THE NORFOLK FINE SAND. 9 



It is probable that not over 25 per cent of the entire area of the 

 type which is located 15 miles or more from shipping points is under 

 cultivation. It is also a fact that in the established trucking dis- 

 tricts from 85 to 100 per cent of the type is intensively occupied, not 

 for the production of a single crop in each year, but for the produc- 

 tion of a rapid succession of crops frequently beginning with ship- 

 ments of asparagus, peas, and beans, and following on through the 

 year to terminate with the shipment of some staple crop which has 

 been planted, grown, and harvested after an early truck crop has 

 previously been taken from the land. The Norfolk fine sand thus 

 furnishes an excellent example of a soil which but a few years ago 

 was considered practically worthless for agricultural purposes, but 

 which under special conditions, in restricted localities has come to 

 have an abnormally high acreage value because of its peculiar and 

 special crop adaptations. It may be said in this connection that as 

 transportation facilities are extended, and as the demand for these 

 special trucking crops increases, there will be made available thou- 

 sands of additional acres of this type capable of producing good 

 yields of the crops which are suited to it and which are in increasing 

 demand for the feeding of city populations. 



CROP ADAPTATIONS. 



General farm crops. The differences in crop adaptations between 

 the different localities where the Norfolk fine sand occurs are not 

 so directly dependent upon the climatic surroundings of the soil 

 as in the case of the heavier members of the Norfolk series. 

 Throughout the entire extent of the type from southern Virginia 

 to eastern Texas the Norfolk fine sand is planted to small areas of 

 corn. The type is not well suited to the production of this crop, 

 and the yields secured are universally low, ranging from 5 to 20 

 bushels per acre. The Norfolk fine sand is too porous and well 

 drained to maintain a sufficient moisture supply for the production 

 of large corn crops. Similarly the yields of winter oats, which are 

 sown as a cover crop upon some portions of the type, are generally 

 low. In connection with other crops cowpeas are grown to a lim- 

 ited extent south of Virginia. Since one of the greatest needs of 

 the Norfolk fine sand is the incorporation of additional organic mat- 

 ter, the sowing of cowpeas with the Corn crop might well be extended 

 throughout the entire area of this type. The peas should be used as a 

 forage crop with the corn, while the roots and stubble should be incor- 

 perated with the soil. Velvet beans take the place of cowpeas locally 

 in south Georgia and Florida, and might also be produced upon the 

 Norfolk fine sand to advantage in southern Alabama and Mississippi. 

 The Norfolk fine sand is used only to a limited extent for the pro- 



