22 BULLETIN 159, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGEICULTUBE. 



Both in Anne Arundel County, Md., and in the Eastern Shore 

 counties of Maryland tomatoes are extensively grown for the can- 

 ning factories upon this and associated soil types. 



The Sassafras sand is used to some extent for the growing of 

 watermelons in both Gloucester and Salem Counties, N. J., where it 

 is recognized as the soil best suited to this crop. Good yields of sweet, 

 early melons are secured. Some melons are also grown upon the type 

 in the different areas of its occurrence in Delaware and Maryland. 

 Cantaloupes are less extensively grown than watermelons on this 

 type, but give fair yields of melons of excellent quality. 



For the production of extra early garden peas as a truck crop the 

 Sassafras sand is only excelled by the Xorf oik sand. In Anne Arun- 

 del County r Md., many acres of early peas are annually grown upon 

 this soil. In the Xew Jersey trucking counties and upon Long Island 

 early peas are also an important crop. In all of these localities string 

 beans are grown to some extent. Both crops take a regular spring 

 place in the succession cropping which marks the intensity of truck- 

 ing methods, and it is a common sight to see the rows of peas and 

 string beans so spaced that cucumbers or cantaloupes may be inter- 

 planted, making their growth and fully occupying the tract after 

 the early peas and beans have been harvested. 



There is probably no soil in the more northern trucking regions 

 which is so well suited to the production of an extra early crop of 

 asparagus as the Sassafras sand. The shoots are ready for cutting 

 at an early date, they are easily harvested, and they are easily 

 blanched to the creamy white demanded by certain markets. While 

 asparagus is not grown in any large acreage upon the Sassafras 

 sand yet the crop is one of high value, and it is very frequently 

 found in small plots upon the market garden and truck farms 

 located upon this soil type. 



Numerous other truck crops . are grown upon this soil. Among 

 these may be enumerated eggplant, which is found to be well suited 

 to this soil in the southwestern Xew Jersey counties; cucumbers, 

 grown on Long Island, in Xew Jersey, and upon the Eastern Shore 

 of Maryland; peppers, chiefly produced upon it in Xew Jersey: 

 sweet corn, locally grown in small acreages upon many truck farms ; 

 and even extra early cabbage, carrots, turnips, beets, and spinach 

 and kale. 



The strawberry is the most widely grown and valuable small 

 fr.uit produced upon the Sassafras sand. The type is chiefly used 

 for growing such varieties as the Superior for early market and the 

 Klondyke for midseason markets. The Gandy, a distinctly late 

 berry, is grown only to a limited extent upon this soil. It is better 

 suited to production upon the more loamy types of the Sassafras 

 series and to the mucky, moist conditions of the Portsmouth loam 





