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



THE NORFOLK SANDY LOAM- 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



An aggregate area of 2,000,850 acres of the Norfolk sandy loam 

 has been mapped in the various soil surveys along the Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts. The type has been encountered in 40 different areas lo- 

 cated in 10 different States. It extends from New Jersey on the 

 north through the entire Atlantic coast region and westward into 

 Alabama. Small areas have also been found in Mississippi and in 

 Texas, but by far the greater part of the type has been encountered 

 along the Atlantic coast and in the eastern Gulf coast region. It is 

 probable that when further soil surveys are made in this general re- 

 gion considerable additional areas of the Norfolk sandy loam will 

 be encountered. It is probable that there are not less than 15,000,000 

 acres of the type in the lower lying section of the Atlantic and Gulf 

 Coastal Plains. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL, AND SUBSOIL. 



The surface soil of the Norfolk sandy loam to an average depth 

 of 10 or 12 inches is a medium gray or yellow sand. This material 

 is ordinarily loose and incoherent, although in some cases it may 

 be somewhat loamy from the admixture of small amounts of finer 

 grained material. The surface soil usually grades downward at a 

 depth of about 1 foot into a loamy sand, which in turn is succeeded 

 at greater depths by a friable, sandy, yellow clay. Throughout the 

 entire soil section the coloration is either gray or a shade of light 

 yellow. Only in a few instances where subsoil drainage is not ade- 

 quate is there any mottling with gray in the deeper subsoil. The 

 Norfolk sandy loam is thus easily distinguished from the Orangeburg 

 sandy loam, which possesses a deep red, sandy clay subsoil, or from 

 the Portsmouth sandy loam, which possesses a black, mucky surface 

 soil and a mottled yellow and gray subsoil. It differs from the 

 Tifton sandy loam, in that it usually tacks the accumulation of iron 

 gravel, or iron concretions, which characterize that type, and also 

 lucks the deeper yellow, brown, or reddish mottlings of the subsoil. 



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