CIRCULAR No. 7. S. 37. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF SOILS. 



DESCRIPTION OF A SOIL MAP OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Iii July, 1899, the Secretary of Agriculture authorized a soil sur- 

 vey of a portion of the Connecticut Valley. Mr. Clarence W. Dorsey 

 and Jay A. Bonsieel were assigned to this work, and they spent about 

 three and a half months in the field work connected with this survey. 

 A report has been prepared and published in Report No. 64 of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture entitled Field Operations 

 of the Division of Soils, 1899, accompanied by a map of the area 

 surveyed on the scale of one inch to the mile. A very small edition 

 of the map has been issued in a separate form, mounted as a wall 

 map, and supplied to a few individuals and institutions for educa- 

 tional purposes. The object of this circular is to describe briefly the 

 conditions in the valley and the soils represented on the map, so 

 that reference will not have to be made to the larger report in order 

 to understand the map. The following summary has therefore been 

 made of the report. 



The area surveyed extends from South Glastonbury, where the 

 valley pinches together, northward for a distance of about 41 miles to 

 Bachelors Brook in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where the Mount 

 Holyoke range of mountains completely separates it from that por- 

 tion of the valley which extends northward from Northampton into 

 Vermont. The valley has an average width of from five to ten 

 miles on either side of the Connecticut River. The area surveyed 

 and mapped comprises, approximately, 400 square miles or 256,000 

 acres. 



The object of the work was primarily to investigate and map the 

 different tobacco soils, but incidentally all soil areas were surveyed. 

 One feature, which was very clearly recognized in the course of the 

 survey, is the continual and rapid encroachment of city and suburban 

 development for summer residence and for industrial purposes on the 

 farming lands. Many extensive areas which were formerly con- 

 sidered agricultural lands are now built up or are being held as a 

 speculation for residence or industrial purposes. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION. 



The Connecticut Valley is bounded on either side by hills rising 

 to elevations of from 50 to 100 feet above sea level in the neighbor- 

 hood of Hartford, and to a little over 500 feet in the northern part of 

 the area surveyed. The country is level or gently rolling, sloping 

 gradually back to the high-rounded hills and low mountains which 

 form the boundaries of the valley. 



The hills and mountains forming the sides of the valley are of 

 glacial origin and consist of a heterogeneous mass of boulders, sand, 



