10 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



duction of peanuts in eastern North Carolina and in northeastern 

 Texas. The crop can be grown to advantage as a basis for hog feed- 

 ing and to restore organic matter to the soil. The Norfolk fine sand 

 is occasionally used for the production of the bright cigarette to- 

 bacco in eastern North Carolina, but the yields are generally low, 

 not exceeding 500 or 600 pounds per acre, and the type is not par- 

 ticularly well suited for the production of this crop. 



The Norfolk fine sand over its cultivated areas is almost univer- 

 sally planted to cotton south of the Virginia line. The yields in 

 general are low, ranging from one-fourth bale to one-half bale per 

 acre, and except where areas of the type depart from the normal 

 condition, and through topographic position or the near approach of 

 heavier underlying materials to the surface become more retentive 

 of moisture, it can scarcely be recommended as a good cotton soil. 

 In southern Georgia, northern Florida, and the southern portions 

 of Mississippi and Alabama, some ribbon cane is grown for the 

 production of table sirup. The yields are only moderate, but the 

 quality of the sirup produced is superior. 



Truck crops. The most important and the proper use made of 

 the Norfolk fine sand in any of the localities where it occurs is that 

 of the production of early vegetables for the northern markets. The 

 trucking industry has been quite widely developed upon such areas 

 of the Norfolk fine sand as are suitably located near to means of 

 rapid and easy transportation to market. Quite a wide variety of 

 early truck crops may be produced upon this soil, and upon the 

 best-managed truck farms a continuous succession of crops may be 

 planted and harvested throughout the earlier part of the vegetable 

 shipping season. 



The Norfolk fine sand is the earliest winter and spring truck soil 

 along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, which at the same time 

 is sufficiently retentive of moisture to assure the maturity 01 medium 

 to large yields per acre. The type thus combines the essential ele- 

 ment of forcing the crop to an early maturity, and the equally 

 essential capability of producing fair to large yields of the crop 

 when the soil is properly managed and fertilized. 



Early Irish potatoes constitute one of the most important truck- 

 ing crops produced upon the Norfolk fine sand. From northern 

 Florida to eastern Virginia this crop is produced chiefly for early 

 northern markets, and the different localities where trucking is estab- 

 lished furnish a succession of shipments beginning with those from 

 Florida points. From the more southern locations, potatoes are 

 shipped from the middle of April until about the first of May. The 

 crop matures about one week later for each 100 miles to the north- 

 ward from the most southern trucking districts. Thus eastern 

 Georgia ships early Irish potatoes grown upon this type as early 



