MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 157 



The Sassafras Sandy Loam. 



The Sassafras sandy loam lies chiefly along the low forelands which 

 border the Patuxent Eiver, and is also represented by small areas near 

 Plum Point and along the lower course of Fishing Creek, 



The surface of this formation is usually fiat and only gently sloping. 

 It lies at an elevation of from 15 to 35 feet above tide level and its loca- 

 tion near tide water, together with its altitude and its crop values, makes 

 it one of the most desirable soil types in the region. It forms a por- 

 tion of the area included in the most recent geologic formations of the 

 region and represents a deposition of fine sand, silt, and organic matter 

 in the shallower waters of the latest stage of land submersion. A very 

 similar process is being carried on at present along the coast, w^here 

 lagoons and stream mouths are being silted up after each rain storm. 

 The present marsh areas along the Patuxent with their abundant growth 

 of aqueous vegetation serve as a filter which entangles the sediment 

 carried by the river and retains it, mingled with decaying vegetation, 

 to form a soil much like the Sassafras sandy loam w^hen a change in 

 comparative land elevations shall expose these areas as portions of the 

 land. So in former times along the river shores, in the embayments 

 formed by tributary streams, and w^herc sand bars sheltered areas of 

 shallow water, the materials of the Sassafras sandy loam were accu- 

 mulated and they now form a portion of the land well known for its 

 fertility. Small areas of especially sandy soil lying within the boun- 

 daries of this type — notably near Point Patience — are still in the pro- 

 cess of formation. The wind sweeping along a sandy shore line and 

 against a low cliff picks up sand from the beach and, when the direction 

 of its current is changed by the cliff, eddies are set up which allow part 

 of the sand to drop on the nearby fields. Small patches of a few acres 

 in extent ai-c made excessively sandy and their adaptation to crops is 

 materially changed by this process. 



The Sassafras sandy loam may be defined as consisting of a medium 

 to fine, brown, sandy loam, having an average depth of a foot or more-. It 

 is underlain by a heavier type of 3^ellow sandy loam to an average depth 

 of about four feet and this is often, though not always, succeeded by a 



