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



tended westward to include the excellent town of Hardwick, to which 

 reference has already been made. Yet even this locality has been im- 

 proved and reasonably developed only in spots. From much more 

 of the land is the production of crops and other farm products 

 destined to be greatly increased and conditions are already ripe for 

 the undertaking. Similar conditions obtain in the Pomfret-Wood- 

 stock section in northeastern Connecticut. 



Good glacial loams, both medium and very heavy, produce good 

 yields of corn and grass, the former being preferable for corn and 

 the latter for grass. Both crops brought heavy yields in 1911, not- 

 withstanding the droughty conditions that prevailed during much of 

 the growing season. The medium and light loams are well adapted 

 to orcharding, thrifty orchards here and there attesting to this fact, 

 but they likewise are bringing good yields of forage for the produc- 

 tion of market milk. Directly west from New Braintree, Mass., and 

 toward Enfield the soils are more sandy, as they are to the south- 

 ward in Hampden County east of a line connecting Three Rivers 

 and the town of Hampden. These lighter soils also extend farther 

 south into northern Tolland County, Conn., but in the southern half 

 of that county the percentage of loamy areas increases somewhat. 



Prescott, Mass., may be taken to represent one of the more unde- 

 veloped towns of eastern Hampshire County. Though hilly, this 

 town has a sufficient area of soils that are capable of bringing good 

 crops to warrant a much higher degree of farm improvement. 



In northwestern Worcester, in the eastern parts of Franklin and 

 Hampshire, in the southwest corner of Worcester, and in the south- 

 eastern part of Hampden County, Mass., and in northern Tolland 

 County, Conn., the percentage of improved land is much less than in 

 central Worcester County. Conditions differ somewhat, but the pro- 

 duction of farm products is much lower than it should be. The ele- 

 vation is high, the region is hilly, there is a considerable percentage 

 of sandy and stony soils, distance from shipping points is relatively 

 great, transportation over the existing highways is expensive, and 

 hence large areas are in forests Yet notwithstanding these adverse 

 conditions, which are found in greater or lesser degree in most of the 

 Eastern States, there are sufficient areas of good soils so located that 

 they are easily capable of supporting a prosperous agriculture. 



From the crest of the Eastern Highland to the Connecticut Valley 

 there is a general slope, but its surface has been so dissected as to 

 leave little semblance to anything plainlike. On the contrary, bold 

 hills approximating 1,000 feet in elevation extend nearly to the 

 Connecticut River, in the northern part of the State, near the Ver- 

 mont line in east Northfield, and thence southward these high hills 

 extend through the towns of Erving, Montague, Leverett, Pelham, 



