SOILS IN THE VICINITY OF BRUNSWICK, GA. 11 



SOILS. 



The upland soils of Glenn County consist of materials that were 

 washed down from the higher Piedmont section of the country to the 

 west and deposited hi an ancient sea that completely covered this por- 

 tion of the Coastal Plain region. These sediments, subjected to the 

 action of waves and tides, were reworked and assorted into various 

 grades of sands and sandy loams and subsequently lifted above tide 

 level to be still further altered by erosion, the growth and decay of 

 vegetation, and chemical change. The uplifted ocean floor has been 

 cut through and more or less dissected by streams. Poor drainage 

 conditions have favored the accumulation of dark-colored vegetable 

 matter in the soils occupying the slight depressions, sufficiently hi 

 places to give rise to a deep, rich muck. The subsoils in such places 

 are usually light gray or mottled in color, owing to imperfect aera- 

 tion. The heavy soils of the drainage-way and old tide-water depres- 

 sions have been formed by the deposition of silt and clay carried in 

 suspension by the waters of local streams and by inland tides mingled 

 with the muddied waters from interior streams. In places there is 

 encountered clayey soil which represents the finer sediments laid 

 down in deep or quiet marine waters, as in case of the subsoil of the 

 Coxville fine sandy loam. 



The soils of the river bottoms are strictly alluvial hi origin, having 

 been formed by deposition of silt, clay, and sand from stream water 

 bearing soil material derived principally from the red lands of the 

 Piedmont. These lands represent the most recently formed soils 

 of the county; in fact, they are still in course of formation, being 

 added to by each successive overflow. 



The poorly drained dark-gray to black lands of high organic matter 

 content are called "Portsmouth soils" (named for Portsmouth, Va., 

 where these soils were first mapped) ; the well-drained gray to nearly 

 white deep sandy lands of low humus content are classed as Amelia; 

 the gray to dark-gray types underlain by plastic clay of mottled 

 yellow and red color belong to the Coxville series; and the river- 

 bottom lands belong to the Congaree series. 



The various types of these series are described in detail and then* 

 crop adaptations taken up in the following pages. 



PORTSMOUTH LOAM. 



The Portsmouth loam consists of a black, mucky, light loam, 

 underlain usually at from 12 to 20 inches by a somewhat lighter 

 colored stiff, plastic clay, slightly mottled in the upper part and 

 very much mottled with ocherous yellow at a depth of about 3 feet. 

 In spots the clay comes near enough the surface to be reached by a 



ICir. 21] 



