The southern parts of New Jersey are sandy and flat, sometimes marshy, almost perfectly sterile, though occasionally producing shrub oaks, and pines: the northern half of the state is well adapted either for grazing or tillage. A part of Delaware abounds with swamps and stagnant waters, which render it alike unfit for the purposes of agriculture, and injurious to the health of the inhabitants. At the southern extremity of the state is the Cypress Swamp, a morass twelve miles in length and six in breadth, including an area of nearly fifty thousand acres of land; the whole of which is a high and level basin, very wet, though undoubtedly the highest land between the sea and the bay. The swamp contains a great variety of trees, plants, wild beasts, birds, and reptiles. In the northern parts, along the Delaware river and bay, and from eight to ten miles into the interior, the soil is generally a rich clay, in which a great variety of the most useful productions can be conveniently and plentifully reared; from thence to the swamps before noticed, the soil is light, sandy, and of an inferior quality. In the central parts of the state, there is a considerable mixture of sand; and in the southern part it, renders the soil almost totally unproductive. In the western part of Maryland, the soil is somewhat strong, and in other parts are tracts of thin, unproductive land. It is generally, however, a red clay or loam; much of it is excellent, and producing large crops. Wheat and tobacco are the staple commodities, but on the uplands of the interior, hemp and flax are raised in considerable quantities. The soil in the low part of Virginia is sandy or marshy, except on the banks of the rivers, where it is very rich. This territory is alluvial, and under its surface every where exhibits bones and marine shells. Between the head of tide-waters and the mountains, it exhibits a great variety, and a considerable portion is good. Among the mountains there is a great deal of poor land, but it is interspersed with rich valleys. In the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany, we come to a country lying upon a bed of limestone. Here the soil is a deep clayey earth, well suited to the culture of small grain and clover, and produces abundant crops. Beyond the mountains the surface is broken, with occasional fertile tracts, but the soil is generally lean.