The country is level and open with many swamps, having a dense growth of titi, tupelo and black-gums, sweet and loblolly bays and cassino, a short-leaf pine, all interlocked with bamboo briers, forming a dense thicket. The chief timber growth is the long-leaf pine and cypress, and on the open lands a dense mass of low saw-palmetto, gallberry bushes and some wire-grass. This region is about 125 feet above the sea, the descent on the east being very rapid from Okefinokee Swamp to Traders' Hill, at the head of tide-water and Saint Mary's river. From thence is a level second terrace to the edge of the savanna covered with deep white sand.

The creek bottom and hummock lands, though not very wide, have a dark loam soil from eight to twelve inches deep with a clayey subsoil, beneath which lies a blue clay stratum. The growth of these hummock lands is in the main oaks, black-gum, tupelo-gum, cypress, maple,

etc.

The coast region, covering in all about 2,045 square miles, includes savannas, live oak lands and islands. The "savannas," a belt of country from ten to fifteen miles wide, between the pine woods and wire-grass region on the one side, and the "live oak lands" on the other, extend from the Savannah to the Saint Mary's river, embracing nearly all the counties of Chatham, Bryan, Glynn and Camden, and large portions of Liberty and McIntosh. The surface of the country, known as the first terrace, is very level, standing from ten to fifteen feet above tide-water, and at some points higher. Its northwestern limit is the bluff of the second or wire-grass terrace, passing through the lower part of Effingham (twenty miles north of Savannah), into Bryan, where it is fifty feet high. At Savannah the bluff is forty feet above low-water mark. Southward through Liberty county, at "Gravel Hill," south of Hinesville, its elevation is from fifteen to twenty feet above the sea, and in Camden county fifteen miles east of Colerain, it is about twenty-five feet. Along the first or lower terrace of this region are meadow or savanna lands, broad, flat and open, with a sparse growth of tall long-leaf pines, and a thick undergrowth of saw-palmetto with here and there bunches of wiregrass which have found their way down from the upper or second terrace. In spring and early summer all over these broad extended plains beautiful flowers present to the delighted eye of the beholder a charming view.

The live oak and coast lands spread along the coast and occupy the numerous islands stretching from the Savannah to the Saint Mary's river, with an irregular and interrupted belt of yellow or mulatto sandy soil, characterized by magnificent live oaks, festooned with streamers of

gray moss often ten to fifteen feet long. There is also a growth of red and water oaks; hickory, chincapin, pine, red cedar, sweet-gum, cabbage palmetto, a tall variety of blue palmetto and sassafras. There are really three divisions of this live oak belt, viz.: upland or ridge, middle, and lower bottom lands, the last of which have a very rich dark soil, underlaid by a blue clay, well adapted to the celebrated black-seed or sea-island cotton. Not so much attention as formerly, however, is paid now to this long-staple cotton, since the use of fertilizers makes the upland or short-staple a more remunerative crop.

The coast tide swamp lands occupy a narrow belt, not continuous along the Atlantic coast, but bordering on the various inlets and streams to the limits of tide-water. Along the Savannah these lands are cultivated upward of twenty miles from the brackish marsh up the river. On the Altamaha their extent from the marshes upward does not exceed sixteen miles, because freshets prevent them from being of value except for timber. The soil along the Altamaha having more of decayed vegetable mold than that of the Savannah is more easily cultivated. The tide lands of the Ogeechee extend from the marshes about ten miles. Those of the Satilla, though not as broad as the others, extend from the marshes twenty miles up the river and are not liable to freshets. The swamp lands of the Georgia side of the St. Mary's river extend only to the foot of the second terrace some fifteen miles east of Colerain, though tidewater reaches Trader's Hill. The lands of this belt are the rice lands of the State, being devoted almost exclusively to its cultivation. Georgia's yield of this wholesome article of food is second to that of South Carolina, which State ranks next to Louisiana. Other crops do well, but rice is so much in demand that planters give to it the preference.

Of marsh land there is only a small area along the Georgia coast, at the mouths of some of the rivers.

The Sea Islands, which, large and small, form along the coast a network, with a rolling surface not exceeding fifteen feet above the tide, have a united area of 560 square miles. The soil is usually sandy, well adapted to the production of sea-island cotton, corn and sweet potatoes. In their delightful climate, sufficiently warm, and yet cooled by ocean breezes, lemons, figs, pomegranates, olives and oranges grow finely.

Finally in every part of Georgia are lands capable of the highest cultivation, with soils adapted to the very best results. If the settler desires to raise the various grains or grasses, the fleecy cotton, or the fruits found in every zone of production in the United States, from the hardy apple of the north to the tender orange of the tropics, he can choose his section of Georgia, buy his land and go to work with as much certainty of suc

cess as in any other of the most favored parts of the Union. Fine Irish potatoes can be raised in Georgia, and no better sweet potatoes are anywhere produced. Again we would call attention to the fact that in addition to the various crops that have been mentioned in this description of soils, Middle and Southern Georgia are the home of the sugar-cane, richer in saccharine matter than any other plant from which sugar is extracted. No more charming farm scene meets the eye than a vast field of tasseled cane with all its promise of good things to come and future profits.

The ground-pea, which, when parched, is held in such high esteem, is produced extensively in Georgia The chufa, though not so well known, is valued as good food for hogs.

Nor should we fail to name among other good products of Georgia soil the chestnuts, walnuts, hickory-nuts, chincapins and pecans, which help to give good cheer to the family circle as they gather on a winter eve before the hearth heaped up with blazing logs, or grate with glowing coal.

The mulberry tree should come in for a share of notice. This tree grows in every part of the State, especially in the sandy soil of some parts of Middle and Southern Georgia. The fruit of the black mulberry makes a very fattening food for hogs. The leaves of the white mulberry are the favorite food of the silkworm. When the colony of Georgia was founded it was intended that the production of raw silk should be one of its industries. Would it not pay some one who understands this business to embark in it in Georgia?

An excellent article of tea has been grown in Southeast Georgia. Indigo grows wild in its southern section, and was at one time cultivated, until cotton absorbed almost all the attention of our people.

Peas and beans grow in every section of the State and the value of the cow or field-pea to all the cotton belt of Georgia, both for forage and soil fertilization, cannot be overestimated. The peas furnish excellent food for stock, and are good food for man as well, superior to the Boston bean. The hay made from the vines is of fine quality and very nourishing.

The reports that have been made on authority of the United States census concerning Georgia's soils give but a feeble conception of their productiveness. The authors of those reports in making up their averages for crops raised in the different belts, gave the results of the work of the unskilled laborers under overseers who were themselves ignorant of the best modes of cultivation. But skillful farmers using the best methods give us a fair idea of the capacity of Georgia soil in every section of the State. We give here some well authenticated yields:

In Cotton.-In Washington county, partly in Middle and partly in Southern Georgia, 6,917 pounds of seed cotton to the acre; in Troup county, Midde Georgia, 4,594 pounds; in Burke county, in the northern part of Southern Georgia, 4,500 pounds; in Carroll county, Middle Georgia, 4,500 pounds; in Crawford county, southeastern part, in Middle Georgia, 4,500 pounds; in Clay county, Southwestern Georgia, and Brooks, bordering on the Florida line, 2,700 pounds; in Coweta and DeKalb counties, in Middle Georgia, but both above the center of the State (DeKalb considerably so), 2,200 pounds.

In Corn.-In Spalding county, Middle Georgia, 137 bushels to the acre; in Cobb county, in the northwestern part of Middle Georgia, 125 bushels; in Wilkes county, Middle Georgia, 123 bushels; in Thomas county, Southwestern Georgia, bordering on the Florida line, 119 bushels; in Crawford county, partly in Middle partly in Southwestern Georgia, 115 bushels; in Cherokee county, in Middle Georgia belt, but northwestern part of the State, 104 bushels to the acre.

In Oats.-In Wilkes county, Middle Georgia, 137 bushels to the acre; in DeKalb county, Middle Georgia, 131 bushels; in Floyd county, Northwest Georgia, 121 bushels; in Coweta county, western Middle Georgia, 115 bushels; in Schley county, Southwestern Georgia, 100 bushels; in Brooks county, Southern Georgia, on the border of Florida, 75 bushels to the acre.

In Wheat.—In DeKalb and Spalding counties, Middle Georgia, 65 bushels to the acre; in Carroll county, Middle Georgia, 40 bushels; in Cherokee, Middle Georgia belt, but northwestern part of the State, in Milton next on the south, and Walton, Middle Georgia, 28 bushels to the acre.

In Sweet Potatoes.-800 bushels to the acre in Richmond, Crawford and Berrien counties, the first named being on the border of Middle and Southern Georgia and bordering on South Carolina, Crawford in Southwestern and Berrien in Southern Georgia, with but one county between. it and the Florida line; 500 bushels in Brooks county, on the Florida border; 400 bushels in Fulton county, Middle Georgia belt but northwestern part of the State.

In Irish Potatoes.-Four hundred and twenty bushels to the acre in Wilkes county, Middle Georgia; 109 bushels in Walker county, extreme Northwestern Georgia.

In Upland Rice.-One hundred bushels to the acre in Hall and White counties, in Northeast Georgia; Pike, in Middle Georgia; and Early in lower Southwest Georgia on the Alabama line.

In Cane Syrup.-Seven hundred gallons to the acre in Bulloch