4 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



The surface soil is soft, mellow, friable, and in more southern areas 

 somewhat sandy. The subsoil throughout the areas where the type 

 has been encountered varies from a silty loam to a rather heavy 

 loam. At greater depths, however, the presence of the partly decom- 

 posed rock gives excellent subsoil and underdrainage to the greater 

 proportion of the type. It is only upon steeper slopes, where soil 

 erosion has been active, that the coarser and more sandy material of 

 the deeper subsoil is frequently encountered. 



The Chester loam may be readily distinguished from the soils of 

 the Cecil series, with which it is most frequently associated, through 

 the fact that the subsoils of the various types of the Cecil series are 

 invariably stiff, red sandy clays, while the subsoil of the Chester loam 

 is a somewhat friable and silty brown, yellow, or reddish-yellow loam. 



SURFACE FEATURES AND DRAINAGE. 



The Chester loam occupies the rolling to somewhat hilly interior 

 section of the northern Piedmont plateau. Within this region nu- 

 merous rounded or flat-topped hills are separated by deep, crooked, 

 gorgelike valleys. The type occupies the hilltops and slopes alike, 

 varying considerably in the degree of its surface slope. The best 

 agricultural areas are usually those which lie upon the nearly level 

 tops of the hills or upon their slightly rounded shoulders. 



Throughout the region where the Chester loam is found the natural 

 drainage has been thoroughly established by the cutting of numerous 

 minor and major stream channels. In consequence very few areas 

 are poorly drained. It lies in a region where swamps are few or 

 almost entirely absent. Upon all the steeper slopes there is liable to 

 be some difficulty with excessive erosion, especially in the more 

 southern areas of its occurrence, where the heavy rains frequently 

 fall upon bare fields unprotected by grass or other vegetation. Areas 

 of more gentle slope or those which are kept in sod either for pastur- 

 age purposes or for the cutting of hay suffer little from this cause. 



The absolute elevation of the Chester loam above tide level varies 

 considerably in the different areas where.it has been encountered. 

 The lower-lying areas in southeastern Pennsylvania and central 

 Maryland frequently are found at altitudes ranging from 350 feet to 

 500 or 600 feet above tide level. Farther inland toward the western 

 limits of its occurrence the altitudes range from 500 or 600 feet to 

 as high as 1,100 feet above sea level. 



LIMITATIONS IN USE. 



The Chester loam is well fitted by its textural peculiarities, by its 

 drainage features, and by its present agricultural condition for the 

 production of a wide range of general farming crops and is also 





