244 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
landica), and scarlet oak (Q. coccinea). NWybrids and irregular 
forms are common. ‘The coppice is usually cut as pole-wood for 
fuel, and has little value. Owing to careless cutting the stumps 
are apt to be partly decayed. This decay spreads to the tree. 
It also invites the inroads of insects, the number of which 
injurious to these oaks is legion. 
The wonderful rapidity of tree growth in this sandy soil is 
often remarked with surprise. Bleached white as snow, and, 
apparently, absolutely destitute of plant food, it is nevertheless 
capable of supporting a thrifty arboreal growth. The young tree 
starts with the greatest difficulty and languishes throughout the 
early part of its life, but as soot as its roots have reached the 
deeper and richer layers of the soil it starts afresh and grows 
thenceforth with astonishing rapidity. The soil is porous, and 
although well drained, is moist a short distance below the surface, 
The lay of the land and the nature of the soil is such that the 
roots of trees can in the majority of cases penetrate to where 
there is constantly sufficient moisture. From the Plains, the 
highest part of the Coastal Plain, there are naturally all degrees 
of soil-moisture conditions, through the Pine Barrens to the 
swamp lands. 
A swamp is usually defined as a tract of land with or without 
trees, lower than the surrounding country, and so saturated with 
water as to be unfit for cultivation. 
This definition, however, is insufficient. When one speaks of 
a swamp in Southern New Jersey, or in any part of the South- 
eastern States, a wooded region is usually meant. A swamp, 
also, is not always unfit for cultivation. Some of the best farm 
land in America ison swamp bottom. Neither is it always lower 
than the surrounding country. Elevated swamps are common, 
and the Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina, which 
is like a Jersey swamp in many respects, is several feet higher ° 
than the surrounding country, with a lake in the center from 
which water runs in all directions. 
The amount of water in a swamp is an important matter, also 
the temperature of the water. It varies in amount from a degree | 
of mere moistness to the condition of the Cypress swamps of the — 
south, which are at times navigable for canoes, bateaux and often 
good-sized scows. Along the Mississippi river there is a vast 
