4 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



SURFACE FEATURES AND DRAINAGE. 



Throughout the region in which it occurs the Sassafras silt loam 

 occupies low undulating or nearly level terraces, which slope from 

 the inland regions gently to a rather steep frontal escarpment where 

 the type ordinarily terminates, and is replaced at lower levels by other 

 soils. In southern New Jersey the soil type is found at an altitude 

 of 25 to 50 feet on the low terraces which border the eastern shore of 

 the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, and it rises gently inland to 

 a higher level at about 90 feet altitude. Some portions of the type 

 between the low and the higher terrace are rolling to sloping in their 

 surface features. In the Maryland-Delaware Peninsula the highest 

 altitudes of the type are found in the form of narrow terraces where 

 the Coastal Plain section borders on the Piedmont. Some of these 

 higher terraces rise to an altitude of 200 feet or more. In general 

 the highest altitudes of the Sassafras silt loam within the Coastal 

 Plain proper are found at about 100 to 110 feet above tide in the 

 vicinity of Chesapeake Bay, and the surface slopes gently eastward 

 toward Delaware Bay through Maryland and southern Delaware, 

 reaching its lowest level of about 10 feet above tidewater in the east- 

 central portion of the State of Delaware. In southern Maryland the 

 Sassafras silt loam exists along the west shore of Chesapeake Bay 

 and along the main tidewater embayments tributary to the bay in the 

 form of distinct terraces, having an altitude of 60 to 100 feet above 

 tidewater. Some of these terraces extend a considerable distance 

 inland along the principal streams, and their surface rises gently 

 with the slope of the stream bed to altitudes of over 200 feet. In all 

 regions where it occurs the surface is so level that power machinery 

 may be used upon all parts of the type when it is properly cleared of 

 its natural hardwood growth. The altitude above the local water 

 level renders the natural drainage effective over the greater portion 

 of the type. Slight hollows and regions remote from the drainage 

 courses constitute the only exception to this general rule. 



LIMITATIONS OF YIELD. 



Although the Sassafras silt loam is remarkably uniform in its 

 inherent characteristics from its most northern extension to its 

 southern limits, there are noticeable variations in the yields of the 

 general farm crops which are produced upon the type. In the more 

 northern regions, where this soil is highly esteemed for general farm- 

 ing, it has been the subject of the most careful tillage and treatmei 

 As a result the yields of all the farm crops are high, and the soil is 

 rarely sold at a price lower than $75 to $100 an acre. Farther south, 

 where a different and less effective system of farming has been in 

 use, the yields are less, the price of the land is not more than one- 



