Hal, thanks again for the link. That was an interesting read, and I noticed several things that were probably not well understood in 1965 that are common knowledge today.

I didn't see anything specific about the Blackbelt in his thesis, but he was surely correct in regarding the great longleaf forest as a grassland that had trees on it instead of a forest. The accounts that I've read from the 17th and 18th century writers certainly described it that way. I suspect that the soil composition of much of the Blackbelt being created by the ancient ocean was what kept the longleaf from growing on it.

I have often thought that my farm was at one time very close to that ocean, but never a part of it. As I said, driving just a few miles west gets you into the soil type that is completely different. I have been trying to restore my property to the native longleaf, but it is very challenging. I burn about 100 acres a year, but the competition from loblolly and hardwood is hard to defeat. I can never reproduce the way the forest looked 500 years ago, but I can make a better habitat for the turkey, and even the quail. The turkey can thrive, but the Bobwhite can merely survive in what amounts to an island of a few hundred acres in the midst of tens of thousands of acres of loblolly plantations.

One thing I should clarify is that the term "Blackbelt" has taken on different meanings in recent times. It is most often used today as political term, describing a string of blue counties in the midst of a red state. It is also used as a geographic term and includes all the counties that contain any part of it. My soils professor at Auburn back in the 70s used it to describe soil type in general terms, and used it interchangeably with the term "Prairie" soil. The latter is the way that I was using it, and I wasn't clear on that.

Those prairie soils exist in patches throughout the region, much the way the writer of the thesis described the ancient fires. You can certainly find good timber growing soils in counties that are regarded as Blackbelt counties, but the true Prairie soils are what will not grow pine in an economic way. They do have cedar and some hardwood species like Osage Orange that I have never seen anywhere else.

Mr. Bobwhite once thrived over all of it. Maybe he will again someday.