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The continuation of these beds, as seen near the Navasota river in the northeastern corner of Madison county, shows the following section:

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY.

SOILS.

The soils of Brazos county, with the exception of the bottom lands, although nearly all fit for cultivation, may be classed as poor. In the region of Barker's prairie, in the southeastern part of the county, and also in several portions of the area occupied by the gray sandstones of the Wellborn beds of the Fayette division of the Eocene, the gray sandstones appear on the surface over considerable tracts, and at other places the gray sandy soil of these beds is too thin and scant for cultivation. The soils belong altogether to the two grades, alluvial or sedimentary, and residual or sedentary.

Alluvial.—The alluvial soils are found almost exclusively along the bottom lands of the Brazos river. A narrow strip extends along the west side of the Navasota river, and a few of the larger creeks have small bottom lands near their mouths. The bottoms connected with the Navasota, as well as those of the creeks, are comparatively unimportant, and but a very small part of them is under cultivation.

In the valley of the Brazos these alluvial soils form a belt extending with some small intermissions along the whole western side of the county. This belt has a width from one-half to two and a half miles. Alluvial soils cover an extensive area in the southern portion of the county, and the whole of the region between the two Brazos rivers, and the areas are all more or less subject to overflow.

The alluvial soils are altogether a brown clayey loam, changing occasionally into a stiff brown clay, and at other places to a brown sand or sandy loam. They are usually easily worked and as a class very productive.

Residual Soils.—The greater portion of the county is occupied by a light gray sandy soil containing scattered deposits of gravel and coarse sands. These soils have been derived from the underlying lignitic deposits, varying in thickness from one to two feet, and are a fine-grained sandy loam, with a considerable excess of sand, of dark grayish color, readily leaching to a pale yellowish gray or white. The subsoil is generally