Land use: Most of this area is in farms, but some is in national forests or is used as game refuges and for related purposes. About 70 percent is in forests. Some are farm woodlots, but most are large holdings. Pulpwood is the main wood product; lumber and naval stores are other sources of income from forests. About 20 percent of the area is cropland, and about 1 to 4 percent is pasture. The proportion of cropland is somewhat higher in the north and is considerably lower in Florida. Vegetable crops, fruits, melons, sweetpotatoes, and Irish potatoes are important crops. There are large acreages of corn, soybeans, wheat, and tobacco. Some peanuts are grown on the sandy soils in Virginia and in Georgia. Poultry farming is an important enterprise in the north and in some parts of Florida.
Elevation and topography: Elevation ranges from 25 to 50 m. Some short steep slopes border the stream valleys. The area is crossed by many broad shallow valleys that have widely meandering stream channels. Local relief is mainly less than 10 m.
Climate: Average annual precipitation-1,025 to 1,400 mm. Maximum precipitation is in summer. Average annual temperature-13 to 21 C. Average freeze-free period-200 to 280 days.
Water: Rainfall, perennial streams, and ground water provide an abundance of water. Water for domestic, municipal, and industrial uses is obtained mainly from wells. Many of the soils require artificial drainage before they can be used for crops, and some of the sandy soils need irrigation during droughts.
Soils: Soils having restricted drainage are dominant throughout the area. Most extensive are Aquults. They have a thermic temperature regime and an aquic moisture regime. They are deep and medium textured to fine textured. Paleaquults (Rains, Coxville, and Lynchburg series) and Ochraquults (Rembert series) are most common. The Paleaquults (Byars, Bayboro, and Pantego series) and Umbraquults (Paxville series) are on associated wetter sites. Hapludults and Paleudults (Goldsboro, Persanti, Bertie, Johns, Kempsville, Suffolk, and Foreston series) are on higher sites where drainage is somewhat better. Other locally important soils are Haplaquods (Leon, Mascotte, and Lynn Haven series), Quartzipsamments (Lakeland series), and Paleudults (Blanton and Troup series). Histosols occupy fairly large areas, especially in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia and Florida.
Potential natural vegetation: This area supports pine-oak forest vegetation. Loblolly pine and upland oaks are dominant on the uplands, and water tupelo, swamp blackgum, sweetgum, and oaks are dominant on the bottom lands. Longleaf uniola, cutover muhly, toothachegrass, panicums, little bluestem, and associated grasses and forbs characterize the understory vegetation.
(From "Land Resource Regions and Major Land Resource Areas of the United
States". United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service
Handbook 296. Dec. 1981. page 112.)