236 Bulletin 254. 



silt loams and stony loams and more level areas of sandy soil of varying 

 texture. The belt of country skirting the southern shore of Lake Ontario 

 is characterized by an undulating topography composed of rounded, lenti- 

 cular hills with their long axes arranged in a northerly and southerly di- 

 rection and separated by depressions which are frequently swampy and gen- 

 erally poorly drained. The clay and the sandy land is generally fairly 

 level. In this area is included much of the best farming land in the State. 



(3) The second group constitutes the remainder of the State and lies 

 at a high average elevaiion and with the exception of the Hudson Valley 

 portion forms dissected plateaus. It includes most of the highland area in 

 the southern part of the State and with the exception of the large valleys 

 which traverse it, the soil covering conforms fairly close to the outline of 

 the underlying rock surface which occurs usually at a depth of from 4 to 

 30 feet. The soil is in the main a moderately fine textured loam of a more 

 or less stony character. Large areas on the divides are nearly level or 

 gently undulating but adjacent to the stream courses it is likely to be steep 

 and broken. The undulation is of such a character as to develop many 

 shallow basin-shaped or broad V-shaped areas and these, together with the 

 character of the soil and the structure of the country, produce poorly 

 drained land in abundance. The further fact that over large areas the 

 underlying bed rock is a rather impervious shale and that the soil mantle 

 is thin permits poor drainage to be accentuated by the seepage of water 

 along the surface of the rock forming spring areas on both strongly sloping 

 and on quite level land. 



The large valleys have, for the most part, a considerable filling of 

 gravelly, sandy and silty soils often arranged as high terraces which have 

 been more or less completely removed by the action of the stream which 

 occupies the lowest line of the valley and along which is the ribbon-shaped 

 area of bottom land somewhat subject to overflow. These valley soils are 

 sometimes poorly drained as a result of local conditions such as texture 

 and position with reference to the upland slope. It is a common experience 

 to find wet land at the foot of a slope where the valley material joins the 

 main wall of the valley. These lands are rendered wet by the seepage of 

 water down the face of the rock, through or over the thin soil covering. 



B. TYPES OF DRAINAGE CONDITIONS. 



A general survey of the land of the State reveals three groups 'of con- 

 ditions with reference to tlrainage. 



(i) The pronounced marsh or s^vainp land which is of practically no 

 crop value, except for ' some timber, until better drainage is established. 

 In the aggregate such land is of large extent in the State and is found 

 most abundantly in the second "division. It occurs as numerous, usually 

 small, irregular areas, in some places occupying the pass between drumlin 



