FORICST RJvCOXXAISSAXCE OF THE) DF.LAWARK PKXIXSULA 549 



Besides the differences in soils and area and composition of the for- 

 ests here pointed out, these regions differ notably in the shape of their 

 shorelines (see map), in density, racial composition, and rate of increase 

 of population, in size of farms, proportion of pasture and plowed 

 ground, value of farm buildings, relative importance of different crops 

 and farm animals, and in several other features covered by census data ; 

 but these matters can be discussed more appropriately elsewhere. 



REGIONAI, DESCRIPTIONS 



1. The greensand belt, which extends nearly all the way from New 

 York to Washington, a little below the fall-line, has an area of about 600 

 square miles on the Delaware peninsula, where it is practically coexten- 

 sive with the area mapped by geologists as Cretaceous and Eocene.^ 

 Its coastward edge passes approximately through Townsend, Del., 

 Chestertown and Love Point, Md. The underlying formations contain 

 considerable greensand marl, which does not show much at the surface, 

 but nevertheless influences the soil enough to make it considerably 

 above the average in fertility. The prevailing soil texture classes are 

 silt loam, loam, marsh, gravelly loam, sandy loam, and meadow. 



Only about 15 per cent of the area is now wooded, and the average 

 stand of merchantable timber is about 1,580 feet per acre, according to 

 Besley's figures for the Maryland portion. The scarcity of timber is 

 reflected in the absence of rail fences and the use of corn-stalks for shed 

 roofs on many of the farms. Probably not more than 5 per cent of the 

 trees are evergreen, which is a good indication of the fertility of the 

 soil. The commonest trees at the present time seem to be sweet-gum, 

 poplar, white oak, chestnut, red maple, beech, black-gum, hickory, w'il- 

 low oak, pin oak, swamp chestnut oak, and scrub pine, and the com- 

 monest small trees willow and dogwood. 



2. What may be called provisionally the Tuckahoe region (from one 

 of its streams) corresponds with that part of the peninsula underlaid 

 by the Calvert formation of ]\Iiocene age, and has an area about 1,000 

 square miles. Like the next three regions, it has no close counterpart 

 elsewhere, though in vegetation alone it does not differ very much from 

 some other parts of the coastal plain. Its southeastern boundary is 

 rather indefinite, but passes through or near Dover and Easton. The 

 soils are almost as fertile ag those in the greensand belt, and the pre- 

 vailing texture classes are sandy loam, silt loam, loam, marsh, loamy 

 sand, meadow, and fine sandy loam. 



* For descriptions of the forests of the New Jersey and Southern Maryland por- 

 tions of the same belt, see Bull. Geog. Soc. Phila., 16: 117-118; Jour. Wash. Acad. 

 Sci, 5:584-586. 1918. 



