6 BULLETIN 140, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pittsfield to Stockbridge the main valley is 1 to 2 miles wide, but it 

 then is closed in by mountains. Near Great Barrington and the 

 Egremonts it is again 5 miles wide. Narrowing at Sheffield to 3 

 miles it again broadens to 6 miles at the State line, narrowing again 

 a few miles to the south. Across the western end of Connecticut it is 

 broken into a number of small isolated areas. 



THE TACONIC MOUNTAIN GROUP. 



West of the Hoosac Valley lies a thick local mountainous group 

 with general elevation above 2,000 feet, known as the Taconic Moun- 

 tains. These mountains are parallel to the Housatonic Valley 

 and form its western boundary. They lie partly in Massachusetts 

 and partly in the State of New York. Their steep slopes afford little 

 good farming land. Their highest point in Massachusetts is ap- 

 proximately 2,800 feet. Geologically these mountains and the lower 

 region west to the Catskills correspond to the broad band of shales, 

 which give rise to the Berks soils of Pennsylvania, where they adjoin 

 on the north the Lehigh, Lebanon, and Cumberland Valleys. 



The highest mountain in southern New England, Mount Greylock, 

 with elevation of 3,505 feet, lies between the two branches of the 

 Berkshire Valley, southeast of Williamstown, Mass. 



The general surface of the Western and Eastern Highlands and of 

 the Southeastern Plateau is very irregular, yet the upland skyline is 

 approximately even. The surface of this sloping region passes be- 

 neath the sea along the existing shore line with no sudden descent. 

 The coast line merely marks the points of zero elevation along this 

 tilted surface. The rise is gradual to a maximum of 2,000 feet in the 

 northwest corner of Massachusetts. 



THE SOIL MATERIAL. 



The soil material found in southern New England is called glacial 

 material by geologists, meaning that it was placed where it now lies 

 by deposition from a former ice sheet. It was removed a short dis- 

 tance, however, and to all intents and purposes it is the product of 

 the weathering, breaking up, and more or less grinding up of the 

 rocks which occur in the region and constitute its foundation. 



These consist, with the exception of the rocks in the Connecticut 

 Valley, of ancient crystalline rocks, such as gneisses, schists, slates, 

 and various igneous rocks. They are, so far as the soil material 

 is concerned and considered in a broad way, essentially uniform 

 over the whole State. In the Connecticut Valley the rocks consist 

 of soft sandstones and shales with a few bands of hard igneous 

 rocks which form the ridges already referred to. 



The Cape Cod region differs from the rest of the region in that 

 the existing land and its elevation is not due to a solid rock founda- 



