468 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF DISMAL SWAMP ItKOION. 



75 barrels per acre < > I" early potatoes and in the same season about 5 

 barrels of corn. 



Wheat is said to have been successfully grown near Suffolk and else- 

 where in the region, and is still raised in small quantities here and 

 there on the inland soils with clayey bottom and considerable water 

 content, but it is hardly worth mentioning as a crop of the region. 

 The summers are doubtless too hot for Hie profitable cultivation of 

 this cereal. 



Oats are grown to a considerable extent and to fair advantage, 

 chiefly in the stiffer upland soils at some distance from the coast. 

 Barley and rye are also occasionally raised in land of similar char- 

 acter. The last three cereals are used in this region as forage plants. 

 Oats and barley are frequently sown with field peas. 



Numerous small fields of upland rice are to be seen near the north 

 shore of Albemarle Sound, where it is grown on the same light, loamy 

 soil that is preferred for cotton. Of course this variety is not culti- 

 vated with periodical sluicing of the fields, as is common rice, which 

 is a staple crop farther south, near Wilmington. 



COTTON. 



This great staple is grown in a small way in the lower part of Nor- 

 folk and Princess Ann counties, Va., but on land which is for the 

 most pari pretty well worn out. In the most southern part of the 

 Dismal Swamp region, however, e. g., about Edenton, N. C, cotton 

 is the principal crop, and thrives on the light, brown, loamy soils. 

 Near Newbern it is also an important product, being grown to advan- 

 tage on the truck soils. It is often sown after a crop of peas, pota- 

 toes, or other early truck has been removed from the land. Cotton 

 does well also on the richer gallberry land in the neighborhood of 

 Newbern. 



FORAGE PLANTS. 



The ordinary meadow grasses are not cultivated to any noteworthy 

 extent about Norfolk. The comparatively small number of live stock 

 raised in the region can be supplied with green pasturage during a 

 great part of the year, thanks to the long moist summers and the mild 

 winters. 



In wilder and early spring cattle are allowed to graze chiefly on the 

 young leaf shoots of the " reeds" or cane (Arutidiiiaria macroxperma 

 and A. tecta) which abound in every moist woodland. The broom- 

 sedges (species of Andropogon, especially A. virginicus) afford con- 

 siderable natural pasturage during the spring months. In early 

 summer the various Leguminosae (especially species of Meibomia 

 and Lespedeza), which abound in open woodlands, afford some graz- 

 ing to cattle. The native partridge pea (Chamaecrista fascicularis) 

 and the introduced Japan clover {Lespedeza striata), both of which 



