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



and the Western Highland, the productive and populous Connecti- 

 cut River Valley is one of the most striking topographic features of 

 Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. Approximately 2 miles 

 in width in the northern part of Massachusetts, the valley broadens 

 greatly about 2 miles south of Northfield Farms, where the river 

 turns at a right angle and flows westerly toward Greenfield. There 

 the valley is nearly 8 miles wide. Turning southward again, the 

 river passes between Pocumtuck Mountain and Mount Toby. To- 

 gether these mountains occupy about half the width of the valley. 

 At the southern end of Mount Toby the valley steadily widens on 

 the east side until it is crossed abruptly by a trap dike, the Mount 

 Holyoke Range, which attains a height of 954 feet in the center of 

 the valley at Mount Holyoke. Cutting through the range trans- 

 versely the river pursues its way down through the central part of 

 the main valley, leaving the southern extension of the Holyoke 

 Range to the west. The latter turns directly south from Mount 

 Tom, which is opposite Mount Holyoke, and, decreasing in height, 

 forms a low divide far into the State of Connecticut. To the west 

 of this divide is the valley of the Westfield and Farmington Rivers. 

 The main valley continues about the same width to Hartford, below 

 which it becomes narrower, is in part closed in, or is filled with dikes, 

 and soon ends where the river breaks into the Eastern Highlands. 

 Topographically it is succeeded by the New Haven Valley, which 

 extends to Long Island Sound. 



The alluvial and terrace soils of the Connecticut Valley are water 

 sediments which have been deposited in currents of varying velocity. 

 Near the present river the first terraces are most always silty, and silt 

 soils extend for some distance up the immediate borders of the con- 

 tributory streams. With increasing distance from the river, higher 

 terraces were laid down when the stream was much wider than at 

 present. These terraces consist largely of fine sandy loams, fine sands, 

 and fewer loams. With increasing distance from the river the sedi- 

 ments become coarser until at the adjoining foothills coarse sands and 

 fine gravelly sands prevail. The regular sequence of materials from 

 fine to coarse has been often changed by the deposition of secondary 

 valley streams. 



The adaptation of the Connecticut Valley soils to onions and 

 tobacco precludes their general use for orchard purposes. The tree 

 fruits, furthermore, can be grown better on the hills, where land is 

 comparatively cheap. 



Viewed as a broad topographic and geologic division, the Con- 

 necticut Valley Basin includes not only the valley proper, but 

 all the above-mentioned mountains within it and the foothills ad- 

 joining the valley on both sides as far back as the red and yellow 



