CLIMATES. 33 



THE COASTAL PLAIN. 



This section extends westward from the seacoast for a hundred or 

 more miles. It is a level and generally a sandy soil elevated but 

 little above the sea and blessed with a winter climate of peculiar 

 mildness from the proximity of the gulf stream, whose warm waters 

 skirt the coast to Hatteras. In this section are found the great 

 swamps or pocosons extending from the Great Dismal Swamp on the 

 Virginia line to the southern extremity of the State. In this section 

 cotton was for many years almost the sole crop, but in recent years 

 the cultivation of tobacco has largely extended. But the greatest 

 development, as we have seen, is in the great market-gardening indus- 

 try that has sprung up and is rapidly growing both in the culture of 

 vegetables and of small fruits, especially the strawberry. The At- 

 lantic Coast Line Railroad runs through this section, and, with its 

 branches, furnishes rapid transportation for the perishable products 

 of the gardens. With a climate^that is below the freezing point in 

 winter only occasionally, the work of the farm and garden can be 

 carried on continuously, and with the intensive methods we have 

 mentioned the winter cropping is becoming a feature of great impor- 

 tance. Where the lands adjacent to the great swamps have been 

 drained they have been found of great fertility. In Hyde County 

 many years ago the cutting of a canal from Lake Mattamuskeet to 

 the Pamlico Sound opened up a body of land surpassing in fertility 

 the black prairies of the West, and all over this section there are 

 bodies of black and fertile soil underlaid by a compact clay which 

 makes them retentive of any improvement that is applied. In addi- 

 tion to the development in the market-gardening line there has, in 

 this section, grown up an allied industry which is unique in its way 

 and found nowhere else in the country. This is the cultivation of 

 flowering bulbs for the Northern florists. It was found years ago 

 that the soil and climate were peculiarly adapted to the production of 

 the tube-rose bulbs. These are grown there to such perfection that a 

 limited section along the Atlantic Coast Line, centering at the town 

 of Magnolia, now supplies all the tube-rose bulbs for the Northern 

 and European markets. Of late years the tube-rose growers have 

 turned their attention to other flowering bulbs and tubers, and there 

 is a large acreage now devoted to the gladiolus, canna, caladium 

 esculentum, dahlias, narcissus, and Roman hyacinth, and it is be- 

 lieved that the lily known as the Bermuda lily, and which is now 

 imported in immense quantities from Bermuda, can be profitably 

 produced there. Experiments in this line are in progress. Bulbs 

 are also being produced on Roanoke Island, and the industry is ex- 

 tending. The level character of the soil of this whole section, the 

 absence of rocks and hills and the generally light nature of the soil 

 render cultivation easy, and, while there are poor and sandy soils, 

 the general character of the soil is one of great natural fertility. 



