TIDE-WATER DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA. 35 



If the foregoing description was met with in a ' Journey through 

 Cabul/ or some equally unknown region, no European reader would 

 doubt that such lands were fertile in the highest degree and many 

 even" of ourselves would receive the same impression. Yet it is no 

 exaggerated account of the poorest natural soils in our own gene- 

 rally poor country, which are as remarkable for their producing 

 luxuriant growths of pines, and broom-grass, as for their unpro- 

 ductiveness in every cultivated or valuable crop. We are so ac- 

 customed to these facts, that we scarcely think of their strangeness ; 

 or of the impropriety of calling any land barren, which will pro- 

 duce a rapid or heavy growth of any one plant. Indeed, by the 

 rapidity of that growth (or the fitness of the soil for its production), 

 we have in -some measure formed a standard of the poverty of the 

 soil. 



With some exceptions to every general character, the tide-water 

 district of Virginia may be described as generally level, sandy, 

 poor, and free from any fixed rock, or any other than stones rounded 

 apparently by the attrition of water. On much the greater part 

 of the lands, no stone of any kind is to be found of larger size than 

 gravel. Pines of different kinds form the greater part of a heavy 

 cover to the silicious soils in their virgin state, and mix consider- 

 ably with oaks and other growth of clay land. Both these kinds 

 of soil, after being exhausted of their little fertility by cultivation, 

 and " turned out" to recruit, are soon covered by young pines which 

 grow with vigour and luxuriance. This general description applies 

 more particularly to the ridges which separate the slopes on differ- 

 ent streams. The ridge lands are always level, and very poor 

 sometimes clayey, more generally sandy, but stiffer than would be 

 inferred from the proportion of silicious earth they contain, which 

 is caused by the fineness of its particles. Whortleberry bushes, as 

 well as pines, are abundant on ridge lands and numerous shallow 

 basins are found, which are ponds of rain water in winter, but dry 

 in summer. None of this large proportion of our lands has paid 

 the expense of clearing and cultivation, and much the greater part 

 still remains under its native growth. Enough, however, has been 

 cleared and cultivated in every neighbourhood to prove its utter 

 worthlessness under common management. The soils of ridge 

 lands vary between sandy loam and, clayey loam. It is difficult to 

 estimate their general product under cultivation; but judging from 

 my own experience of such soils, the product may be from five 

 bushels of corn, or as much of wheat, to the acre on the most clayey 

 soils, to twelve bushels of corn, and less than three of wheat, on 

 the most sandy if wheat were there attempted to be made. 



The slopes extend from the ridges to the streams, or to the allu- 

 vial bottoms, and include the whole interval between neighbouring 

 branches of the same stream. This class of soils forms another 



