404 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF DISMAL SWAMP REGION. 



cheap transportation by water. In the Dismal Swamp region, as 

 elsewhere, it is the land bordering salt water or within a very few 

 miles of it that is most largely used for growing truck. No statistics 

 later than those given in the reports of the Eleventh Census could be 

 obtained as to the extent of country occupied by these crops, and it 

 would be difficult to form a close estimate, owing to the fact thai the 

 truck, farms are scattered over a long and much indented shore line, 

 and also because the area planted varies, although not, perhaps, to 

 any great extent-, from year to year. 



The largest areas of truck land in the region border upon the Kliz- 

 abeth River and its branches, especially the southern and western 

 branches; but there are also numerous large truck farms immediately 

 north and east of Norfolk and south of Portsmouth and Berkley. 

 Certain truck crops, notably potatoes and strawberries, are largely 

 and successfully grown in Iho heavier soils farther inland along all 

 the railways which enter Norfolk, but for most vegetables the light 

 soils along the coast are decidedly best suited. The sands of the 

 outer coast, bordering Chesapeake Bay and tin 1 Atlantic Ocean, are 

 of course not adapted to cultivation, as they are too much exposed to 

 winds laden with sand or with spray. 



< )n the southern border of the region, along Albemarle Sound, 1 nick 

 crops are grown to some extent, but are of secondary importance; 

 e. g., near Edenfon, N. C, where cotton and peanuts are the slaple 

 agricultural products. South of the Dismal Swamp region, near 

 Newbern, N. C, is another of the most important and best known 

 trucking areas along the coast. Here most of the crops mature about 

 ten days earlier than around Norfolk. The well-drained, warm, 

 loamy lands lying between the Neuse and Trent rivers, immediately 

 west of this town, are almost, entirely devoted to crops of garden 

 vegetables. 



The sandy or light loamy soils of the plain about Norfolk are not 

 naturally very fertile, but they are warm and easily worked, which 

 makes them eminently fitted for bringing crops to early maturity. 

 Their original poverty in various (dements of plant food is compen- 

 sated by the use of enormous quantities of fertilizers, and this is a 

 source of great expense to the trucker, whose initial outlay is much 

 more considerable than that of other farmers. The method of culti- 

 vation of most truck crops is highly intensive. In addition to heavy 

 fertilizing, much time and labor must be spent upon most of the 

 crops. Moreover, the gathering of them requires the employment of 

 man)' laborers, as the work is slow and the crop can not be allowed 

 to stand upon the ground after it, has matured. This is particularly 

 true of strawberries, but applies to all the truck crops. 



The principal garden vegetables grown in the country about Nor- 

 folk are, in about, the order in which they mature, kale, spinach, let- 

 tuce (these three marketed in winter), radishes, asparagus, strawber- 



