SOILS OF EASTEKN VIRGINIA. 47 



The more elevated ridges are irregular in their direction, and in 

 many places include poorly drained or even marshy basin-shaped 

 depressions. The ridges, themselves, are commonly rather sandy 

 and are the best drained areas of the two counties. Some of the 

 ridges show evidences of a slight accumulation of wind-blown sand, 

 but the majority, together with the intervening hollows or levels, 

 probably represent irregularities of the ancient sea bottom. 



Over the greater part of the upland erosion is very slight. It is 

 only in the extreme northeastern part of Accomac County, where the 

 higher elevations occur near the coast line, that streams have cut 

 their channels pronouncedly and that the slope of their channels is 

 marked. Elsewhere the level or basin-shaped stream-heads on the 

 divides are drained by tortuous streams of indistinct channels which 

 become more marked and less swampy as the heads of the tidewater 

 estuaries, into which they usually flow, are approached. 



Drainage is moderately established over the central upland. It is 

 frequently poorly established in the central portions of the broader 

 river necks. It is best along the shoulders of the descents to tide- 

 water channels and along the low inland ridges. Drainage is exces- 

 sive in the sand-dune areas and almost absolutely lacking in the 

 majority of the tidal marsh areas. A part of the land area along the 

 Chesapeake Bay shore line lies so near to tide level that extra high 

 tides, accompanied by strong winds, drive tide water over areas 

 which are normally land surfaces. 



The differences in these natural drainage conditions exert a con- 

 trolling influence on the character of the soils of the Eastern Shore of 

 Virginia and consequently upon the degree and kind of agricultural 

 development which has taken place. 



Five principal soil series are encountered in the Eastern Shore 

 counties of Virginia. They are all of common occurrence in the more 

 northern portions of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and are found to a 

 considerable extent throughout the Maryland-Delaware-Virginia 

 Peninsula. These are the Sassafras, Norfolk, Keyport, Elkton, and 

 Portsmouth series of soils. In addition there are areas of tidal marsh, 

 fresh-water swamp, and dune sand, none of which, in their present 

 condition, are agricultural soils. 



The characteristics of the soils of the Sassafras, Norfolk, Keyport, 

 and Portsmouth series have already been described in connection 

 with the Churchland and Diamond Springs districts. The Sassafras 

 series is represented on the Eastern Shore by four types, the Sassa- 

 fras sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loamy sand, and loam. The Nor- 

 folk fine sand is the only representative of that series and it is of 

 small extent and importance. The Keyport sandy loam, fine sandy 



