12 BULLETIN" 611, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTTJEE. 



flow. Such areas are quite commonly grown up to water-loving 

 trees, shrubs, and vines, and their only present use is to furnish 

 scanty pasturage. In some cases the broader bottoms have been 

 cleared, and excellent pasturage is found on the moist bottom soils. 

 Some of the larger areas have been ditched and even tile drained 

 and are used for growing* forage crops, potatoes, and cabbage. 

 Small areas of this class of land, commonly mapped on the soil maps 

 as Meadow, are highly esteemed, if not present in too great area, 

 because of the pasturage afforded to work stock used on the inten- 

 sively farmed upland or to small herds of dairy cattle. 



There are also considerable areas of soils which in their natural 

 condition require artificial drainage to become suited to the growing 

 of the staple and special crops common to the region. Such soils in 

 southern New Jersey fall chiefly into the Freneau, Hyde, Ports- 

 mouth, and Elkton series. The greater part of the total area of 

 these soils in the section is either forested or used for pasturage or 

 for the cutting of hay. 



Usually soils of these classes are first cleared to afford added areas 

 of pasture and, later, to come under cultivation for growing the 

 forage crops required on the particular farm. Sometimes small 

 bodies of any of these soils, which extend into larger areas of up- 

 land soils, may be drained more completely either by open ditches 

 or b}^ tile, and utilized along with the remainder of the individual 

 field for the growing of the staple or special crops. In such cases 

 the common crops of the section are extended over such small areas 

 without any particular reference to natural soil boundaries. 



The soils of the Keansburg, Shrewsbury, and Keyport series are 

 rather better drained than the preceding group, but usually require 

 some attention to artificial drainage before they are available for ex- 

 tensive agricultural use. Even in their natural state they may be 

 used to produce grass and hay, and a considerable proportion of 

 their total area will support good croj)s of corn. For more intensive 

 forms of farming, however, they frequently require ditching and 

 tiling. Wlien this is done they give good returns with such crops 

 as potatoes and cabbage. The heavier soils of these series are com- 

 monly used for forage crops, while the more sandy types ate some- 

 what preferred for the growing of the later and heavier truck crops. 



The general reconnoissance of the entire territory of southern New 

 Jersey soon showed that the chief agricultural development, and 

 especially the extension of the more intensive forms of cropping, had 

 occurred upon soils of the Sassafras, Gollington, and Colts Neck 

 series. With these soils must also be included the small areas of 

 soils of the Norfolk series to be found in the section. Not onlj^ are 

 the soils of these series the unquestioned basis for the greater part 

 of the agriculture of the region, but even scattered and restricted areas 



