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SOIL SURVEY OF KAUFMAN COUNTY, TEXAS 55
materials washed from the surfaces of soils of the uplands that are
drained by the streams. They have no definite characteristics other
than those retained in part from the original place of development,
and the soils consist simply of deep deposits of fine earth placed
in accordance with the laws of sedimentation of soil material from
water. These soils, as a rule, contain comparatively large quantities
of plant nutrients and have such physical properties that crops
readily withstand long-continued periods of dry weather. Where
drainage conditions are favorable, most of these soils are highly productive
and are suited to a number of valuable farm crops, including
some that are not grown very successfully on most of the soils of the
uplands.
Although cotton on these soils is, as a rule, free from infestation
with cotton root rot, it makes a rank growth of stalk, which promotes
more severe injury by insects than occurs on the soils of the
uplands.
The soils of this group are included in the Trinity, Catalpa, Kaufman,
and Ochlockonee series.
The soils of the Trinity series are black or very dark gray deep
calcareous crumbly soils composed of soil materials transported chiefly
from the calcareous soils of the prairies. They have slow drainage in
places but are very productive.
The Catalpa soils are brown deep calcareous crumbly soils composed
of materials also transported from calcareous soils of the
prairies. They are rather productive and have somewhat better
natural drainage than the Trinity soils.
The Kaufman series includes dark noncalcareous soils consisting
of dark soil materials transported largely from the surfaces of noncalcareous
soils of the prairies. They are grayish brown, dark brown,
or nearly black and range from neutral to slightly acid. Drainage
ranges from very slow to moderately good. Wherever the flood hazard
is not severe, the productivity is high.
The Ochlockonee soils are light-brown or grayish-brown acid soils
composed mainly of sediments transported from light-colored sandy
forested soils of the uplands. They are moderately productive.
The chief obstacle preventing the more generally successful use of
the alluvial soils is their subjection to overflow at various times, and
this sometimes causes complete loss of crops or considerable injury
to them.
On some of the larger bottom-land areas of these soils, especially
along the Trinity River, the East Fork Trinity River, and Cedar
Creek, levees have been built to prevent overflows. These have
afforded valuable protection at times, although their cost has been so
high as to be considered unprofitable in some districts. Some of the
levees are still holding, some have broken at times, and others have
been abandoned after they became greatly damaged by floods.
Trinity clay.-Trinity clay consists of black or very dark gray
calcareous crumbly very heavy clay which grades, at a depth of
about 6 feet, into gray compact calcareous nearly impervious clay.
The surface soil is crumbly in cultivated fields, and the soil has the
same tilth as Houston Black clay. The soil is very heavy and dries
out slowly. All areas that are not leveed are subject to overflow.
Trinity clay occupies the flood plains of the Trinity River, the
East Fork Trinity River, Brushy Creek, and the small branches