SOILS OF SOUTHERN ISTEW JERSEY AND THEIR USES. ' 9 



in color. The subsoils are mottled reddish brown, green, and drab. 

 The Freneau loam is the only type of the series mapped in southern 

 New Jersey. It £)ccupies stream bottoms within the marl belt, and 

 is naturally poorly drained. It is chiefly forested or used for pastur- 

 age, although small areas have been drained and cultivated. 



Tidal marsh. — Considerable areas of Tidal marsh occur around the 

 coast line of southern New Jersey. Some areas have been diked and 

 drained and are used for pasture^ the cutting of hay, and, to a small 

 extent, the growing of corn. 



Meadow. — ^Inmiediately inland from the Tidal marsh areas the 

 streams of southern New Jersey are frequently bordered by nearly 

 level, marshy tracts which are subject to occasional inundation by 

 stream freshets and to the addition of new soil material. These 

 flood-plain areas have been mapped as Meadow. They are either 

 forested or used for grazing. 



Coastal 'beach. — Between the tidal marshes and the ocean or bay 

 there are sandy accumulations in the form of barrier beaches which 

 have been mapped as Ooastal beach. Owing to the sandy nature and 

 uneven surface, together with the shifting of the surface materials 

 under wind action, these areas have no agricultural value. 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE SOIL-CROP RELATIONS OF SOUTHERN 



NEW JERSEY. 



There are three rather distinct subdivisions of the region into a 

 forested area, occurring chiefly within the Atlantic slope, a tide 

 marsh area, which intervenes between the barrier beaches along the 

 Atlantic Ocean and the main land and which also fringes the lower 

 reaches of the Delaware Eiver and Bay, and a long, narrow, curved 

 belt of dominantly agricultural lands, which stretches from the 

 waters of Raritan Bay southwestward to the Delaware Hiver and 

 thence borders that river and Delaware Bay to the mouth of the 

 Maurice River. 



These three regions of differing occupation correspond closely with 

 the major soil differences of the region. The forested area is clearly 

 related to the prevailing areas of the white sandy soils of the Lake- 

 wood series (fig. 4). These soils are normally too porous to retain 

 sufficient moisture for the production of either staple or special 

 crops. Experience has shown that the territory had best remain in 

 timber. The tide marsh areas (fig. 5), on the other hand, are too 

 wet under normal conditions to permit of crop production and it is 

 only in restricted areas, where diking and drainage have been in- 

 stalled, that these areas are used to produce crops of any kind. 

 Where they have been reclaimed, crops of hay (fig. 6) and corn are 



