318 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



treatment. In Alabama and Texas they will produce a cigar-filler 

 leaf of fine aroma, while the Norfolk soils will produce a finer grade 

 of Sumatra-wrapper leaf without aroma. 



The yellow Norfolk soils and black Portsmouth soils are very 

 different in their crop production. The former are adapted to early 

 potatoes, peas, radishes, lettuce, and the lighter spring vegetables; 

 the latter to cabbages and the heavier truck crops. Organic mat- 

 ter added to the Norfolk soils darkens them very little, but when 

 added to the Portsmouth soils makes them still blacker, indicating a 

 difference in the process of decay or in the final stable form of or- 

 ganic matter in the two soils, and affecting in some way their adap- 

 tation to crops. Whether this difference in the chemical changes in 

 these soils is associated in any way with the forces which determine 

 the form of the iron compounds in the Norfolk and Orangeburg soils 

 referred to is unknown. 



Instances of this kind, where slight differences in shade in the 

 red, yellow, or black soils are associated with differences in yield or 

 Duality of crop, at least in certain seasons and under certain condi- 

 tions of temperature and rainfall, could be multiplied indefinitely. 

 (Bu. of Soils, B. 55; Cornell R. C. Soils, Series 1; Univ. 111. B. 82; 

 B. of L. B. 79.) 



SPECIAL CHARACTER OF OUR SOILS. 



For convenience in survey and description the Bureau of Soils 

 of the Agricultural Department has divided the country into a num- 

 ber of soil districts or provinces. 



Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. The Atlantic and Gulf 

 Coastal Plains together constitute one of the most important physio- 

 graphic divisions of the United States. The Atlantic Coastal Plain 

 extends from the New England States southward to the Florida Penin- 

 sula, where the Gulf Coastal Plain begins, and extends thence west- 

 ward to the Mexican boundary line. It is, however, discontinuous, 

 being interrupted by the alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi River. 

 From the coast the Atlantic Plain extends inland to the margin of 

 the Piedmont Plateau that is, to a line passing through Trenton, 

 Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Columbia, Augusta, 

 and Macon. In its northern extension it is represented by a narrow 

 belt, but widens in New Jersey and attains its maximum breadth of 

 about 200 miles in North Carolina. The Gulf Plain extends up the 

 Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, its inner boundary line passing 

 through or near Montgomery, luka, Cairo, Little Rock, Texarkana, 

 Austin, and San Antonio. 



The surface is that of a more or less dissected plain marked by 

 few hills, slightly terraced with bluffs along streams. The inner 

 margin of the Coastal Plain is usually from 200 to 300 feet above 

 tidewater, but sometimes rises to 500 feet. The drainage here is usu- 

 ally well established and the surface is rolling to hilly, and conse- 

 quently carved and eroded. There is a wide belt bordering the coast 

 where the elevations are mostly under 100 feet. North of the James 

 River, where the Coastal Plain is narrow and deeply indented with 

 tidal estuaries, drainage is usually well established and the surface is 



