The soil of East Florida is generally poor, and circumstances have prevented the settlement and cultivation of the small proportion of really good lands. The parts on the western seashore are barren and sandy, abounding with marshes and lagoons. In the northern districts, gentle elevations of fertile land, supporting a vigorous growth of oaks and hickories, are found in the midst of marshes and pine barrens. Sugar cane is raised here with great facility, and a superior quality of long and short staple cotton. In the lower parts of Alabama are extensive swamps, cypress land, and cane brakes. The central region is covered with gentle elevations, having a thin soil with a substratum of clay that cultivation will render productive. At present these hills are covered with pine, and, while there are tracts of rich land, will be held in little estimation; they include more than one half the surface of the state. On the banks of the Alabama and Tombeckbee there are wide and fertile alluvions, and the region between these rivers is the richest and best in Alabama. The French emigrants represent the soil of the slopes and hammoc lands of this state to be suitable for the vine. In the northern section of Mississippi the land rises in regular undulations, and the soil is black, fertile, and deep, covered with high cane brake. The valleys north-west of the Yazoo are well watered and exceedingly rich. In the western parts of the state, the lands are unfortunately exposed to inundation; but, in other respects, the soil does not much differ from that of Alabama. The southern tract is a level alluvion. A region of Louisiana, comprising about five millions of acres, is annually overflowed by the waters of the Mississippi. Of this tract a large portion is, in its present state, unfit for cultivation. This immense tract embraces soil of various descriptions; cypress swamps, sea marsh, small elevated prairie lands of great fertility, and a tract covered with cane brake, rank shrubbery, and a heavy growth of timber.[36] The best soil of Louisiana is found in the region called the _coast_, which is that part of the bottom of the Mississippi commencing with the first cultivation above the Balize, and comprising forty miles below New Orleans, and one hundred and fifty above. This fertile belt, which varies in width from one to two miles, is secured from inundation by an embankment, broad enough to furnish a fine highway, from six to eight feet in height. In the northern part of this state, bordering on Arkansas, is a considerable extent of hilly, flinty, barren land.