extreme heat in the summer are not more oppressive than in many
portions of the North.

Tidewater Virginia, or the Coastal Plain, as it is sometimes called,
receives the name from the fact that the streams that penetrate it
feel the ebb and flow of the tides from the ocean up to the head of
navigation. It consists chiefly of broad and level plains, while a
considerable portion, nearest to the bay, has shallow bays and
estuaries, and marshes that are in most instances reached only by
the ocean tides. These marshes abound with wild duck and sora.
Tidewater is mainly an alluvial country. The soil is chiefly light,
sandy loam, underlaid with clay. Its principal productions are
fruits and early vegetables, which are raised in extensive "market
gardens," and shipped in large quantities to Northern cities. The
fertilizing minerals--gypsum, marl, and greensand--abound, and their
judicious use readily restores the lands when exhausted by
improvident cultivation.

Middle Virginia is a wide, undulating plain, crossed by many rivers
that have cut their channels to a considerable depth and are
bordered by alluvial bottom lands that are very productive. The soil
consists of clays with a subsoil of disintegrated sandstone rocks,
and varies according to the nature of the rock from which it is
formed.

The principal productions of middle Virginia are corn, wheat, oats,
and tobacco. The tobacco raised in this section and in Piedmont,
known as the "Virginia Leaf," is the best grown and the best known
in the United States. In this section, as in Tidewater, the low
bottom lands formed by the sediment of the waters are exceptionally
productive.

The Piedmont section is diversified and surpassingly picturesque.
The soil is heavier than that of middle Virginia, the subsoil being
of stiff and dark red clay. On the slopes of the Blue Ridge grapes
of delicious flavor grow luxuriantly. These produce excellent wines,
and the clarets have a wide fame. The pippin apples of this section
are of unrivaled excellence.

The "Great Valley," as it is descriptively called, is in the general
configuration one continuous valley, included between the two
mountain chains that extend throughout the state; it is one of the
most abundantly watered regions on the face of the globe. Deep
limestone beds form the floor of the Great Valley, and from these
beds the soil derives an exceeding fertility, peculiarly adapted to
the growth of grasses and grain, and it