SOILS Or THE SASSAFRAS SERIES. 37 



edge of the adaptation of this soil to these crops is general and the 

 agriculture of the type is chiefly based upon the production of these 

 three crops. Only locally is the Sassafras loam used for the grow- 

 ing of tomatoes and other special crops. The vegetables are chiefly 

 grown for home use or to a small extent for special markets. 



Considering the excellent yields of corn and grass attained from 

 the Sassafras loam there is a rather small amount of any live stock 

 aside from work animals maintained upon the type. Some dairy 

 cows are kept as an adjunct to grass and grain farming and a few 

 steers are fattened, but the total number of neat cattle kept upon 

 the type is small. Nearly every farm principally consisting of this 

 soil maintains a few hogs, while some sheep are seen upon it. Yet 

 the live-stock industry is subordinate over the greater part of the 

 Sassafras loam. 



Few Coastal Plain soils equal the Sassafras loam for the uses 

 which have been indicated. 



SASSAFRAS SILT LOAM. 



The areas of the Sassafras silt loam which have been encountered 

 in the soil survey are confined entirely to the Coastal Plain portions 

 of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. A total 

 area of 518,142 acres of this type has been included in 12 different 

 soil surveys in these 4 States. 1 It is probable that the soil type does 

 not occur farther north than New Brunswick, N. J., nor farther south 

 than Norfolk, Va. 



The surface soil of the Sassafras silt loam, to an average depth of 

 9 or 10 inches, is a soft, friable, brown silt loam, occasionally con- 

 taining small amounts of fine gravel. This is underlain to a depth 

 of 36 inches in nearly all cases, and frequently to a depth of 7 or 

 8 feet, by a yellow or reddish-yellow heavy silt loam, which is gen- 

 erally sufficiently heavy to be called a clay in the localities where it 

 occurs. At a depth varying from 3 feet to 8 or 10 feet this subsoil 

 is* frequently underlain by beds of gravel or gravel and sand, which 

 separate the mass of soil and subsoil from underlying formations. 

 This feature is shown in Plate V, figure 1. In the southern por- 

 tion of the Maryland-Delaware Peninsula, however, this gravel bed 

 is frequently lacking, and the subsoil rests not infrequently on beds 

 of sand. While the subsoil is rather stiff and heavy, it is still suffi- 

 ciently granulated and friable to give moderate underdrainage, and 

 it is only in case of depressions occurring within the type that 

 drainage is likely to be deficient. 



Throughout the region in which it occurs the Sassafras silt loam 

 >ccupies low, undulating plains or nearly level terraces, which slope 



1 It* is probable that portions of the type as mapped in Cecil, Harford, and Kent 

 bounties, Md., should be included with the Sassafras loam. 



