SOILS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. 27 



and the upper Westfield River Basin is much less deeply dissected 

 than the section traversed by the latter river, though withal it is 

 hilly. The soils include a much larger percentage of sandy types 

 than the Coleraine-Cummington region, but there are many good 

 farming areas. Between Cummington and Northampton the loamy 

 soils of the former town extend approximately to Swift River, east 

 of which the soils are more sandy nearly to Williamsburg, and farm- 

 ing is less developed. A mile or two west of Williamsburg begins 

 another strip of loamy and more productive soils, which extend to 

 west Whately, southeastern Conway, and on to Patterson Four 

 Corners. The road from Whately village north to Whately Glen 

 indicates the eastern limits of this area. 



In the Western Highlands of Connecticut, especially west of the 

 gorge of the Naugatuck River, where dissection and erosion have 

 been more kind than farther east, there are many good farming 

 towns, especially in Litchfield County. Not all localities were ex- 

 amined in detail, hence various good towns were doubtless missed, 

 but among those seen may be mentioned Canaan, Cornwall, Litch- 

 field, Washington, Woodbury, Western Watertown, and Southbury 

 in New Haven County, and Newtown, Redding, and Ridgefield in 

 Fairfield County. 



Passing northward to the foot of the Hoosic Range in northwestern 

 Massachusetts, the soils up the eastern slope are much more sandy 

 than those of the lower highlands. Going through the tunnel of 

 the Boston & Maine Railway, in Hoosic Mountain, one approaches 

 North Adams, which is located near the center of the Hoosac Valley. 

 There the North Branch, flowing from Vermont, joins the Hoosac 

 River as it comes from Berkshire County and flowing westward 

 through the defile between the southern end of the Green Mountains 

 on the north and Graylock on the south, passes out of the north- 

 west corner of the State. The valley of the Hoosac is flanked on the 

 south in the town of Williamstown by a secondary rolling valley, in 

 which are many good farms. 



The greater part of the Hoosac Valley is occupied mainly by old 

 glacial terraces, of which the soils include many areas of loam, but 

 there are also many sandy and gravelly knolls and ridges. In the 

 North Branch Valley in the town of Clarksburg the soils are very 

 stony or even rocky, and their nearness to the good markets of North 

 Adams accounts for the relatively high price of land — said to be 

 $50 to $100 an acre, where within a radius of 4 to 5 miles from the 

 town. 



The soils of the Williamstown Valley average somewhat heavier. 

 There are many areas of loam and clay loam, though sandy and 

 gravelly knolls and low hills frequently occur. Good dairy farms 



