98 RURAL NEW YORK 



those till soils formed directly by the glacial ice and 

 tliose subsequently formed by water arising from the 

 melting of the glacial ice during the retreat of its 

 front. 



The glacial till soils are the most extensive of 

 the two divisions and occupy all the higher portions 

 of the region. The glacial till sheet underlies much 

 of the glacial lake deposits and often protrudes 

 through the surface. In addition, they reach up the 

 foot of the slopes to meet the soils of the highland 

 areas into which they gradually merge. 



For the most part, the glacial till soils are moder- 

 ately stony. They contain occasional foreign bowl- 

 ders of igneous rock brought from the north. 

 Bowlders of the local rocks of the region are more 

 common than the foreign ones, and while the removal 

 of these rocks facilitates tillage, that operation is not 

 often necessary in order to utilize the land. The 

 type and proportion of stone vary widely in some 

 sections. Usually in close association with the un- 

 derlying limestone formations, blocks of massive 

 limestone constitute the predominate field stone. 

 These are most abundant on the southern rim of the 

 Mohawk Valley and of the Ontario plain. In the 

 Mohawk Valley and on the southern flank of the 

 Adirondack Mountains, the hard granite type of 

 rock is more common. Across the northern flank 

 of the Adirondacks and again on the Ontario plain, 

 sandstone is most common. The deeper subsoil of 

 these till formations is usually very compact and 

 may have properties akin to hardpan. 



