SOILS OF EASTERN VIRGINIA. 29 



tinctly poorly drained. They cover approximately 14 per cent 

 of the area. 



These conditions of soil texture and of drainage are reflected 

 strongly in the cropping of the two areas. 



The Churchland area is one of very complete agricultural occu- 

 pation. About 88 per cent of the upland is occupied by some crop. 

 The area in forest is relatively small, amounting to about 4 per cent 

 of the total. The greater part of this occurs in one tract upon the 

 Suffolk fine sandy loam, to which artificial drainage has not yet 

 been extended. In the Diamond Springs area cultivation occupies 

 but 48 per cent of the total area, 30 per cent is in forest, and 17 per 

 cent of the cleared area is occupied for experimental purposes or is 

 not tilled. The occurrence of large tracts of forest on the Norfolk 

 loam and gravelly loam and upon the Suffolk loam is notable. These 

 types need additional drainage facilities to become available for the 

 growing of any truck crops. 



A comparison of the spring cropping conditions shows that 87 

 per cent of the Churchland area is occupied by truck crops, while 

 35 per cent of the Diamond Springs area is so cropped. Potatoes 

 are by far the most extensively planted crop in the Churchland 

 area, covering nearly 57 per cent of the ground. Strawberries are 

 as emphatically the leading crop in the Diamond Springs area, occu- 

 pying 15 per cent of the area. In both areas cabbage occupies second 

 place. Snap beans, cucumbers, strawberries, and garden peas are 

 the other important spring crops in the Churchland area. Potatoes 

 and snap and pole lima beans are of importance in the Diamond 

 Springs area. 



In both areas the spring truck crops occupy a large proportion of 

 the area available for farming. 



The fall crop conditions in the two areas are not quite so directly 

 comparable, since the surveys were made in two different years and 

 not precisely at the same cropping period. Yet it is rather sig- 

 nificant that kale leads among the fall truck crops in the Churchland 

 area (PL X, fig. 2) , while spinach leads in the Diamond Springs area. 

 Strawberries, which occupy the land during the year, show a large 

 fall acreage in the Diamond Springs area. In the Churchland area 

 spinach and a fall crop of potatoes are almost equally important. 

 In the Diamond Springs area the winter planting of cabbage for 

 spring harvest is second to spinach in area, and the fall crop of 

 potatoes is of rather small extent. 



In the Churchland area only a moderate proportion of the avail- 

 able area is given to fall and winter crops, whereas in the Diamond 

 Springs area the fall and winter cropping is almost equal to the 

 spring area. 



