Muscilaginous elm, Ulmus Americana. Red elm, Ulmus tubra.
Sassafras, Laurus sassafras.
Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis. Ash, Fraxinus tomentosa.
Black walnut, Juglans nigra.
Bitternut hickory, Juglans arnora.
Nutmeg hickory, Juglans myristiexformis. Red flowering maple, Acer rubrum.
Of more humble trees and shrubs, and other vegeta bles, the following are most indicative of fertility of soil.
Papaw, Annonatriloba.
Dogwood, Cornus florida. Spicewond, Laurus benzoin. Spanish mulbery, Mortis scabra. Buckeye, Pavia.
Poke, Phytolacca decandra. Blackberry, Rubus villosus. Muscadine, Vitis verrucosa. Reed cane, Arundogigamea.
It would swell this article to too great length, to give a mere list of the most interesting vegetable productions of the line tract under review ; the foregoing are insert ed as illustrative of its natural fertility.
When compared with the entire area of the state, the productive tract before us is confined in extent; but when we turn our attention to the exotic vegetables which are, or can be produced within its limits, the in trinsic value of the land is rendered apparent.
Indigo, tobacco, and cotton, have in turn been culti vated as staples, and produced in great abundance : the latter has for more than twenty-five years past superseded the two former, and will, in all human probability,continue the great staple of this part of the United States.
Much speculation has been made upon the quantity of cotton which is, or can be produced per acre, upon the bluff lands. The writer of this article, from some personal experience, will undertake to assume 250 pounds of clean cotton as about an average crop.
To cotton, indigo, and tobacco, may be added, as the exotic plants cultivated in the state of Mississippi, Indian corn,(zea maize,) oats; and, where the inhabitants choose, wheat may be produced ; but the culture of that grain is seldom attempted. Most garden plants grow luxuri antly, though good gardens are rare. That species of potatoe, the tuberous rooted solanum, commonly called Irish potatoe, is cultivated, but does not succeed so well, either as to quantity or quality, as the same vegetable does farther northward. The sweet potatoe (convol vulus batatas of \Iuhlenberg) is produced in the utmost abundance.