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 bears the name of the “garden spot” of the state.

Five trunk lines of railroads penetrate and intersect the state.  The lines of steamboats that ply the navigable streams of eastern Virginia afford commercial communication for large sections of the state with the markets of this country and of Europe.  Norfolk and Newport News maintain communication with the European markets by steamers and vessels, while from these ports is also kept up an extensive commerce along the Atlantic seaboard.  The seaports are nearer than is New York to the great centers of population, and areas of production, of the West and Northwest.