SOILS OF SOUTHERN NEW JEESEY AND THEIR USES. '21 



The character of the agriculture of the locality is easily seen 

 from the table of crop occupation. Hay and pasture, corn, wheat, 

 and potatoes occupy 85.5 per cent of the total land area. Adding to 

 these crops the areas in fruit crops and those occupied by farm- 

 steads, the total is 94,2 per cent of the area, leaving only 5.8 per cent 

 of the area occupied by other crops, of Avhich the largest single 

 acreage is that of Lima beans. (Figure 7.) In fact, the other mis- 

 cellaneous crops of the area cover only 1.2 per cent of its total 

 acreage. 



It is at once evident that the Sassafras loam, occupying 87.6 per 

 cent of the total land area, dominates the cropping system. In fact. 



Fig. 7. — Bush Lima beans for canning, on Sassafras loam, near Freehold, N. J. 



the area was selected for mapping because it gave an unusually good 

 opportunity for the study of this type and its influence upon crop 

 systems. 



It was evident from a reconnoissance of southern New Jersey 

 that the Sassafras loam was of leading importance in the production 

 of corn, wheat, hay, and potatoes not only in Monmouth County 

 but generally wherever it occurs in bodies of any size. Thus, in 

 Mercer, Middlesex, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, and 

 Cumberland counties this soil is almost universally used over the 

 greater part of its extent for the growing of these crops. Figures 

 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 show the high state of cultivation and the pro- 

 ductiveness of this soil when planted to these crops. In all locali- 



