SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES AND THEIR USE-IV. 



THE SASSAFRAS SILT LOAM. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The areas of the Sassafras silt loam which have been encountered 

 by the soil survey are confined entirely to the Coastal Plain portions 

 of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. A total 

 area of 518,142 acres of this type has been included in 12 different 

 soil surveys in these 4 States. It is probable that the soil type does 

 not occur farther north than New Brunswick, N. J., nor farther 

 south than Norfolk, Va. The type is confined to seaward portions 

 of the Coastal Plain in each of these States. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL AND SUBSOIL, 



The surface soil of the Sassafras silt loam, to an average depth of 

 9 or 10 inches, is a soft, friable brown silt loam occasionally contain- 

 ing small amounts of fine gravel, This is underlain to a depth of 36 

 inches in nearly all cases, and frequently to a depth of 7 or 8 feet, by 

 a yellow or reddish-yellow heavy silt loam, which is generally suf- 

 ficiently heavy to be called a clay in the localities where it occurs. 

 At a depth varying from 3 feet to 8 or 10 feet this subsoil is fre- 

 quently underlain by beds of gravel or gravel and sand, which sepa- 

 rate the mass of soil and subsoil from underlying formations. In 

 the southern portion of the Maryland-Delaware Peninsula, however, 

 this gravel bed is frequently lacking, and the subsoil rests not infre- 

 quently on beds of sand. While the subsoil is rather stiff and heavy, 

 it is still sufficiently granulated and friable to give reasonable under- 

 drainage, and it is only in caso of depressions occurring throughout 

 the type that drainage is likely to be deficient. 



The Sassafras silt loam is easily distinguished from the soils of 

 the Elkton series, which occur in the same region, since the latter 

 possess gray to brown surface soils and mottled yellow and gray sub- 

 soils. It is best distinguished from the soils of the Norfolk series by 

 the slightly reddish cast of its deeper subsoil. It does not possess 

 the black surface soil of the Portsmouth series of soils, which is 

 sometimes found in the same localities. 



88303 Cir. 2511 3 



