8 BULLETIN 1005, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



Portsmouth series. — The types included in the Portsmouth series 

 are characterized by dark-brown to black surface soils and by gray to 

 slightly mottled gray and yellow subsoils. In some places the deeper 

 subsoil is almost white. The surface soils are normally high in 

 organic matter. The Portsmouth soils represent swampy accumu- 

 lations. The series is poorly drained in its natural condition and 

 occupies depressions, broad level areas, and stream margins. It is 

 the common soil condition of the marginal portions of the Dismal 

 Swamp. Cultivation to quite a variety of crops is possible where 

 drainage has been adequately established. 



Swamp. — The Swamp areas of the region consist of the Dismal 

 Swamp and numerous small tracts of undrained land. The soil 

 material consists chiefly of an accumulation of organic matter with 

 varying proportions of mineral matter, the latter having been washed 

 or blown into the swampy areas. The Swamp is largely forested, but 

 considerable tracts of once swampy land have been cleared and 

 drained, both within the limits of the Dismal Swamp and around its 

 margins. In almost all cases such tracts are found to possess soils of 

 the Portsmouth series, although small areas of peat are also 

 encountered. 



Dunesand. — Along the coast line, particularly in the vicinity of 

 Cape Henry, there are great accumulations of medium to fine tex- 

 tured wind-blown sand. Part of this material has been heaped up 

 into dunes 15 to 70 feet in elevation, while other large tracts consist 

 of low ridges and intervening hollows or plains of wind-swept sand. 

 Many of these areas are covered with a thick vegetation of live oak 

 and pitch pine; others are bare of vegetation. 



Such a wide diversity of drainage and soil conditions naturally 

 gives rise to a considerable difference in the degree to which different 

 localities are utilized for agriculture and to a discriminating occupa- 

 tion of different soil types for use in the intensive business of truck 

 crop production. 



DETAILED SOIL AND CROP MAPS. 



During the fall of 1915 and the summer of 1916 surveys were made 

 in the vicinity of Churchland and Diamond Springs, Va., to show the 

 relationships that exist between the soils of the Norfolk trucking dis- 

 trict and the distribution of the more important crops grown. The 

 Churchland area is fairly representative of the trucking area along 

 the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River, extending thence to the 

 Nansemond River. The Diamond Springs area represents the con- 

 ditions that exist in the northern part of Princess Anne County, 

 where truck crops are also extensively grown. 



