a SO TSE a eceripame ie SR Chia ann. ok ie es ca | Bing mh AGRICULTURAL, GEOLOGICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE Se Kh TC ies OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, AND THE SIMILAR ADJACENT LANDS. BY EDMUND RUFFIN, Ol VIRGINIA. be iy RALEIGH: PRINTED AT THE INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF & DUMB & THE BLIND. 1861. ait 0 thy Tisdnrbess a) WH [i ? i ’ ; 7 rer). 4 a ' Ao .F le ted . oe Cie ae ‘ a an: wes Wet ire Chin WeRIAn : Dae ‘ * bid 7 4 - he os be ¥ ; F fe : ‘ ; 4 ‘ «ty > ty eT : a7 ’ ’ ue i 2 ] in we : if ia ta eat — 4 | eae ts “e See r i a aa Hee ne f aS ae E~ Yt i? a are yh 7 ’ eS A MRR bp ne ’ ; Ge 7 Ke Berens ' sia" j A 4 : . ety. ket des! +i - a. STi TATA EERE si rae ee Wey ic Dui . oe as a Hibs mewn a Ea “y ty 1,508 6) ‘ dhasd ? d ae i her ‘ ee p Porn csak ‘. bin ace nnd’s , 4 4 » fe ‘ ® a; a! ‘ PA 7 walart bees 1 ‘ a ae eee Ae ake f es Er Ma es, ag ee Ate ik Fa eer as ; spake a in 4 aa Ps rs ‘ aan eo 2 gol 4, ae GF : ee 7 i) wb 5 sae s F - ving PES | ae un. 1 ARES) sai a3 al hte. Siem eh (ta ie eel sabetne "ad ; = ‘ ae wy ee : RALEIGH, Novemser 8, 1860. To His Excellency Joun W. Eis, Governor of North Carolina: Sir :—The proposition of Mr. Epmunp Rurrin, the distinguished Agriculturalist and Author, to furnish a communication upou the agriculture of the easteru counties of this State, will, I hope, be accepted by your Excellency. It will please me especially, if this communication can be pub- lished in such a forin, that it may be regarded as a report for the Agricultural and Geological Survey now iu progress. The field of investigation in North Carolina is extremely wide, in consequence of a diversity of interest, climate and soil. Aid, therefore, from any quarter is important, especially when proffered by a gentleman of Mr. Ruftin’s abilities. The principles of agriculture are the same everywhere in all countries,—but their application often require special modifica- tions. It is so in this State. The use of our native fertilizers for example, in the various kinds of marls, call for special rules of application. These are to be found out only by close obser- vation and much experience. An immense saving in money depends upon their proper application, as to time, from composuron and the condition of the soil to which they are to be applied. The subject has been, and is still, receiving all the attention Tain able to bestow upon it. We have no tear that we shall receive too much light upon the subject. Agriculture is slow in its advances, and hence, every communication which is caleu- lated to give it an impulse, deserves the patronage of the State. I am, Sir, Your Obedient Servant, EK. EMMONS, State Geologist. Be * aset 2 xr Mea ; | see | | { Alay) es L S AMRSMiGGbad AAU RU eer EPL ee Oat ; . ; ; af Beier een’ We eae ee eer, oneu h » + i Ree Ls | Ce XE)) cia OY ae hos Pah e , aa re” | LPR dune AOR id a intane Gat aha al ef ee : ; eee kk (ho tee ae ete Je et as rae CN wie ban } ods ait i peertbt °Y 4 VO Oe te aa ait eadf fee if a, P h ? ‘ ake il rt eS) _ itis ws 76 aya “ive the i* iW £7 a te wi muatieala, Book. She. Aidneaamih ir Sth ls cca ts pie olbre Ush-anwedso: teed tdceteoyaewiee. ciel eg (allie Pe ier saaaediall atinasonts St sath of Hi; HOEY in id Bi was ie cet’ n Osha. 3 Bis wii ot (Ge. 19 eo! ee BUT Mokaao! ab dere, regione sith erick Werte: Aaitr i sa Peeatlines: 9 bist 70 ey ea | ‘wa? i piuslawem veld 9 grit, be igite, sur Fag O88, et apelin’, ate yi fig Af - Pye ay Te Ue the Ih che Berea 1 abe ty. eh mb ih eH er SRO) bers sfhghosh. Wali Ahed abteala west has Poncgiyty vl aa iain Sa 99h OF Pact ar. coe? tl Ppt aRY hte Rian atts dup ai pial ed: Feb Mos pt ...3. Wee Mat Verogn suite SG! a “odie Nyt ea HE trie | Behe Wit Ral nc SURI i Vie Sta Se ys SNR say: irate hy Va) saile ere Rel ey rf HO om oe ee eae eae ieee At te le ¥ aly Habe, . ay 4 irs ere one haeaeesis ‘i duce ; vibe we pant vial CONTENTS. PAGE. List of Errata, - - - - - - + - ‘Vill Prefice, - - - - : - > . ix Part I.— Agricultural Geology ; or Remarks on the drift-formed and the Denuded regions of the Atlantis slope, - - : E General features of the Atlantic slope of the Southern States, - Received g2olozical doctrines as to early great changes of the earth, by both ignesus and aqueous agencies, - - - - Denuded and drift-formed sections of the region under notice. These terms defined—and the natural features described, - - = The ancient and great north-western flood,and its effects,in the operations of denu- dation and drift-formation. These operations traced and evidences adduced, Differences of soils of the two great sections, and the causes thereof. Practi- cal application of the doctrines to the improvement of soils, = - Part IL—Agricullural Features of Lower North Carolina, and the adjoin- ing territory, - - - - - - : - §1. General Remarks: The public but slightly informed of the region in question, and especially with lower North Carolina in general, - 32. Peculiar characters of the low-lands, in surface and qualities of soil, §3. Peculiar characters of the rivers, and the many fit for navigation, - §4. General want of drainage, and of proper views on the subject, - . §5. The,true principle of drainage for this region, and the geological facts on which the principle is founded, - - - - “ §6. The underlying sand-bed, and its opposite operations in regard to draining, §7. The usual and general plan of draining, and its radical defects, - §8. Evidences or illustrations of the existing injuries from superfluous water, and of the proper means for relief, - - u §9. The upper beds always permeable, if drained, - - . §10. Examples of the effects of the true principles of drainage, in both artificial and natural operations, - - - - : §11. Draining vertically by bore-holes, = - - : - - §12. The presence of quick-sand, both as an impediment or an aid to effectual draining, - - - : - = ‘ §13. Tests by which to judge. in advance of the expediency, or the success, of desired draining operations—and illustrations of effects, - - $14. Some of the farming practices of the low-lands—Defects and proposed im- provements——Rotations of crops—Pea-fallow—narrow and broad-bed tillage, 78 83 Vi CONTENTS. Postcriet.—Lands on the Chowan and Roanoke, - = * Appennpum.—A new plan for ploughing flat land in aid of drainage, - Parr III.—Odservations on the features and changes of the Ocean sand-reef, and the enclosed navigable waters of North Carolina, = = §1. General remarks on the sand-reef, its inlets and their changes, and their operations on the enclosed waters, - - - _- §2. The deep harbor of Beaufort inaccessible from the back country. New facilities for reaching it in progress, or proposed, - - - §3. The proposed canal through the reef at Nagshead. Former closing of the reef, particularly at Currituck Inlet, and the result on the interior waters, 84, The sand-reef considered as land or soil—and the several kinds. The islands of the Sounds, - - - * = = 4 §5. Grazing and rearing of live-stock. The wild horses—their qualities and habits—and the ‘“ horse-pennings.” - : - = P §6. Supposed geological position of the sand-reef, and the Sounds. Ancient sand-hills serving to form barren soils on the main land, - - §7. Artificial outlet for the navigation of the sounds through the Dismal Soap canal. Improvement. to hea’th by raising the water level of Daep Creek, §8. The Albemarle and Chesapeake Ship Canal in progress of construction, and its great importance to agricultural and commercial interests, - 89. Novel and remarkable manner of excavating the new canal. Probable benefit of this work to the drainage operations, - - - - §10. The great fisheries on the Sounds, and how conducted, - - $11. The wild ducks and other water fowls of Currituck Sound, and their great value. Northern interlopers and incendiary agents, - - Part. 1V.—Thz2 origin and manaer of geological formetion of the great swamps of the Atlantic coast, — - - : = - General description and account of peat, and especially in Europe. Differ- ences of European peat and that of these southern states, - - General characters of our peat swamps and soils, —- - . - The great swamps higher than the surrounding firm land. Sources of rivers in the interior, - - - - - - = 2 The beginning and progress of the natural growth of the peat swamps, - Rain-water enough for supply of rivers issuing from swamps, - - Extent of evaporation, - - - . - . 4 Origin and progress of formation of swamp rivers, - : - Evidences of former subsidence of the swamp region. Acid supposed to be in peat soils and waters, - - - - - = Progress of formation of peat, and extension of peat swamps through long time. Operation of fire thereon, and especially in excavating hollows, and so forming lakes, - - - - : ° = = Rotting away, or destruction by burning, of swamp or peaty soils, - - Peat formed, or deposited, under water, - - - = = ou 101 113 113 7 119 122 130 133 137 140 143 147 150 CONTENTS. Part V.—WNotes of the naturul features, and agricultural character and improvements of parts of the Great Swamps, The Dismal Swamp, - - - ’ J Z The Mattamuskeet Swamp Lands, - - - - The Seuppernong Swamp Lands, - - - The “Open Ground” Savanna and Desert, - - Part VI.—WNo‘es on the Pine Trees of Lower North Carolina and Virginia, General observations on pines. Confusion of names, - Long-leaf or Southern Pine, (Pinus Australis,) - 4 Cedar Pine, (P. iops,) - : ts , 2 White Pine, (P. strobus,) - : z - Short-leaf or Yellow Pine, (P. variabalis,) - - Loblolly Pine, (P. teda,) - & i . e Great Swamp Pine; or Naval Timber Ping. Slash Pine, Pond Pine, (P. serotini,) - 2 & i! X, Pitch Pine, (P. rigida,) ° * i cs , General and comparative observations on all the foregoing, Postoripr.— Growth of Cones requires two Summers, - Part VIII.—Notice of the recent improvement of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and especiaily by means of compost manuring, \ - 285 to Vil ERRATA. [N. B.—The inability of the author to see, for correction. the proof sheets of this work, was the necessary cause of many errors of tag przss—oi Waich the most important will be here noted, for correction by the reader. ] Page x. line 21, for ‘has’ read have. ‘6 yi. Jine 14, after ‘is’ insert as. ‘6 14, after ‘North Carolina’ insert (as part of heading) Part I. ‘6 13 Jine 1, for ‘scope’ read slope. 95 8 5 foe $&e.’ read and. ‘©. 45 §* 16, fot ‘lower’ read larger. ‘6 45 «6¢ 93, for ‘ even’ real over. se 4) ¢¢ 9, for ‘such’ read eac’. se 5) ** 99, for *There’ read Tiese. se 52. * 16, for ‘loose’ read Lose. t6 52 * Qi, for ‘impossible’ read im- passable. 57) «6 2), for ‘banks and’ read branches of. ‘© 57 ‘* 93, for ‘or’ read of. “© 6) «** «2, for ‘such’ read much. ‘© 62 «* 10, for ‘drouth’ read d -ouzxt. 62 “ 31, for ‘important, it’? read important. It. “© 63 ** 9, for ‘low-lands, but,’ read low-lands. But. “¢ 66 ** 13, for ‘low’ read close. “ 63 *¢ 18, for ‘ever’ read even. #6 75 «* 3), for ‘rivers’s’ read river’s. “77 «** = 3, for ‘draining’ r. drawing. 46 79 66 9) 46 66 oe * 8) ‘ 3, for ‘summer ; while’ read Wrile. 416 °‘* 17, for ‘But Core’ read But, #6119 ‘* 5, for ‘creek’ read creeks. #6 124 ** 26, for ‘preceding’ receding. 46 196 ‘* 36, for ‘course’ read coarse. 46199 ** Q4, for rotted’ read unrotted. 46130 ‘* 6, for ‘getting’ r. gathering. «6 132 ** 35, for ‘seldom’ r. could not *© 134 ‘* 24, for ‘effects’ read effect. ‘6134 ** 33 &34,f. ‘extreme’ extensive. «6 137 ‘© 14, for ‘from’ read for. 66738 ** 10, for ‘sickness’ r. sickliness. 46133 ** 16, after ‘the’ insert previous. a 141 ** 35 & 36, for ‘loose’ read lose. 6143 ** 2, for‘Profitable’r Probable. “© 144 ‘* 26, after ‘beam’ ins. being. * 147 ** 14, for ‘captan’ read czpstan. ceo} Bio S27, for *loose” read loses ““15- ‘ lJ. for ‘loose’ read lose. §¢.153, °° 24, for ‘knotwreadsiend. “© 165 ‘* 13, after ‘are’ insert not. 167 ** 19, etter ‘stipprres* "insert closing quotation (’’) tur the preced- inz passaze. ‘* 16) lowest line, for ‘tempature’ read temperature. Ll * 35, for “Chis eadedianes ‘6172 ‘% 17, for ‘on’ read or. ** 178 ** 19, for ‘mantle’ read mantel. © 181 ‘ 15, for ‘leval’ read level “1382 “ 8, after ‘both of ? omit the. *¢ 182 “* 15, for peet* readied? ‘Is! ** 11, after ‘had’ insert stop (.) ‘© 135 ‘* 23. for ‘in places’ r. in place. “ 137 ‘ 18, for ‘then’ read there. *© 133 ** 25, for ‘favor’ read form. ‘© 13) ‘ 33, for ‘impregnative’ read impregnation. © 196 ** 27,f. ‘increasing c. unceasing. ‘© 197 ‘* 24, for ‘moss’ read mass. “© 2)3 ** 9, (of text) for ‘enumerated’ read enunciated. 6¢ 904 ** 17, for ‘further’ read farther. 6° 204 ** 27, for ‘larger’ read longer. #6Q)5 ** 2 of note, for ‘whenever’ read wherever. ‘6905 ‘* 28, for ‘from’ read for. ‘©9214 ** 33, for ‘river’ read ground. 66915 ** 14, for ‘ever’ read even. DIG" ** UN, tor “dug readyaay: ‘© 931 ** 28, for ‘prover’ read proper. “© 251 ** 16, (of text) for ‘select-part’ read part select. ‘271 ‘* I (heading of table,) for ‘Forest | Land never cleared, read Forest land never cleared. ‘© 272 in and throughout the foot-note, for ‘Dr. James F. McRae,’ read UcRee. PREFACE. More than twenty years ago, the writer of these Sketches made several excursions, for personal observation, to different parts of the region to be here treated of. The facts of his then very limited opportunities for examin- ation, were reported in different communications to the Farmers’ Register.* The extent and the importance of the subjects for investigation, of which only limited and hasty glances could then be taken, left a strong desire for renewing and making more full examinations of this remarkable agricul- tural region, the important values of which, so far, were but little known even to the most intelligent residents, and the peculiar features of which were almost entirely unknown to all others than its residents. It was not until long after, in 1856, when, by my withdrawal from my previous en- grossing business and continued labors as a farmer, I obtained the requisite leisure, and so was enabled to attempt the fulfillment of this wish, which had been suspended for so many years. But when engaged in this investi- gation—working, as I was, without any official appointment or position— at my own expense—and encountering much toil, and risk to health by exposure—without aid from any quarter—without any definite object, other than my own present gratification, and without any prospect of personal gain, or reimbursement—it caunot be supposed that my labors, or their fruits, could be anything like complete, or to be compared with what they ought to be, and perhaps might have been, if all these disadvantageous * Among the more important of sundry such articles as are referred to above, re- ports of earlier personal examinations made by the writer, are the following: Observations on the Dismal ‘Swamp, in “ Farmers’ Register,” Vol. iv, p.513 to 521. Descriptions of some of the Swamp Lands, near Plymouth and Lake Scupper- nong, &c., and remarks on kindred subjects in North Carolina. Vol. vii, pp. 698 to 703, & 724 to 733. Observations on Lands of New Hanover.—Vol. viii., p. 245; Calcarious beds of Rocky Point, 246; Savanna Lands, &c., 248; Marl and Limestone, on Neuse and, Trent Ri- vers, 253; Judge Gaston’s Pocoson Farm, 251. Also, in. the “‘ Farmers’ Register,” (Vol. ix, 1841,) was made the first publication of “The History of The Dividing Line,’ and the other private writings of Colonel Wil- liam Byrd, of Westover, which curious and interesting memoirs had befere remained in taanuscript for a century. ; =e x PREFACE. conditions had been reversed. But even under the actual disadvantages, I am persuaded that even my very imperfect observations may still indicate important means for very valuable agricultural and other great improve- ments of the extensive region under consideration. A few other persons, who only have read the reports im manuscript, have formed like favora- ble opinions of their probable utility. For such favorable opinion, of the Hon. Joun W. Exuis, Governor of North Carolina, formed upon his own reading of the whole series, [ am indebted for his request to me, to have these reports published at the charge, and for the use of the State of North Carolina, as part of a collection of sundry District Reports, by different writers, on the Agricultural character, Topography, Natural History, &c., of this State. It is under these auspices that most of those reports will now be first published, and a few others re-published, as necessary, or suitable parts of the series. All these reports were mostly written within the year 1856, and no alteration has been made in the substance of what wasthen written, andno attempt made to bring up occurrences to later, or to the present time. But some later excursions haye supplied more material for description, or for illustration—and some such new matters have been since inserted, and which will appear as Jater additions, whenever that fact, or the later date, is of any importance to the subject. All my observations of this great and remarkable agricultaral region has brought me to believe, that I have not known or heard of any other, com- parable in extent or value, which so much unites the several characteristics of (1st.,) its so much needing agricultural improvement, and the increasing of its fertility and production.—(2nd,) of possessing great resources and fertilizers for effecting the needed improvements—and (8rd) of promising great and certain pecuniary profit, and both individaal and general benefit, from producing these improvements. All estimates constructed on such im- perfect and limited data, as now o.ly are reliable, must necessarily be un- certain. But when trying to make due allowance for the uncertainty of the grounds, I still confidently believe that the mew nett agricultural va- lue and wealth so to be produced in lower North Carolina alone, would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, over the present value, and over any possible value to be secured by the present system of culture and husbandry. And I would count wpon acquiring this great profit, and net increase of productive agricultural capital, from three principal sources or modes of improvement only, dependent of all other minor, yet important improvements and profits available—and some of which have already been admirably used in Edgecombe county. The three great wants, and also means for improvement in lower North Carolina, and to two of which the following reports will mainly apply, are the following : PREFACE. xI Ast—The draining, (where proper and needed, according to the char- acter of the soil,) of the vast area of rich swamp lands. 2nd.—The proper draining (on the principle and theory which will be indi- cated in Part II, of these Reports,) of most ef the other and firm: land, which in common parlance is designated as dry, but ef which, but little in this low-land region is ever really dry, except during summer and autumn droughts, when their dryness is, indeed, often in full proportion. te. their excess of wetness during winter and spring. 3rd.—The proper use of marl, from the very extensive, rich,and,in many cases very accessible beds which underlie so much of this. great region— or, otherwise, of lime brought to places where mar] is not awailable. On this head, but little will be said in the following artieles, because the writer has heretofore published so much on the subject of improvement of soils by calcareous manures, all of which is applicable: to. lower North Caro- lina as to lower Virginia, for which his reasoning and instructions were first designed. The several articles which will here appear, under one general title, and as a series, were at first written as separate reports, on different subjects.— Hach one is sufficiently distinct in subject and treatment to be read alone, Still the series will be required for consideration of the general subject of the natural features and agricultural resources. ef lower North Carolina. Ee Virginia, Oct., 1860. in lend +" poreery ' : 3 prok paulyAid ied tJ ol el bok "34 Minti i ae ee tia ‘ele ea! ity ie on? vO A i. ee fy i eee PMR aed’ "we FU ae ee’ yt ar BY Re ey ee bil Grae p sa ere £ ine Wr, ” P ah om ane ee a) sy ee giana 4 9 i: : Bian i ar y the <9 aanaranet i eng saat apse) gett 2Mhy, Ad’ “ad one (ee ‘bnay oS Sin. (Saved acl P ; ish pS ly ovine), way ate Ri ‘- aly ets af id : age ip MALE: 40 , ” iN nanaot ick dda ) nikon Pants: Oe a Mn Se ee eT cb Se | Sieh a ee ae periece af : i tag 4 reds “(Pte one Ee Ca Tt oe) ny A ‘y ae 4 siat OF § . he a? A 0 y caoanhs Dyke it ih , ‘ , Sti. lo f Dee de wh, * AD, pad oo ates) ges he OA cies ty “af aes! REAR bees ot wee, ts Bi Bans heathy Pbaieg te ns ids ep ere! ‘ga that wt aly rere twa ions Grete | et eee 1 + ih Soehiaipetaytraiert NY dpb ene if ee Hebert a fas ths pK Aino. 3 ies Shit ohh E hoboeiig * Cae ae pape yh Bad i eee a SE nd aes ata 9 ee ie Ne ate: OP P on a ae = ithe 4, Web eae eee a pnt $4, sisi tanirs se ngs ea th ‘The sags re i pe gutinatlstirs « ay Neat Rea 3 apne page Ps oy Dit Mi a oo OY See a ied Te ak eae eoeue Wen k fy tir Sie pelt abe | ai hal is PRT I 8 | bie ‘i veh ya Git ete nea al pot ee Pe Boob le (hei oy nina be aaa Vie Met oa Rib “yt Sb wern hie UB. be he ie a ae Feo e fr ate Peeves , SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &e. AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY; OR REMARKS ON THE DRIFT- FORMED AND THE DENUDED REGIONS OF THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. Turovcuout the Atlantic scope of the United States, from Geor- gia to New York, inclusive, at greater or less distance from the sea shore, a continuous elevation of granite rock forms the long western boundary line and higher border of the lower lands.— The same rock, rising to various higher elevations, and in vari- ous conditions of texture, or of progressing disintegration, is seen often at the surface, or at intervals, for many miles more west- ward. The eastern border of the granite, though mostly hid- den by the overlying earth, is exposed to view in all the beds of the rivers, (and in many of the smaller streams,) and serves to constitute the very distinct and high barrier of stone which makes the eastern or lower falls of all the rivers which flow into or toward the Atlantic ocean. Between these most eastern falls and the ocean, the rivers have but slight rates of descent, and therefore are of moderate velocity, and of smooth and placid surface. The flow ofthe ocean tides, (unless where ob- structed by obvious causes,) generally extend through the whole or a large portion of the space between the ocean and the east- ern falls of the rivers, (or the first visible granite). Hence the great area, lying between these boundaries, is generally distin- guished as the “tide water” region, and that term will be thus used here, for designation, and in conformity with established 14 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. usage. But the term is not accurate, or descriptive even for all of eastern Virginia; and still less for the like territory much farther North and South. In the Hudson river of New York, the tide flows through and westward of the eastern granite— andin south eastern Virginia, and all further southward, the flow of tide does not nearly approach the granite falls. The most northern rivers of this last description, are those discharged into Albemarle Sound, in North Carolina, from which the entrance of ocean or tide-water is excluded by the long sand bank, or reef, along all that coast, which serves as a barrier. Farther south- ward, in South Carolina and Georgia, the greater length of the rivers east of the falls, and the greater rate of their descent, pre- vent the tides rising to the falls, or approaching within many miles of them. With this explanation and admission of inacecu- racy, must be understoed the ordinary term of the “ tide-water region,” as including all the space between the ocean and the most eastern falls of the river. The granite range or fatls, the line of which marks the west- ern boundary of this great area, is nearer to the sea-shore at the north, and diverges therefrom, more and more towards the south, My personal observations of this region have been made princi- pally in Virginia, and with less opportunity for examination, in Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina. Similar char- acteristics as to the more northern and southern States, are in- ferred merely from general report of their topography, and other features. Many years ago, when my personal observations on this sub- ject had been altogether confined within even smaller limits than their later and still very narrow extent, I was forcibly impressed by what seemed to be peculiar and remarkable characteristics of this region, in the configuration of the surface, and the qualities of the soils—and in the supposed great uniformity of general character, (notwithstanding many variations in particulars,) throughout the whole extent, so far as known. The supposed pe- culiar qualities were studied, so far as my very deficient means permitted, for the purpose of learning thence how to improve and enrich the soil of this great and generally poor region. A young and busily occupicd farmer, as I was, almost confined to my farm SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 15 and its labors, and without any previous knowledge of the scien- ces necessary for such investigations, it necessarily followed that the results of my enquiries were but small, compared to what might have been obtained by one properly prepared—who, to a competent knowledge of practical agriculture, could have brought to bear on such investigations, the important lights of Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology. It is unfortunate for the improvement of agriculture that, almost without exception, the men who have successfully cultivated these scientific pursuits. are as little acquainted with agriculture, as nearly all practical farm- ers are with the sciences just named, the knowledge of which would so greatly aid the study and improvement of practical agriculture. Until some investigator shail bring both the kinds of knowledge required for such subjects, great deficiencies in all must be expected, and be overlooked and excused. Such allow- ances, so much needed for all mere scientific investigators and teachers of Agriculture, I trust may not be denied to me, when attempting, as I shall do, to derive something from the lights of science, to aid agricultural researches, and for practical appli- cation. The peculiarities of the tide-water regions, which might strike any cursory observer, are these: 1.—Hilly or irregular as many parts are, the general surface of the highest lands, present the numerous points in a very regu- lar plane, gradually declining in elevation from the higher surfa- ces at and above the falls, towards the sea shore. In and to vari- ous depths below this supposed inclined plane, have been grooved or excavated, the numerous valleys and ravines. ° 2.—The soils are mostly light ; but whether light, and of loose or open texture, or close and stiff, are, to a very great extent, com- posed of silicious sand—coarser in the open, and very fine in the stiff soils. 3.—There is no fixed or extensive rock, or beds of stone, unless of recent formation—but few pebbles, and none over the lower and larger extent of surface. 4.— With all variations of texture and of exposure of soils, there is much uniformity of character—and especiaily in the natural poverty of the lands generally, 16 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. To these more obvious general characteristics, (the few excep- tions to which will be passed by for the present,) I have former- ly added some others, as deductions from reasoning or experience: Among these were the following : 5.—The naturally poor lands of this region, are incapable of being considerably and durably enriched by putrescent or organic manures alone. 6.—Such soils are greatly deficient in lime, and much more so than soils generally in the higher country. 7.—The proper application of lime, in every case, will be great- ly beneficial and improving to the soil, and also will serve to make the subsequent use of putrescent manures of much more durable effect. 8.—Gypsum, as manure, was of no effect on these poor lands} before their being well and sufficiently limed ; and generally was efficacious, on leguminous crops afterwards, probably in every ease of full previous and needed effect of the lime, on both soil’ and sub-soil. These latter positions, with others, were maintained in my “« Hssay on Caleareous Manures,” and therefore will not be diseus- sed again here, but assumed as established and understood. In all these respects, and as to every natural and artificial qua- lity named, the lands lying higher than, or westward of, the falls, (termed in Virginia, the Piedmont region,) are different, and, in some of the points, of entirely opposite character. They have no such uniformity of surface, or of constitution of soil. They were much richer naturally, and are generally capable of being much and profitably improved by putrescent manures. Lime, as ma- nure, has rarely had there any appreciable effect, while gypsum is generally beneficial as manure. As in the vther case (of the tide-water lands,) it is designed here to state general rules and facts, and not to stop to note and explain (or to attempt to ex- plain all) exceptional soils and cases, whether really or apparent- ly only in contradiction. Whether the interesting facts of cases’ S) opposed, can be accounted for satisfactorily, may well be doubt- ed. But it is certain that the manner of the geological formation of the soils and sub-soils ot these two neighboring regions was entirely different : anc in tracing these differences of origin, much' SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. oy light may be thrown on the existing differences of physical struc- ture, and chemical constitution of the soils of the different regions; and possibly such imperfect lights may guide future and better prepared inquirers to more useful results. I will now endeavor to trace the former great operations of nature, in producing changes, and bringing about the very different existing conditions of these different regions, and thence attempt to deduce their dit- ferent agricultural capabilities. The investigations of Geologists, extended more or less through all the well-known portions of the globe, have served to discover and establish certain great fundamental truths, as to the changes which fhe earth has undergone since its creation, or its oldest as- certained condition. These doctrines are now of universal accep- tation. Therefore, in taking them as bases on which to found my observations and reasoning, it will only be necessary for me to refer to these recognized truths, and assume them as unques- tionable premises—and not to argue for their correctness, or to enter into their details. But, speaking as a mere agriculturist, having but little pretensions to science, and addressing hearers of my own class, and not generally better instructed, it will be pro- per and excusable to be somewhat more explanatory than would otherwise be necessary. When assuming as premises the admit- ted truths of Geology, I merely use the lights of others, now common to all learners. But in making deductions from these borrowed premises, and especially in applying them to the circum- stances and character of the region in question, the observations and the reasoning will be my own, and consequently, the errors and the responsibility. From the more recent and universally admitted doctrines of Ge- ology, we learn that the oldest (or first existing) known material of the globe is granite, which, in its original place, or position, is the lowest rock from the present surface of the earth, and is sup- posed to constitute the interior part, and the far greater bulk of the whole globe. The first great agent of change, or of forma- tion of the entire globe, was fire or intense heat; and the early condition of all the parts was that of fusion, or fluidity produced by intense heat. Of this agency and this origin, the interior and 3 18 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. older rocks, and the granite in general, offer abundant evidences In after ages, when the outer part of the globe had cooled down to solidity, and water had been deposited in full quantity, aque- Ous agencies succeeded to the previous igneous, and thereafter most of the changes in the upper beds, or what is termed the “crust” of the globe, were thus produced. Next followed upon the outer and exposed portions of the globe, the various results of the action of water, when in motion, and also when more or less tranquil, and whether as rain or ice, and in seas and lakes, rivers and rivulets, or in violent and transient torrents and inundations. These agencies were sufficient to pro duce all the effects ascribed to them, great and marvelous as they are. The highest pinnacles of mountains, (previously raised by igneous or volcanic action,) were gradually disintegrated and washed down, and the ruins thereof, suspended in, or rolled by moving waters, were deposited in, and filled the lowest depths of the ocean, as wellas others on the lands—and thus in a sufficient time, of unknown and inconceivable duration, the whole surface and outside material of the globe were changed mainly by aque- ous abrasion, removal, transportation, and the mingling and final re-deposition of the parts. The whole of the successive and connected deposits of such earthy matters, by one of these great operations, though sub-divided into different. varieties, or beds, are considered as one “formation,” and possess peculiar charac- teristics, distinguishing it from all other formations. All of the many successive formations, and indeed of the several sub-divi- sions of each, except a few of the oldest, or the primitive rocks (of igneous origin,) have fossil remains of animals and vegetables proving conclusively that species entirely different occupied the surface of the earth and its waters, during the deposition of each such great formation. Also, between the several different, but next adjacent sub-divisions of each formation, there are such gen- eral /changes and substitutions (though not universal,) of animal life, as to show that the conditions necessary to sustain life were greatly varied, with every such minor change of the earth’s sur- face. Thus many races and kinds of living beings have success- ively been created, occupied the earth and its waters, and then SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTIT CAROLINA, &C. Yo perished—each of such races having been incapable of existing in the very different conditions of either the next preced- ing, or the next succeeding period, of the earth’s many great changes. Thus, in succession, and in uniform order of time and position, throughout the known world, have been produced, as secondary and later acts of construction and creation by the All-wise and All-benevolent God, all of the many successive formations, and their several sub-divisions of strata, and the different races and numerous species of animals that successively inhabited each.— In some parts of the world, certain rocks, or strata, or in some cases even whole formations, are wanting. But of such beds or rocks as are present in any one locality, the order of succession in which they occur, is always the same as of the similar beds and rocks found in any other part of the world. While these sundry formations were successively in progress, by aqueous action and sedimentary deposition of transported ma- terials, the igneous action was still powerful, and unceasing in operation, though irregular and long remitting in numerous lo- cealities—and the effects were of the greatest magnitude and im- portance. During all the successive periods of aqueous forma- tions, internal heat and volcanic forces operated to upheave and lift, to greater elevations, the solid rocks of the overlying forma- tions, (the former soft and loose sedimentary deposits, solidified to stone by time and pressure)——in some cases leaving the upheay- ed strata nearly horizontal, and in others, and more generally, raising them greatly on one side, and depressing them on the other. In this manner, the mountain ranges of greatest extent. and height were upheaved, from beneath the former ocean, and the previously lower beds, or formations, raised and protruded through the former upper and horizontal strata of sedimentary deposition. And the separated edges of the ruptured strata were thus lifted, so as to be greatly inclined, or in some cases, the stra- ta placed nearly or quite perpendicular to their original horizon- tal position. Such ettects, however separated by time, and wheth- er of slow and gradual, or in part of rapid production, have been extended through vast spaces, and at different times, have 20 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. distinctly marked and changed every known part of the surface of the globe, except in the very recent deposits In most cases the lower strata have been raised and thrust upward in their solid form, and remain unchanged, except in their new position and inclination. In other cases, the granite, trom beneath all the later formed and stratified rocks, has been forced through them, (by voleanic action) ina softened or molten and fluid state, raised above what were previously the highest and newest deposits, and so is left on the surface of the latest sedimentary strata. Thus, by the great and extended effects of internal igneous and volcanic agencies, the before nearly horizontal stratified rocks and beds were all broken through and raised, and inclined, so that the broken and raised edges of all the strata were brought somewhere to the new surface of the earth, and so are exposed to view and examination. Such is the usual present condition of all regions composed of any of the older formations, or indeed of any other than of the latest, and very recent, not yet much altered in position, since their being originally deposited as sediment. The greatest and most numeious of these effects are of antiquity far beyond, not only the traditions, but even the existence of man- kind. But, even if the remaining present appearances did not fully prove and explain the greatest and oldest of these volcanic changes, and upheavals of portions of the earth, there have been enough of such operations and effects, both of upheaval and of sub- sidence, for examples and proofs, which have occurred within the time of reliable history, and even within very recent times. Every locality of primitive, or of the early formations, exhibits either manifest effects of ancient igneous action, or of subsequent upheav- als, which have thrown all the stratified rocks into more or less in- clined or other changed and irregular positions. From these general and received geological doctrines, I will pro- ceed to remark upon the actual and observed Geological features of the country next adjoining to, and both westward and east- ward of the granite falls of the rivers flowing ocean. Though the eastern falls of the rivers have been heretofore sup- posed to make the line of separation between two very different g@ into the Atlantic SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, «&C. 21 agricultural regions, (the differences of which have been adverted to above, and some of which are generally recognized by even slight observers—) and though this belief is not far wrong, still it is not entirely correct. The true line of division, as I now believe, between these regions of very differeut agricultural characters, is one of irregular and varying course, lying westward from, and something like parallel to, and not far distant from the other line so distinctly marked by the eastern falls of the Atlantic rivers.— This supposed line of division has not been fixed by actual observa- tion at more than a few precise points. It may, however, be easily determined by observation, at any part of its course. And when ascertained throughout, this line, separating, (as now inferred) sur- faces and regions of different agricultural characters, will be found to be identical with the line separating the higher and denuded re- gion, from the adjacent anil lower region covered by the deposited sediment or drzf¢ of materials washed and transported from the higher levels. These terms and agencies as here applied, will pre- sently be explained, and reasons stated for the supposed operations. And in advance of more full explanation and description, (and even of knowing the actual locality of the dividing line in question,) for convenience of reference and distinction, I will call the upper or north-western, the denuded region, and the adjoining lower or south-eastern, the drift region.* The precise line of separa- =This application of the term “drift,” is without scientific authority, and therefore would be pronounced illegitimate and improper. It is admitted, (as I believe,) that no geologist who has viewed or written upon this tide-water region, has deemed it of drift formation—and Professor Hmmous, the present Geological Surveyor of North Carolina has expressly stated, (in his first Report,) that “ there is not a boulder or a drift bed in North Carolina. The masses that have been moved in this and other Southern States, have been by means of rivers and oceanic waves—those means which exist now, and are in operation under our eyes.’—(p. 104). The first designation for, and the manner of, the formation of the tide-water rogion, received and understood by geologists, was that of “alluvial.” The formation has also been ascribed to carth being thrown up by the waves and action of the ocean, and the land being thus formed by matcrials moved from the former bottom of the ocean. While, indeed, both these modes of formation were, and are still, in operation for particular and very narrow spaces, and with very different results, it is manifestly incorrect. and even absurd, to assume either or both of these operations as the producing causes of much the greater part of the tide-water region. The upper beds of the great region in qu-stion, have also been referred to by geologists as “sedimentary beds,” and tertiary beds.” These terms are far from being exact, or even loosely descriptive. The under-lying marl beds (of entirely different ori- pe AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. ration between the ‘‘denuded” and the “ drift” regions, may be fixed by any careful observer, for any locality, by noting the incli- nation, &c., of the strata of earth, where exposed in deep excava- tions, or high and steep river bluffs. A well marked point of sepa- ration is where the Richmond and Danville railway crosses the Ap- pomatox river. Eastward, and below that point, the strata are ho- rizontal, or nearly so, and present the usual evidences of the mate- rials having been transported and deposited by aqueous action.— On the westward, the strata are variously. contorted and greatly inclined, sho’ ing changes produced by igneous action. The unde- termined line separating these regions, from within Maryland to North Carolina, varies from 5 to more than 25 miles above the line of the falls—-and seems generally to diverge more and more from the fails, as proceeding southward. The western limits of this “denuded” region are still more uncertain; and therefore I will not include in my remarks, or the application of my reasoning, the range of the southwest mountains, or their eastern slopes.— With such entire absence of designated western boundaries, so much of the great “denuded” region as will be here under consid- eration, lies wholiy in, and includes much the largest portion of the space between the falls of the rivers and the Blue Ridge moun- tains, which space, in Virginia, is known as the Piedmont region. The drift region includes the whole of the (so-called) tide-water district, and also the next adjacent (and undetermined) narrow strip of the Piedmont district. The whole portion under consideration of what is here termed the denuded region, with some partial exceptions of later origin, is of igneous formation or alteration, as exhibited at and near the present surface. Granite, either in boulders, and water-borne from higher surfaces, or in places where upheaved from below, by igne- ous force, is the prevailing rock, and is to be seen in various stages gin,) belong to the tertiary formation, and from them have been taken that name to be applied to the much more recent beds lying above. These recent beds are certainly of “sedimentary” formation; but so are much the greater number of all the different beds, and even of the more ancient rocks, (all of aqueous origin) to the greatest depths known. My application of the term “drift,” if illegitimate, or without scientific sane- tion, will at least, (as here used and defined) be clearand precise. If the thing meant is understood, the name for it is of little importance. SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 23 of disintegration. The strata of all kinds of visible rocks—or of earthy strata, obviously formed by the decomposition of rocks—are greatly inelined—and in some cases, as contorted and irregular as if they had been pressed upward when the material was so heated as to be in a semi-fluid state. There is every appearance of all the visible stratified rocks having been so pressed upward, and tilted so that all were brought obliquely to the surface, and their edges there exposed to all the disintegrating, transporting and commingling agencies of the atmosphere and its changes of temperature, and of water, whether ofrains or of floods. Here, as elsewhoye, such agen- cies and influences, operating on such materials and subjects, have served to reduce solid rocks more or less to pebbles, gravel, sand and clay—and thus, by mixture of these materials with 'ime, magnesia, potash, phosphates, &c., (derived in small quantities from sundry compound igneous rocks,) and with organic matter, have been pro- duced all the various existing surface soils. Throughout all the tide-water region, (i.e. below the falls of the rivers,) at intervals of greater or less extent, and at greater or less depths below the present surface of the earth, there are to be found beds of what is improperly termed “ marl,’ which were manifestly formed, during long successions of ages on the bottom of the then ocean, partly by continued earthy sediment, and partly by the gradual deposition of the shells of the numerous shell-tish, which lived and died there, and which were of species and of races which are now either generally or wholly extinct. No transient flood or current, however violent, can be supposed to have removed these shells from a distant ocean bottom to their present positions, which are generally elevated far above tbe level of the surface of the ocean, and very much more above its bottom. Many of these shells are manifestly in the places where the inhabiting animals died— Some, in their present uniform position, even indicate the habits of the former living animals, agreeing with others of the same genus, (though of different species) now in existence. From these and other satisfactory evidences, which are not required to be adduced here, it is certain that these shells, where mostly whole, are now in what were their native beds. And hence it follows, that the much higher present elevation of these remains, and their entire beds, must have been produced by upheaval from their former lower po- 24 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. sition. The beds of shells, which afford this ample proof, are now unbroken by the upheaving force, and are little inclined, or remain nearly horizontal, as seen at any one locality, and for so much space as can be includedin one view. But still there is a slight and irre- gular dip of the original beds toward the East and South; and in addition, there is a declining of the plane of the present surface of the marl strata, caused by the early denuding agency which will be explained, and which occurred before this new denuded surface of the marl was again covered by other drift earth, transported from the higher country. There is rarely seen exposed any different stratum below the lowest. marine shells. When such inferior beds have been reached, in excavating marl, they have not been careful- ly noticed, because no importance was attached to their difference of origin. The eocene marl, (or oldest tertiary) on the Pamunkey river, where rising highest in level, (not far below the falls) permits the underlying bed to be seen. It consisted of rounded (or wa- ter-worn,) hard silicious pebbles, imbedded in gravel and sand, and showing no appearance of marine remains, or origin. It seem- ed to my cursory and then careless observation, to be what I would now deem a formation by ancient drift, older, of course, than this oldest of the tertiary marls, and of materials transported from a far distant and much more elevated locality. In the recent excavation for a new street in Richmond, (on Coun- cil Chamber Hill, nearly as high as the site of the Capitol,) the miocene tertiary was exposed, in numerous and perfect casts or im- pressions of shells—though nothing of the shells, nor even any of their calcareous matter remains. This uncommon elevation shows that the original sea-bottom has been raised more than 150 feet per- pendicular above the present ocean surface, to the present elevation. If any observer, having the opportunity, would notice the digging of a well through this miocene bed in Richmond, the lowest depth of the bed could be ascertained, and also what is the character, and the geological origin of the underlying bed. The marl beds, (or their now existing remains,) rarely extend quite as far westward as the present falls of the rivers. Near Pe- tersburg and the Appomattox, only, is marl found extending some two miles above the lower falls. Therefore, as the position of the marine remains must fix the former extent of the ocean-bottom, we SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 25 must infer that the former shore of the ocean was nearly identical with the line of the present falls of the rivers. When the granite of the falls, and of the higher country was upheaved, the widely extended movement also raised the neighboring ocean bottom, and laid it bare, throwing back the new shore far eastward of the line of the former shore. This then new land, the raised bottom of the ocean, and largely composed of marine relics, was but slightly al- tered from its previous slope or level, and then became the general new and dry surface, extending from the line of the falls to the then removed sea-shore. This new sea shore was somewhere midway between the falls, and the present ocean beach, which is still farther removed, by the subsequent deposition of drift materials.* * Borings for designed Artesian wells have been made (though all were interrupted before completion,) at three different localities, Norfolk, Edenton, and Fortress Monroe, of the low lands, and near the present deep waters. Of the boring at Norfolk, I have learned nothing more than that shell marl, (or a bed containing fossil sea-shells,) was first reached at the depth of about 40 feet. In this connection it may be mentioned that no well in Northampton county, (on the Atlantic, and eastward of the Chesapeeke,) has touched the marl formation—and some of these wells were dug forty feet deep. The boring at Edenton was executed by the direction, and at the expense of Messrs. J. B. Skinner and J. C. Johnson—the former of whom furnished the following notes to Profes- sor Mitchell, who first published them: ORDER AND THICKNESS OF STRATA WNDER EDENTON, ON ALBEMARLE SOUND. ; Separate Strata, Total. Sand, from surface to depth of 8 feet 8 Sand of different kind, 53 13} Clay 54 19 Vegetable matter. [Qu.: Peat? or Marsh grass?] 3 22 Sand, 44 264 Blue Clay, 24 29 Vegetable Matter, 4 33 Quick-sand, 9 42 Gravel, 04 424 Clay, 4k 47 Sand and Marine Shells, W%)oedt es 544 Shell rock, 3 | 38's 57} Sand and Marine Shells, 21 re 784 Clay and Shells, 684 | Bi ae he Sand and Shell, 4/52 8e8 1474 Clay and Shells, 35 | Saeco 1824 Sand and Marine Substances, 3.) 5. 3 = % 1854 Quick-sand. 24 188 Clay, 2 190 “Left off in the clay, the depth of which is unknown. The shells brought up from 182 4 26 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. All soils were originally formed by the disintegration or decotn- position of the different rocks. In the condition of things above supposed, each rock, or bed, of the Geological formation, thus ex- posed in succession, in the higher country, would be acted on by atmospherical influences and their changes, &c., according to the fitness of the several rocks to be so acted on, each, or its exposed surface, would be gradually converted to earth or soil. And if there were no transporting agencies, to remove and mingle these separate earths, or soils, each one would continue to be of the same chemical constitution with its parent rocks, until new causes came into operation, to produce mixtures and changes. In such cases, of isolated earths, the sandstones would, by disintegration only, be- feet resemble exactly, those found elsewhere at the surface,” [i.e. in out-croppings of marl, and of the miocene era, as presumed. | The boring at Fortress Monroe (Old Point Comfort,) was noted more carefully in a re- eord of the operations, which [ was permitted to see in the Engineer’s office, and to ab- stract from it the following notes.. Also, specimens of all the various beds, (and of each day’s boring,) have been carefully preserved there, nailed up in boxes, which there was not time or opportunity for me to examine throughout. A few of the upper specimens of the shelly earth, showed it to be sandy and poor shell-marl, of the miocene age. It is intended that the boring operations, suspended at the depth of 312 feet, shall be agaiu resumod, and continued as deep as may be necessary to obtain water. ” STRATA PASSED THROUGH BY THE BORING, AT OLD POINT COMFORT. From Surface, Total. Marsh soil, to depth of [ 54] 5 or 6 feet. Then, fine dark sand, clean, [ 123] 18 Angular and light colored sand, containing coarser sand and rounded pebbles, and mud, &e,, [ 10 } 28 Sand and mud, in different layers, Bi | 40 Some stone, sand and mud, ] 45 Then miocene marl, [200 ] 245 The lowest layers of the last showed some “ green-sand and shells,” and next, hard stone, full of shells.— [Both these last probably in the eocene bed]. Below, little or no change of earth, all being sand and bluish elay, mixed with shells. [alc] 260 The same, but the fragments of shells smaller, and pieces of stone, harder, fds] 269 Below, earth softeras descending, and of light sky-blue co!or—[no reference made to shells, and, therefore, si infer that there were none in these, ] [ 43 J] 312 'Phe fossil shells, or marine, continuous deposits hore, were 224 feet in thickness. In digging for the canal (16 feet deep and 3 miles long,) through the low peninsula separating Clubfoot and Harlow’s creek, (south of the lower Neuse, North Carolina,) the SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 87 come and remain barren sands. The slates and other aluminous rocks, would be clays, or clayey soils, and the poorer in proportion to the purity, or freedom from all other matters, of the parent rock. The chalk and limestone, if such rocks had been there, would be- come almost pure calcareous soils. Of these, however, there were almost none, in the Piedmont region. It would have been only the rocks of mixed composition, containing lime, magnesia, or potash, as hornblende, soap-stone, granite, &c., that separately could have made compound soils, of even moderate fertility. The tide-water region would have been very different. Consisting of the upheay- ed marl, that is of sand and clay with abundant calcareous and some other fertilizing ingredients (phosphate of lime, common salt, and in some cases sulphate of lime,) the disintegration would have produced soils with abundant elements of fertility, and as much su- perior to those of the Piedmont region, as in later time, and by dif. ferently operating causes, the soils of the tide-water region were actually and generally worse than the others. But, in point of fact, there cannot long remain any earth, or soil, formed by disintegration of rock, free from foreign admixtures.—— Transporting and mixing agencies are never altogether wanting— and earths, thus formed by nature, cannot long remain separate. On a naked surface, (and much more after tillage has been intro- duced,) the winds have a very powerful agency in removing soil from every exposed space to every other neighboring locality.-— following beds were successively dug through. Their several depths were not noted, where stated in Professor Olmstead’s Report, from which this is copied : 1.—* Black mould—such as usually found in the eastern swamps, very rich. [Peaty formation ?] : 32.—Potter’s clay—yellowish brown color. 3.—A thin layer of sand, full of sea-shells, and the remains of land-animals, (mammoth and fossil elephant.) A profusion of shells, principally conch-shells, scallops and clams, such as are found near Cape Lookout, [recent shells]. The clam-shells, however, are frequently of larger size than the recent. (This layer sometimes wanting). 4.—A soft blue clay—said by the iuhabitants to correspond in character precisely with the mud of the adjacent ocean. All the words or figures above within brackets [thus,] are added by the copyist, for more full explanation ; and if, in any case erroneous, the errors should notbe charged tu the original notes. Within a few miles of the boring on Old Point Comfort, near Back riyer, the mioeene marl is within 3 or 4 feet of the surface of the arable land. BSD SE 298 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. Water is a much more powerful agent, in many cases, for trans- porting, and intermixing soils. It is not necessary here, and for this case, to describe such effects—or of the more moderately acting powers of the atmosphere, rain, and changes of temperature— inasmuch as all such milder agencies and influences were superse- ded, in this case, by one immeasurably more powerful. This was the great flood which deeply washed away and denuded the sur- face and especially the higher portions of the upper country, and spread the removed earth, in drift, deeply over all the lower coun- try, and carried off the finer, lighter and richer parts to be partly accumulated under eddying or tranquil water, or more generally wasted in the ocean. Geologists have ascertained the former existence, and have traced in many localities the course and the effects, of an ancient and mighty flood of water, rushing from the north, and which has left abundent traces of its passage, and results of its transporting violence and power, and the later deposition of its burden of sus- pended and drifted earth. It is not needed to quote authorities for the former existence of such a flood, or to discuss any of its suppos- ed causes and sources. I do not knew whether any competent Ge- ologist has examined,in reference to this flood, the particular regions here under consideration. But nowhere can evidences of the drift operation and formation, (as here understood,) thus produced, be more distinct and more generally manifest, than in the great area which is here termed the drift region. Over the surfaces which now make the eastern portions of Vir- ginia, Nort: Carolina and the neighboring Atlantic States, the course of the flood was from north-west to south-east. In the same direction, or nearly such, also, is the general direction of all the rivers, passing through the tide-water regiun, or of the broad bot- toms through which these rivers there meander. These wide bot- toms were marked ard cut out by the earlier and more violent cur- rents of this great flood, while its later and less violent and shal- lower waters yet covered all the intervening spaces or intervals between the lower borders of the present rivers. What was the height, violence, and duration of this flood can no more be known than its cause or source. It doubtless came from SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 29 westward of the Blue Ridge mountains, and it may have even over- topped their present height. It probably was more than a thousand feet in depth, when rushing over the now Piedmont region—and during its long eastward passage, swept off some hundred or more feet in depth of earth and rock—depositing the transported earth over the lower lands, and in the ocean. I have had but small op- portunity to trace the effects of this flood in the upper country, which is supposed to have been thereby generally denuded ; though, in numerous lower places, it received and retained the materials removed from the still higher lands farther westward. If the gen- eral fact be true of such a flood having been poured in such a di- rection, every careful observer, in his own neighborhood, can find enough of facts for confirmation—or for contradiction, if the doc- trine is not true. In a hilly part of the upper country, the evi- dences of such action may be sought for in various results, which would be modified by every different shape of surface. If the loose stones are rounded, it shows that they were water-rolled. If there are no rounded pebbles, except such as are of very hard material, it shows that these had been transported a long distance, in travers- ing which, all the softer aluminous and caleareous stones had been rubbed to powder, or so as to be suspended in, and floated off by water. If the hill-sides facing the north and west are always steeper than the sides towards the south and west—and still more, if the latter have on their lower slopes and at their bases, accumu- lations of rolled pebbles and rounded gravel, decreasing in size with increasing distance from the hill, all these would be striking evi- dences of the action of such a flood, and of its direction. In the tide-water region, the results now visible, at the surface, are not of denudation, but of universal covering by drifted matter —pebbles, gravel, sand, and more rarely, clay. Yet the denuding agency was in operation here, also, at first, and powerfully, before the abated violence of the flood permitted the deposition of sedi- ment. The early denuding action may be seen in numerous cases. On the upper surface of many beds of higher-lying and firm marl, there are numerous narrow and deep depressions, either funnel- shaped, or cylindrical with nearly perpendicular sides, which av AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. were evidently cut out by the whirling currents of rapid water. These hollows in the marl are filled by a fine and loose reddish earth, of subsequent deposition. Such a whirl of water could not have existed at the bottom of the sea—or if existing, and strong enough to thus excavate compact marl, it would haye been perma- nené, and must have prevented shell-fish living there, or the loose and light dead shells, and their small fragments, remaining there. The shells of other marl, and in numerous localities, haye been abraded to coarse powder, and removed and deposited elsewhere, according to specific gravity, together with the sand and other ma- terials of the bed. But the most striking illustration of this former denudation of marl may be seen along the Pamunkey river, where, for 20 or 30 miles, I have traced the different (now slightly inelin- ed) layers of the original bed, successively rising to, and “ cropping out,” or showing higher in the present bed, as the observer pro- ceeds up the river; or otherwise, as going eastward (down the course of the river,) each such layer successively dips and disap- pears.* After much of the upper and then exposed edges of the different layers of marl had been so washed away, so as to make a new and nearly horizontal surface, then the flood, in after time, and with abated velocity, brought from above and deposited thereon, first its coarser sediment, of rolled pebbles, and then gravel and sand, and finally the lighter and richer earth which now makes the surface soil of the bottom land. The evidences, in visible exposures, of this early denuding action on the now tide-water region, are rare, because they were subse- quently covered and concealed by the now overlying deposits of drift earth. But of the later and general deposition of the drift, abundant evidences are visible, some of which may be seen in al- most every excavation, or surface of any exposed perpendicular section of earth. These appearances of the strata, serving as proofs of their origin, will be described hereafter. It has been supposed and maintained above, that at the earliest * A description and figured illustration of this, in ‘ Essay on Caleareous Manures” at pages 483-5 of 5th Edition. SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 31 time indicated by the geological facts observed, the ocean extended as far westward as the line of the present granite falls, and was of sufficient depth for the production, and successive living and dying of the shell-fish, whose remaining shells and fragments constituted the beds of the now remaining marl. Subsequently this area of tertiary formation, on its western side, was, by voleanic force, up- heaved high above the surface of the ocean, and less and less #0 to- ward the east, if the eastern side (of former ocean bottom,) was not actually depressed. (Near the present sea-coast the marl lies much lower than the level of the ocean; at Norfolk, as much as 40 feet). Next, of this new raised surface of marl, where highest or otherwise most exposed, the upper portion was washed off by the violent cur- rent of the flood from the north-west ; and the removed material of shells was again deposited either at short distances, and in new layers of marl, composed of the rubbish and small fragments of shells—or, otherwise, much of the more reduced and lighter calca- careous matter was floated far into the ocean, and lost. Next, by the first abating of the violence of the flood, its currents ceased to denude the lower and flatter surface of the now tide-water region, and then the flood began to leave thereon the earth torn from the higher country. To trace the operation of the great flood, and the depositing its burden of drift stony and earthy matter, we have only to consider the enormous volume and power of the water, the general direc- tion, and also the many variations of the currents, and then look to the existing condition of the drift region or the results, and also or the explanation of many (at first) embarrassing difficulties in particular facts and matters of observation. Whatever was the cause or source, and also the duration of so mighty a flood, the violence of the current must have varied much at different times, and under changing conditions, so as to produce various effects, both in removing and depositing the materials of drift. At first, and when the current was most rapid, and its vo- lume greatest, nearly its whole operation was denuding, or remoy- ing earth and stone, and below as well as above the present falls. As the first and greatest violence of the flood moderated, it began 32 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. and continued to drop the transported matters on all the more east- ern surface—and also to extend that surface more and more into and above the ocean, and making more and more of what is now the low-land, bordering on the present ocean beach. There was not only the general and gradual lessening of the volume and violence of the flood, serving generally to change the manner and kinds of its deposited earth, but also many changes of the direction and force of particular currents, producing at particular places sueces- sive and many changes of their power and effects. Thus, at one place, the covering water was at some times a violent and denud- ing current, and at other times comparatively tranquil, or eddying. And such fluctuations might return and be re-produced along the same course, as obstructions of hills, or high shoals, in the upper country served to direct and divert the currents, or as the subse- quent removal (by washing away) of such obstacles, allowed the current to take a new direction and shorter course, and with re- newed violence, to.the ocean, and its former channel to be filled by comparatively tranquil water, and raised by its deposited sediment. The channel or passage-way of each of these particular and tem- porary currents, in the now drift region, would, for the time be deepened, by washing away the still soft and loose deposit of the then very recent soft sediment. In these deepened channels of the more rapid currents, the heaviest drift materials only could be left—either large or small pebbles, gravel or coarse sand, according to the then burden and action of the current—while in the more tranquil water, close on each side, the finer suspended earth only would be let fall, and there raise the bottom by the accumulation, even while the strong current alongside might be still deepening - its channel, and bearing off the removed earth. Then, as the di- rection and positions of particular currents would be changed, the channels previously cut out, and then covered by more tranquil water, would be filled with the finer and lighter suspended earth— and the new currents would cut new and deep channels through the previously formed shoals, sweeping the fine drift much farther, or even into the ocean, and dropping into the new deep channels the drifted stones, or other materials too heavy to be carried far- 4 SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 33 ther by the slackening force of the water. While the great flood, yet covered deeply the whole land, both of the now denuded and the drift regions, of course the general operation of the water would be to drop the heaviest of the transported earth first, and the lightest, last—as large stones, smaller pebbles, gravel, coarse and fine sand, clay and lime, in succession. But this general manner of operation would be altered on almost every locality, by the changes of direction of the minor currents, and their cutting new channels in the previously deposited drift, and filling old channels. Thus, it would necessarily happen, (as may be seen in numerous exposures,) that an inferior stratum of fine and light drift material was sometimes overlaid by another of much heavier parts—as sand, or gravel, and even large pebbles lying over a bed of clay, or clayey sand. : So far, the great flood, however abated in depth and power, has been considered as still covering the whole area of the now drift region. But later, as the water still diminished, its flow would be contracted to the last made channels of the latest partial currents— and the broader intervals between these channels would be gradu- ally left bare, and be no longer subject to changes, either in losses by secondary denudation, or of gains by accession of drift. These high interval lands are now the highest ridge or table land of the drift region—of which the plane of their general outline and high- est surface, is remarkably even, and nearly horizontal—but gradu- ally and regularly dipping from the height above the falls of the rivers to the sea shore. The water, now confined to the channels of the last formed currents, within these passages still had great force, which was in part exerted in continuing to deepen the then channels. But the borders of these passage-ways would necessari- ly be higher, and the covering water, shallow and more tranquil ; and on such places, the stiller water would begin to deposit its finer and richer suspended earth, while, where deep and swift, in the middle of the current, it would be still cutting its channel deeper, (into the previously deposited drift,) and bearing off the loosened earth to- wards the ocean. The water, continuing to decrease in volume, would next be drawn within narrower limits of breadth, and thus 5 34 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. leave bare the outer and higher margins, after having previously covered these also with a deposit of the lighter and richer earth.— This process would continue to be repeated, until the flood entirely subsided. Then the latest and deepest cut channels, for the latest currents, would be left bare, and to serve as broad bottoms through which the present rivers flow, in meandering beds. Instead of pursuing and describing the supposed progress of these changes, I will refer to existing facts of the drift region, open to present observation, and will concisely indicate the conformity of these facts with the supposed causes, as above presented. 1.—All the rivers, and also the estuaries and bays, which empty through the tide-water region, from New York to Georgia, have their general courses directing between south and west, and most- ly nearer to the middle between these points than to either extreme. Such, or as nearly as could be, must have been the directions of the various separate currents of the great flood, which marked and excavated the bottoms through which these rivers and estuaries flow. 2.—The number and close vicinity of many of these rivers, and also the depths and widths of their channels or beds, have no rela- tion or proportion to the amount of water now requiring channels for their discharge. This last fact, if considered without reference to the cause here supposed, would be a geographical puzzle. It would be incomprehensible, for example, why four great channels should have been provided, and so near together, for the lower wa- ters of the Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James rivers. Still more incomprehensible would it be, why the five large rivers (or rather estuaries) which empty into the north side of Albemarle Sound, should exist, and in so small a space, and their head-springs so near together, nearly all rising in the Dismal Swamp, when all their very scant supplies of water would have ample room for pas- sage through the smallest of these sundry channels. Of these ri- vers, the Chowan only receives, from the small head tributaries (the Meherrin, Nottoway and Blackwater,) a moderate supply of water from the land, but not enough to need for passa ge-way, one-twentieth part of the broad Chowan, five miles wide near its mouth. Yet SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 30 the next river coming from the north-west, the great Roanoke, dis- charges much more water than all the other five rivers, and yet its lower channel is more contracted than the least and shortest of the other rivers. Here, more marked than in other cases, it is seen that the passage-ways of the rivers bear no proportion to the volumes of water they now convey; and, therefore, the existing rivers could not have been the agents which cut out their valleys and passage- ways. 3.—Another puzzle would be to discover, what has cut out and shaped the several suecessive broad and flat terraces which, on one or both sides, border all our rivers in the drift region, and which are termed “ first,’ “second” and “ third low-grounds,” when there are so many as three flats below the highest or table land.— One or more of such terraces are seen on rivers whose highest wa- ters can never approach the lowest surface of such land. Moreo- ver, the breadths of these highest flats are entirely disproportioned to the sizes of their respective rivers, and the amounts of water they convey even at the highest floods. But, narrow as is the Pamunkey, (for example,) and slight the rise of its highest inundations, the size of the ancient current, which cut out this bottom, might, at first, well have required all the very wide space between the first cutting down of the now table land, (thereby shaping the third terrace, or highest “ low-ground,”’?) and next, for the lowered and contracted cwrent, the deeper and narrower depression of the second terrace, (usually there from three to five miles broad,) through which broad bottom the present narrow river meanders, among smaller spaces of “ first low-ground,” which latter only is subject to be covered by the highest freshes of the river. 4.—The strata of the drift region are nearly horizontal every- where, and usually the divisions between the different strata, as of sand and clay, do not run into each other, by gradual change or in- termixture, but alter suddenly, and at a well defined line of separ- ation. Each stratum, separately, may exhibit in itself, and in the manner of its deposition, the operation of specific gravity ; that is, in sand and gravel beds especially, the coarser and heavier parts are seen at and near the bottom of the stratum, and the grains are 36 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY: smaller and lighter as lying nearer to thetop. But there is no such rule as to different contiguous strata ; and the bed of heavier par- ticles is as often above as below one of much lighter material. For example : near Richmond, along the Mechanicsville road, there is ex- posed to view a high-lying stratum of rounded pebbles, many of large size, compactly imbedded in gravelly sand, resting upon a stratum of clay, and in immediate contact with the clay. At the Tau river landing, at Tauborough, North Carolina, there is a deep gully, perpendicular to the course of the river, which exposes well to view an extensive cross-section of the bank. There a stratum of sand overlies another of clay, the lighter earth, which would be impossible, if both these earths had been suspended together in the same overflowing water, or deposited under the same cireumstan- ces. Like examples may be seen in almost every considerable ex- eavation and exposure of different strata. And all such facts go to prove that each separate stratum, in one locality, was deposited under nearly uniform conditions of the flood, and therefore accord- ing to specific gravity. But the changes, from one to another of the strata were caused by changes of the conditions of the flood, and perhaps also by different supplies of drift materials, successive- ly broken down and transported. 5 5.—Large stones, generally of granite, say from 100 to 2,000 pounds of weight, are seen rarely, and only along the margins of rivers, or on their terraces, between the falls and twenty miles be- low. Other rounded or rolled stones, extremely hard, and usually of smoothly worn surfaces, extend still lower down the country, and especially along the rivers. These latter stones lie mostly in distinct beds, compactly and closely imbedded in gravel and coarse sand; but in other cases, they are thinly scattered. These stones, where washed out by the river banks in quantity, have supplied the best materials for paving the streets of the towns. Rolled pebbles are rarely found, and only of small sizes, lower down the country ; and at fifty miles below the falls, scarcely any small pebbles can be seen, and none at one hundred miles, and even gravel is there very rare. Within twenty miles below Augusta, on the Savannah, peb- bles areentirely absent. All these facts obviously would be results of SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 37 the various operations of the supposed great flood, in tearing up and bearing off the rocks of the higher country, rolling and rounding and leaving the heaviest remains where the velocity of the current be- and reducing the harder, and grinding to powder the softer gan to slacken, and the lighter in succession, in the farther modera- ted progress of the burdened waters. 6.—While the flood, at its greatest height and power was rolling along and depositing larger or smaller stones and pebbles, the silici- ous sand, derived from the same stony beds and materials, or other- wise washed out and separated from the previous earthy beds, would be borne along in much greater quantity, and successively deposited, in the order of the specific gravity of its particles, or as permitted by the abating violence of the flood, when over the most level bottom and nearly reaching to the sea. The gravel and coarse sand would stop first, and in least quantity. The finer sand would be suspended by the water longer, carried farther, and afterwards be deposited, more uniformly, and in greatest quantity, and as one of the earliest deposits there, on the then bottom, near to, or even beyond the previous margin of the ocean—and forming the lower bed of newly deposited earth, spread out by the flood into the ocean, and removing still farther eastward its former shore-line. Thus would be formed the existing lower sand-bed, which is general, but very irre- gular in thickness,and of coarse particles, on the higher parts of the driftregion, and the sand becoming finer, and the deposit more thick and uniform, as extending farther from its sources, and dropped by more tranquil water, on the lowest and most level bottom. This great, and now underlying bed of pure sand, sloping very gradual- ly downward towards the ocean (in the direction of the course of the former flood,) and subsequently covered more or less deeply by the later and usually more clayey deposits, is the great or univer- sal water-bearing under-bed—and which, both when dry at top, or entirely filled and surcharged with water, (derived from a higher level of the sand-bed, in the higher country,) has most important relations to the natural wetness and the means for artificial drain- age of the country. The existence and the remarkable features of this great under-lying sand-bed, are all manifest results of the sup- 38 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. posed manner of geological formation, by the action of a great flood from the north-west—and no satisfactory explanation can be aflord- ed in any other hypothesis, or reasoning.* 7.—Besides, in regard to the rounded stones, which have been earried to various distances below the falls, the kinds of earth de- posited, and the shape of the present surface of the land, are both much more varied in the country next below the falls, than much nearer to the sea. In the former, there is no obvious depression of level of the table land. Far back from the tide-water rivers, the interval ridges, or table lands, between them, are generally level, and the depressions and beds of streams are shallow. But within a few miles of the larger rivers, the table land is cut down by nu- merous deep and narrow ravines, obviously formed by the passage of the smaller but yet powerful former currents, though now sery- ing only to convey rivulets. The soils of the higher part of the drift region, next below the falls, are various. The level surface of the high table land, is generally of very fine particles, mostly silici- ous, but of closer texture, and_ stiffer than any other neighboring soil, or than most of true clay soils elsewhere. This fine and stiff sandy soil, was the last deposited at that place, by the then shallow and retreating, and nearly tranquil water of the flood, while the deeper and divided currents were still rushing furiously, and deep- ening the broad bottoms in which the present rivers flow. When the last covering waters left the table land, they, in passing off, cut down, through the previously deposited (and yet soft) drift, the most considerable of the deep and narrow ravines just described. But some, and these the steepest ravines, have been opened, or ex- tended, through high ground, in eastern localities within very re- cent times, and under the eyes ef persons now living, without the aid of more water than was supplied temporarily by rains. To this cause (and mostly in long passed times) may be ascribed the excavation of all the narrow and deep, and very steep-sided ravines which traverse the highest borders of our tide-water rivers, and % The great importance of understanding the position and operation of this broadly extended under-bed cf sand, in aid of drainage, will be again referred to, and more ful- ly treated, in subsequent articles of these Sketches. SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 39 empty therem—while the much more extensive and broader valleys with gently sloping hill-sides were still earlier scooped out by the later currents of the great flood, and the sides were subsequently sloped and smoothed oyer by later operations of natural causes. But in either case, every valley or ravine was cut down through the previously deposited drift, and must have exposed, on each side, a section of all the various strata before deposited, from the surface of the table-land and later deposited drift, to the oldest at the bot- tom of the ravines. The sloping sides of such valleys must ne- eessarily have soils composed of these several strata intermixed by rains and winds, and subsequently by tillage. Such mixed soils, though far from rich, are usually richer than the surface of the table lane, with its one general soi] of fine and close silicious saad. The entire mass of earth, of various strata, excavated by the flood—not only from these narrow ravines, and small valleys, but from the broad valleys cut out by the greater currents, and in which the rivers now flow—intermixcd, and transported by the later currents, served as materials to be deposited on the sueces- sive terraces, or elsewhere to fill depressions. This mixture of various materials, with other and richer matters from the upper country, served to make the good soils of the lower country, which are called ‘ low-grounds,” and usually and improperly de- signated as ‘‘alluvial.” If the valleys had been cut through beds of marl, as generally was the case below the falls, then enough of the admixture would certainly have made material for rich soil. But if no such supply of calcareous material was intermixed in the valley of ariver, the flat lands, bordering thereon, would pro- bably be comparatively poor. 8.—As proceeding towards the ocean, the present surface of the drift region declines in elevation more and more, and becomes more and more level. These conditions are the necessary results of the out-spreading of the flood, and of the finer sand and the clay being carried farthest. There was no longer enough height of the deposit, above the level of the ocean, to permit the cutting down of any but shallow valleys and ravines. The soil of the higher ground is almost uniformly sandy and poor. The shallow 40 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. depressions are more externat, and level, and by accessions of vegetable matter, became rich swamp soil a formation of soil liter than the drift. Where nearest to the ocean, and to the neighboring estuaries and sounds, the surface of the land is buta few feet above ordinary high tide—and large spaces, even of firm ground, are too low for safe cultivation. If the differences of agricultural character between the soils of the tide-water region and of most of the Picdmont lands, (as sta ted in an early part of these remarks,) result from their different geol gical conditions, as being respectively drift-formed and de- nuded soils, then it will be important to ascertain precisely the line of separation of these great areas. If sundry points in this line were ascertained and made known, by resident observers, it would be easy, by drawing a line on the map through all these points, to designate the eommon boundary of both. the denuded and drift regions. In the latter, the whole of the tide-water dis- trictis included. Ifthe primitive rocks and soil, in place, are to be found eastward of the falls, they are overlapped and concealed by the drift formation. Only one obvious instance of this has been observed by me, at the Halifax ferry, on the south side of the Roanoke, and about seven miles below the falls. There, in the steep river bank, the drift, in horizontal layers, is seen over- lying the denuded, stony and greatly inclined strata, and the ex- act line of separation between the two is distinctly marked. The drift formation may be always known, where sections of earih are exposed to view, by the strata of different eart''s, as sand, clay, gravel or rounded pebbles, being nearly or apparently quite hori- zontal, and usually separated from each other by precise lines of demarkation. Andin each bed of earthy material, there are man- ifest evidences of the earth having been suspended in (or rolled by) and then deposited from water. The rocks of the igneous. regions either exhibit n° stratification, or otherwise strata contort- ed, or if straight, the lines of separation are greatly inclined. In exposed sections, the earth often shows its origin from disintegra- ted rock, of which the process is not yet completed. Where the fragments of rocks whether in or lying above the earth, are angu- lar, and none rounded, that will show that they have not been —_ pom SKETCHES OF LOWER’ NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 41 = water-borne, or rollec 3 a the case with stones in the drift-region. Still, within the denuded reg many places, which were formerly basin-shaped depressio: Jower than the, former general surface, and whi heren filled with drift, and so remain, thou z! raised to the level of the surrounding interesting question whether these spots éxhibit the same aeri tural peculias tities as do the lat nds of the great lower drift repion; There must, however, from the nature of the case, be this difer- ence: In these limited spaces of depression and subsequent éo- vering’ by drift, the transported materials were. broucht from the adjacent high land, and could not have been much altered by at- trition rete sus pension—where E = the drift that covers the lower land had been comy puely changed, -che tically asi well as in-me- chanical om by its lens transportation; atitition or suspen- sion in water. AS De The differences between the soils of these different residns, in physical and also the more obvious acricultural characietistics, striking as they are, are less important than differences of ehemni- cal Peter which no chemist has yet ascertained’ by' tests! ‘Or analysis of the a fferent soils, or has “otherwise thrown’ ‘any tiekt on the obscurity of the subject. Thouch I cndenvored to invite the attention of sc leant mén to these difficulties many “years ago, | am no more able now than then, from any such‘source ‘of information, to supply the still needed ‘explanation: 4 = e As stated concisely before, on the whole of the tide-voter re- gion, lime, or carbonate of lime, as manure, has never’ failed to act beneficially and profitably—and in the far ¢ sreater number ef eases, (and on all the hich ridge, or table or other naturally poor land,) this manure has pri oduced cba effects more speedy and remarkable than Y ive becn obtained on any other known lands, in any part of the known world. Be lon nearly through- out this same tide-water region, and on all these lands where fw and marl have been foand. most operative, if gypsum is applied before marling or liming the same land, it has no profitable, if any even perceptible effect. Yet on the same land, gypsum, before of no effect, if applied after good marling or liming, has been of- 6 42 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. ten found effective—and I suppose, would be generally effec- tive. In the denuded region, (within that portion of the Piedmont region, in Virginia, embraced in these remarks,) lime is said to be generally of no effect—and in but few of the many experi- ments of its application is it reported as producing any beuefit, either early, or inany after times. Such total failures have been mostly on red soils. The few cases of evident benefit were on gray soils. Gypsum is said to be more or less operative on most of the lands in the denuded region. If then, as seems probable, the soils of drift formation are espe cially deficient in lime, and will be especially improved by its ap- plication, the fact may serve to indicate where lime may be tried, above the falls, with a prospect of success—and on what other soils and localities there might be expected failure. Besides the sure mode of determining the upper limits of the drift, by noting the appearance of the stratification, I believe that there may be found another test, in the presence, and thrifty growth of the lablolly pine, (pinws teda). One of the most striking of the general differences of the country below the falls, and that above, (but not precisely to that line of division), isthe very general growth (and exclusive second growth,) of pine trees in the former, and the general absence of pine in the latter region—and the almost entire absence of pine on the most fertile natural soils. These general facts, led me long ago to infer (erroneously) that the free growth of pine was, in itself, a sure indication of unusual deficiency of lime in the soil. And this I stiil deem correct, in the main, and as to the particular species of pine, (p. teda) which formed the exeln- sive and luxuriant second growth of nearly all the lands below the falls, within my tlen range of observation. I had not then learn- ed that different species of pines, probably indicating different kinds of soils, exclusively occupied different localities, of the same region and climate. Much ofthe worn land in the upper (or Piedmont) countries,is occupied as exclusively by second-growth pine,(thongh not so speedily,) as the lands below the falls. Andin both the up- per and lower country, these trees of second growth are alike des- ignated as “old-field pines;” and the difference of their appearance and growth are supposed by most persons to be the effects of differ- SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C, 43 ence of soil on the same species of tree. But these growths, of the lower and upper localities are generally of different species. The almost universal second growth of the lower country being the lob- lilly pine (penus teda) and of the upper country, asin the counties of Amelia and Cumberland, &e., in Virginia, and Orange, in North Carolina, as exclusively of the short-leaf pine, (pinus variabilis) which is the best and ordinary timber pine, of original forest growth of most ofthe tide-water region of Virginia. The latter has very short leaves, growing generally two, but often three from one sheath, > and very small cones. The former has much longer leaves, grow- ing three from asheath, except in some rare cases, on luxuriant young trees, on which some leaves grow four from asheath. This latter tree is a more southern plant, and is not seen generally north of Fred- ericxsbarg, norat all much farther north. As these two species, where equally favored by clim..te, severally and exclusively occupy the abandoned fields of different localities, it would be interesting to observe whether the common pine of the low country, (p. teda) when fonnd occupying land above the falls, does not indicate the presence of drift-formed soil and under-beds—and whether the change to second growth exclusively of the short-leaf pine, ( p. va- riabilis) does not indicate a portion of the denuded or primitive for- mation. The lands of the Piedmont region, (including all the surface here treated as part of the denuded region,) in their natural state of fer- tility, as found when first settled by the white race, and subjected to tillage, (or before the lands were subsequently again denuded, superficially and partially, by washing rain-water, acting on the til- led and carelessly ploughed slopes, and were further worn out by ex- hansting tillage—) were, in general, far more fertile than the great body of the lower drift-formed lands. And further——-after most of the lands of both regions had been reduced to their former lowest state ci exhaustion, by long continued tillage, and the washing off of all hilly surfaces, the lands of the lower country, in general, were still much the poorest. Again—since the recent course of improve- ment and resuscitation has been begun, and was extensively in sue- cessful progress in both regions, and wherever no marl or lime has been used, the lands of the denuded region have been found the most ca- pable of being enriched by putrescent manures alone, and restored to 4.4. AGRICULTURAL, GEOLOGY. et, between a region which had formerly earth, and another over which that re- their comparative conditions as to = fertility’ might be expected to be. ae that the formerly denuded lends would have remained the most impoverished, and 7 lands covered with the transported earth, would have been en- riched by the spoils of the higher? ands. Buchs undoubtedly would have been the results, if the upper region had been merely stripped of its richer surface soil, or, in addition, of no great depth of sub- soil—and the removed Fey in raixture, had ee equally distribu- ted over all the surface the lower lands, and whether these had irst been also d wer or not. But this was very far from being the case, as appears from the existing geological indications a ily was the soil of the upper lands swept off, but 1¢ inferior earth, and stone, to great depths, were torn up and re- C rom the denuded region. After losing the richer surface soil, it mattered little, for the fertility of all below, whether a great- er depth of 2 or 10, or 100 feet, was also removed. Whatever re- mained 23 the new surface, after the denuding process had ceased, and at whatever depth below the original surface, was composed of the same rocks, of iaadous origin, tara had served to form the original ipper orsurface layer—and which, by the subsequent dis- ntegration; &e., had served as; materials cr the first formed earth N ail these Igneous rocks contain some lime, ; and these,andalso other of the ingredients, by their intermixture, are well fitted to constitute soils capable of acquiring and retaining fertility. And in sufficient lapse of time, and under Nature’s care and operations only, these rocks would be- come earth and soil, and such soils would have capacity, (from their constitntion,) to reach a high grade of fertility. Precisely such results do we find of these soils, after their being again denu- ded and exhausted by tillage, and afterwards manured and well nursed under geod culture. The pea te soil, and even the former subsoil, washed bare and left at the surface naked and bar- ren, are improved by putrescent manures, aided, at most. only by a Vitle gypsum, to an extent impossible to be be approached, by like means only,on the great body'of the exhausted lands of tle arift region. In most of the upper country, (and most remarkably on Tt t a rl OV ed ft 7 } A oan Ailue spuls. Magnesia, or p Otas > SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 45 the south-west mountain lands,) the sub-soil, if washed bare, is still improyable, and to profit, by putrescent manures and atmospheric influences. The like naked subsoil, or washed slopes of the lower or drift region, whether of red clay or sandy, is incapable of being thus enriched, without the previous application of calcareous ma- nure, in lime, marl or wood ashes. Now let us consider whether the addition of the transported drift to the lower lands, was likely to furnish good soils, such as materi- als were left for in the new surface of the denuded region. If all of the materials removed from the higher lands had been deposited, in mixture, on the lower, and no matter of what depth, the result, in time, would have been to produce as good or better soil than much longer time would serve to produce of the new sur- face of the upper and denuded region. But it is obviously impos- sible for the various ingredients of the drift to have thus remained in mixture, and to be so deposited. The lower stones, pebbles, gravel, and other next heavier parts, (not yet rubbed down to fine earth by the moving power,) and moved in largest masses by the flood down its steepest course, would stop first and nearest below the falls, and in something like mixture with each other, and with the accompanying earth. These heavier stony parts by their subse- quent disintegration would constitute soils the nearest in quality to those of the denuded region whence these materials were brought, with but little change. The like inference may be drawn as to the isolated patches of drift which fill former depressions in the since genera'ly denuded region. The flood, having dropped these hea- vier parts of its burden, would next, (having less violence of current, because then passing even a less inclined surface,) drop the coarser sand in the stronger currents, and finer sand in the less rapid waters. This sand was spread over the whole of the gently inclin- ed planes of the first surface, and far past the previous shore line of the ocean. At later times, and in broad spaces of more tranquil water, the finest sand, with a very little clay intermixed, was depo- sited, in other and higher beds ; and in the still rapid water, this fine earth was carried mucl: nearer to the resent ocean, and thence spreac. over Droac spaces of the >resent surface of low land. This mainly silicious mixture is comnisuly known as clay, or clayey soil. There is very little of true clay soilin all the drift region. The pure 46 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. clay, and all other of the lighter parts of the transported earth, in- cluding most of the lime and organic matter, and parts of original fertile soil, were mostly floated off into the oeean, and so lost to the land over which it had passed. Eventhe pebbles of limestone, soap- stone (containing magnesia,) the slates and other clay-stohes, all be- ing of the softer rocks, were rubbed down, by their long rolling and attrition, to the finest particles, which remained suspended as long, and were floated as far, and were as generally lost, as the most fer- tile parts of the previously existing soil. Under such cireumstan- ces, of removal and suspension of the materials, and the manner and places of their final deposition of the drifted earth—or any condi- tions to be supposed, if in accordance with the operating cause, in a great and violent descending flood—how was it possible that any earths could be deposited generally over, or even under, the latest formed surface, which would be fit materials to become subseqnent- ly fertile soils, or improvable sub-soils 2? Or was it possible that the actual materials for soils and sub-soils so deposited, could, on the general average, be equal in fertilizing ingredients, to either the average of the whole transported earth, or to the igneous rocks still remaining as the new surface of the upper denuded region, and serving to produce new soils by their subsequent disintegration and mixture ? On the contrary, everything in the supposed process of the removal and transportation of the drift materials, was conducive to the production of the actual low degree of fertility formerly and naturally existing on the far larger portion, including all the table lands and high surfaces, of the now tide water region. But there were, on the narrow margins of the high lands border- ing on the rivers, and still more in their lower and broader terraces, and in sundry other low depressions of surface, many exceptions to the general rule of the depositions of sterile earth over the drift region, Many bodies of such lands were formerly of great natural fertility, and have continued to be of very superior agricultural va- lue. Tuese exceptional rich soils may be easily accounted for.— First: all the more fertile and lighter particles of the original soil, or of fertilizing materials, were not carried to and lost in the eccan.— Some would be retained by eddies, and deposited during the more tranquil conditions of the water. Secondly and mainiy : After the flood had subsided so as to leave bare the highest broad intervals of SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &€. 47 table land, and the water, reduccd as much in violence as in vo- lume, was divided into as many separate currents as overspread the courses of the present great rivers, these currents, while still cutting down and lowering their deepest channels, were at the same time de- positing their suspended earth wherever the water was shallow, ob- structed,and of course more tranquil. These conditions were necessa- vily offered over all the outer spaces,or shallow margins of the then se- parat.d currents. The action of the upper waters, in tearing up and bearing off earth, and grinding down rocks, though abated, had not ceased, and the turbil water, still brought down vast quantities of earth, into the lower currents. The lighter, finer, and richer of these materials would be directed to the shallow and slower-moving waters, and there be deposited, ani! produce rich soils. The earliest soil so deposited, would be when the separated currents still cover- ed the now highest river banks or borders, and which are generally rich for mere or less distance, rarely more thau half a mile, from the river or from its lower grounds. These high surfaces, to slight ob- servation, seem as elevated, and as belonging to, the nearest and al- ways poor table land. Hence, the marked superior fertility of the margin, or highest river land, has seemed strange and unaccounta- ble. But Linfer that these much richer strips along the high river banks are invariably of somewhat | »wer elevation than the adjacent table land, and therefore were covered by the shallow and compar- atively tranquil waters of the subsiding flood, and so received a share of its rich deposit. As the currents subsided still more, and successively were confined to narrower limits of breadth, the lower terraces, (or surfaces of ‘low grounds”) were successively cut down out of the previously deposited and poor drift earth, and their new surfaces were again added to by the much richer deposit of the wa- ter, when it had there subsided so as to be shallow and comparative- ly sluggish. Thus the river terraces were enriched, and made the most fertile and valuable land of all the tide-water region. When the water had subsided to within the present beds of the rivers, and the sources of supply were reduced to springs and rain- floods, as now in operation, then the drift deposition ceased, and al- luvial agency first began—which has since continued, and will con- tinue to raise and enrich the bordering low ground which may be overflowed, by the deposits of mud left there by the turbid freshes. 48 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. The higher terrace, or “ second low-grounds,” is commonly and er- roneously called alluvial land, and its unequal formation ascribed to alluvial agency. In no possible case, in the present condition of the earth, could the rivers have risen high enough to overflow and deposite transported mud on their “second low-grounds,” or higher terraces of the tide-waters. These higher terraces were en- tirely formed, first, of the older of the general drift deposit ; second- ly, they were reduced something below their present height of sur- face, by secondary denudation, the current tearing up and sweeping off all of the higher and more recent beds of drift-earth—and third- ly, when the water over this lately reduced surface had become so low as to be nearly tranquil, then it depusited the lighter and rich- er matters, which constituie the present rich but various soils of such lands. If this reasoning should not remove all the previons belief of these terraces being of alluvial formation, any enquirer may easily obtain other and sufficient proof, by examining any deep ditch or other excavation in such land, in which the non-alluvial character of the inferior earth will be obvious to the eye. There is aremarkable result of the agencies here supposed, which has often attracted notice, and which would seem wnaccountable ex- cept upon the views here presented. The ‘“ second low-grounds,” or the broad higher terraces of the principal rivers, where passing through the drift region, possess, for each river, much uniformity of agricultural qualities and character. Though there may be, and usually there is, much varia- tion of texture and other qualities in different bodies of low- grounds on any one great river, still they all have more or less of one general character—and are more alike, than the most similar of such lands on two different rivers. Thus in Virginia and N.Ca- rolina, the low grounds of the lower Rappahannock, the Pamunkey, the Powhatan, (miscalled James), the Chickahominy, the Notta- way, the Roanoke and the Tau, all have low grounds of qualities very uniform for each river, and those of each river different from the lands of most of the others. To most well informed farmers, if a large body of “second low-ground” or “high terrace” land, on either of these rivers were named, without description—and even though the particular land and its neighborhood were entirely un- known—every such hearer would at once form an idea of the kind SKETCHES QF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, «C. 49 of land and something like its value, merely from knowing the river near or on which it wassituated. As the rivers, and their alluvial deposits have no bearing on the lands in question, their remarka- ble uniformity of qualities and character can be caused only by there having been one common mode of original formation, and there having been different supplies of materials, and from different localities or sources, for the lands bordering on such of the differ- ent rivers. The separated and subsiding great currents supposed in the latter time of the drift period and operation, and their then separate sources of water and burden of suspended earth, would seem to produce and toexplain all these remarkable results—which seem inexplicable in any other manner. The rich soils of the tide-water region form but few exceptions to the general condition of a low grade of natural fertility. Of such low and poor quality are all the table lands of the broad and high intervals, and narrow ridges, between the rivers, and also much of the still broader and lower sandy flats nearer to the sea-coast. These lands, and much more, formed by deposits from the flood while it still covered the highest ground, from the manner of their forma- tion, were necessarily at first poor at the surface, as well as through the different inferior beds. Then, began those operations of nature, by which surface earths, if not destitute of all capacity for being en- riched, are gradually converted to soils—which are richer or poorer according to the greater or less value of the mineral constituents of the earth. First, a scanty growth of diminutive plants would live and die, and, to thesmall extent of their remains, would be increas- ed the organic matter at the surface. The soil, thus slowly and grad- ually enriched, in time would bring more and larger plants, and finally trees, which, sending down their roots to considerable depths, would draw up, and by their death and decay, leave on the surface, the little proportion of lime and other ingredients essential to ferti- lity, which the roots could reach. Thus slowly, and in many cen- turies, and by means of the growth and death of many successive races of plants, all the scanty mineral manuresthat had been with- in iweu.) feet or more below, might be drawn up and placed at the sirfie . and so enable the soil to hold and to combine with proportional quantities of organic manuring matters, furnished im- 7 50 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. mediately from the decay: of preceding plants grown on the soil, aud, remotely, from supplies furnished by the atmosphere. As the latter supplies are inexhaustible, there would be no limit to the increase of fertility of land thus at rest, and with unlimited time, provided there were present enough of all the mineral matters re- quired to combine with the organic matters, and together to con- stitute afertilesoil. But, unfortunately, all the higher lands of the drift region, and most also of the lands of medium elevation, ow- ing to the manner of their geological formation, are throughout, and greatly deficient in the essential ingredient of lime—without some of which, every soil would be absolutely and entirely | ar- ren—and without enough of which, no soil is valuable; or can be- eome or remain rich. To apply the needed lime on these soils, (after the necessary draining,) was the great and especially profit- able work left, by the Creator, for man, the cultivator to perform. And wherever that has been done, the experienced and beneficial results have been even more than equal to all that these theoretical views and deductions would promise in advance. The great drift region, (as here understood,) has been added to and in part covered, by two later formations of surface earth for extensive though minor portions of the whole great space embraced within the boundaries of the drift deposit. There are, the formation of the beach and coast sands, thrown up by the ocean, and aeen- mulated and transported by the winds—and the peaty or swamp formation, by vegetable growth and deposition. These interesting subjects have been designedly passed by here, to be separately con- sidered and discussed in later parts of these sketches. PAB ht. SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &e. AGRICULTURAL FEATURES OF LOWER NORTH CA- ROLINA, AND THE ADJOINING TERRITORY. I.—General Remarks. The public but slightly informed of the re- 1 Bley gion in question, and especially with lower North Carolina in general. The eastern portion of North Carolina presents a large region, of remarkable features, topographical, geological and agricultural.— The enclosed broad sounds, and other waters, are not less interest- ing, for their recent and great changes ; and, besides, they have been the scenes of some of the minor but romantic and interesting incidents of history. Into Roanoke Sound, by the then broad open passage from the ocean, which is now dyked across by dry land, Sir Walter Raleigh’s ships entered, and on Roanoke Island they planted the first, though but ineffectual, settlement of British col- onists in America. In another portion of these now almost land- locked waters, there occurred many of the acts of Teache, or Black- beard, the celebrated pirate, and finally, the naval engagement in which he was defeated and killed. If the lands of this region were even worthless for agricultural and economical uses, they would de- serve and reward the investigations of the exploring and laborious geologist ; and if destitute of all scientific interest, they would de- serve far more attention than ever has been bestowed on them,.for their peculiarities of agricultural character, and capabilities for high 52 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. improvement and profit. Yet, there is no equal space of territory in all the States of the American Union that has been so little visi- ted or seen by other than its residents, and of which the character and values have been so little noticed or known. It is rare that any stranger enters this terra incognita. And even of the resi- dents of other parts of North Carolina, of the class inclined and ac- customed to travel for Dusiness or pleasure, where one such has seen this portion of their own country, one hundred have visited the remote States of the north or south, or west. The region here referred to, except as to the line of sea-shore, has no exact geographical limits—or at least there is no present in- formation upon which to designate the extreme southern and the whole western boundary. I would include all of the low-lying and very level land, which is the universa) character of all the coast- lands of North Carolina, and for a breadth of two to five or more counties westward. As soon as the surface begins to loose its ap- parent almost perfect level, and to swell perceptibly into rising slopes, there should be placed che western or upper boundary of the low and flat region which is here referred to generally. The same character of country extends northward to the Chesapeake bay and its lowest western affluent rivers ; and how far south of North Ca- rolina Iam not sufficiently informed to say. In addition to the one universal feature of low and level surface of the highest and firmest lands, it ismuch intersected by narrow strips of lower and swampy but also firm ground; and also, immense spaces are occupied by large and boggy swamps,which were impassible, and almost impen- etrable by man, until his improvements and labors had produced ar- tificial passage-ways. This great region affords sundry somewhat connected, but yet substantive subjects, for separate treatment. Such are the now cul- tivated land and its agricultural condition, and the improvements most needed—description of the great swamps, and such agricultu- ral improvements as have been there made—the geological origin and structure of the different great classes of lands—notices of the ocean sand-beach, and the enclosed sounds, and other navigable wa- ters, and the changes that have occurred in both, &c. Some others, or perhaps all, of these several divisions of the whvle great subject may be hereafter discussed. For the present, I will confine myself SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 53 to sketch the agricultural features, condition, wants, (and errors of eulture,) and capabilities of the particular and peculiar agricultural region which lies between the Chesapeake bay and Hampton roads, and Nansemond river, on the north, the ocean on the east, and Albemarlesound on the south. On the west, the outline would in- elude all the Dismal Swamp. But all the great space, and the cir- cumstances of that Swamp proper, will be passed over now, to be resumed and considered in another and substantive article. The further extension of the western boundary would include the lower Chowan, and the basin of the lower Roanoke. The area designated includes some of the oldest agricultural settlements and oldest towns, and (on the Roanoke especially) some of the richest lands on our Atlantic border. It is also intersected by sundry lines of public travel, and some of which (the land and water steam-lines to Nor- folk) have long been used by numerous passengers. Still, all these circumstances do not make this particular agricultural district an exception to the general rule or condition of all the great low-land region, of being unseen, unknown and little appreciated by stran- gers. Of the many thousands of travelers who visit, or pass through Norfolk or Poitsmouth on the great routes, scarcely one ever treads the soil, except in the towns—or ever sees any of the lands of the country, except in the rapidly changing glimpses afforded from a steam car, or the more distant and uncertain views from a steam- vessel. Princess Anne county, which reaches within three miles of Norfolk, and Norfolk county, lie wholly in the designated sec- tion ; and these counties, out of the towns, are as little known to the residents of all other parts of Virginia, as any counties west of the Alleghany mountains. Yet, within the heart of one of these counties, and within a few miles of the other, are the important towns of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and the noblest harbor, and one of the most important government dock-yards and naval stations, of the United States. And the country has been as little appreciated as it was little known; and even by its residents, until recently, and by those who knew it best, as wellas by strangers, who had only heard it spoken of and described im the most contemptuous epithets. And, though recent improvements of prices of lands, and in fewer and more remarkable cases, of products and profits, and 54 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. still more, and longer, in some of the North Carolina counties, in- dicate much actual improvement and higher appreciation, still very few, even of the most intelligent proprietors, are yet fully aware of the true and great wants of their lands, and their great capability for improvement. Proper drainage alone would double the pro- ductive value and the profit of the whole great area of what is usually considered the now dry land, and of the firm and partially drained swamps. In addition to the peculiar grounds for agricul- tural improvement and profit in the land itself, no known region possesses such great facilities for navigation, and for choice of mar- kets. And, in every respect, no where is there a region where agricultural improvement is more needed, and is more available, and offers more prospective profit ; and no where have the great advantages offered by nature been more neglected, or seem to be less known. For the present, my remarks on this region will be applied espe- cially and particularly to the portion lying east of Perquimans river. My personal observations did not, at first, extend farther west ; and much of whatever may be here said of the country extending be- yond Perquimans, and including the lower Roanoke valley, will be on report deemed entirely reliable, W.—Peculiar characters of the low-lands, in surface and qualities of soul. The most striking feature of this firm low-land region, is its very low and level surface. arge bodies, say of 1,000 acres or more together, are more uniformly level than any as large spaces of allu- vial, or other bottom land, on any of the great rivers of Virginia. Such bottom-land as borders the Pamunkey river, for example, might be called undulating, compared to the general greater flat- ness of the whole great region under consideration. The numerous smaller swamps, interspersed, (which receive and conduct off the overflowing surface water,) are, usually, not much lower than the adjacent highest ground. So far as the eye would indicate, changes of level of even so much as a foot of difference, can rarely be per- ceived, except in the swamps and depressions which convey the ri- SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C, 55 vers and smaller streams, or temporary rain floods. But changes of level which are barely perceptible to the eye, are usually made abundantly distinct by the gathering of water on the slightly de- pressed surfaces, which serve to make the numerous swamps of firm sow. A stranger, if traveling through the country in any and dif- ferent directions, might suppose that the surface of the land was nowhere higher than ten feet above ordinary high tide, or the usual height of the navigable and level waters ; but the real heights are greater than would thus appear to the eye. In the interior of Princess Anne county, at Level Green, (the farm of Edward H. Her- bert, Esq.,) where the surface seems to the eye as low as any—the elevation, as determined by levelling instruments, is about twenty- one feet above tide, Still, the variations of our surface-levei are so gradual, (except as to the beds of watercourses,) that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to reach any outlet for drainage of a few feet of fall, without conveying the water by a ditch of some miles in length, and through as high, or higher ground. This feature of the surface presents the greatest impediment to the drainage of the interior lands, and especially upon the ordinary method of mere surface drainage, by open and shallow ditches. But with all the slight undulations of surface levels, there is nothing to obstruct the view, except the standing crops and fences on the farms, and the trees on swamp or other forest lands. Ex- cept for these obstructions, any object of the size of a man, or horse, could be seen over miles of intervening space and distance. In all the great area now under consideration, there is not (native to the locality) a stone, or even a small pebble ; and, in few cases, but a little of small gravel.* The soils vary, in different places, between open and light sandy loam, and very close compact gray clay, (so- called ;) or, perhaps, more correctly, extremely close and compact soil and sub-soil, composed mostly of the minutest particles of sand, * There may be, and probably are exceptions, as:higher in the tide—-water region, in some coarse and imperfect sand-stone, recently formed, by ferruginous spring water fil- trating through coarse sand, and, in the course of time, cementing with a deposit of iron the before separate and loose grains of sand. There are many such recent formations of this stone. 56 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. and which, therefore, are stiffer, closer and more intractable under cultivation than the finest or true clay elsewhere. Of such redand yellow clays as make many of the best soils and subsoils of the upper country, (above the falls, or among the mountains,) none are seen here. W.— Peculiar characters of the rivers, and the many fit for navi- gation. The water-courses are numerous, and many of them are deep enough to be navigated by sea-vessels. | In some of the smaller ri- vers, in parts too narrow and crooked for the ordinary small vessels to turn about or to pass each other when meeting, there is enough depth of water to float a ship. A glance at this section on a large map of North Carolina will show the great number and close neigh- borhood of these rivers which flow, nearly parallel to each other, into the northern side of Albemarle sound. The lower parts of these rivers, where of widths, severally, from one to five miles, are more properly estuaries or large creeks, (in the proper sense of that word, and not as usually misapplied,) kept full by the refluent wa- ter of Albemarle Sound—just as they would be, and to nearly equal height, if there was no other supply of water from head-springs or rain floods. But even as ascending these rivers, and after they are contracted to very narrow widths, and, as appearing on the map, the upper channels might be inferred to be merely shallow and in- significant streams, they are, in fact, deep, though narrow rivers, of level and slow-moving water, and continuing deep almost to their visible head sources; and ofter good facilities for navigation to such extent, in number and in length of rivers and their sundry branches, that one-half of them are superfluous, and, therefore are not put to use. If any obstructions exist, they are made merely by trees fallen across, and are easily removed. The whole country, and especial- ly from Perquimans county to Currituck Sound, is pervaded by broad and deep estuaries near to the Sound ; and their head wa- ters, extending near or into the Dismal Swamp, make, with their many branches, a net-work of natural still-water canals, narrow and crooked, indeed, but as deep, as smooth, and as sluggish as ar- SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 57 tificial canals, and free from the changes of Jevels and the obstrue- tion of lock-gates, which accompany the benefits of canal naviga- tion. Most of these rivers receive their head waters from the Dis- mal Swamp or other Swamps. The water of all is black as seen in the rivers, and the color of Brandy or Madeira wine as seen in a glass, being thus deeply colored, as are all the swamp waters, by the vegetable extractive matters in and on the boggy swamp soils. This discoloration is not entirely lost in the salt tide-water of Eliz- abeth river, at Norfolk, nor in Currituck Sound; where nine miles wide, below the former (and now closed) Currituck inlet, which, not many years ago admitted deep sea-vessels. In traveling along the public road from Elizabeth city, North Ca- rolina, to Currituck Court House, within the distance of seven miles, we passed four navigable water courses, including the Pas- quotank and two of its branches. Three of these had draw-bridges for the passage of masted sea-vessels. The fourth stream had no draw-bridge, because it was not needed in such close vicinity to others ; and, also, because, though this branch had abundant depth and an open channel for sea-vessels, it was so narrow and crooked that the banks and trees standing on the borders would entirely obstruct the masts and yards. Such great and numerous natural facilities for navigation, as in the many rivers of this region, are unequalled; and they are exceeded by the aid or.art, only in the canal navigation of the Dutch Netherlands. IV.—General want of Drainage, and of proper views on the sub- ject. Level as is the general surface, and slight the variations of height, in adjacent spaces of all the peninsula between the waters of the Chesapeake and Albemarle, still there are frequent slight changes ; and these, more than great changes elsewhere, are marked by con- sequent differences of character. Every farm of a few hundred acres has some of its surface of swamp, and usually undrained.— What is called high or dry land is, indeed, the highest and dryest, but mostly still and always suffering more or less for want of suf- 8 58 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. ficient drainage. The parts which may be only from two to three feet lower than the neighboring highest surfaces, are, because of the depression only, swamps of wet though firm ground. These swamps are very generally of firm soil, and the boggy swamps are of entirely different materials and formation. In all this flat coun- try there are very few springs showing at the surface, and but rare- ly any springy or oozy places. The water and the wetness of the numerous smaller swamps are due entirely to rains. On the high- er spots, or larger highspaces, the early settlements were all made, and tillage has there been continued, with but little respite, to this time. The intermixed lower lands, or smaller swamps, were deem- ed worthless, and their culture was rarely attempted until within recent times. Yet, even with the imperfect superficial drainage which only is in use, these swamp lands are found to be best, and of fertility rarely exceeded anywhere. Some of this firm swamp, in Perquimans, of which Mr. J.T. Granberry’s estate in part is com- posed, and which but lately has been drained or brought under cul- tivation, he bought lately at $55 the acre, unreclaimed. A highly intelligent neighbor told me that he remembered when the same land could not have been sold for 75 cents the acre, and was deem- ed of no value whatever for tillage. The soils and also the subsoils vary in texture from moderately light to extremely stiff, close, impervious (now) to the descent of water, and remarkably intractable under tillage, and almost always either too wet or too dry for good ploughing, even under good farmers. Under the worst cultivators such soils are sometimes mud or mire, and sometimes of clods almost as hard as brickbats. These soils are general or common in Perquimans only. Yet, on good farms, of this very difficult soil, there are seen the best (and excellent) crops of wheat, and other best crops, of all the counties on the sound. The greatest drainage labors and most of the best farmers and best cultivation are also in that county ; yet even there and though many of the ditches are of great size, and the drainage labors are remarkable for their extent and cost, still, almost every where, the tilled land is but partially and insufficiently drained.— (in mueb the larger portion, perhaps nineteen-twentieths of all the SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &@. 59 cultivated and even highest surface of the whole region, the drain- age is much worse and still more insuflicient. V.—The true principle of drainage for this region and the geological facts on which the principle is founded. The great error of the method of drainage, general in all this region, is that the drains or ditches are designed, and only operate, to draw the superfluous and, therefore, injurious rain-water from and over the surface. The principle I would propose to substitute, is to draw off (and keep drawn off) the water which is in excess some feet below and up to the surface, and by thus removing the before constant saturation or glut of the lower earth, to permit the excess of failing rain to sink into the lower earth, and thence pass off below, instead of being kept on and near the surface, as now and heretofore, until it either can flow off on the surface to ditches, or is evaporated. Both the existing error and the evil effects and also the benefit of the proposed substituted plan are dependent on the geological structure of the land, and especially of its inferior beds. But, in advance of all description and reasoning as to the causes of the supposed existing phenomena and of tracing the effects in re~ ference to draining, I will simply assume the truth of the great and all-important fact on which my plan and reasoning are founded.— This fact is, that the whole of this low and flat country, at some few feet below the surface, (within the extreme limits of from 2 to 8 feet, and more generally from 3 to 5 feet,) has underlying it abed of pure sand, which, at least in all wet seasons, is glutted with wa- ter from its bottom to its top. This fact is unquestionable, and may be tested easily by every proprietor. But I have to infer, from the geological structure of the region and on reasoning, which would require too much space to state here, the further fact, that this underlying bed of water-glutted sand is nearly horizontal, but, like the overlying earth and its surface, has a gentle and general dip or declination toward the seacoast, or in a south-easterly di- rection.* sorce * The geological views wore presented in Part I, of thene series, at page 37, and after. 60 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. As to the general presence of the sand bed, it is proved by every well that is dug, and not only here, but in such higher localities of the tide-water region. In the higher country, and at higher le- vels of surface, the sand-bed lies deeper and also, there, generally, its upper part is dry, (or without water,) though, by digging deep- er, the lower sand, there also, is always found filled (but not sur- charged) with water. A like bed of sand underlies most, or all of the bottom or low land, along the rivers in the higher tide-water counties in Virginia ; and, as I infer from but limited personal ob- servations, such sand, with much more regularity of position and operation, underlies the whole superficial layers of the great low- land region here under consideration. But in these low-lands, the sand-bed is naturally always glutted with water, which water is a source supplying moisture to the overlying earth, and also, by being already as full of water as it can be, the glutted sand-bed is an ef- fectual barrier to the descent of more rain-water from the surface of the land. This sand-bed is, therefore, the great cause of the ex- isting wetness of the upper beds, and surface soil, and the reason why the usual surface draining is so imperfect in operation. And the same feature offers the manner and means for effectual drain- age. Of course, very few particular facts, and in narrow spaces, have been learned from my own personal observations in this low coun- try. But I had previously discovered the underlying and also wa- ter-glutted sand-bed, (concealed from all previous knowledge, as a general fact,) below the broad bottom lands of my own farm on the Pamunkey river, (in Hanover county, Virginia,) and had long stud- ied its effects; and in reference to it, had devised, and conducted successfully, extensive draining labors. At first, I had supposed this remarkable and then newly discovered feature to be peculiar to the particular locality of my own farm; but in the progress of my draining operations, and the necessary study of the whole sub- ject, and the true principles of drainage, I came to infer, that the same feature, of an underlying sand-bed, belongs to the whole of the lands of our great tide-water region, and that this sand-bed, where dipping lowest, and glutted with water, was the great cause SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &C. 61 of the evil of excessive wetness of the low-lying soils above. I felt so confident of the correctness of my deductions, that it induced me at the first time of leisure, to visit the region in question, to seek and to find the facts to confirm and to sustain my theoretical views. And before my first visit to this country, I offered to a friend, resi- ding therein, advice for the proper drainage of his farm (by seeking for and tapping the glutted sand-bed,) which he acted upon to some extent, and found therein the precise effects and all the benefit that could have been expected from his limited first operations on this new principle. To obtain numerous evidences of the very general existence and position of the sand bed, it was not required for me to dig or bore into the under-lying beds, or even to see the surface of every local- ity. Every farm house is supplied with water by one or more wells, and these numerous and long used wells, go far to supply all the facts required. Whether the sand-bed exists, and near enough te the surface to affect its natural drainage, may be learned usually from inquiries about the wells, their depths, and the cause of the varying quantities of their supply of water. From even but a few such examples, and applying thereto my general views deri- ved from practice and experience of draining in far-distant localities, I was confirmed in the general opinions previously formed, in ad- vance of all personal observation. |The conclusions thus reached, and for which I will proceed to argue for the conviction of others, may be thus stated ; that nearly all the higher and firm, as well as the lower lands, lying between the Chesapeake and Albemarle Sound, are rendered and kept too wet, not (as universally alleged,) because the soils or their under beds are of too close texture to per- mit the superfluous rain-water to sink, and so be discharged by per- colation ; but because the underlying sand-bed is already sur- charged with water, and by its supplying moisture upward, renders moist earth incapable of drinking up more water from above. In the upper and middle ranges of the tide-water counties of Virginia, the reaching the sand-bed, and its being dry when reach- ed, are essential conditions to the construction of a good ice-house 62 AGRICULTURAL FEATURES. —the dry sand bottom serving immediately to absorb, and convey away, by downward filtration, all the water formed by the melting of the ice. This is the operation of the principle of drainage of the higher beds, by the agency of a dry (or drained) upper layer of the sand-bed below. It is also essential to the utility of every well, that it should be sunk through the upper and dry layer (if there be such) of the sand-bed, and into the water-glutted lower part, for the purpose of its furnishing a permanent supply of water. And if, as generally in the flat low country, the sand-bed is full of water to its top, (unless after long drouths,) and is so surcharged that the water is pressed upward, then, in wells there dug, not only would water be obtained as soon as the sand-bed was reached, but the water would rise still higher, and even near to the surface of the land in very wet seasons. Thus, every well in this low coun- try may afford evidence of the existence, height, and character of the sand-bed at its top, and also the height to which water will rise therefrom, and how near the surface of the land the upper bed must be injuriously affected by the water-glut below, and whether permanently, or but for the times of wettest seasons. Hence, it follows, that little as has heretofore been noticed, or thought of, in regard to these important facts, and the more impor- tant deductions from them, and few as are the residents who have thought at all on these particular points, it is only ne- cessary for farmers and thinking men to reflect upon, and apply the facts they already know, to be assured of the true principle and method of drainage for their land, which will now be more fully explained and argued. VI.—The underlying sand-bed and its opposite operations in regard to draining. Whether the underlying sand is of one continuous bed connected throughout, or broken, or separated, is not important, it is enough that it is general, and nowhere known to be wanting. Neither is its general thickness known, nor is its bottom but rarely accessi- ble or known. But it is certain that this sand-bed lies upon some lower bed, impenetrable to water from above, and which bed, in SKETCHES OF LOWER NORTH CAROLINA, &€. 63 many known cases, is marl. But whatever may be the lower bed or its texture, the sand-bed itself, however open and loose in tex- ture, if already glutted with water, is incapable of receiving more. Therefore, there is no layer of earth so impenetrable by water, as any earth, and even sand, already full of water ; and, in less de- gree, all dampness or moisture of the underlying bed of earth is so much impediment to the reception of rain-water from above. The following rough figure will serve to exhibit a profile or section of the supposed strata of the low-lands, but to render the differences of level apparent to the eye, it is necessary greatly to increase the thickness of the strata, and the rate of their dip, in the figure, ex- ceeding the natural and actual conditions. SOUTH-EAST. NORTH-WEST. BED- MARL. a OTHER IMPER vious