50 Atlaniic and Gulf Coastal Plains Soils. 



cient, and rain water remains upon the surface for a considerable 

 time, although the conditions are not comparable with those of a 

 true swamp. In such areas the soil, although it may be composed 

 largely of sand, is apt to be very compact, deficient in organic 

 matter, and generally unproductive. Nearer the coast the lands 

 have better drainage, are looser and more easily cultivated, and 

 their productivity is more easily maintained. From Virginia 

 northward the surface is more broken, in many places hilly, and 

 l)etter drainage is thereby provided. 



The soils have been derived mainly from the wash from the 

 Piedmont Plateau and the mountains bevond, laid down under 

 water, the surface having been several times submerged and ele- 

 vated. The soils are for the most part composed of light sands 

 and loams, with occasional deposits of sandy clays, and silt, and 

 very local surface deposits of heavy clays. There are very few 

 soils in this division which approach in texture or compare in 

 productiveness or crop value with the heavy clays of the Pied- 

 mont Plateau or of the residual limestone valleys. They are, 

 therefore, not as well adapted to general farm crops, nor can they 

 be expected to give as satisfactory yields of such crops as corn, 

 wheat, oats, or hay; but, on the other hand, they are eminently 

 adapted to the production of early vegetables, the lighter farm 

 crops, particularly fine qualities of peaches and small fruits, and 

 a fine-textured cotton, together with rice and citrus fruits where 

 the climatic and drainage conditions are suital)le. 



The Gulf Coastal Plain is characterized by very large deposits 

 of silty and heavy clay soils, although the coarse sandy soils also 

 occur over very large areas. The great black calcareous prairies 

 of the Gulf Plain and the vast (nilf coast prairies which are being 

 so extensively developed at the present time in the rice and sugar- 

 cane industries have no prototypes in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 

 These extensive prairies are composed of very heavy clay soils. 



Immediately bordering the ocean and Gulf coast is frequently 

 found a stretch of tidal marshes, covered with water at every tide, 

 or at least in unusual tides, supporting usually a growth of coarse 

 salt grass. This material consists of sands,1oams, and clays included 

 under the Galveston Series. On account of the extreme dithculty 

 of across and the ]>resont low value of these lands the soil survey 



