48 BULLETIN 159, 17. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and forage crops are grown upon a portion of each farm while a 

 limited area may be given to grain. 



In general it may be said that the adaptation of crops to soils and 

 a consequent adoption of different farming systems have been very 

 well worked out in the areas in New Jersey where the soils of the 

 Sassafras series chiefly occur. The heavier, more retentive Sassafras 

 silt loam is chiefly used for growing hay and forage crops, corn, 

 Irish potatoes, and tomatoes. A supplementary dairy business is 

 locally developed to a limited extent upon this soil. Its characteristic 

 form of agriculture is diversified general farming. 



The more sandy members of the series are utilized for special crop 

 production wherever marketing facilities are available. Early Irish 

 potatoes, early tomatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelons, and canta- 

 loupes constitute the chief crops grown but a wide variety of other 

 truck crops is also produced. 



The extent to which these crops are established in this district is 

 well shown by the fact that the five counties of Burlington, Camden, 

 Gloucester, Monmouth, and Salem produced a total value of 

 $8,559,567 of vegetables in 1909 or considerably more than one-half 

 of the value for the entire State of New Jersey. This also amounted 

 to nearly one-fifth of the total value of all crops produced in the 

 State. In these five counties the value of all vegetables amounted to 

 approximately one-half of the total value of crops grown. 



On the Maryland-Delaware peninsula there is a rather striking 

 adaptation of the cropping systems to the different classes of soils. 



The northern portion of the peninsula, from the Piedmont border 

 southward to the Choptank River, is dominated by the heavier soil 

 types of the Sassafras and other series. The Sassafras silt loam and 

 loam occupy extensive upland tracts in New Castle County, Del., 

 and in Cecil, Kent, Queen Annes, and Talbot Counties, Md. In 

 this section the farms are large, the fields are level and easy of 

 tillage, and drainage is fairly well established. In consequence of 

 these natural advantages the typical agriculture consists of the grow- 

 ing of the cereal grains and hay. A study of the acreages devoted 

 to the principal farm crops shows that wheat occupies the chief areas 

 in these counties, while corn is second and hay and forage crops are 

 third in rank. The crop rotation most commonly employed is the 

 3-year rotation of corn, wheat, and hay, but a 5-year rotation is 

 also used where wheat and hay are repeated before corn is again 

 grown. Some farmers still follow wheat with corn without seeding 

 to any grass crop. 



Tomatoes constitute the chief special crop of this section. They 

 are grown for local canning factories or for shipment to others in 

 near-by localities. The late crop for canning produces good yields 



