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 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES AND THEIR USE VII. 



THE HAGERSTOWN LOAM. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The Hagerstown loam is the most extensive of the valley limestone 

 soils. It has been encountered in 24 different soil survey areas 

 located in five different States, and in these areas 1,211,911 acres 

 have been mapped. The Hagerstown loam is a residual soil derived 

 through the partial solution of the massive blue limestones forming 

 the floor of the Great Valley, which extends from eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania across central Maryland and through western Virginia into 

 Tennessee, Kentucky, and northern Alabama. In addition to this 

 valley, which has been called the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylva- 

 nia, the Hagerstown Valley in Maryland, and the Shenandoah Valley 

 in Virginia, there are numerous smaller valleys included within the 

 Appalachian system, which also have this limestone for their floor, 

 and which are, therefore, occupied by the soils of the Hagerstown 

 series. The Hagerstown loam is found in practically all of these 

 main and minor valleys and it is remarkably uniform in its charac- 

 teristics throughout its extent. 



In addition to these typical valley areas the same soil is found cov- 

 ering a large proportion of the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky and in the 

 Basin Region of central and southern Tennessee. In fact, the massive 

 blue and usually pure limestones of these localities normally give rise 

 to the soils of the Hagerstow r n series, and throughout the greater part 

 of its extent the Hagerstown loam dominates the other types of the 

 series. 



As the soil survey work is extended additional important areas of 

 this soil series and soil type will be encountered in Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and north- 

 ern Alabama. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL AND SUBSOIL. 



The Hagerstown loam is characterized through practically its entire 

 extent by a brown or yellowish-brown silty loam surface soil having a 

 depth which ranges from 6 inches as a minimum to 12 or 14 inches in 

 the deeper areas. This surface soil is soft and mellow and usually has 

 the appearance of being well charged with organic matter. It grades 



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